3 Best Sci-Fi Books I Read in 2025 That I Still Can’t Stop Thinking About

Science fiction is one of those genres that can do almost anything.

A great sci-fi novel can take you to another planet, introduce you to civilizations that have existed for thousands of years, explore artificial intelligence, or completely change the way you think about memory, identity, and humanity.

The problem is finding the really good sci-fi books among the thousands of options out there.

Between new releases, award winners, classics I still haven’t gotten around to, and recommendations constantly being added to my reading list, there never seems to be enough time. I’m still catching up on books from 2024, and my TBR somehow keeps getting longer.

But in 2025, I made a point of reading more science fiction.

I’m glad I did.

A few books stood out so much that I kept thinking about them long after turning the final page. These are the books I couldn’t stop recommending and the ones that reminded me why science fiction can be such an incredible genre.

One gave me one of my favorite AI characters ever. Another sent me on an intergalactic heist. And the third delivered one of the strangest and most haunting dystopian worlds I’ve encountered.

If you’re searching for a great science fiction book to read next, here are the three best sci-fi books I read in 2025.

The Best Sci-Fi Books I Read in 2025

• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
• The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
• The Memory Police bv Yōko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (Translator)

These three books are very different from one another, which is part of what makes this list so interesting.

The Murderbot Diaries is fast, funny, and surprisingly emotional. The Stardust Grail is a sprawling science-fiction heist filled with aliens and adventure. The Memory Police is slower, darker, and much more unsettling.

But all three reminded me of what science fiction does best: use impossible worlds to explore very human questions.

1. The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

If you’ve followed my recent reading updates, this choice probably won’t surprise you.

I can’t stop talking about The Murderbot Diaries.

Martha Wells’ science-fiction series has quickly become one of my favorite discoveries in the genre because it manages to be funny, exciting, intelligent, and emotional without ever feeling bloated.

The series follows a security android that has secretly hacked the control system governing its behavior.

In other words, Murderbot has free will.

You might expect a rogue security unit with enhanced combat abilities to immediately rebel against humanity.

Instead, Murderbot mostly wants everyone to leave it alone so it can watch entertainment shows.

That alone would have been enough to make the character memorable.

But there is much more going on beneath the surface.

Murderbot Is One of Sci-Fi’s Most Memorable AI Characters

Murderbot is sarcastic, uncomfortable around humans, deeply private, and frequently annoyed whenever anyone expects it to discuss feelings.

Unfortunately for Murderbot, it also seems incapable of ignoring humans when their lives are in danger.

That contradiction drives much of the series.

Murderbot constantly insists that it doesn’t care while repeatedly risking itself to protect the very people it claims are exhausting.

And that is where Martha Wells finds the heart of the story.

What starts as an entertaining concept gradually becomes an exploration of autonomy, trauma, friendship, artificial intelligence, and what it actually means to be a person.

That made Murderbot much more compelling to me than another futuristic robot protagonist.

It feels incredibly human even when it desperately doesn’t want to.

Why Artificial Condition Stood Out

One of my favorite entries is Artificial Condition.

The second novella dives deeper into Murderbot’s past as it tries to uncover the truth about a violent incident that continues to haunt it.

The story also introduces ART, an extremely powerful artificial intelligence whose interactions with Murderbot are some of the funniest and most entertaining moments in the series.

Their relationship gives the book a completely different energy while also revealing more about Murderbot’s personality.

And that is one of the strengths of this series.

Wells doesn’t need hundreds of pages to make these characters feel fully developed.

The pacing moves quickly, but the emotional moments still land.

Why You Should Read The Murderbot Diaries

If long science-fiction novels intimidate you, The Murderbot Diaries is also an excellent place to start.

Many of the early installments are novellas, which makes them easy to fly through.

But don’t mistake their shorter length for a lack of depth.

The series manages to explore some surprisingly big questions about consciousness and artificial intelligence while still delivering action, humor, mysteries, and space adventures.

There are also multiple novellas, novels, and short stories to read once you become invested in Murderbot’s story.

And chances are you will.

Best for: Readers who want fast-paced science fiction, sarcastic characters, artificial intelligence, space adventures, and surprisingly emotional storytelling.

