Classic sci-fi books: 12 award-winning novels and where to start
You do not need to read the classics in order. Pick the kind of story you enjoy and start there. Every book here won a major award before 1980, and each note says how it has aged.
If you read just one: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, because it is short, beautifully written and still feels fresh.
Start with big ideas
1. Dune
Won the Hugo and Nebula Awards (1966) ·
A young heir, a desert planet and the most valuable substance in the universe. Ecology, religion and empire in one of the best-selling science fiction novels ever.
Good to know: Long, with a glossary; the first hundred pages are the hardest.
2. The Dispossessed
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1975) ·
A physicist moves between an anarchist society and a wealthy, unequal one. Fiction that tests political ideals against everyday life.
3. A Canticle for Leibowitz
Won the Hugo Award (1961) ·
After a nuclear war, monks preserve scraps of knowledge across centuries as civilization rises again.
4. The Gods Themselves
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1973) ·
A free energy source turns out to come from a parallel universe, at a terrible cost. The middle section, told by the aliens, is Asimov at his most inventive.
Start with people
5. The Left Hand of Darkness
Won the Hugo and Nebula Awards (1970) ·
An envoy tries to win over a world whose people have no fixed sex, and learns to trust one of them. Short, beautifully written and still fresh.
6. Flowers for Algernon
Won the Nebula Award; finalist for the Hugo Award (1967) ·
An experiment raises a man’s intelligence, told through his own reports. One of the most moving books in the genre.
7. Stranger in a Strange Land
Won the Hugo Award (1962) ·
A man raised by Martians comes to Earth and questions everything humans take for granted.
Good to know: Its views on sex and gender have aged badly; best read as a book of its time.
Start with adventure
8. Rendezvous with Rama
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1974) ·
A crew explores a vast alien object as it passes through the solar system. Wonder from the first page.
9. The Forever War
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1976) ·
A soldier comes home from an interstellar war to find centuries have passed. A sharp, personal war story.
10. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Won the Hugo Award; finalist for the Nebula Award (1966–1967) ·
A lunar penal colony plots revolution with the help of a computer that has quietly become self-aware.
Good to know: Written in a distinctive clipped dialect.
11. Ringworld
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1971) ·
An unlikely team explores a ring-shaped world around a distant star. Big ideas and big fun.
12. Gateway
Won the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (1978) ·
Prospectors climb into abandoned alien ships with unknown destinations, hoping to strike it rich and survive. Told partly through therapy sessions with an AI.
How we chose
Every book in this guide won or was a finalist for at least one of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus or Arthur C. Clarke awards. Each book page lists its full award history with sources. Page counts come from English print editions and vary by edition. 12 books in all.