Science fiction, when it’s done right, delivers some of the most unforgettable stories in all of literature. By blending imagination with scientific ideas, the genre pushes the limits of what’s possible—creating richer worlds, higher stakes, and plots that stay with you long after the final page.
Below, we’re sharing five science fiction novels that truly stand out—books that captivated us, challenged our thinking, and reminded us why science fiction is such a powerful genre. Keep reading to discover which titles made the list and which ones we loved the most.
This list is, of course, personal. It’s shaped by the science fiction novels we’ve read and enjoyed so far. While the genre is filled with countless influential and must-read classics, there are still many we’re eager to explore. Think of this as a curated starting point rather than a definitive ranking—and an invitation to dive deeper into the endless possibilities of science fiction.
The Five Best Science Fiction Books
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
- The Martian Andy Weir
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Dune by Frank Herbert
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams is not only great writing but it is also hilarious. Balancing humor and sci-fi is not an easy task but Adams does just that. It doesn’t take the genre serious which works in the series favor.
The title of the novel comes from a book that is carried by Ford Prefect, the protagonist. Ford is an alien researcher traveling around the galaxy to update the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy encyclopedia. It is a book that has information on every planet. Ford saves his friend Arthur Dent when Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace expressway.
The duo hitch a ride on a spaceship that is heading to Barnard’s Star but are found out by the Vogons who torture them by making them listen to their poetry and throw them out via airlock. They are saved by Ford’s “cousin” and board his spaceship The Heart of Gold. On the spaceship they meet a depressed robot who tells them the meaning of life.
Ford and Arthur journey across the galaxy with their new friends as they visit new planets. They get caught up in life-threatening adventures and learn new things about the galaxy that they never could have imagined.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
The second novel on this list goes to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. It is a classic sci-fi novel that made me fall in love with the genre. And decades later, this move is still high on my list of my favorite sci-fi novels.
Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter in San Francisco and works for the police department. He is given the assignment to retire (kill) six androids that have escaped from Mars to Earth. These androids are new and highly intelligent and are made of organic matter making it difficult to tell them apart from humans.
To tell the androids apart from humans, an empathy test is given to the subject in question. The latest empathy test however is not fully reliable. The Rosen Association tries to get Deckard to drop the case and will go to any lengths to do so.
Deckard heads out and hunts the androids and tries to make them take the empathy test. But this task turns out to be a lot more difficult than Deckard imagined. He wanted to use the money from this mission to replace his electric sheep and buy a live animal for his depressed wife. Now, Deckard must come to terms that the androids he is supposed to kill are more human than anyone could have imagined.
Frankenstein
The third title is the classic novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It is one of the earliest works of science fiction and has an influx of philosophy as well. Also, the monster’s name is not Frankenstein, contrary to popular belief.
A crew on a boat that is on a voyage to the North Pole rescues a nearly frozen man named Victor Frankenstein. He tells them that he is chasing after a giant man and tells them his tale and how he ended up in the situation he is in now.
Victor tells the crew about his childhood in Naples, Italy and his desire to learn and understand the world. Just weeks before Victor is to depart for college in Germany, his mother passes away due to scarlet fever. That leads to Victor burying himself in experiments to distract him from his grief.
One of those experiments includes giving life to a non-living object. But he is unable to replicate human parts so is creation ends up being 8 feet tall and hideous. Victor is appalled by his creation and runs away. When Victor returns to his lab, he discovers that his creation is gone.
Victor becomes sick soon after and is bedridden and nursed back to health over a four-month span. After he recovers, Victor receives a letter saying that his brother William has been murdered. Once Victor arrives t Geneva, he sees the monster he created near the crime scene and deducts that it was the one who killed the monster. Now, Victor is consumed by guilt and grief and plans to put an end to the monster he created once and for all.
Dune
Dune by Frank Herbert is the first science fiction novel to get awkward by the mainstream media. It was also the first book (Children of Dune) to top the New York Times Best Seller list. The novel also an amazing fantasy novel with its amazing world building which makes it hard to put down once you start reading it.
