There are certain books that possess the peculiar quality of transporting readers to realms beyond imagination—places where the stars themselves seem to whisper secrets, and the future unfolds like a map to undiscovered countries. Science fiction, that most marvellous of literary adventures, invites us to voyage through time and space without ever leaving our armchairs. Whether you seek the freshest tales of 2025 and 2026 or the eternal classics that shaped the genre, this guide shall be your faithful companion.
The Finest Science Fiction of 2025
The year has brought forth treasures most remarkable, each one a doorway to wonder.
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award, this startling debut follows beautiful young contestants sequestered in a remote desert compound for a reality television programme. As the outside world burns, they compete for prizes ranging from hairbrushes to survival itself. Rawle crafts a darkly satirical examination of consumerism and the performative nature of modern life—rather like watching Tinker Bell’s light grow dim, except the fading comes from within ourselves.
Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
The Arthur C. Clarke Award winner tells the intimate, unsettling tale of Annie, a robot designed to be the perfect companion. Through Annie’s eyes, we witness her struggle toward autonomy and selfhood whilst navigating a relationship that would be called something quite terrible if she were human. It is a thought-provoking exploration of what makes a life worth living.
Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes
Set aboard a decaying spacecraft filled with preserved bodies and unresolved histories, this psychological horror unfolds with suffocating intensity. Barnes excels at atmosphere—the ship feels ancient, claustrophobic, and actively hostile, like a Neverland where one might never wish to land at all.
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Drawing directly upon Dante’s Inferno, this tale follows rival Cambridge students Alice Law and Peter Murdoch as they venture into the underworld after a recently deceased professor. They seek not his company but his recommendation for their academic futures—a most peculiar sort of quest, yet utterly compelling.
Anticipated Science Fiction of 2026
The coming year promises adventures that even the most intrepid explorers of imagination shall find extraordinary.
Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall (March 2026)
Described as “sapphic Moby Dick in space,” this science fiction debut recasts Ishmael as a trans woman navigating a neon-drenched, gritty future. Earth lies in ruin, and humanity survives by harvesting spermaceti from vast Leviathans swimming Jupiter’s atmospheric currents. The narrator joined the hunt hoping to get paid, and perhaps laid, but mostly paid. An adventure of the most marvellous and unconventional sort.
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie (May 2026)
A brilliant standalone returning to the Imperial Radch universe from the record-breaking winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. Amidst food shortages, riots, and communication blackouts, diverse characters navigate the fate of a sacred site the Radch Empire considers merely inconvenient. Leckie’s sharp writing and fascinating exploration of identity continue to enchant.
The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen
A starship captain and her crew receive a distress signal, finding themselves caught between factions of a galactic civil war. This page-turning space opera promises the sort of adventure that makes one’s heart race like a child being told of pirates and buried treasure.
The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed
Described as a modern work of Arabfuturism for admirers of The Expanse and A Memory Called Empire, this science fiction odyssey examines what divides us and what brings us together. A gripping examination of memory, identity, and belonging across the stars.
The Greatest Science Fiction Novels of All Time
Some tales have proven themselves through decades—stories that shine as brightly today as when first they captured readers’ imaginations.
Dune by Frank Herbert
The best-selling science fiction novel of all time, winner of both Hugo and Nebula Awards. On the desert planet Arrakis, young Paul Atreides becomes embroiled in a struggle for power over the universe’s most precious substance. Herbert crafted what he called “vertical layers”—multiple levels at which readers may enter this world of ecology, religion, and the dangers of charismatic leaders. One might read it a dozen times and discover something new each journey.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
On the frozen world of Gethen, inhabitants possess no fixed gender, becoming male or female only during their reproductive cycle. When envoy Genly Ai arrives seeking to bring this world into a confederation of planets, he must first understand a society whose very foundations differ from everything he knows. Winner of Hugo and Nebula Awards, this masterwork explores identity, loyalty, and connection.
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Another Hugo and Nebula winner from Le Guin, subtitled “An Ambiguous Utopia.” Physicist Shevek attempts to reunite two worlds separated by centuries of distrust—one anarchist and austere, the other capitalist and wealthy. The novel explores freedom, individualism, and whether any society can truly achieve its ideals.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Young Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is recruited to a space station where children train through war games to defend humanity from alien invasion. This Hugo and Nebula winner explores isolation, the nature of violence, and the weight of decisions made by those too young to fully comprehend their consequences. It remains on military reading lists to this day.
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Written by a Vietnam veteran, this Hugo and Nebula winner follows soldier William Mandella through an interstellar conflict where time dilation means each return home finds Earth centuries changed. A meditation on war’s dehumanizing effects and the alienation of those who fight, wrapped in the most imaginative science fiction.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Winner of the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, Asimov’s masterwork follows mathematician Hari Seldon’s plan to preserve knowledge as a galactic empire crumbles. Inspired by Gibbon’s history of Rome’s fall, the series explores whether science might predict and shape civilization’s future—questions as relevant today as when first posed.
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
When a fifty-kilometre cylindrical alien starship enters our solar system, an expedition is sent to explore its mysteries. Winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards, Clarke’s novel captures pure wonder—the thrill of encountering the truly unknown. It established the “Big Dumb Object” trope that has inspired countless works since.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
When Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent hitchhikes through the galaxy with his alien friend Ford Prefect. The famous answer to life, the universe, and everything—42—satirizes humanity’s search for meaning in a gloriously absurd cosmos. One of the most beloved and frequently translated science fiction works ever written.
1984 by George Orwell
In a world of perpetual surveillance, thought control, and manufactured truth, Winston Smith dares to dream of freedom. Orwell’s prescient vision gave us “Big Brother,” “doublethink,” and “Newspeak”—concepts that grow more relevant with each passing year. A masterwork ranked among the finest novels in any language.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Spanning two thousand years after nuclear devastation, Catholic monks preserve humanity’s knowledge through successive dark ages and renaissances. This Hugo Award winner examines whether we are doomed to repeat our cycles of creation and destruction—a bittersweet meditation on faith, knowledge, and human nature.
Recent Nebula Award Winners Worth Reading
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association consistently honours exceptional work.
Babel by R.F. Kuang (Nebula 2022)
Set in an alternative 1830s Oxford, translation magic fuels British colonial power. Four students at the Royal Institute of Translation grow aware that their academic efforts maintain imperial supremacy, facing impossible choices about resistance. Kuang’s “love letter and breakup letter” to academia explores language, power, and complicity.
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Nebula 2023)
A young man raised to assassinate his father, a religious prophet, instead finds himself in a city of sealed doors and revolutionary politics. This genre-defying work blends fantasy with sharp social commentary in ways both unexpected and unforgettable.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (Nebula 2024)
A shapeshifting monster falls in love with the human sent to kill her, leading to questions about identity, belonging, and what makes a monster truly monstrous. Wiswell’s debut novel charms whilst subverting expectations at every turn.
Finding Your Next Adventure
Science fiction offers something for every reader—whether you desire the cutting-edge visions of 2025 and 2026 or the timeless wisdom of the classics. The Hugo and Nebula Awards have guided readers toward excellence for decades, and the works they honour represent the very best our genre offers.
Each book listed here opens a door to somewhere extraordinary. All one must do is turn the page and believe—for that is how adventures begin.