My verdict: If you want one sci-fi series from this list to start immediately, make it The Murderbot Diaries.

2. The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

Sometimes all I need to hear is one sentence to know a book belongs on my reading list.

For The Stardust Grail, that sentence was basically:

It’s a heist novel set in space.

That was enough.

I originally discovered Yume Kitasei’s novel after seeing it appear among Goodreads nominees, and the premise immediately caught my attention.

Fortunately, the book lived up to it.

A Space Heist With Much Bigger Stakes

The novel follows Maya Hoshimoto, a former thief who once stole priceless artifacts from across the galaxy.

Maya has stepped away from that life, but like any good heist story, retirement doesn’t last very long.

She is eventually pulled back into one final mission.

And this isn’t simply about stealing money or recovering a valuable object.

The stakes could determine the fate of entire civilizations.

That immediately makes The Stardust Grail feel larger than a traditional heist story.

Maya travels through a universe filled with alien species, ancient artifacts, complicated histories, and civilizations with very different ideas about ownership and cultural heritage.

The deeper she gets into the mission, the more complicated everything becomes.

The World-Building Was One of My Favorite Parts

One thing I always want from science fiction is a world that feels genuinely different from our own.

The Stardust Grail delivers that.

Kitasei doesn’t simply populate space with humans living on slightly different planets. The novel introduces alien cultures that have their own histories, motivations, and relationships with humanity.

That makes the universe feel much bigger.

It also allows the story to ask some interesting questions.

Who actually owns artifacts taken from another civilization?

What happens when powerful societies decide that preserving history gives them the right to possess it?

And how far should someone go to correct the mistakes of the past?

These questions give the novel more depth than I expected when I first picked it up.

Maya Hoshimoto Makes the Story Work

The biggest reason the novel works, however, is Maya.

She is smart, capable, flawed, and easy to root for.

A great heist story needs a protagonist who can stay one step ahead of everyone else while still making enough mistakes to keep things interesting.

Maya fits that role perfectly.

The book also has enough humor to prevent the larger philosophical ideas from slowing down the adventure.

That balance was probably my favorite thing about it.

One chapter might introduce a complicated ethical question about cultural ownership, while another throws Maya directly into another dangerous situation.

It keeps moving.

Who Should Read The Stardust Grail?

If you like science fiction but don’t necessarily want something overwhelmingly technical, this is a fantastic option.

The novel is much more interested in characters, cultures, history, and adventure than explaining every piece of futuristic technology.

And because the plot revolves around a heist, there is always another mystery, discovery, or complication waiting around the corner.

Best for: Fans of space adventures, heist novels, alien civilizations, morally complicated protagonists, and big intergalactic mysteries.

My verdict: The Stardust Grail is one of the most entertaining sci-fi novels I read in 2025 and deserves a lot more attention.

3. The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

Some books are fun while you’re reading them.

Others quietly get inside your head and stay there.

The Memory Police did that to me.

This is easily the most unsettling book on this list, and it might also be the one I thought about the most after finishing it.

Yōko Ogawa’s novel takes place on an unnamed island where ordinary objects begin disappearing.

But disappearance means something very different here.

When something disappears, most of the island’s residents don’t simply lose access to it.

They gradually lose their memories of it.

One day, an object can be an ordinary part of life.

The next, people barely remember why it mattered.

What Happens When Memories Become Illegal?

Not everyone forgets.

A small number of people can still remember the objects that have disappeared.

That makes them dangerous.

The mysterious Memory Police hunt down anyone suspected of holding onto memories that society has been forced to erase.

Our narrator, a novelist, eventually discovers that someone close to her can still remember.

What follows is a quiet and increasingly disturbing story about trying to preserve memory in a world determined to destroy it.

The premise sounds simple.

But the implications are terrifying.

Because as more objects disappear, the island itself begins to feel less real.

Pieces of people’s identities disappear with them.

The Memory Police Is Dystopian Sci-Fi at Its Best

Readers who enjoy George Orwell’s 1984 will probably recognize some familiar ideas here.

Both novels explore surveillance, authoritarian control, and the manipulation of reality.