Duke Leto Atreides of House Atreides, the ruler of Caladan, is being relocated to serve as ruler of Arrakis. He is moving his whole house to Arrakis which includes his concubine Jessica and son Paul as well as the people that serve him. Where Caladan is rich in water, Arrakis, also known as Dune, is a desert planet where water is scarce and thus very important. The planet’s main export is spice and it is vital to the Guild who control space and maintains the balance between the Houses.
The move is forced upon Duke Leto from Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV who is conspiring with House Harkonnen to kill House Atreides. While the Duke knows this, he willingly goes into the trap and faces it head on. Soon after the family lands on Arrakis, the family comes under attack as one of their own has been compromised. Duke Leto’s plans to befriend the natives of Arrakis, the Freman, and fight back against House Harkonnen.
The betrayal catches House Atreidas by surprise and Paul and Jessica are captured by the enemies. Around this time, Paul learns the truth of what he really is and how his mother has trained him to be something that he wishes he wasn’t. To survive on Arrakis, Paul and Jessica have to learn to live like the Freman as they fight House Harkonnen and the Emperor.
The Martian
The fifth and final novel on the list goes to The Martian by Andy Weir. He is an amazing sci-fi writer and this novel started it all. And this novel is the one that put Weir on the map and made it a household name.
Mark Watney and his crew members embark on a month-long mission on Mars. However, things go wrong in six Mars days (days on Mars are longer) and Mark is impaled by an antenna and blown away from the crew’s vision. The crew believes Mark is dead and have to head back to earth due to a dust and wind storm.
As luck has it, Mark survives the injury and is left stranded on Mars. Now, Mark has to somehow survive on Mars and radio to Earth that he is alive. It is up to Mark to do all that he possibly can until NASA sends help and retrieve Mark before he dies in space.
Conclusion
And that concludes this list of the five best science fiction books that you need to read. There are a ton of amazing science fiction books that we had to leave off this list unfortunately. These five are the ones we would put before every other one in our honest opinion.
What novels should have been on this list? Would you like to see included in our list next? Let us know in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook!
Discover more from Books of Brilliance
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Its hard to argue your list. I think Ringworld by Larry Niven should be somewhere in the mix
I’ve never read it but I shall add it to my to read list now!
Yeah its a hard list to narrow down, when I was thinking of it Ringworld floated to the top, but my first thoughts were …An
ything by Azimov, PK Dick, Heinlien of course. I had to stop there. There is so much good scifi its hard to choose.
Yea. I hated leaving Enders Game off the list. A lot of great choices
LOL this conversation could go on forever. Enders game is solid too, I’ll raise with the Expanse novels by James S.A. Corey
I’ll make a part two and come back to this conversation so thanks! 👍
Your list of 5 is just ok.
Not spectacular.
My personal preferences are Dune,
Foundation
I Robot
And of course the 1946
CITY by Simak
Which i have been rereading since i was about 12.
I reread it a few days ago.
Im 82.
He added a 9th chapter in around 1976 at the request of a pal.
I enthusiastically endorse Ringworld as well.
I can’t imagine a “5 best SF” list that doesn’t include Dune (just the first book, not the sequels).
I’ve never gotten around to reading it but I shall in the next few months!
Good 5- novel list, but – ehm ehm – where is Isaac Asimov ? Oh well, maybe on the next list (any Aimov novel will do).
The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Brilliant in it’s layering. Ahead of it’s time in visualizing world’s. My favorite is the last book in the series. I like your list tho!!
Thanks! I posted an updated list today that had more science fiction books.
Read them all (including Ringworld), might I also through out there Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Sounds interesting. I’ll add it to my reading list
Outstanding shortlist, but concur that Isaac Asimov could’ve easily made the list. One of the best sci-fi books I’ve read in recent years was “The Reactivation of Albert Doyle”.
Sorry, not even close. While all are great, none of those are top 5.
