“Mysteries that are destroyed by measurement were never truly mysterious; only our ignorance made them seem so.”
Science-Fiction has always been one of the ultimate genres for authors to let their creative juices run wild. Unrestrained from any real-world physics or logic, authors are free to flex their imaginations and conjure up faraway worlds of dystopian futures that are either fun to wonder at, or sometimes even wince at just how impending they can seem. With the year throwing up another great selection of titles from the best in the business, check out our top 7 picks for the best 2022 Sci-Fi books at What We Reading.
How High We Go in the Dark – Sequoia Nagamatsu
In How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel, debutant author Sequoia Nagamatsu pays homage to humanity’s ability to preserve and find compassion in even the direst circumstances. A spellbinding and emotional rollercoaster, the book follows a number of characters across the world as the human race is exposed to a deadly epidemic spawning from the Artic circle. Ambitious and original, this is one of the standout titles in not only the sci-fi but also the wider fiction genre as a whole from the year.
Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel
Throughout history, humans have always looked up to the stars in wonder and seen space exploration as the ultimate goal. In Sea of Tranquility, Glass Hotel and Station Eleven author Emily St. John Mandel taps into this with a sci-fi novel filled with art, time, plague, and love. Its shifting timelines across multiple characters transport readers from Vancouver Island in 1912 to an isolated colony on the Moon two centuries in the future.
Light Years From Home – Mike Chen
Fifteen years ago whilst on a camping trip, sisters Evie Shao and Kass’ father and brother disappeared. Whilst their brother remains missing, their father turned up three days later convinced he had been abducted by aliens. The two sisters deviated down different life paths, with Evie’s fascination in the exteressitial helping to locate their brother, who has begun speaking of aliens and intergalactic wars.
An action-packed novel from critically-acclaimed sci-fi writer Mike Chen, Light Years From Home is a heartfelt and emotional look at reconciliation and how to find peace with both yourself and your family.
Check out the best apocalypse sci-fi books from 2022!
The Candy House – Jennifer Egan
Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan delivers a thought-provoking and colourful look at a future potentially not too far around the corner in The Candy House. This 2022 Sci-Fi book follows brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton as he pioneers a technology that allows users every memory they’ve ever had and share memories with others around them. Following Bouton, as he continually spirals into different narratives, it is a powerful novel that touches on humanity’s need for connections, love and authenticity.
A sequel of sorts to Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Candy House works perfectly fine as a stand-alone read.
Dead Silence – S.A. Barnes
Blurring the lines between Sci-Fi and Horror, Dead Silence is a chilling deep space story Ridley Scott would be proud of. Taking full advantage of the chilling isolation of space with the claustrophobic feel of an abandoned spaceship, Dead Silence is the terrifying sci-fi story of Claire Kovalik and her Salvage Crew picking up a distress signal and coming across the Aurora, a luxury space-liner that had vanished twenty years earlier. Whispers in the dark, blood on the walls and slight movements in the shadows soon play at the crew’s sanities as they attempt to piece together the grim fate endured by those on the Aurora.
Check Out Our Dead Silence Review
The City Inside – Samit Basu
When it comes to near-future dystopias, it’s usually the ‘glitzy’ locales like New York or London that get the treatment by authors. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but in The City Inside, Samit Basu gives readers a fresh setting to sink their teeth into. Set in Delhi, the story follows Joey, a reality controller of multi-reality live streams of her celebrity ex Indi. Along the way, Joey recruits Rudra, a recluse from one of the city’s impoverished neighbourhoods and the pair quickly become embroiled in a web of surveillance capitalism and corporate politics.
A fresh, modern and original take on a future that looks increasingly imminent, The City Inside’s take on everything from social media, state surveillance and being enamoured with celebrity status makes this one of the most terrifying reads from 2022.
The Kaiju Preservation Society – John Scalzi
John Scalzi established himself as one of the best sci-fi authors on the back of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy. The Kaiju Preservation Society represents his first standalone title since the completion of the trilogy and follows a food driver named Jamie living in New York City during the Covid-19 Pandemic. After running into an old acquaintance, Jamie is given the opportunity of working on a very special animal reserve… though its inhabitants are not what readers are used to seeing in this world.
A tale of alternate dimensions and giant Dinosaurs, The Kaiju Preservation Society is a quirky novel filled with real-world quips that provide the perfect form of escapism only Sci-Fi can produce.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
