Best Science Fiction
Explore the best science fiction books of all time! Discover top-rated sci-fi novels, must-read classics, and thrilling new releases for every fan of futuristic adventures.
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Cold As Ice
by Charles Sheffield
Nine sleeping infants, once nestled in pods and ejected from a doomed ship, have grown up to become the key to an extraordinary race.
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Mars Crossing
by Geoffrey A. Landis
By the middle of the 21st century, humanity has finally landed men on Mars-only to watch helplessly as the first two missions end in catastrophe and death. With resources running out, a third-and perhaps final-mission to Mars is hastily mounted, with a crew of four men and two women. But from the moment of their arrival on Mars, everything begins to go wrong. The fuel tanks that were to have supplied their return trip are found corroded and empty. Their supplies are running out and their life support systems are beginning to fail. And any rescue mission won't reach them for months, or even years-if at all. The crew's only hope for survival lies in a desperate plan: an agonizing trek halfway across the surface of Mars to a ship designed to carry only half their number. Torn by conflict and dissent, and troubled by secrets that endanger them all, they must embark on an ordeal that will test them to the limits of endurance.
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Ilium
by Dan Simmons
The first installment of a new saga based on themes from "The Iliad" and "The Tempest" places classical characters and gods in such settings as the Plains of Ilium, the terraformed oceans of Mars, and Jupiter space.
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The Nameless Day
by Sara Douglass
Douglass combines powerful storytelling with meticulous historical research and presents a unique take on the ageless battle between the forces of heaven and hell.
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Holy Fire
by Bruce Sterling
The 21st century is coming to a close, and the medical industrial complex dominates the world economy. It is a world of synthetic memory drugs, benevolent government surveillance, underground anarchists, and talking canine companions. Power is in the hands of conservative senior citizens who have watched their health and capital investments with equal care, gaining access to the latest advancements in life-extension technology. Meanwhile, the young live on the fringes of society, ekeing out a meagre survival on free, government-issued rations and a black market in stolen technological gadgetry from an earlier, less sophisticated age. Mia Ziemann is a 94-year-old medical economist who enjoys all the benefits of her position. But a deathbed visit with a long-ago ex-lover and a chance meeting with a young bohemian dress-designer brings Mia to an awful revelation. She has lived her life with such caution that it has been totally bereft of pleasure and adventure. She has one chance to do it all over. But first she must submit herself to a radical--and painful--experimental procedure which promises to make her young again. The procedure is not without risk and her second chance at life will not come without a price. But first she will have to escape her team of medical keepers. Hitching a ride on a plane to Europe, Mia sets out on a wild intercontinental quest in search of spiritual gratification, erotic revelation, and the thing she missed most of all: the holy fire of the creative experience. She joins a group of outlaw anarchists whose leader may be the man of her dreams...or her undoing. Worst of all, Mia will have to undergo one last radical procedure that could cost her a second life. In Holy Fire, Bruce Sterling once again creates a unique and provocative future that deals with such timeless topics of the human condition as love, memory, science, politics, and the meaning of death. Poginant, lyrical, humorous, and often shocking, Holy Fire offers a hard unsparing look into a world that could become our own.
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The Watch
by Dennis Danvers
When an enigmatic visitor from another world appears at the deathbed of Peter Alexeivich Kropotkin in 1921 Russia, offering him a chance to be reborn, Peter gladly accepts, but his new life in 1999 America is far from idyllic as he is faced with a bizarre new world of plastic and capitalism, where other refugees, both past and present, crave freedom and justice. Reprint.
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Paths to Otherwhere
by James P. Hogan
In the early 21st century, the nations of the world hurtle toward war, and this time it looks like there is no escape from the ultimate planet-wrecking, mutually genocidal cataclysm. But in this nightmarish world without a future, a handful of dedicated scientists may have found a way out, for they have discovered a universe vaster than anything previously imagined.
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Tower of Glass
by Robert Silverberg
Simeon Krug is a man with a vision, and he has the vast wealth necessary to bring it into being. For Krug wishes to communicate with the stars, to answer signals from deep space. The colossal glass tower that he is building for the purpose soars high above the Arctic tundra, a sparkling monument to his determination and obsession. The androids who are working on it are perfect synthetic creations, created by Krug's own process in Krug's own factories, and their commitment to the project and their loyalty to Krug are beyond question. For they have made him their god and believe that through him they will become flesh and blood. But Krug is not a god, and when the androids learn the bitter truth their anger is terrible and uncontrollable and threatens much more than Krug's tower. Tower of Glass is a tense and powerful novel written with the intense creativity and ferocious imagination which characterize Silverberg's finest work . Dealing intelligently and forthrightly with important themes, it is science fiction at its thrilling best.
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Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke
Without warning, giant silver ships from deep space appear in the skies above every major city on Earth. Manned by the Overlords, in fifty years, they eliminate ignorance, disease, and poverty. Then this golden age ends--and then the age of Mankind begins....
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Souls in the Great Machine
by Sean McMullen
An Australia destroyed by a nuclear holocaust is ruled by a computer made of human components imprisoned inside. When a component becomes defective it is shot.
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Air
by Geoff Ryman
What happens when the whole world goes online . . . through the air? A brilliant literary SF novel by the author of 253.
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The House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer
A National Book Award Winner-A Newbery Honor Book-Some see Matt as a beast. But for El Patrn, Matt is a guarantee of eternal life, for they share the same DNA. Matt tries to understand his existence while facing sinister characters. An Accelerated Reader-title for Ages 11 to 14.
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I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
by Philip K. Dick
This volume brings together ten previously uncollected stories and a major unpublished essay, which span nearly thirty years of the career of the noted science fiction writer
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Georgia on My Mind and Other Places
by Charles Sheffield
Georgia on My Mind and Other Places is a brilliant collection of visionary short fiction by Charles Sheffield, author of The Ganymede Club and Godspeed. It includes the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning title story, as well as other widely praised works.