The last year in science fiction and fantasy novels saw a welcome mix of debuting voices and returning favorites. While genre fiction is often seen as a form of escapist literature (something that is understandably necessary in 2019), the best stories often address real-world concerns and anxieties.
As such, if there’s any overarching theme that links this year’s books, it’s the hope that people can remake or rebuild worlds: whether it’s building toward a better future, exploring faraway places, or standing up to oppressors and hate. many of the books on our year-end list imagine better futures and alternative paths that could get us there, and with a speculative twist.
You are reading: Best sci fi books of 2019
With that in mind, here are our favorite reads of 2019.
the city in the middle of the night by charlie jane anders
On a distant, tidally locked world called January, a young woman named Sophia is inadvertently branded a maverick and exiled to a city on the dark side of the planet. After saving the native lifeforms, the Gelet (called crocodiles by humans), saving Ella’s life, Sophia, Ella’s friend Bianca Ella, and Ella’s companions set out to change the world and humanity itself.
charlie jane anders latest is a deeply compassionate and complicated read that questions privilege, love and what it means to be human. the awesome adventure reminded me more than a little of ursula k. the best stories of le guin.
famous men who never lived by k. chess
Alternate stories are often a way of juxtaposing reality with what could have been; change one thing and see how events in the world might have unfolded. k. Chess puts a spin on that trope with its debut novel Famous Men Who Never Lived. In our real-world New York City, refugees from an alternate dimension arrive in droves when a nuclear disaster strikes their world.
hel is one such refugee, whom chess follows on her quest to commemorate the world they’ve lost, beginning with a copy of a popular sci-fi novel from her own world, the pyronauts. when she disappears, she goes on a desperate search to locate the copy. her story is a powerful and relevant story about what people will do to hold on to the worlds they have lost and how they move forward.
exhalation: stories of ted chiang
ted chiang is responsible for some of the best science fiction writing in recent years, and his latest collection (the first since 2002, the story of your life and others) brings together his latest mind-bending repertoire.
The nine-story collection includes things like “The Life Cycle of Software Objects,” a brilliant story about artificial intelligence, and “Exhale,” about a scientist’s observations of the universe. The entire book is revealing, thoughtful, and some of the best that science fiction has to offer.
tiamat’s wrath by james s.a. corey
In his penultimate volume of the expanse series, james s.a. corey’s heroes find themselves in a dark place. The Laconians, a fascist colony world of ancient Martians, have taken over the solar system and human-inhabited space, and are holding Captain James Holden captive. they have plans to investigate some anomalies they’ve observed around some of the remnants of a long-dead alien civilization that built a vast network of rings, and their explorations appear to be triggering a catastrophic response.
As Corey wraps up his epic space opera series, they’re working flat out, playing out epic consequences for humanity and proving that none of their long-running characters are safe from what might come. but they also put together a story that seems all too relevant at this time: a warning of the dangers that fascism and totalitarianism bring.
magic for liars by sarah gailey
At Osthorne Academy for Young Wizards, a wizarding high school in California, the school’s faculty discover one of their own brutally murdered in the library. When the initial investigation goes nowhere, the school principal hires a private investigator, Ivy Gamble. she reluctantly accepts the case (her estranged twin sister of hers is an instructor there) and wanders into a world of magical secrets and high school drama to try and discover who was behind the act.
gailey deftly weaves family mystery and drama against the backdrop of a fascinating fantasy world. ivy works to reconnect with her sister and uncovers a devastating secret at the heart of her family’s history.
empress of all time by max gladstone
max gladstone is best known for his handcrafted fantasy sequence novels, but the empress of all time turns to space opera. In the near future, a tech billionaire named Vivian Liao is on the verge of world domination when she is abruptly transported away from Earth to the end of the universe, summoned by an empress from the far future who wants to secure her own power by stamping out any potential threat.
gladstone’s novel is a fast-paced, gripping space opera tale that tackles the dangers of power and how it’s used in the hands of one individual, and is a good commentary on the excesses of silicon valley.
the ten thousand doors of January by alix e. stands
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a young girl named january grows up alone along the shores of lake champlain in vermont, under the tutelage of mr. locke, a wealthy benefactor who employs her father to collect rare artifacts from around the world. When her father goes missing and is presumed dead, January discovers a strange book, which leads her on a journey to discover the true nature of her father’s work, only to discover that it holds the key to January’s own mysterious history. her.
