“The universe wasn’t ideal, but it was hardly a prison. After all, you had to exist somewhere; it might as well be here.”
Science fiction is the genre of ‘what if?’ Whether it be colonies on far-flung planets or futuristic leaps in everyday technologies, the best sci-fi books allow authors to fully flex their imaginations with enthrallingly creative premises that could one day become possible. The ever-expanding tree of technologies we unlock in the real world continues to inspire writers across the genre, with some great sci-fi stories being released over the past decade. Join us at What We Reading as we look back at some of the best modern sci-fi books!
Vagabonds – Hao Jingfang
Translated into English by Ken Liu, Hao Jingfang’s Vagabonds kicks off our list of the best modern sci-fi books. This profound and philosophical work feels like one of the defining releases from the genre in the past decade, whisking readers into the year 2096 when Mars, having previously been colonised by humans, has successfully waged war for its independence.
The war results in the two planets going down very different roads, only for an attempt at reconciliation to be established a hundred years later. Split between two perspectives from representatives of both planets, caught between worlds and searching for where they truly belong, Vagabonds is a poignant exploration of belonging and identity, as well as the struggle for tolerance when different cultures collide.
Children Of Time (Children of Time #1) – Adrian Tchaikovsky
Author Adrian Tchaikovsky introduces one of the best modern sci-fi book series with humanity desperately searching for a new home in Children of Time. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, the last remnants of the human race have left behind their dying Earth, stumbling upon an Eden-like planet out in the void of space, terraformed and prepared for life.
However, all is not as it seems in this utopia. The planet’s architects have not left it pristine or untouched, and the human colonists soon find themselves gripped in their worst nightmare. Two civilisations hang on the brink of collision, with both forced to confront how much they are willing to do for survival. Who will inherit this new Earth?
Dark Matter – Blake Crouch
Nominated for Best Science Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Awards, Dark Matter is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller by Blake Crouch, author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.
“Are you happy with your life?” – These are the last words Jason Dessen hears before he is knocked unconscious by an abductor. When he wakes, he is strapped to a gurney with men in hazmat suits surrounding him. In this world, he doesn’t have a wife or a son. Instead, he is a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. But, how does he escape this world and return to his loved ones? His answers lie in a wondrous and horrifying reality than he could have ever imagined, culminating in a battle against a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.
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How High We Go In The Dark – Sequoia Nagamatsu
Nominated for both Best Science Fiction and Best Debut Novel in the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards, Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark is an ambitious modern sci-fi story following a cast of intricately-linked characters over centuries as humanity reels in the wake of a cataclysmic plague.
Starting in 2030, the work of a grieving archaeologist ends up unleashing the Arctic Plague, a virus that completely reshapes all life on Earth. Yet, from a scientist with a talking pig for a companion to a widowed painter-daughter duo embarking on a cosmic quest for a new home planet, Nagamatsu’s book is a sweeping look at the resilience of the human spirit, the unkillable desire to dream and the ties that keep us all connected, even over centuries and celestial bodies.
Stealing Worlds – Karl Schroeder
Sura Neelin is on the run from her past, her creditors, and her father’s murderers. Mid-21st century America has cameras, smart glasses, and surveillance everywhere, meaning no job, no place to live and no way of even walking down the street without being seen. This is the thrilling premise set up in Karl Schroeder’s cyberpunk 2019 book Stealing Worlds, easily one of the best modern sci-fi books.
But, Sura might have a chance at escaping in the alternate reality that is the games. The people who run the LARP game worlds and their alternate economies of Notchcoin and Blockchains also program the US’ surveillance networks. All she needs are the right skills and an introduction. Fortunately for her, she has an array of invaluable skills, and some very useful friends for a crisis.
In The Lives Of Puppets – T.J. Klune
One of the best sci-fi books from 2023, In The Lives of Puppets is the Goodreads Choice Award-winning novel by T.J. Klune. In it, readers are introduced to a home built into the branches of a grove of trees and its three robotic inhabitants – a small hoover desperate for love and attention, a sharp and sadistic matriarchal machine and the patriarchal android, Giovanni Lawson. A human, Victor Lawson, also lives safely in this strange family.
One day, Victory salvages and repairs a bizarre android known as ‘HAP’. He uncovers that HAP and Giovanni have a shared history. Of hunting humans. When HAP alerts all the nearby robots from their shared past about their present location, Gio is kidnapped and it suddenly becomes the task of Victor and his family to save their paternal figure before he is decommissioned or, worse, reprogrammed.
The Martian (The Martian #1) – Andy Weir
Whether it’s the blockbuster adaptation or the original Andy Weir novel, The Martian has gone down as one of the best modern sci-fi books. The story follows astronaut Mark Watney. Six days ago he was set to become the first human to walk on Mars. Now, he’s going to be the first to die there.
Having become separated and now stranded from his crew, he has no means of signalling to Earth that he’s still alive and does not have enough supplies to wait out a response even if he could. Yet, armed only with his own ingenuity, engineering skills, and sheer resilience to survive against all odds and obstacles, he confronts every task as it arises, forging the unlikeliest of survival stories.
Eversion – Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds is renowned as one of the masters of the space opera subgenre and, in his 2022 book, Eversion, he delivers another stellar dark mind-bending adventure across time and space.
In the 1800s a ship crashes off the coast of Norway. The 1900s see a zeppelin exploring the icy canyons of Antarctica. The far future witnesses a spaceship setting out for a fabled alien artefact. All of these excursions need to be corrected. Doctor Silas Coade is present on all of these journeys and tasked as a physician with keeping all of his men safe. He’s the only one who sees how events seem to repeat themselves, and it is up to him to determine how and why. And what he can do to stop them from happening anymore before tragedy strikes again.
To Sleep In A Sea Of Stars (Fractalverse #1) – Christopher Paolini
Kira Navárez always dreamed of life in other worlds. But, after finding a strange alien relic during a survey mission on an uncolonized planet, she kicks into life something that is nothing short of a nightmare in Christopher Paolini’s To Sleep in a Sea of Stars.
As war erupts across the stars around her, Kira embarks on a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and growth. Forced to confront her inner demons as well as a first encounter unlike anything she could have imagined, Paolini’s work is one of the best modern sci-fi books for those looking for a thrilling exploration of humanity’s first contact with alien life.
Termination Shock – Neal Stephenson
Termination Shock is Neal Stephenson’s stunning technothriller and commentary on the devastating consequences of climate change.
By whisking readers into a dystopian future where greenhouse gases have led to rising sea levels, global flooding, brutal heat waves, unforgiving pandemics, and cataclysmic superstorms, one man, an inventor, conjures up an idea designed to reverse the effects of climate change. However, aside from the consequences on humanity, will this sweeping plan work? Taking readers from the Himalayas to the baking Chihuahuan Desert, Termination Shock chronicles an array of desperate and different characters as they grapple with the real-world repercussions of climate change.
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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).
