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Top 50 Science Fiction Books on Goodreads
-Ray Bradbury
Don't pack up your dinosaurs, fellow sci-fi readers. You're among friends here.
When we set out to uncover the top science fiction books on Goodreads, our journey—searching through hundreds of books and thousands of ratings and reviews—was a spacewalk down memory lane, from revisiting the sci-fi heroes we grew up with, like young brainiac Ender and hapless (and homeless) Arthur Dent, to returning to beloved worlds created by Ursula K. Le Guin, Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler, and many more.
The bar needed to be high. Every book on our list has at least a four-star average rating from Goodreads members. Unfortunately, this means that dinosaur king himself Michael Crichton failed to make the cut, along with other big names in the genre like Kim Stanley Robinson, William Gibson, and H.G. Wells. But while some classics may be missing, recent favorites from Emily St. John Mandel, Nnedi Okorafor, and Pierce Brown round out the list.
Without further ado, let's boldly go where many readers have gone before. Tell us how many of the top 50 sci-fi books you've read in the comments!
How many have you read? Tell us in the comments!
Check out complete coverage of Sci-Fi & Fantasy Week:
The New Frontier of Science Fiction
The Most Anticipated Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Top 50 Science Fiction Books on Goodreads
Check out complete coverage of Sci-Fi & Fantasy Week:
The New Frontier of Science Fiction
The Most Anticipated Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Top 50 Science Fiction Books on Goodreads
Comments Showing 351-400 of 934 (934 new)
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Aug 20, 2018 06:18PM
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20. SnowCrash one of my 'modern' favorites. Think I'll read Wool.
Bimugdha wrote: "Paul wrote: "Dune is one of the best books ever."please give me a reading order of the DUNE series :("
Published Order.
Stick the original author, don't stray to the son.
I've read 31 of the 50 books (over about 45 years). My earliest sci-fi was Vonnegut, Heinlein, Le Guin, and Asimov. If I had to choose 5 desert island books from the above list, they would be: The Sparrow, Dune, Cat's Cradle; Snow Crash, and The Passage, but there are others I'd be so sad to leave behind :)I'm looking forward to reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet soon, it's already on my Kindle.
Monty wrote: "20. SnowCrash one of my 'modern' favorites. Think I'll read Wool."Snow Crash was a total hoot! Did you also read Zodiac?
Reflector wrote: "6 of 50. A few here that I'd like to check out. Any favorites? I've read: Dune, Heir to the Empire, Ender's Game, Foundation, The Sparrow, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Hyperion looks interestin..."Read The Sparrow, then the follow on book. Exceptional.
36 of them -- but I have to contextualize that as behind me is a bookshelf with about 1,000 F and SF books dating back to the early 60s (just the ones I've kept and not including library books I've borrowed or eBooks). A lot of big gaps but not my list! For examp[e, Cordwainer Smith, Robert Sheckley, Alfred Bester, Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Vance, Silverberg... the list goes on and on and on particularly when I include newer authors.
12 from list. Enjoyed the Foundation series the most.
23 - Where is A Stranger in a Strange Land? I’ll keep this list for some I haven’t read. The Sparrow and it’s sequels are amazing and disturbing - highly recommend! Also really enjoyed Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
Who put this list together? The are several books that don't belong on this, or any top 50 list, and many great science fiction books that are not on here. I would think any list of the top sci fi books would have to contain Fahrenheit 451, Downbelow Station, Rendezvous with Rama, I, Robot, Nightfall, The Weapon Shops of Isher, Triplanetary, Under the Dome, and so many others. I have read 20 books from this list. 15 I really liked, 5 not so much.
16 - I read several of them when I was in high school and college (Left Hand of Darkness, Dune, Mote in God’s Eye, Childhood’s End and The Sparrow)
Didn't think so but I have read 9 of these for now. Hope to read more till the next year the list arrives.
Read 11 of these and several more are in my to read list already. Ringworld?
I've read 16 of the 50. I think that SF should be allowed as an alternative course for English/American literature (high school and/or college). Especially the classics - Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Mary Shelley, Arthur C. Clark & Robert Heinlein.
Tony wrote: "OMG. Honest I am having a retrospective rush. I was a child when I was smitten by sci-fi and fantasy and John Wyndham's 'The Day of the Triffids' was spectacular. If it is not on the list it should..."I agree, TDOTT was a great book. But I have only read 13 on this list so can't really say if it beats the others...Another book I really enjoyed was "Battlefield Earth" by L Ron Hubbard (yes, the Scientology n*t)
Greg wrote: "Who put this list together? The are several books that don't belong on this, or any top 50 list, and many great science fiction books that are not on here. I would think any list of the top sci fi ..."As was stated in the blog all of the books chosen had to have at least a four-star rating. Stranger in a Strange Land for instance is a 3.91 so it just missed making the cut. I think the same will apply to most books one thinks should be here.
I’ve read 16 of these and just added 5 or 6 to my “want to read” list.
I have read 31 of these books. Dune and The Left Hand of Darkness were not enjoyable to me. Most of these books I absolutely loved, but those two not good at all in my opinion.
I've read 9 of these, but I've had about 12 of the others on my TBR pile. The rest I might just check out since they're on this list. Of this list I've read: Cloud Atlas, Ender's Game, Ready Player One, Snow Crash, Starship Troopers, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Martian, and V for Vendetta.
I had to read Cloud Atlas, Snow Crash, and the Left Hand of Darkness for a creative writing college course focused on speculative fiction as well as some others (ex: Dick's Ubik).
I find it kind of odd that Crichton didn't make the list, but Starship Troopers did, since when I last read it, a lot of reviews for it, and the average rating itself, wasn't all that high. I've read most of Crichton's work and think at least ONE of his should've been on here.
