“I Remember Some… Horrible Dream About… Smothering.”
Ridley Scott’s Alien hit cinemas in 1979 and has grown to become one of the most influential horror franchises in the world. The film follows a group of scientists on board the spacecraft Nostromo. They receive a distress call from a nearby moon, unknowingly allowing an intruder to stow away on their ship. From chest-bursters to androids, the Alien franchise has spawned multiple follow-up films, short stories and comic book crossovers, and the impact of the first film has also had a major influence on horror novels. As huge fans of the Scott classic, we here at What We Reading thought we would compile the best Sci-Fi Horror books like Alien, combining ramping suspense, claustrophobic settings, and an array of spine-tingling antagonists.
Blindsight (Firefall #1) – Peter Watts
The first book in his Firefall series, Peter Watts’ Blindsight is a chilling Sci-Fi Horror story that matches the creepiness of Alien perfectly. In it, readers follow a crew of astronauts sent out to the Neptunian Kuiper Belt in the hopes of negotiating with a strange alien race.
These aliens have made it clear they are not interested in being found, and the motivations behind their constant broadcasting of radio signals out across the galaxy have led humanity to wonder what their end plan is for them. With bloodthirsty vampires, deranged synthesists and mutated biologists making up the array of colourful characters making up the crew of this intrepid adventure, there is so much in Blindsight for a Ridley Scott fan to sink their teeth into!
Salvation Day – Kali Wallace
For those looking for a book that matches the claustrophobia of a malevolent force running rampant across a spaceship in Alien, look no further than Salvation Day by Kali Wallace. The House of Wisdom is an immense exploration ship, long abandoned by Earth in the wake of a deadly virus that killed all but one of the crew.
Readers follow Zahra and her crew who board the ship looking to kidnap the sole survivor, not knowing that there is a sinister Government secret also lurking on board. A secret that they might have just disturbed. Blurring zombies with traditional gothic horror elements all against a backdrop of deep space, Salvation Day is still renowned as one of the best Sci-Fi Horror books from the 2010s.
Sphere – Michael Crichton
For one of the best books like Alien from the 1980s, Sphere by Michael Crichton has to be on your reading list. The book follows Norman Johnson, a psychologist employed by the United States Navy who joins an expedition to investigate a spacecraft buried at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Seemingly undamaged from its fall from the sky, the ship remarkably appears to be over three centuries old. For a Sci-Fi story that mirrors the classic trope of scientists discovering and then poking their noses into a strange alien ship established in works like Alien, Sphere makes for a stellar read.
Six Wakes – Mur Lafferty
Nominated for best Science Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Awards, Six Wakes is a 2017 novel from Mur Lafferty that blends a locked-room mystery with the expansive playground setting that is deep space. This dystopian tale follows six criminals piloting a ship that houses 2,000 cryogenically frozen people.
These criminals have agreed to be cloned again and again as a way of ensuring they will be able to shepherd the ship and its inhabitants to their new home planet. When a clone dies, the individual who spawns in their place retains all of their memories from their previous lives. But, when they wake up to find their mutilated corpses and the ship in disarray, the horror spikes up as they realise one of them is a killer. As the pressure and paranoia continue to ramp up in the claustrophobic setting, Six Wakes quickly devolves into one of the most compelling page-turners in the genre.
Dead Silence – S.A. Barnes
Another Goodreads nominee for Best 2022 Science Fiction, S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence is a chilling story following Claire Kovalik and her salvage crew. Picking up a distress signal just days before they’re set to be made redundant, Claire and her team discover the luxury space cruiser, the Aurora.
Having disappeared over twenty years ago, the team know that salvaging this wreck will be the end of their financial woes. However, soon after boarding the vessel, flickers in the dark and blood on the walls turn this simple salvage mission into a hellish psychological battle to stay sane and survive.
Check Out Our Dead Silence Book Review
The Luminous Dead – Caitlin Starling
The Luminous Dead is the spine-chilling Sci-Fi debut from Caitlin Starling. The book follows Gyre Price, a woman who agrees to join a mining operation in order to discover the fate of her mother.
Lying about her credentials to get the position, her supervisor, Em, turns out to be a cruel and unpredictable organiser who not only knows about her deception but also leverages that knowledge to force her into a dangerous mission down into the dark depths of the planet. There, she is forced to battle her own demons as well as Em’s, soon discovering that the real danger on this mission may have nothing to do with the abandoned planet.
Nightflyers & Other Stories – George R.R. Martin
Before there was Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin was busy carving his space in the literary world with his Sci-Fi Horror book Nightflyers & Other Stories. The book has recently been adapted for the small screen on Syfy and follows a team of nine academics who are forced to place their alien subjects in the only available: Nightflyer.
Only crewed by one man, a mysterious captain who only communicates via holograms, what starts out as a simple scientific endeavour soon turns into a deadly battle for survival. Should come as no surprise why we think Martin’s work so closely mirrors Alien.
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).