I would add Dune by Frank Herbert. I’ll have to check whether you have a list for Fantasy vs Science Fiction. If including fantasy, I would add The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson; a first and second trilogy followed by a quadrilogy.
Oh, One must add 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell.
My two reasons for not adding it is that it doesn’t feel like a sci-fi book even though I know it is categorized as one and the other reason is that while I do think it is an important book, it isn’t necessary the best book out there.
The Martian is outstanding. The movie did well but the book had so much depth, breathtakingly entertaining while still being suspensefully bleak enough that you feel rescued at the end as well.
The “sequel” has been on my bedside table for half a decade and I have to assume it won’t live up to the expectation I have built up for it, since the original is just so dàmn good.
Artemis was a good book. I think his newest book is much better but that might be because of my personal preference. Any book written by Weir is a must read!
You definitely should include Dune. It could replace Hitchhiker’s Guide, which is more humor than science fiction. To find good SF to read, I recommend checking the lists of past Hugo and Nebula award winners. You’ll find some great stuff. Also try Canticle for Leibowitz and Earh Abides.
I haven’t read Dune partly because there are a lot of books in the series but I will read it after all the comments about it being included. Hitchhiker’s is funny but it definitely is still sci-fi. And I shall visit those lists to add to my reading list!
For Dune, don’t bother with the whole series. The first one is the classic. Neither of the movies come close to doing it justice.
Got it 👍
I would agree until this past year when Dune hit the big screen. That version is excellent though it does fall short in its representation of the Sand Worms. The second part is promised and many are excited at the prospect.
It’s really interesting. The post really made me think a lot, beautifully written. I wrote something similar.
Please go through it if possible. https://natesh557112956.wordpress.com/2022/12/21/whos-nina/
Thanks in advance and keep writing awesome stuff like this !
Walter Miller’s Canticle for Leibovitz is one of the greatest sci fi novels. It should be on your list
Stranger in a Strange land and Caves of Steel , both brilliant books and set the path for the genre for the next fifty years.
I enjoyed strangers in a strange land a lot. Will have to check out caves if steel
Stranger in a Strange Land started me on my love of SciFi. Always quoting parts if it.
I agree with you, Bob. I would not have chosen these sci-fi novels.
TL;DR: I explain why I disagree, even though I do like some of the books. Then I give a list of fifteen sci-fi novels, any of which I would include in a list of the Five Best Sci-Fi Books.
I think of the “best” sci-fi books as ones that are influential or groundbreaking, but must be also great reads. I love Hitchiker’s Guide the Galaxy, and have read it and the whole series more than once, and am pleased a comedy is included in this list; however, I don’t think of it as one a groundbreaking or influential sci-fi books.
The other four I have read, but most I had to slog through; Frankenstein, though I really like it, seems to me to be more a gothic horror novel than an important sci-fi novel, perhaps because I read it alongside Bram Stoker’s Dracula. If Frankenstein gets on the list, the Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson should also be included: it has the “mad scientist,” uses chemistry instead of electricity, and psychiatry.
Here are books, any of which I would put on the list instead of those five, depending on the criteria for “best” (I’m including only books I’ve read)(my criteria are influential or groundbreaking; and great reads):
– [ ] War of the Worlds, H G Wells;
– [ ] Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne;
– [ ] Fahrenheit 451, or the Martian Chronicles, both by Ray Bradbury;
– [ ] Kindred, Octavia Butler (time travel; influenced other writers);
– [ ] 1984, by George Orwell;
– [ ] Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (Nobel laureate for Literature);
– [ ] Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin;
– [ ] A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle;
– [ ] Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood;
– [ ] Binti, Nnedi Okorafor;
– [ ] One Thousand and One Nights (proto sci-fi? Has stories that feature robots, space travel, and a utopian society);
– [ ] Canterbury Tales, “The Squire’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer (a special mirror explained with optics);
– [ ] Utopia, Thomas More; and
– [ ] A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.