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The 100 Most Popular Sci-Fi Books on Goodreads
Dystopias, alien invasions, regenerated dinosaurs, space operas, multiverses, and more, the realm of science fiction takes readers out of this world to tackle all-too-real issues, including oppression, bigotry, censorship, and the horrors of war. To celebrate the most inventive of genres, we’re exploring readers’ 100 most popular science fiction novels of all time on Goodreads.
As all good sci-fi readers know, the science behind the story is half the fun. To create our list, we ran the data to reveal the most reviewed books on our site. Additionally, each title needed at least a 3.5-star rating from your fellow readers to join this list. And, since science fiction is known for its continuing voyages, in the case of multiple titles from the same series, we chose the one with the most reviews.
Here are the top science fiction novels on Goodreads, listed from 1 to 100. We hope you discover a book or two you’ll want to read in this lineup, whether it’s a classic of the genre or one of the newer entries to sci-fi.
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#100
How many of these books have you read? What’s your favorite sci-fi novel of all time? Let’s talk books in the comments!
Comments Showing 301-350 of 521 (521 new)
message 301:
by
Åshild
(new)
Jul 16, 2020 02:46AM
Lots of good tips here but I really missed John Varleys Gaea trilogy in this post: Titan, Wizard and Demon. And Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi- absolutely loved those!
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I would rate "Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin much higher than #54!
No Roger Zelazny, Fred Pohl, Poul Anderson, Clifford Simak, Anne McCaffrey.I've read a few of the 100, and won't be reading the rest.
I mean, a Star Wars novel. Really?
I've read over 90 of them, and own over 80. Any list like this is bound to be contentious, especially given that SF has a number of sub-genres; is an "Expanse" fan likely to also be an Attwood or LeGuin fan? (Quite likely; I am.)But it's not a bad start! Get reading!
Martin wrote: "Some very, very tired worthy stuff.Starship Trooper, Dirk Gently and Ready Player One ?
Really ? I liked the books but top 100 ?
Love Scalzi but 3 books by him and nothing from Peter Hamiliton, A..."
Peter Hamilton should be excluded from all "Best of .." lists with the exception of "Best Books with no endings."
I've read quite a few books on this list. Too old to read everything on a list. Read what I like. Enjoyed looking at the fantasy list too.Many of the books I'm involved with in the past and now appear to be called 'space opera'. For example C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner saga, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden universe, Bujold's Barrayar saga, and in the past the Pern stories by Anne MacCaffrey and so on and on.
I have read 38 - not sure what Dirk Gently is doing there (really???) - also agree Dune should be higher
Angie wrote: "You missed any book by N. K. Jemisin, especially The Fifth Season (Broken Earth Series, #1)."Steve wrote: "I'm sorry, but Tiger Tiger (The Stars my Destination) by Alfred Bester is the real No. 1"
I'm afraid I'd have to agree. Fourmyle of Ceres (Gully Foyle) was one of the all-time greats. I have both the Tiger Tiger edition and the The Stars my Destination.
I remember reading the first two in high school. I only have 5 read from this list 🙊
The list is skewed to recent works and unfortunately I find many superb authors are missing: S.M. Stirling, Rodger Zelazny, Jack McDevitt, John Ringo, Larry Correia. Scalzi is ok, but his work is not top 100 by any means.
I have read 49, so almost half (actually there are two more I might have read but can't be 100% sure). Some of these I have read other books by the same author and won't be bothering with, but others sound really interesting. Must read Ready Player One soon! And Seveneves
I always find these lists so disappointing. They are self-perpetuating. You see something on the list that you think you should read so you read it. It's not very good. Cements the book on the list for the next mug.
Angie wrote: "You missed any book by N. K. Jemisin, especially The Fifth Season (Broken Earth Series, #1)."The Fifth Season is in The 100 Most Popular Fantasy Books on Goodreads.
Colin wrote: "Phil Hartley wrote: "Really? No Sanderson? Mistborn is absolutely epic, no Feist? Lawrence? GRRM? Gemmell? This list is terrible, old does not equal best."It's SF not Fantasy"
And what would you call "The Left Hand of Darkness"?
Gene wrote: "Is there any reason "The Expanse" series books are not mentioned?"Did you not notice Leviathon Wakes?
Well! How could you NOT have ANN AGUIRRE's stonking, gripping, sensitive, surprising, emotive, moving, exciting, loving 6 pack books narrating the life of SIRANTHA JAX, tell me that? How remiss! Also, far too many books by;- a) male authors, and b) books that people have seen the film of.
Amy wrote: "Phil Hartley wrote: "Really? No Sanderson? Mistborn is absolutely epic, no Feist? Lawrence? GRRM? Gemmell? This list is terrible, old does not equal best."i will look them up, who is GRRM?"
George R.R. Martin.
Aaron wrote: "Phil Hartley wrote: "Really? No Sanderson? Mistborn is absolutely epic, no Feist? Lawrence? GRRM? Gemmell? This list is terrible, old does not equal best."Sanderson is an all time great fantasy w..."
Do you really consider "The Left Hand of Darkness" to SF?
Read 40. Good list. Favourite - maybe Hyperion.
Omar wrote: "Jane wrote: "I was disappointed that Iain M Banks was not higher on this list. Consider Phlebas is one of my favourite books of any genre. His culture novels are epic."I'm not sure the Phlebas is..."
Matter is the funnest book in the series
Ready Player One at #12? I mean, I ENJOYED the book tremendously. It is a well-written nostalgia-fueled trip, but the #12 SF book of all time? No way. I question whether it would really even crack the top 100... And I've read 56 of the books on this list.
Didn't see Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Read a long, long time ago. Still remember being struck by its ending.
