There are certain stories, dear reader, that take hold of the imagination and never quite let go—tales of empires spanning the stars, of humanity flung across galaxies as numerous as the grains of sand upon a beach. If you have ever gazed upward at the night sky and wondered what adventures might await among those distant suns, you have already taken the first step into the grand tradition of galactic empire science fiction.
What follows is a collection of the very finest such tales ever committed to paper, along with the most promising arrivals of 2026. Shall we begin?
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
One must always start at the beginning, and in the matter of galactic empires, the beginning is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. Here we find the mathematician Hari Seldon, who has discovered through his science of psychohistory that the great Galactic Empire—twenty-five million worlds strong—shall crumble into darkness lasting thirty thousand years.
But Seldon is rather clever, you see. He establishes two Foundations at opposite ends of the galaxy, each tasked with preserving human knowledge and shortening those dark ages to a mere millennium. The tale unfolds across centuries, watching empires rise and fall like the tides, yet always guided by Seldon’s invisible hand. It won the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series in 1966, and deservedly so.
Dune by Frank Herbert
If Foundation gave us the mathematics of empire, Dune gave us its soul. Frank Herbert’s masterwork transports us to Arrakis, a desert world where water is worth more than gold and the spice melange grants visions of futures yet unborn.
Young Paul Atreides arrives on this unforgiving planet only to see his noble house betrayed and destroyed. What follows is nothing less than his transformation into a messianic figure among the native Fremen. Yet Herbert offers a warning wrapped in adventure: “Beware of heroes,” he cautioned, for even the best-intentioned savior may lead humanity toward terrible ends. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Dune remains the finest ecological and mystical space opera ever conceived.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Imagine, if you will, The Canterbury Tales set among the stars—seven pilgrims journeying to a mysterious world where massive structures called the Time Tombs move backward through time, guarded by a creature of razor-wire and blades called the Shrike.
Dan Simmons weaves seven distinct narratives together as each pilgrim shares their tale: a priest carrying terrible secrets, a scholar whose daughter ages backward, a poet who has lived too long, a soldier haunted by a phantom lover. Each story is a jewel, and together they form something transcendent. The Shrike awaits them all, promising either answered prayers or eternal torment upon its Tree of Pain. This Hugo Award winner is unlike anything else in the genre.
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
The Culture—that delightful post-scarcity civilization of Iain M. Banks’s imagination—offers us something rather revolutionary: a galactic society where artificial intelligences run the ships (and name them wonderfully absurd things like Just Read the Instructions), while humans pursue pleasure and meaning in equal measure.
In The Player of Games, we meet Jernau Gurgeh, the greatest game-player alive, who is recruited to visit the Empire of Azad, where an impossibly complex game determines who shall rule. Banks understood that the best adventures question everything we assume about civilization itself. SpaceX has named their autonomous drone ships after Culture vessels, which tells you something about this series’s influence.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Here is a tale to make you reconsider what it means to be human. Breq was once the Justice of Toren, a colossal starship whose artificial intelligence inhabited thousands of soldiers simultaneously. Now she is but one fragile body, seeking vengeance against the ruler who destroyed everything she was.
Ann Leckie’s debut achieved something unprecedented: it won the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards—a feat never matched before or since. The Radch Empire uses no gendered pronouns, and Leckie renders this in English by using “she” for everyone, which delightfully upends the reader’s assumptions at every turn. It is both a revenge tale and a meditation on identity, consciousness, and what we owe to one another.
The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
In Miles Vorkosigan, Lois McMaster Bujold created one of science fiction’s most unforgettable heroes—a man whose body was damaged before birth, leaving him small of stature with brittle bones, yet possessed of such charisma and cunning that he accidentally acquires his own mercenary fleet while still a teenager.
Begin with Shards of Honor or The Warrior’s Apprentice and prepare for a rollicking adventure spanning dozens of novels. Bujold has won four Hugo Awards for this series, matching Robert Heinlein’s record. The Library Journal declared she proves “what marvels genius can create out of basic space operatics.” Miles is brilliant, hyperactive, occasionally reckless, and utterly magnificent.
