19 best sci-fi books — new and old — from fantasy to eerily realistic

Up first, we have the book picks from Joel Cunningham, editor of the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog. If you like your sci-fi more on the fantasy end, then you’ll want to bookmark these for later.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

“Ann Leckie ran the table with her debut novel, picking up nearly every major science fiction award for a book that honors the conventions of space opera and military sci-fi while forging a new path through the cosmos. Thousands of years in the future, humanity is dominated by the powerful Radch Empire, which maintains control over its holdings with an advanced fleet of starships controlled by artificial intelligences that are housed as fragments of the whole within human ‘ancillaries,’ or enslaved, computer-controlled bodies. The story begins when one such ancillary survives the destruction of its ship and sets off on a mission of revenge against the person responsible, who happens to be the most powerful being in the universe. Leckie takes a bold approach with her use of language, imagining a society that doesn’t recognize gender as a significant identifying trait — the word he appears nowhere in the novel.” — Cunningham

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

“Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga is among the most beloved sci-fi epics ever, currently spanning 16 novels and half a dozen shorter works that have collectively earned more awards and nominations than any other series. The books follow the political and military destinies of the Vorkosigan family, who govern the far-future human colony world of Barrayar. Miles, the main protagonist, must constantly push against the expectations of a military society that judges him for his physical disability and use his wit and ingenuity to climb out of the deep holes he often digs for himself. The best place to start, however, is with the first book published, Shards of Honor, which reveals how Miles’ parents, hailing from vastly different, warring worlds, first met and formed an unlikely union that would change the galaxy forever. Populated by unforgettable characters and peppered with smart science, intricate plotting and a strong dose of humor, this series is essential reading for every type of sci-fi fan.” — Cunningham

The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge

“Joan D. Vinge’s 1981 best novel Hugo Award-winner is an evocative fantasy set on the human colony world of Tiamat, whose precarious position at the edge of a wormhole isolates it from the wider universe for decades at a time. This quirk of interstellar geography has resulted in the creation of a symbiotic culture where, every generation, the positions of those in power are flipped and the Winter Queen cedes rule to the Summer Queen. The current Snow Queen, Arienrhod, has no intention of giving up power so easily and has launched a scheme of subterfuge and genetic manipulation to keep her rightful successor, the brave, humble Moon, from taking the throne. What follows is a timeless tale of heroism and rebellion, with rich world-building and characters that will stay with you long after their tale has ended.” — Cunningham

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

“Ted Chiang’s essential short story collection, originally released in 2002 to near-universal acclaim, has lost none of its power over the last 15 years. Chiang’s use of language and structure draws in readers with beguiling ease, and while his concepts have a certain basis in rationality and a firm grasp of the sciences, he soon expands upon them in unexpected ways. From a grounded and mechanical depiction of ancient peoples building a literal tower to Heaven, to a linguist learning how to appreciate time by studying an alien language, to the tale of a man whose heightened brain capacity forces him to see the deeper meaning behind everything he experiences, these stories are heartfelt, surprising and challenging in all the right ways.” — Cunningham

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

“Though on the surface this appears to be an epic fantasy tale set on a world ravaged by unpredictable, apocalyptic environmental disasters and populated by orogenes — a group of magic users able to control the movement of the earth through magic — a deeper reading reveals the sound science-fictional concepts that form its backbone. In crafting her ‘stone magic,’ Jemisin hews closely to real geological science, and her characters approach its study and practice with intellectual rigor — while a late-in-the-book twist sends the narrative into outer space (literally). Like the best science fiction, the book is fearless in tackling issues that resonate in the modern day: racism, prejudice and the thoughtless destruction of the planet.” — Cunningham

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

“Though most celebrated from the Mars trilogy, a three-volume chronicle of a project to terraform the Red Planet, Kim Stanley Robinson’s best novel may be his most recent. Aurora is a full-throated, believably science-y novel that turns one of sci-fi’s oldest tropes — the generation ship — on its ear. As a deteriorating vessel nears its destination after a centuries-long journey, we follow a cast of compelling, flawed characters trying to stave off a death of a thousand loose screws, as witnessed via one of the most unique narrators ever encountered: the ship itself, an artificial intelligence still struggling to understand humans even after hundreds of years spent ferrying them across the stars.” — Cunningham