Людовика wrote: "Wow! Whole THREE books by not English-speaking authors! Congratulations."Agreed. This tends not to diversity of gender, race, or country of origin. That may make sense in terms of "Most Popular" books read by GoodReads readers, but does not make this as interesting a list.
Phil Hartley wrote: "Really? No Sanderson? Mistborn is absolutely epic, no Feist? Lawrence? GRRM? Gemmell? This list is terrible, old does not equal best."What don't you understand about best 100 Science Fiction. It's not a top 100 fantasy list. Maybe you misread the title :)
Martin wrote: "Some very, very tired worthy stuff.Starship Trooper, Dirk Gently and Ready Player One ?
Really ? I liked the books but top 100 ?
Love Scalzi but 3 books by him and nothing from Peter Hamiliton, A..."
I counted 4 Scalzi books. Did I miscount?
Nope: Old Man's War #44, Redshirts #70, Lock In #87 & The Collapsing Empire #97
I've only read 33. I'm reading Consider Phlebas right now and most of the others are on my want to read list already. I'm gonna be busy!
Gene wrote: "Is there any reason "The Expanse" series books are not mentioned?"Number 42 is part of the Expanse series, is it not?
Ashley wrote: "Rawzer wrote: "looking forward to spending some time working through this list. Obviously its wrong because Dune is definitively No 1 on any list of greatest SciFi novels, but looks like its got so..."Mark Reynolds wrote: "Dune is #1, sorry | both Children of and Chapterhouse should also be in the list.
The list should also include Friday (Heinlein) for a good old fashioned romp.
The Caves of Steel - made such a deep..."
I recently decided to give Dune another try, this time on Audible. I have to say, it puts me to sleep every time!. Great premise, some good characters and very compelling setup and world building. But the dialog is so pretentious and unrealistic. DOn't these people ever just talk? Do we really need to be spoon fed with interior dialog all the time? Could have been better with a good editor, IMHO.
I counted 30 books reads. There are a few more on the list I'm interested in reading.
It would be interesting to see this list filtered by books released in the last 10, 20, 30 years. Since I'm sure this is just a filter of number of people who marked the book as 'read' and maybe what they rated it. How many of us added books at the beginning of joining Goodreads that we read in high school? I wonder how many of these books would still be in top 100 when you take out the 'required' reading.
Joseph wrote: "Not read 1984 since I was in school. Must re-read it. I dont remember it being good enough to be in the top 50. Influential? Sure. But thats not the list title."I read it more recently and agree with what you said. I was surprised that it was #1 most popular. Sure, the ideas were certainly worth reading it for, but I would struggle to call it enjoyable.
Not a bestseller -YET...but what about Taboom by Stephen Dougherty? Very cool piece of work.Taboom: A Rather Evolved Fairy Tale
Probably the greatest sci-fi writer of all times was Frederic Brown (1906-1972) but, unless I am mistaken, none of his works appear here. That's a shame.
Hmmmm Vox sucked so... popularity does not equal a good book.
It's so hard to pick a favorite, but I'll say Foundation is my favorite sci-fi novel (actually, the original trilogy), and The Illustrated Man is my favorite collection of sci-fi short stories.
I wouldn't consider 1-5 "Science Fiction" but rather speculative fiction. "Science fiction" should be about how science and technology impact society and the characters of the story. Books like 1984 and Brave New World don't really have any science at all or discuss technology. They just speculative "dystopian" visions about a future with a specific political order.
Nina wrote: "I do not understand why, there a so little recent scifi books"To get published, fiction or maybe everything, must have a Marxist message. If not, no dice. It's wrecked the genre to a large degree. There are a few writers still providing first class, actual Science Fiction. I won't mention their names to avoid their getting cancelled.
Interesting, many of these wouldn't even be in my top 100 and number 1 would probably be in the 90-100 section if it made it at all, but hey we're all different so one person's list is not another's.
Goodreads needs to add to the book status the category "not interested". So much of new SF is pure, ideological and substandard drivel written by the mindless "woke". It's actually painful to have really awful books marked "want to read" when I absolutely do not.
"I'm not sure the Phlebas is that accessible, I read it and I found it a bit of a slog, I enjoyed it in the end, but it put me off reading the later novels in the series."Completely agree... I found it pretty average. I recommend the series but tell people they have to read two books if they decide to start with Phlebas. I think it has important world building, but you can get by without it.
Where is Anne maccaffrey books, the pern series. In particular. And what about Terry Pratchett disc World series...
..........Edgar Rice Burroughs ............ i don't understand how he could not be on the list. Tarzan?? John Carter of Mars???? Hello?????
Joseph wrote: "Not read 1984 since I was in school. Must re-read it. I dont remember it being good enough to be in the top 50. Influential? Sure. But thats not the list title."I reread it a few years ago and it thought it was fantastic, better than when I read it the first time
Hyperion at number 41 discredits this list automatically.
A fairly predictable list. I probably fall outside the relevant demographic, but I missed any mention of JG Ballard, Thomas Disch, Michael Moorcock, the Sturgatsky brothers (or any Russian work at all), Cordwainer Smith, and a number of others. Children of Men by PD James and John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up would certainly be on my list as well. Ditto Philip Pullman's magnificent His Dark Materials series. Also something by James Tiptree, jr.
Robert wrote: "No Cordwainer Smith? Really?"I absolutely agree! One of sci-fi's most distinctive voices,
Fer casake, can't you give us a simple text file with the list?Requiring mouseclicks on every image to get the info probably enhances your profitability selling eyeballs, but it sure increases the annoyance cost of paying attention to your site.
Hank wrote: "Fer casake, can't you give us a simple text file with the list?Requiring mouseclicks on every image to get the info probably enhances your profitability selling eyeballs, but it sure increases th..."
Agreed.
