Where to start with John Scalzi: 9 award-recognized books
John Scalzi writes fast, funny science fiction with big ideas and sharp dialogue. His books are some of the easiest ways into the genre.
If you read just one: Old Man's War by John Scalzi, because it made his name and starts his best-known series.
Start here
1. Old Man's War
Finalist for the Hugo Award (2006) ·
Seventy-five-year-olds get new bodies to fight for Earth’s colonies.
2. Redshirts
Won the Hugo and Locus Awards (2013) ·
Junior crew on a starship realize that away missions keep killing people like them.
3. The Kaiju Preservation Society
Won the Locus Award; finalist for the Hugo Award (2023) ·
A laid-off delivery driver ends up caring for giant monsters on a parallel Earth.
Series
4. The Last Colony
Finalist for the Hugo Award (2008) ·
The Old Man’s War story continues as a new colony is founded.
5. The Collapsing Empire
Won the Locus Award; finalist for the Hugo Award (2018) ·
An interstellar empire’s trade routes begin to fail, and a new emperor must act.
6. The Last Emperox
Finalist for the Locus Award (2021) ·
The Interdependency trilogy comes to its end.
Standalones
7. Lock In
Finalist for the Locus Award (2015) ·
An FBI agent who controls a robot body investigates a murder in a world changed by a disease that locks people in their bodies.
8. Starter Villain
Finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards (2024) ·
A substitute teacher inherits his uncle’s supervillain business, complete with talking cats.
9. The God Engines
Finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards (2010) ·
A starship powered by a chained god, in a dark short novella.
Good to know: Much darker than his other books.
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. 9 books in all.