The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey

“The basis for a fascinating television series on Syfy, The Expanse books provide an ideal introduction to modern space opera. Rather than spread its intrigue-packed plot across galaxies, it smartly limits the scope of the story — at first — to just our familiar solar system. The human society described is intelligently imagined and feasible and not that much unlike our own — facing socio-political divisions between the residents of the Inner Planets (Earth and Mars) and the asteroid belt, where human anatomy is altered by the zero-G environment and further strained by a conspiracy that begins in a derelict spacecraft and soon spreads across populated space. With engaging characters and a storyline told in alternating points of view, The Expanse is the perfect gateway read: huge and complex, but with a human heart.” — Cunningham

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

“Structured similarly to Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Hyperion is a singular creation, beginning slowly and building into one of the most fully realized space operas ever written. Filled with fascinating, flawed characters, Simmons’ books tell the tale of a humanity that has formed a new hegemony after ruining planet Earth. Arrogant and aggressive, the hegemony protects itself by any means necessary. Introduced into this sprawling setting is the Shrike, one of the most memorable creations of modern sci-fi — a creature assembled from razor blades, half-organic, half-mechanical, able to control the flow of time, a deity worshipped by several cults. Hyperion chews up and spits out every grand genre idea in the playbook (inter-dimensional travel, revolt by artificial intelligences, time travel) and invents a few new ones in the bargain.” — Cunningham

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

“George Orr is a young man in what was then a future America — the year is 2002 — and he has a unique ability: When he has what he calls ‘effective’ dreams, he changes the nature of reality. Because they are dreams, he cannot direct them, so there are often devastating consequences, and he fears them. He is remanded to a psychiatrist, who, though initially skeptical, seeks to direct the changes in the world through manipulating George. The psychiatrist’s tinkering with reality fairly rapidly bends narcissistic and grandiose. This is an intense, philosophical novel, but one grounded in individual character and relationships. The way George navigates his dreams, his reality and the troubling intersection of the two feels pertinent to the often paralyzing opportunity of adolescence, making this one an ideal gateway for readers looking to explore the headier spaces of the genre.” — Cunningham

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

“When her father commits an unforgivable sin, Tan-Tan is banished along with him to the alien world of New Half-Way Tree, where the castoffs of a technologically advanced future Earth must eke out a primitive kind of survival among a strange alien race. Brutalized by her father, Tan-Tan kills him in self-defense and flees into the forests, where she must contend with hardship, integrate herself into an alien society and plan her revenge against those responsible for her situation. By the time she takes on the mantle of the Midnight Robber, a Robin Hood-like character who takes from the rich, Tan-Tan has hardened herself to the point she’s hardly recognizable. Hopkinson’s Hugo Award-nominated novel is a painful, ultimately triumphant look at the terrible reservoirs of strength it takes for an abused, controlled girl to emerge from the shadows of her past as her own strong, independent woman.” — Cunningham

Up next, the sci-fi books picked by Adrian Liang, Amazon Books’ Senior Editor. You’ll quickly notice her list falls more on the “wow, this sounds eerily familiar” end of the spectrum.

The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis 

“One of our top picks as the best books of 2016, The Wolf Road sends tomboy Elka into the wild to escape her foster father. Her survival rests on the lessons her foster father taught her, but Elka has to learn new lessons about who to trust, when to be vulnerable and when to fight like hell. Set in a post-apocalyptic world that has reset to pioneer times, The Wolf Road has one of the strongest young heroines of the year and rings with an authentic, unique voice.” — Liang

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis 

“In this 1992 novel that won Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards, Connie Willis’s time-traveling Oxford historians go back to visit the Middle Ages and accidentally land in the center of one wave of the Black Plague. As historian Kivrin Engle tries to figure out where the Oxford time machine has sent her and how to return to the 21st century, you’ll learn more about buboes than you ever expected to — and it will horrify you in a visceral way that just saying ‘100 million dead’ never will. Kivrin is the strong core of this story, treading a narrow path through a dangerous medieval world that’s not exactly woman-friendly and may end up being the world she’ll die in.” — Liang