Part portal fantasy, part coming-of-age adventure, and part meditation on the power and importance of storytelling, The Ten Thousand Doors of January quickly became one of my favorite novels, ever. is a powerful and harrowing adventure of a young woman trying to discover who she is and how she can save the world.
kameron hurley’s light brigade
the latest from kameron hurley is a version of military science fiction classics like robert heinlein’s starship troopers or joe haldeman’s the forever war. Humanity is engaged in a war against Mars, and one soldier, Dietz, is caught in the middle when he joins a corporate military force, which can teleport soldiers to the battlefield in a beam of light.
As they join the fight as part of the light brigade, time begins to work differently for them: they get unstuck and experience the events out of order. the book is a scathing indictment of the nature of war and corporate feudalism, and it comes with a wonderful recursive plot that glued me to my seat.
black leopard, red wolf by marlon james
Marlon James is best known for winning the 2015 Man Booker Award for his novel A Brief History of Seven Murders. after the publication of that book, he noted that he wanted to focus his attention on fantasy and on an old complaint he had: that the genre often ignored or erased people of color from its narratives. The result was Black Leopard, Red Wolf, an epic fantasy inspired by the African diaspora.
In the book, a man called a tracker is assigned a mission: locate a missing child. As he sets out to find him, he encounters other strange figures and is forced to confront his own mysterious past. Set in the phenomenal world, it’s a strange, complicated, and thoughtful alternative to Game of Thrones.
supernova era by cixin liu, translated by joel martinsen
Chinese author Cixin Liu is best known for his novel The Three-Body Problem, the first major science fiction novel translated into English. He sparked a surge of interest in the country’s science fiction scene (which has included Liu’s other novels as well as a major film adaptation, The Wandering Earth). In its last supernova era, Earth’s adult population disappears after a nearby star goes supernova, leaving the children of the world to take their place.
Like Liu’s other novels, this is a book about big ideas. looks at the impact such a catastrophic event could have on humanity, and how people and institutions move forward to figure out how to rebuild the world anew, and that is not just enough to survive, but how to build a future that is fulfilling . and productive.
a memoir called empire by arkady martine
In the distant future, the Teixcalaanli empire works to extend its reach to new star systems. When Station Isel’s fiercely independent Ambassador dies unexpectedly, Ambassador Mahit Dzmare is sent to replace him, only to discover that his death was part of a conspiracy, tied to the technological advances particular to his household.
arkady martine, author and historian, draws inspiration from the byzantine empire and uses the novel to examine how a society’s institutional memory shapes its culture and future. is a fascinating look at colonialism and what is lost when one culture subsumes another.
moon: moonrise by ian mcdonald
The moon is the perfect, clean environment for science fiction authors to use as a setting for alternative political societies. ian mcdonald thrives on such stories and closes his epic trilogy of moon with moon: moon sunrise.
In the previous novels, Luna: New Moon and Luna: Wolf Moon, McDonald explores the pitfalls of a feudal, capitalist world where corporate families (called dragons) rule the moon and its inhabitants while extracting precious resources from its surface. When the Mackenzie family decimates the Cortas, Lucas Corta goes into hiding and plots revenge on him. at moonrise he returns to retake control of the moon, and mcdonald examines the cost all the effort has taken for everyone involved, and what kind of future should we build when we finally colonize the moon?
gideon ninth by tamsyn muir
in tamsyn muir’s pulpy debut gideon the noventh, its titular hero has grown up in the ninth house, training to become a swordswoman and spending years trying to escape its shadowy walls. When the Emperor invites representatives of all the Houses to compete in a test, Gideon is selected by her nemesis, the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and the necromancer Harrowhark Nonagesimus, to accompany her.
The premise of this novel is essentially “lesbian necromancers in space,” and it’s a fun mix of sci-fi and horror, with plenty of sarcasm, fencing, romance, and adventure.
the future of another timeline by annalee newitz
Time travel and alternate universes are widely used genre tropes, with countless authors exploring all the ways travelers work to change, or preserve, the past in order to keep the future the way it is. Annalee Newitz takes a slightly different approach in her latest novel, The Future From Another Timeline, telling a story about factions of time travelers fighting to make edits and change the future for the better.
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jumping between the Paleozoic, the 1800s, 1990s, 2022 and other eras, time travel is a familiar thing in the world of newitz: historians and activists jump back and forth in time to study the past. editing the past is not easy to do, but he realizes that there is a dangerous group of travelers working to create a timeline in which women will be completely oppressed, and with his companions, he works to counter their edits, and turns out to be a timely novel that is all too relevant in 2019.
chen quifan’s waste tide
cixin liu might have become china’s best-known science fiction writer, but he’s far from the only one. Chen Qiufan’s Waste Tide is a far cry from Liu’s sci-fi epics, offering a grim look at China’s near future, where impoverished workers struggle to make a living off of the world’s e-waste.
waste tide follows a series of people who come together on the island of silicone: mimi, a worker who heads there to work; Scott Brandle, an American trying to work out a contract; and Chen Kaizong, a translator, all of whom are embroiled in a larger plan of control. It’s a book that reminded me quite a bit of Paolo Bacigalupi’s Rope Girl, with a scathing commentary on class warfare and the life cycle of the devices we use.
