Great Science Fiction
Explore the best science fiction books of all time! Discover thrilling adventures, futuristic worlds, and mind-bending stories in our curated list of top sci-fi reads.
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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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Brain Plague
by Joan Slonczewski
Brain Plague is the new hard SF novel by Joan Slonczewski, set in the same future universe as her award-winning A Door into Ocean and The Children Star (a New York Times Notable Book). An intelligent microbe race that can live symbiotically in other intelligent beings is colonizing the human race throughout the civilized universe. And each colony of microbes has its own personality, good or bad. In some people, carriers, they are brain enhancers, and in others a fatal brain plague, a living addiction. This is the story of one woman's psychological and moral struggle to adjust to having an ambitious colony of microbes living permanently in her own head. This novel is one of the most powerful and involving SF novels of the year.
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Startide Rising
by David Brin
David Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War--a New York Times bestseller--together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race. But the greatest mystery of all remains unsolved: who uplifted humankind? The Terran exploration vessel Streaker has crashed in the uncharted water world of Kithrup, bearing one of the most important discoveries in galactic history. Below, a handful of her human and dolphin crew battles armed rebellion and a hostile planet to safeguard her secret--the fate of the Progenitors, the fabled First Race who seeded wisdom throughout the stars.
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The Integral Trees
by Larry Niven
"Niven has come up with an idea about as far out as one can get. . . . This is certainly classic science fiction-the idea is truly the hero." -"Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine "When leaving Earth, the crew of the spaceship "Discipline" was prepared for a routine assignment. Dispatched by the all-powerful State on a mission of interstellar exploration and colonization, "Discipline" was aided (and secretly spied upon) by Sharls Davis Kendy, an emotionless computer intelligence programmed to monitor the loyalty and obedience of the crew. But what they weren't prepared for was the smoke ring-an immense gaseous envelope that had formed around a neutron star directly in their path. The Smoke Ring was home to a variety of plant and animal life-forms evolved to thrive in conditions of continual free-fall. When "Discipline" encountered it, something went wrong. The crew abandoned ship and fled to the unlikely space oasis. Five hundred years later, the descendants of the "Discipline" crew living on the Smoke Ring no longer remember their origins. Earth is more myth than memory, and no recollection of the State remains. But Kendy remembers. And just outside the Smoke Ring, "Discipline" waits patiently to make contact with its wayward children. " "
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The Seeds of Time
by Kay Kenyon
On a troubled Earth in 2019, Dive pilot Clio Finn and her colleagues must travel through time to collect the precious vegetation that her planet needs to survive, but what Clio's trip ultimately reveals is a paradox between two alternate futures. Original.
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Hominids
by Robert J. Sawyer
In a parallel world in which Neanderthals, rather than homo sapiens, became the dominant intelligent species, a dangerous scientific experiment traps a Neanderthal physicist on Earth.
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The Star Trek: The Original Series: The Eugenics Wars #1
by Greg Cox
In the twentieth century, an international cabal of scientists launches the Chrysalis Project, the development of an artificially enhanced breed of humans, while Gary Seven, an undercover operative for an advanced alient species struggles to neutralize the threat while watching the children of Chrysalis, including the brilliant Khan Noonien Singh, grow to adulthood. Reprint.
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Under the Skin
by Michel Faber
"Under the Skin" is a first novel that defies categorization, an allegory for contemporary society run amok, set in the very real beauty of the Scottish Highlands. "Michel Faber has, it can truly be said--hand on heart--a vivid and original imagination".--"The Scotsman."
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The Speed of Dark
by Elizabeth Moon
"In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Most genetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during infancy. Unfortunately, there will be a generation left behind. For members of that missed generation, small advances will be made. Through various programs, they will be taught to get along in the world despite their differences. They will be made active and contributing members of society. But they will never be normal. Lou Arrendale is a member of that lost generation, born at the wrong time to reap the awards of medical science. Part of a small group of high-functioning autistic adults, he has a steady job with a pharmaceutical company, a car, friends, and a passion for fencing. Aside from his annual visits to his counselor, he lives a low-key, independent life. He has learned to shake hands and make eye contact. He has taught himself to use "please" and "thank you" and other conventions of conversation because he knows it makes others comfortable. He does his best to be as normal as possible and not to draw attention to himself. But then his quiet life comes under attack. It starts with an experimental treatment that will reverse the effects of autism in adults. With this treatment Lou would think and act and "be just like everyone else. But if he was suddenly free of autism, would he still be himself? Would he still love the same classical music-with its complications and resolutions? Would he still see the same colors and patterns in the world-shades and hues that others cannot see? Most importantly, would he still love Marjory, a woman who may never be able to reciprocate his feelings? Would it be easier for her to return the love of a"normal"? There are intense pressures coming from the world around him-including an angry supervisor who wants to cut costs by sacrificing the supports necessary to employ autistic workers. Perhaps even more disturbing are the barrage of questions within himself. For Lou must decide if he should submit to a surgery that might completely change the way he views the world . . . and the very essence of who he is. Thoughtful, provocative, poignant, unforgettable, "The Speed of Dark is a gripping exploration into the mind of an autistic person as he struggles with profound questions of humanity and matters of the heart.
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The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman
Mandella feels hopelessly frustrated as a foot soldier in a century-long interplanetary war.
