Add and vote for your favorite Science Fiction books first published in last century. For this list that means first published between 1900 and 1999.

Please only add books that have received at least one thousand ratings .

No Fantasy books please!

Books not meeting this list's criteria will be removed.

Inspired by Best Science Fiction of the 21st Century

Other SF Lists of Note:
Best Science Fiction
Best Science Fiction of the 21st Century
Best Science Fiction of the 20th Century
Best Forgotten Science Fiction of the 20th Century
Popular Highly Rated Science Fiction
Best Science Fiction Fantasy Books

SF Subgenres:
Alternate History
Dystopian and Post Apocalyptic Fiction
Space Opera
Steampunk

Locus Recommended Science Fiction:
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015,
2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
2009, 2001, 2000

Sci Fi Award Nominees
2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010
2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

Science Fiction By Decade:
1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s,
1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s

New Speculative Writers by Decade:
2000s, 2010s

Science Fiction By Ratings:
100,000 and more, 50000 to 99999, 25000 to 49999, 10000 to 24999
1000 to 9999, 100 to 999, Less than 100

See also:
Best Books of the 20th Century
Best Fantasy of the 20th Century
Best Forgotten Fantasy of the 20th Century
1

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8

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9

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10

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11

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12

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13

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14

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15

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16

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17

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18

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19

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3.92 avg rating — 326,140 ratings
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20

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3.98 avg rating — 129,670 ratings
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21

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22

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23

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24

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25

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26

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27

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28

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4.14 avg rating — 179,855 ratings
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29

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30

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31

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32

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4.15 avg rating — 435,525 ratings
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33

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4.12 avg rating — 183,354 ratings
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34

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4.20 avg rating — 314,942 ratings
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35

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36

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37

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38

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4.13 avg rating — 107,433 ratings
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39

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40

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41

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42

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44

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45

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46

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3.89 avg rating — 398,840 ratings
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47

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 766,592 ratings
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48

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49

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50

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51

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52

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53

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4.23 avg rating — 116,760 ratings
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54

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55

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4.16 avg rating — 93,076 ratings
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56

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57

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4.11 avg rating — 122,123 ratings
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58

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59

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60

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4.19 avg rating — 63,291 ratings
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61

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62

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62

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65

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65

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68

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71

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72

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73

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74

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75

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76

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4.03 avg rating — 109,944 ratings
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77

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78

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79

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4.17 avg rating — 593,386 ratings
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80

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4.32 avg rating — 179,552 ratings
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81

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4.04 avg rating — 26,470 ratings
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82

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 45,343 ratings
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83

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4.16 avg rating — 249,718 ratings
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84

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3.72 avg rating — 19,988 ratings
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85

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4.31 avg rating — 269,097 ratings
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4.15 avg rating — 63,084 ratings
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92

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4.16 avg rating — 61,428 ratings
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92

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3.96 avg rating — 138,941 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 131,906 ratings
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95

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4.16 avg rating — 52,388 ratings
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3.94 avg rating — 13,166 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 81,628 ratings
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98

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3.93 avg rating — 31,279 ratings
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166 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Mitchell 11519 books
168 friends
Randy 1898 books
0 friends
Dirk 1641 books
78 friends
Jain 843 books
24 friends
B 490 books
3 friends
Helger 563 books
20 friends
Johnny 1559 books
12 friends
Aitch 145 books
41 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-18 of 18 (18 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Chip (new)

Chip What happened to Hyperion and Contact? I added them but I don't see them anymore.


message 2: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Chip wrote: "What happened to Hyperion and Contact? I added them but I don't see them anymore."

Hyperion is #15 and you are one of the two voters.
Contact is #58 and you are the only voter.

I think books are initially put at the very bottom and then the list is recalculated around every 10 minutes.

There are a lot of books missing from this list. If you wanted to add 100 that would be awesome. The lists by decade are useful for this like SF of the 80s


message 3: by Chip (new)

Chip Thanks for the clarification!


message 4: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman removed Children of Time since published in 2015


message 5: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager looks like "Hitchhiker's Guide ..." is in there twice.


message 6: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Chris wrote: "looks like "Hitchhiker's Guide ..." is in there twice."

looks like the "remove duplicates" command for editing a list is working, at least for this list, at least for the moment. So duplicates handled.


message 7: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager THX


message 8: by William (new)

William The Call of Cthulhu as Science Fiction? (94 as of posting)


message 9: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman William wrote: "The Call of Cthulhu as Science Fiction? (94 as of posting)"

I would consider that a bit of a stretch. I think it fits better as horror and fantasy.


message 10: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman removed The Experiment for not having enough ratings


message 11: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman removed Summa technologiae for not having enough ratings


message 12: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman removed Old Man's War for being published in 2005

removed Afterworlds for being published in 2014


message 13: by Pierfrancesco (new)

Pierfrancesco Aiello Thanks for the curators of this list. Sharing lists (or information in general) is already nice, but curating those over time is not an easy feat - especially if there are tons of edits - and can be very helpful.


message 14: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Mavis wrote: "The rating requirement prevents most of the best science fiction from being added to the list. I personally thought that Cybernarc and Star Quest and [book:Galaxy 666|..."

if you really feel this way, you ought to add these books to the forgotten list - https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...


message 15: by Steve (new)

Steve LaForest I see that there was a discussion about H.P. Lovecraft, and what to do. I confess that I haven't read any of his work, and I can't imagine that I ever will. It really seems like an extremely remote possibility that it could qualify as science fiction.

From what I have read on the matter, it doesn't sound as though there would be merit in the debate either, in terms of SF, Fantasy, literary considerations, or moral considerations, Couldn't we just declare the subject utterly irrelevant?


message 16: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Steve wrote: "I see that there was a discussion about H.P. Lovecraft, and what to do. I confess that I haven't read any of his work, and I can't imagine that I ever will. It really seems like an extremely remote..."

The Call of Cthulhu has been tagged as classics by 970 people, fiction by 888 people, short stories by 714 people, fantasy by 710 people, favorites by 372 people and science fiction by 270 people.

This list does not list a threshold for declaring what is science fiction - unlike some of my other lists.

Classification of a book as fantasy or horror or science fiction or lousy or whatever is an interesting conversation to some folks. As long as no librarian arbitrarily removes a book for this or other lists, I find the conversation to be fine.


message 17: by C.E.C. (new)

C.E.C. Sorry to bother but The War of the Worlds shows up near the beginning of page 3 (#210 at the moment of my writing this comment) despite being from the 19th century


message 18: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman C.E.C. wrote: "Sorry to bother but The War of the Worlds shows up near the beginning of page 3 (#210 at the moment of my writing this comment) despite being from the 19th century"

removed. thanks for the call out. sorry it took so long


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