Okay, I’ve read 13 of the 50, want to read 6 more, saw 2 as movies and see no reason to read the books. My top pick on the list at #1 is Dune. Read the entire series twice. Excellent both times. Loved the Martian at #2 with Shards of Honor at #3.
Samantha wrote: "I find it kind of odd that Crichton didn't make the list, but Starship Troopers did, since when I last read it, a lot of reviews for it, and the average rating itself, wasn't all that high. I've re..."I agree - I think most of Crichton's books should be considered and some of Heinlein's very early works and some of his much later works shouldn't be on a "BEST" list.
10, but I'll read more of these. Thanks for the list!
I've read 18 of these 50. There are some fabulous books here, like King's 11/22/63 and Russell's The Sparrow. I don't consider myself a huge fan of the genre but I have 6 more from this list on my Want to Read list. So I guess I am a fan!
C. John wrote: "Greg wrote: "Who put this list together? The are several books that don't belong on this, or any top 50 list, and many great science fiction books that are not on here. I would think any list of th..."Yeah, I looked that up after I shot my mouth off. But, hey, we're allowed to put our foot in it every once in awhile.
dpcinh wrote: "E E 'Doc' Smith's Lensman series and Peter Hamilton F Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy????????????????????????"Being a big fan of Smith I looked up the Lensman and Skylark series. The highest rating for the Lensman books is 3.99 for Galactic Patrol. As for the Skylark series the highest individual book is Skylark Three (the second book in the series) with a 3.86 rating. Oddly enough there is an omnibus volume which contains all four books and it has a 4.07 rating. Go figure.
Read: 39Want to read: another 7
No interest: 4
Agree with some (Dune, Ancillary Sword (tho first book was better), The Sparrow, Octavia Butler (tho I favor the exogenesis trilogy), 1984, the Clarke & Asimov, Scalzi, LeGuin, Stephenson, Vonnegut, Station 11, Hyperion, Cloud Atlas, the Expanse, Wool, Bradbury, Mote in God’s Eye . . .
Disagree w/others: Ready Player One (please!), The Martian (eh), Becky Chambers (don’t get it), The Passage (why?), Heinlein (well, maybe Stranger in a Strange Land but he’s so sexist and mysoginistic as to be virtually unreadable). And I haven’t read it but . . A Star Wars novel? Albeit one by Timothy Zhan . ..
Missing: C.S. Friedman, Joan Vinge, The Exordium series, Phillip Pullman’s Golden Compass (is that fantasy or steampunk?); Catherine Asaro, Richard K. Morgan, Peter F. Hamilton. . . .to name a few.
Please do a 50 greatest fantasy list so I can critique that as well, LOL!
Bimugdha wrote: "Paul wrote: "Dune is one of the best books ever."please give me a reading order of the DUNE series :("
Dune, Dune Messah, Children of Dune. - start with those three
I suggest everyone reads Red rising and Ready player one. Absolutely amazing books.
Two other nominations. The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, and On Wings of Song by Thomas Disch. There are a number of fine books in this list, but certainly nothing better than these two.
Bill wrote: "30. I used to read a ton of Sci-Fi, but I can't seem to find anything written in the last 20 years that appeals to me."Which authors did you like? What interests you about sci-fi? I think that there’s some great stuff being written now but I guess it depends what interests you!
(I'm sorry if this is already on the list but my wifi is slow and the books wont load.) BUT Keeper of the lost cities by shannon messenger is my all-time favourite book series! I would define it as mainly fantasy (with some sci-fi thrown in) but is anything but namby-pamby, which fantasy books can many times be. Sophie is an elf, raised by humans unknowingly. She is finally reaunited with where she came from and finds out she's special, in dangerous ways. I CANNOT RECCOMMED THIS BOOK ENOUGH I AM IN LOVE WITH THE SERIES!!!!!!!!!
read 20 so far. .... the best ... the handmaid's tale
Kind of a repeat from last year - see Popular Highly Rated Science Fiction for a list of the 122 science fiction books with 25,000 ratings, first book in a series only, and an average rating of 4.0 or above
Bimugdha wrote: "Paul wrote: "Dune is one of the best books ever."please give me a reading order of the DUNE series :("
always good to go with publish order rather than chronology. but the original 8 are as follows: /series/45935-dune
Anne wrote: "32I'm intrigued by Saga in that I've never heard of it. Going to have to go check it out."
Well, it's a graphic novel (aka comic book). It's an insult to the many writers/novels deserving of but not being on this list.
I'm at 14 :-) It is hard to know which of newer SF books are actually well written... Would love to hear people opinions about the books above, especially most recent.
Bob wrote: "I've read 27. Of the rest, I'm most intrigued by "The Three-Body Problem" so it's now on my Want-to-Read list." Yep, it is a cool one, quite different, a lot of science in it. Enjoy!
I wish you'd made a list of short stories as well. Flowers for Algernon is one of the best stories i've ever read, sci-fi or not.
21 of this list. Some are all time favorites. But some a number of them just weren't my piece of cake at all.
There's a gaping hole in this list where William Gibson should be.
Absolutely agree.Donald wrote: "They have two Robert Hienlien books on the list but the one that should be on there is STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND."
I have read a good few of these ‘classic SF novels’, the major problem with the vast majority of modern SF is that it contains absolutely NO real science. Authors like Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke etc is that they had done the hard lifting to understand the science BEFORE trying to write.
Wait, wait. Where is Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'? How about Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'? You've got to be kidding me.
Donald wrote: "They have two Robert Hienlien books on the list but the one that should be on there is STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND."I was about to say the same.
And only Foundation without all the many follow ups, most of which were better. For me Heinlein really comes into his own with “The cat that walked trough Wall’s”. No hero since Lazerous Long has really gripped me in the same way...