Locust Storm by rebecca roanhorse
After releasing her first urban fantasy novel Trail of Lightning last year, Rebecca Roanhorse garnered considerable praise from the science fiction community, including nominations for the prestigious Nebula and Hugo Awards. A Storm of Locusts picks up shortly after that first book, and it’s just as excellent.
Roanhorse sets its story in Dinétah, the traditional homeland of the Navajo, during a near future when climate change has devastated the world and ancient gods have once again roamed the earth. Monster hunter Maggie Hoskie sets off after a friend goes missing and uncovers a conspiracy led by a mysterious and charismatic cult leader. It’s a quick and exciting read reminiscent of the American gods of Neil Gaiman and Mad Max: Fury Road.
sons of ruin by adrian tchaikovsky
A couple of years ago, Adrian Tchaikovsky published his first science fiction novel, Children of Time, an epic story about how humanity terraformed a distant world and the rise of a civilization of soaring spiders that inhabited it. In this year’s standalone sequel, Tchaikovsky returns to his universe with a newly enhanced species and their clash with a planet’s native life forms.
As children of time, children of the ruin covers vast swathes of time, leaping from generation to generation as human surveyors raise another eight-legged creature in a watery world: the octopus. Jumping through time as a scout ship arrives in the system, Tchaikovsky explores the nature of consciousness, first contact, and how humanity could eventually spread to distant stars.
the lesson of cadwell turnbull
When an alien spaceship arrives on earth and settles over the virgin islands, its mysterious shape-shifting residents promise to deliver untold advances and technologies to humanity. The ynaa seem to come in peace, but their mission is shrouded in mystery and any threat is met with extreme and disproportionate violence. after a young boy is brutally murdered, the islands and their visitors find themselves on a path to a conflict that could destroy everything.
Turnbull’s first novel is a fascinating and powerful work that explores the imbalance of power between the Ynaa and the islanders, and an exploration of the archipelago’s long history of invasions.
tramps by chuck wendig
In the near future, a plague sweeps the world. the afflicted appear to be asleep and cannot be awakened, but also begin to walk towards a mysterious destination. A woman named Shana accompanies her sister as she walks, and as others follow in her footsteps, the country erupts into crisis, with violent militias threatening to kill sleepwalkers. Scientists work to figure out how to stop it before the country descends into anarchy.
chuck wendig’s latest has been compared to stephen king’s the stand and throughout the book examines how a country deals (badly) with a major crisis and how those disasters are simply an excuse for the rise of permanent fanaticism, hatred and racism. the book is an ambitious epic that holds up a mirror of the state of the world in 2019, and it’s not a pretty sight.
the bird king from g. willow wilson
In the early days of the Spanish Inquisition, a royal concubine named Fatima and a cartographer named Hassan are forced to flee for their lives when the Inquisitors take their home in Granada. they have good reason to flee. Hassan has two dangerous secrets: he is queer and he has the ability to change the fabric of reality with his map, adding new features to the world with the stroke of a pen.
g. The latest from Willow Wilson is a gripping adventure that finds the pair, with the help of mythical creatures, escaping across Spain into the unknown as they seek safety in the mythical home of the Bird King. Wilson’s story is powerful about the dangers of oppressive ideologies and the power words have to create entire stories and worlds.
honorable mentions:
the witch’s winter by katherine ardenthe wills by margaret atwoodninth house by leigh bardugoancestral night by elizabeth bearcapture by christopher brownthe curse of the streetcar 015 by p. djèlí clarkmyke’s killing light colestar wars: alexander freed’s alphabet squadthis is how you lose amal el-mohtar and max gladstone’s time wartheodora gossel’s sinister mesmerizing girl mysteryjoe hillel’s rob hartfull throttle warehousejoe hillel gurkha and the lord of tuesday by saad z. hossaina shining long ago by guy gabriel kaythe raven tower by ann leckieunraveling by karen lordinfinite detail by tim maughanthe bayern agenda by dan morengods of jade and shadow by silvia moreno-garciaatlas alone by emma newmanthe book of dust: the secret commonwealth by philip pullmanstar wars : resistance reborn by rebecca roanhorsethe orange tree priory by samantha shannongrowing things by paul tremblaythe rise to godhood by jy yang
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