# The best science fiction novels of all time

The classics and modern essentials of written sci-fi: Hugo and Nebula winners, the top of the Locus all-time poll and the most-read titles on Goodreads.

- 71 votes · 32 items
- Aug 11, 2022 · Sean
- https://even.best/en/l/105/the-best-science-fiction-novels-of-all-time

## Top 25

1. **Neuromancer** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — William Gibson, 1984. Case, the matrix and the birth of cyberpunk; Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards.
2. **Dune** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Frank Herbert, 1965. Paul Atreides on the desert planet Arrakis; the first Nebula winner and top of the Locus all-time poll.
3. **Nineteen Eighty-Four** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — George Orwell, 1949. Big Brother, Newspeak and Room 101; the dystopia that gave us 'Orwellian'.
4. **Ender's Game** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Orson Scott Card, 1985. A child genius trained in Battle School; Hugo and Nebula.
5. **The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Douglas Adams, 1979. Arthur Dent, the towel and 42.
6. **Hyperion** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Dan Simmons, 1989. Seven pilgrims travel to meet the Shrike, told in the manner of The Canterbury Tales; Hugo.
7. **The Handmaid's Tale** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Margaret Atwood, 1985. Offred in the theocratic Republic of Gilead.
8. **The Three-Body Problem** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Liu Cixin, 2008. The Cultural Revolution and first contact with the Trisolarans; the first translated novel to win the Hugo.
9. **Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Philip K. Dick, 1968. Rick Deckard hunts androids; the novel behind Blade Runner.
10. **Foundation** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Isaac Asimov, 1951. Hari Seldon's psychohistory tries to shorten the dark age after the Galactic Empire falls.
11. **The Martian** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Andy Weir, 2011. An astronaut stranded on Mars survives with science and sarcasm; self-published at first.
12. **Fahrenheit 451** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Ray Bradbury, 1953. A fireman whose job is burning books.
13. **Childhood's End** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Arthur C. Clarke, 1953. The Overlords arrive and humanity's last generation begins.
14. **The Left Hand of Darkness** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969. An envoy on Gethen, a planet whose people have no fixed sex; Hugo and Nebula.
15. **Brave New World** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Aldous Huxley, 1932. A society engineered for happiness with soma and test-tube castes.
16. **Frankenstein** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Mary Shelley, 1818. Victor Frankenstein and his creature; often called the first science fiction novel.
17. **The Dispossessed** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Ursula K. Le Guin, 1974. A physicist between an anarchist moon and a capitalist planet; Hugo and Nebula.
18. **Snow Crash** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Neal Stephenson, 1992. Hiro Protagonist, pizza delivery and the Metaverse, a word this novel coined.
19. **A Canticle for Leibowitz** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Walter M. Miller Jr., 1959. Monks preserve knowledge for centuries after a nuclear war; Hugo Award 1961.
20. **Stranger in a Strange Land** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Robert A. Heinlein, 1961. A man raised on Mars comes to Earth; it gave English the verb 'grok'.
21. **Solaris** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Stanisław Lem, 1961. A living ocean that materialises the scientists' memories.
22. **Flowers for Algernon** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — Daniel Keyes, 1966. Charlie Gordon's diary after an operation that triples his IQ; Nebula.
23. **Blindsight** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Peter Watts's 2006 first-contact novel exploring consciousness and intelligence.
24. **Kindred** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Octavia E. Butler's 1979 novel about a Black woman pulled back in time to an antebellum Maryland plantation.
25. **The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 novel about a lunar colony's revolution, winner of the Hugo Award in 1967.
26. **Ubik** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Philip K. Dick's 1969 novel about reality slipping away after an explosion on the Moon.
27. **The Stars My Destination** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Alfred Bester's 1956 revenge story in a world where people can teleport.
28. **Red Mars** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Kim Stanley Robinson's 1992 novel about the first hundred colonists of Mars, first of the Mars trilogy.
29. **The Time Machine** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — H. G. Wells's 1895 novella that popularized the idea of time travel.
30. **Rendezvous with Rama** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Arthur C. Clarke, 1973. A huge alien cylinder enters the Solar System; Hugo and Nebula.
31. **Project Hail Mary** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Andy Weir, 2021. A teacher wakes up alone on a ship to save the Sun, and meets Rocky.
32. **The Forever War** (-3 · ▲0 ▼3) — Joe Haldeman, 1974. Time dilation makes a soldier return to an unrecognisable Earth; Hugo and Nebula.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.