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 

“This book makes it onto every top sci-fi list ever — and for very good reason. Atwood’s vision of a future where women are no longer are allowed to read and are prized only for childbirth is a vivid reminder that social mores don’t always progress, and women’s right to their own bodies is a new phenomenon (and one that’s still not worldwide). Prepare for a book that will challenge your perceptions and add a jolt of urgency to defying thoughts and actions that will push women backward.” — Liang

Star Nomad by Lindsay Buroker 

“Think Star Wars and Firefly, and strap yourself in for a bumpy ride with a female starship fighter pilot and a male cyborg who were only recently on opposite sides of a galactic war but now have to fend off space pirates, cave bears and their own bad history in order to survive. Sheer fun and a perfect match for today’s reader, who expects strong women characters in any good action story. If you enjoy this rollicking sci-fi space opera as much as I did, you’ll be delighted that there are at least six more books available in this ongoing series.” — Liang

Company Town by Madeline Ashby 

“Hwa is an anomaly. Completely organic among a heavily bio-augmented population, she keeps sex workers safe from violent clients as they legally ply their trade on a massive oil rig off the Canadian coast. But when Hwa is hired to protect the platform’s young heir from an increasing number of suspicious ‘accidents,’ sex workers start being murdered without Hwa to protect them. Subtle, tense and complex, Company Town masterfully straddles the line between science fiction, thriller and romance.” — Liang

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler 

“Another time-travel tale, this one sends modern black woman Dana back to the pre-Civil War South, where her actions will affect her own future. Kindred reverses time travel’s grandfather paradox (what happens if you go back in time and kill your grandfather?) by making Dana save her own ancestor, but in doing so, she perpetuates cruelness to slaves — a world she herself has to inhabit several times as Dana tweaks the weave of history to save herself. Race relations, feminism and the ongoing pain of the wounds of slavery charge this story with an electric vibrancy and an intellectual power that is rarely matched.” — Liang

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson 

“Stephenson is not afraid of writing big books — big in page count, big in concept and big in their long-lingering effect on the reader’s mind. When the Moon breaks apart, it forces humanity to leap into space to avoid the thousand-year-long meteor shower that will decimate life on the planet. But who goes and who stays? And once the lucky few have joined the Cloud Ark, how will the remaining seeds of humankind survive not only the perils of day-to-day life in space but also the lethal quicksand of internal politics? Slingshot pacing propels the reader through the intricacies of orbit liberation points and bot swarms, leaving an intellectual afterglow. The title, Seveneves, hints at the all-important role seven women have in this epic story of humanity and survival.” — Liang

The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid 

“Born, genetically modified and trained in horrific ways to be a cold-blooded bodyguard, our heroine Nemesis is considered by others — and by herself — to be less than human. But when her charge is demanded as a hostage by the Galactic emperor, Nemesis takes her place at the palace instead and unwillingly enters a plot to overthrow the government. Nemesis struggles to meld her old identity as a killer with her new life as a power player in the government even as she awakens to her own worth and moral strength in a powerful YA novel perfect for those who loved The Hunger Games.” — Liang

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

“This Philip K. Dick Award-winner places the reader in San Francisco shortly after a disease has wiped out most of humanity but has taken the biggest bite out of the female population. The few women left are little more than sex slaves, traded for goods and raped daily. Brutal and chilling, this book evokes every woman’s fear of being vulnerable — only to turn the situation on its head as the protagonist makes it her mission to help the remaining women whom she encounters by giving them birth control so they no longer risk death by unwanted childbirth. Elison paints a world so empty of long-term hope and driven by short-term desperation that you’ll be haunted by it even when not flipping the pages; yet, the barest glimmer of light on the future’s horizon will keep you moving forward to the satisfying conclusion. Elison’s second book in this series releases in February 2017.” — Liang