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
For those who prefer their galactic empires served with a generous helping of hard science, Alastair Reynolds provides exactly that. A former astrophysicist, Reynolds constructed a universe where faster-than-light travel is impossible, which means that journeys between stars take generations and the Fermi paradox looms over everything.
Why do we find no evidence of other civilizations among the stars? In Revelation Space, the answer is chilling: something hunts intelligent life to extinction whenever it becomes too advanced. The behemoth lighthugger Nostalgia for Infinity is one of science fiction’s most magnificent creations—a kilometers-long cathedral of a ship, its captain slowly being consumed by a alien plague. This is space opera for those who appreciate their wonders grounded in plausible physics.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
John Perry did two things on his seventy-fifth birthday: he visited his wife’s grave, and he joined the army. The Colonial Defense Forces recruit only the elderly, you see, promising them new bodies in exchange for military service among the stars.
What follows is what Scalzi himself calls “Starship Troopers with old people”—a military science fiction adventure that asks profound questions about identity, mortality, and what makes us human, all while maintaining the wit and warmth that have made Scalzi a beloved figure in the genre. The dialogue sparkles; the action thrills; and the premise allows for characters with actual wisdom and perspective facing the wonders and horrors of interstellar war.
The Lensman Series by E.E. “Doc” Smith
If you wish to understand where all of this began—where galactic empires and space patrols first captured the imagination—you must journey back to E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series. Written beginning in the 1930s, these novels gave us the Galactic Patrol, whose members wield the Lens: a device granting telepathic powers to the worthy.
The influence of these stories echoes through everything that followed. Green Lantern? Inspired by the Lensmen. Star Wars? George Lucas acknowledged Smith’s profound influence. The concept of a galaxy-spanning conflict between cosmic good and evil, with heroic individuals wielding special powers? It begins here, in these pulpy, wonderful adventures that still delight readers nearly a century later.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Young Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is humanity’s last hope against the alien Buggers, sent to Battle School at age six to be molded into the commander who will save the species. The zero-gravity war games he fights against other children are preparation for something far more terrible—though Ender does not know this until it is far too late.
The twist, when it comes, lands with devastating force. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, Ender’s Game explores the cost of excellence when failure is not an option, and what happens when we train children to become weapons. It remains one of the most widely read science fiction novels ever published, and for good reason.
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie (May 2026)
Ann Leckie returns to her Imperial Radch universe with a standalone novel exploring the intersection of faith, ambition, and empire. On the world of Ooioiaa, the Temporal Location of the Radiant Star has long been a source of religious devotion—and inconvenience to the conquering Radch.
As the empire makes one final concession, allowing one more man to join the mummified saints within the Temporal Location, ripples spread through a city already suffering food shortages and unrest. Through multiple perspectives—a religious savant, an upended socialite, a young man escaping servitude—Leckie paints a nuanced portrait of how faith and power intertwine. Early readers praise its meditative depth.
Platform Decay by Martha Wells (May 2026)
Our favorite antisocial security robot returns! In the eighth Murderbot Diaries installment, Murderbot volunteers for a rescue mission to an unusual space station—a torus circling a dead planet—only to realize the mission requires extended time with unknown humans. Including human children.
This may require eye contact.
Martha Wells has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for this beloved series, which follows a rogue security unit that just wants to watch its streaming shows in peace but keeps accidentally saving people. Platform Decay promises all the dry wit, reluctant heroism, and quietly devastating emotional moments that have made Murderbot a phenomenon.
Your Voyage Awaits
These stories span nearly a century of imagination, from the pulp adventures of the 1930s to the thoughtful explorations arriving in 2026. Each offers a different vision of what humanity might become among the stars—sometimes triumphant, sometimes cautionary, always wondrous.
The galactic empire awaits, dear reader. Which starship shall you board first?
