Looking for your next sci-fi must-read? Cyberpunk, space operas, dystopias – we’ve pulled together some of the WIRED team’s favorite science fiction novels. Some are eerily plausible, others are wild trips of the imagination, but all present compelling visions of our possible future. We recommend you take a look at our comprehensive guide to the best sci-fi movies, too. And, if you’re after more reading inspiration, try our selection of the best fantasy books.
snow crash by neal stephenson (1992)
Hectic, funny, and almost suspiciously prescient, snow crash grabs you from its opening sequence, a high-speed dash through anarchic Los Angeles that’s been splintered into corporate-owned “burbclaves,” barely stopping. The book follows the protagonist Hiro (yes, really), an elite hacker and swordsman, as he tries to stop the spread of a dangerous virus spread by a religious cult. It combines neurolinguistics, ancient mythology, and computer science, and eerily predicts social media, cryptocurrencies, and Google Earth. buy here
You are reading: Sci fi books everyone should read
foundation, by isaac asimov (1951)
Asimov was a prolific writer, but many of his best works are classic short stories like Nightfall or The Last Question, which unfold as long jokes with an unexpected twist at the end. in the founding series, he’s in a completely different mode, charting the rise and fall of empires with sweeping brushstrokes. Asimov’s prose can be stilted and betrays the attitudes of his time in portraying female characters, but he has left a lasting legacy.
the pivotal series follows hari seldon, who is the architect of psychohistory, a branch of mathematics that can make accurate predictions thousands of years in advance and which seldon believes is necessary to save the human race from destruction. middle Ages. You can see why it’s one of Elon Musk’s favorite books (along with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Moon Is a Tough Mistress by Robert Heinlein, also recommended). A long-awaited screen adaptation is one of the major launch offerings for Apple’s new streaming service. buy here
the stars my destiny, by alfred bester (1957)
This historical novel begins with a simple proposition: what if humans could teleport? – and spreads out into a story of rebirth and revenge that meanders through the solar system: the count of monte cristo for the interstellar age. first published as tiger! tiger! In the UK, named after William Blake’s poem, follows Gully Foyle, an uneducated, violent brute who spends six months marooned in deep space, the rest of the book seeking revenge for it. buy here
dune, by frank herbert (1965)
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In 2012, our cable readers voted Dune the best science fiction novel of all time. It’s also the best-selling book of all time and has inspired a gargantuan universe, including 18 books set 34,000 years ago and a harrowing 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch, his worst film by far. A hopefully better effort is currently in production, directed by Denis Villeneuve. the series is set 20,000 years in the future in galaxies trapped in the feudal age, where computers are banned for religious reasons and noble families rule entire planets. We focus on the planet Arrakis, which contains a material used as currency throughout the universe for its rarity and mind-enhancing powers. lots of giant sandworms too. buy here
the left hand of darkness, by ursula k. the script (1969)
le guin alternated between genres during his prolific career, and this intricate novel was published a year after the classic fantasy book A Wizard of Earthsea. most of the action takes place in winter, a remote earth-like planet where it’s cold year-round and everyone is of the same sex. It was one of the first novels to touch on ideas of androgyny, seen through the lens of the protagonist Genly Ai, a visitor from Earth struggling to understand this alien culture. buy here
a dark scanner, by philip k dick (1977)
a curious novel that reads less like science fiction and more like a hallucinated autobiography detailing the author’s struggle with drug addiction. In a near-future California, Vice Cop Bob Arctor is living undercover with a community of drug addicts hooked on the devastating psychoactive substance D. Arctor, who needs to put on a special “fight suit” to hide his face and voice when he meets his fellow police officers, has to deal with the gradual loss of his sense of self. buy here
neuromancer, by william gibson (1984)
The definitive cyberpunk novel, William Gibson’s Neuromancer follows Henry Case, a hacker turned addict, as he tries to pull off one last dodgy-sounding job in hopes of reversing a toxin that prevents him from accessing cyberspace. Set in a dystopian Japanese underworld, the novel tackles all manner of futuristic technology, from artificial intelligence to cryonics, and features a cast of creative characters that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. buy here
consider iain banks’ phlebas (1987)
In 1987, after four acclaimed fiction novels, Iain Banks published his first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, a true space opera, and his first book of many on culture, an interstellar utopian society of humanoids, aliens, and aliens. sentient machines ostensibly run by hyper-intelligent artificial intelligence “minds”. a war rages across the galaxy with one side fighting for faith, the other for the moral right to exist. banks melds this conflict with something akin to a traditional fantasy quest: the search for a rogue mind that has gone into hiding in a forbidden world in an attempt to evade destruction. buy here
oryx and crake, by margaret atwood (2003)
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while the handmaid’s tale describes a world that seems more plausible every day, in oryx and crake atwood turns a genetically modified circus of current trends taken to their absolute extreme: a “bioengineered apocalypse”, it’s like a critical put it Several TV adaptations have been discussed, including a now-defunct HBO project with Darren Aronofsky, but this could be one to place My Fate in the Archive of Impossible to Adapt alongside the stars. the world of the book is quite vibrant, surreal and disturbing. buy here
the problem of the three bodies, by liu cixin (2008)
liu cixin is china’s most famous science fiction writer. This year, his short story The Wandering Earth was adapted into an epic blockbuster. but the problem of the three bodies, published in china in 2008, is his most famous work; Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg are fans, and Amazon is reportedly in talks to turn it into a billion-dollar television adaptation. The premise is simple: Humanity has made contact with an alien civilization that prefers our planet’s climate, so they are coming to take over Earth. however, it will take them hundreds of years to get here, so we have time to prepare. Like Frank Herbert’s Dune, The Three-Body Problem and its aftermath are notable for their sense of epic scale: starting in 1967 and stretching to the year 18,000-something. buy here
the power, by naomi alderman (2016)
margaret atwood was also involved in this gripping novel, which inverts the premise of the handmaid’s tale and puts women on the rise. Atwood mentored author Naomi Alderman as she wrote this story about women and girls who discover a powerful new ability to emit electricity from their hands, ending civilization as a result. the power has the rhythm of a television series and will hit the screens shortly after a fierce auction of 11 participants for the rights. buy here
ready player one, by ernest cline (2011)
Ernest Cline’s virtual reality epic got the Steven Spielberg treatment last year, and not everyone was happy with it. What bothers many about the book, and the movie, is its intricate web of geeky references to 1980s movies, comics, and board games. Still, at its core, Ready Player One is an engaging quest story. , with the added value of taking place in a virtual reality world. buy here
the heart goes to the last, by margaret atwood (2015)
a strange cocktail of a novel: part technodystopia, part satire, part sex comedy, part classic Atwood. In a bleak, post-lapse version of America, young lovebirds Charmaine and Stan endure a miserable existence sleeping in their car and dodging criminals’ knives. Salvation comes in the guise of an offer to move into Project Positron, a gated community inspired by a 1950s American suburb. The Rub? all positron couples must spend every two months working in a prison, temporarily swapping homes with another couple, called “alternates”. When both Charmaine and Stan start developing strange sexual relationships with their understudies, things quickly move south. buy here
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