But The Memory Police approaches those themes very differently.

This isn’t primarily a story about overthrowing an oppressive government.

It is much quieter.

More personal.

And, in some ways, more disturbing because of it.

Ogawa focuses on what happens when people slowly lose the things that help define who they are.

Objects disappear.

Memories disappear.

Connections disappear.

Eventually, even parts of the self can begin to feel temporary.

The result is a novel that feels almost dreamlike while still being deeply unsettling.

A Different Kind of Science Fiction

Readers expecting spaceships, futuristic technology, or explosive action won’t find them here.

But that is exactly why I wanted to include The Memory Police.

Science fiction is much bigger than space travel.

Some of the genre’s best books take one impossible idea and use it to explore something familiar.

Here, that idea is forced forgetting.

And Ogawa uses it to explore memory, identity, grief, censorship, and control.

That is also what makes the novel feel so memorable.

Long after I finished it, I was still thinking about what it would mean to lose not only the things around you but your ability to remember why they mattered.

Best for: Readers who love dystopian fiction, literary science fiction, unsettling stories, slow-burn novels, and books similar to 1984.

My verdict: The Memory Police is haunting, strange, and one of the most thought-provoking sci-fi books I’ve read in years.

Which Sci-Fi Book Should You Read First?

All three books are worth reading, but they deliver completely different experiences.

If you want fast-paced, funny science fiction, start with The Murderbot Diaries.

If you want a big space adventure with aliens and a heist, pick up The Stardust Grail.

If you want a darker dystopian novel that will stay in your head, read The Memory Police.

Personally, I’d recommend The Murderbot Diaries first for someone trying to get back into science fiction because the early books are short, incredibly readable, and hard to put down.

But if literary dystopian fiction is more your style, The Memory Police may end up being your favorite book on this entire list.

Why I’m Reading More Science Fiction

Reading these books reminded me that I haven’t been giving science fiction enough space on my reading list.

And that’s changing.

Fantasy may create incredible imaginary worlds, mysteries can deliver unforgettable puzzles, and historical fiction can transport us into the past.

But science fiction can do something unique.

It asks “What if?” and then follows that question wherever it leads.

What if artificial intelligence developed free will?

What if humanity spread across a galaxy filled with other civilizations?

What if society could erase an object so completely that eventually nobody remembered it existed?

Those questions can lead to incredible adventures, but they can also help us examine the world we already live in.

That’s why I’ve decided to make a more deliberate effort to read science fiction going forward.

My goal is to read at least one sci-fi book or series every two months.

Considering how many classics I still haven’t read—and how many interesting new novels keep appearing, I don’t think I’ll run out of options anytime soon.

There are still plenty of great books waiting to be discovered.

What Makes a Great Sci-Fi Book?

The books on this list reminded me that great science fiction doesn’t need to look one particular way.

It doesn’t need massive spaceships.

It doesn’t need hundreds of pages of scientific explanations.

And it doesn’t necessarily need to take place hundreds of years in the future.

What it needs is an idea worth exploring.

The best science-fiction books take that idea and build a story around it that makes readers care about the people—or androids—caught in the middle.

That’s exactly what these three books accomplished.

Final Thoughts on the Best Sci-Fi Books I Read in 2025

I went into 2025 wanting to read more science fiction.

I came out of it wondering why I hadn’t been reading even more.

The Murderbot Diaries gave me one of my favorite protagonists I’ve encountered in recent years.

The Stardust Grail reminded me how much fun a huge intergalactic adventure can be.

And The Memory Police showed me how strange, intimate, and haunting science fiction can become when it focuses on something as fundamental as memory.

None of these books feels like the others.

That’s exactly the point.

Science fiction is an enormous genre, and some of its best stories come from completely different corners of it.

If your own reading list has become overwhelming and you’re wondering where to start, these three are easy recommendations.

Start with The Murderbot Diaries if you want something addictive. Read The Stardust Grail if you’re craving adventure. And save The Memory Police for when you want a novel you might still be thinking about weeks later.

Whichever one you choose, I think you’ll find something here that reminds you why science fiction remains one of the most exciting genres to explore.

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