favorite worlds of Science fiction
Explore the best worlds of science fiction with our curated list of favorite books. Dive into iconic universes, futuristic realms, and mind-bending adventures from top sci-fi authors.
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Dune
by Frank Herbert
• DUNE: PART TWO • THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Directed by Denis Villeneuve, screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert • Starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Léa Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsgård, with Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of Paul Atreides—who would become known as Muad'Dib—and of a great family's ambition to bring to fruition mankind's most ancient and unattainable dream. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
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The Dragonriders of Pern
by Anne McCaffrey
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Together in one volume—the first three books in the world’s most beloved science-fiction series! DRAGONFLIGHT On a beautiful world called Pern, an ancient way of life is about to come under attack. Lessa is an outcast survivor—her parents murdered, her birthright stolen—a strong young woman who has never stopped dreaming of revenge. But when an ancient threat reemerges, Lessa will rise—upon the back of a great dragon with whom she shares a telepathic bond more intimate than any human connection. Together, dragon and rider will fly, and Pern will be changed forever. DRAGONQUEST Since Lessa and Ramoth, her golden queen dragon, traveled into the past to bring forward a small army of dragons and riders to save their world from deadly alien spores, fear and desperation have spread across the land. But while the dragonriders struggle with threats both human and otherworldly, a young rider named F’nor and his brown dragon, Canth, hatch a bold plan to destroy the alien scourge at its source—the baleful Red Star that fills the heavens and promises doom to all. THE WHITE DRAGON Never in the history of Pern has there been a dragon like Ruth. Mocked by other dragons for his small size and pure white color, Ruth is smart, brave, and loyal—qualities that he shares with his rider, the young Lord Jaxom. Unfortunately, Jaxom is also looked down upon by his fellow lords, and by other riders as well. His dreams of joining the dragonriders in defending Pern are dismissed. What else can Jaxom and Ruth do but strike out on their own, pursuing in secret all they are denied? But in doing so, the two friends will find themselves facing a desperate choice—one that will push their bond to the breaking point . . . and threaten the future of Pern itself.
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Lord Valentine's Castle
by Robert Silverberg
On the planet of Majipoor, Valentine struggles to reclaim his birthright when he realizes that he is the true Coronal, Lord Valentine, who has been drugged, physically altered, and replaced on the throne
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The Snow Queen
by Joan D. Vinge
An epic, Hugo Award-winning novel that draws upon the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen.
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Fire Margins
by Lisanne Norman
The third book in Lisanne Norman's Sholan Alliance long-running science fiction series of alien contact and interspecies conflict Carrie and Kusac—she a human telepath, he a Sholan one—have together found a love stronger than all the differences between their two races. But now they have become the center of a power struggle between their peoples, as well as of one between the various guilds and clans on the Sholan homeworld. And they have discovered, too, that their situation is not unique. Other humans and Sholans are bonding as well. With the Sholan homeworld about to bear witness to the birth of a new hybridized race with powers beyond any of the Guilds, the current unstable political climate may soon explode into something far more violent. Approached by the Telepaths, the Warriors, and the secret organization known as the Brotherhood, Kusac realizes that he and Carrie have no choice but to strike out on their own, forming a new group outside of all the Clans and Guilds, and owing loyalty only to the most ancient of their gods. For only through exploring the Sholans’ long-buried and purposefully forgotten past, can they hope to find the answers they seek—and the path to survival not only for their own new people, but for the Sholans and humans as well....
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Hyperion
by Dan Simmons
A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man. On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all. On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands. Praise for Dan Simmons and Hyperion “Dan Simmons has brilliantly conceptualized a future 700 years distant. In sheer scope and complexity it matches, and perhaps even surpasses, those of Isaac Asimov and James Blish.”—The Washington Post Book World “An unfailingly inventive narrative . . . generously conceived and stylistically sure-handed.”—The New York Times Book Review “Simmons’s own genius transforms space opera into a new kind of poetry.”—The Denver Post “An essential part of any science fiction collection.”—Booklist
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Helliconia Spring
by Brian W. Aldiss
In Helliconia, a world far from Earth, a young man named Yuli builds the city of Oldorando, a city that now faces the threat of the phagors, a beast species rivaling mankind
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Ringworld
by Larry Niven
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel Four travelers come to the ringworld. . . Louis Wu: human and old; bored with having lived too fully for far too many years. Seeking a challenge, and all too capable of handling it. Nessus: a trembling coward, a puppeteer with a built-in survival pattern of nonviolence. Except that this particular puppeteer is insane. Teela Brown: human; a wide-eyed youngster with no allegiances, no experience, no abilities. And all the luck in the world. Speaker-To-Animals: kzin; large, orange-furred, and carnivorous. And one of the most savage life-forms known in the galaxy. Why did these disparate individuals come together? How could they possibly function together? And where, in the name of anything sane, were they headed?
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Child of the River:
by Paul J. Mcauley
One man's quest to discover the secret of his parentage brings him to a great metropolis, called Confluence, teeming with strange creatures, where he learns that he is the last survivor of a dynasty gifted with preternatural powers. Reprint.
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A Door Into Ocean
by Joan Slonczewski
The Sharers of Shora are a nation of women on a distant moon in the far future who are pacifists, who are highly advanced in biological sciences, and who reproduce by parthenogenesis-- because there are no males. Conflict erupts when a neighboring civilization decides to develop their ocean world and sends in an army.
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Genellan
by Scott G. Gier
Genellan -- beautiful, Earthlike world where intelligent cliff-dwellers waited in fear for the day the warlike bear people would return... Genellan -- the only refuge for a ship's crew and a detachment of spacer marines, abandoned by a fleet fleeing from alien attackers. Stranded on Genellan, the humans struggled to make a home for themselves until -- they hoped against hope -- the fleet could rescue them. Lt. Sharl Buccari tried desperately to hold on to the threads of command over both the civilians and the marines -- to keep her people together. Winter was coming. No one knew if the winged natives would be friend or foe. And now the bear people were returning, bent on destroying every human -- but not before stealing the secret of hyperlight drive, the key to interstellar flight...
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The Fall of Neskaya
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Fall of Neskaya, Book One of the Clingfire Trilogy, marks the legendary author's final return to Darkover before her death. Set in the tumultuous era of The Hundred Kingdoms, a terrible time of strife and war, this unique fantasy world is divided into a mutlitude of small belligerent domains vying for power and land. One ambitious and corrupt tyrant will stop at nothing to control Darkover-even wield the terrifying weapons of the matrix.