The 15 Best Sci-Fi Books I've Ever Read [Updated]

I'm upset that you never said barkeologist, but a great video nonetheless!

What taste great, depends on your taste, Dune still lingers in me since i read it first time in 1984 and the 18 other times i read it.

No Heinlein? Admittedly I have not read many on your list, just a few, Mote, WotW…both outstanding. I’m not much of a fantasy or space opera fan. I think you may be grading on literary form, lesser on hard or classic science fiction. That’s ok, different, will try a few reviewed here! Thanks.

Intend to read a few books in sci-fi genre next year - will try out your list. Thank you kindly! Only have read the Dune series from your recommendations as young 10 year old (50 years back).

The Stars My Destination is not filled with tropes; Bester originated them all. They only became tropes after him.

Dispossessd, "I read it forever ago... like 10 years ago." u sweet summer child. 8)

Do we really need to know what you prefer reading????

Harry Harrison One Step From Earth

Dune is one big giant yawn.

I love Jack Vance books, his story telling is immense. The Dying Earth gets the headlines, but my favourite is the star Kings series, I don’t know why but it took JV years to write the five books.

I couldn’t make such a list without: Enders Game/Speaker for the Dead (OS Card), Roadside Picnic (A & B Strugatsky), Foundations Edge (Asimov), The Neuromancer

Interesting list and many I need to check out. No Asimov, Heinlein, or Clark!??

Just added a bunch of books to my want to read list. But I’m still baffled how Neuromancer makes these lists. It was fine. I didn’t put it down. But it didn’t live up to the hype it constantly receives. It revels in a 1990’s idea of cool that I found tiring. And it truly made me hate the word “hacker”.

I hate the internet. I used to read 20+ books a year. Now I barely read at all. Shit snippetville.

Try the MAXIS TETRALOGY for an Asimov-like style from a military officer/author. 4 novel series starts with world building, all the way through a world at war. 500,000 words of Original Science Fiction.

No Philip K Dick and no Iain M Banks and no Ringworld. Its always subjective, and you aren't wrong, but we differ a fair amount.

Finally someone put lem on one of these lists!

I'd put memoirs found in a bathtub or fiasco over Solaris but the fact he isnt on everyone's list is shocking to me.

Great list. I added several to my list from it.

I have seventy years of Sci Fi reading behind me, and I write amateurish versions of it myself. My list would also include: Eon by Greg Baer, A Princess of Mars, The Pern novels, Stranger in a Strange Land, Skylark of Space, Ringworld and others. I still consider DUNE as the most impactful Sci Fi novel of all time. Good List, though. I especially liked A Fire in the Deep and Norstillia. Sorry for any misspelling, I live on spell check on my writings. If you are intersted, I coul send you one of my Sci Fi Short Stories to hopefully not ruin your day. hehehehehehehe

I also love many of these books! The Stars my Destination was amazing!

Blindsight has the most "alien" Aliens that I have ever read, also when I first heard that it was hard sci-fi but also included "space vampires" in it I thought ??, however kudos to the author describing their biology down to explaining their aversion to crucifixes in a believable way.
May as well add my "honorable mention" and list "Dragon's Egg" as a book that deserved to be on peoples must read lists.

Blindsight is an amazing book.

Peter Watts. The best.

Discovered this a bit late, but I just wanted to say 'thanks' for putting Simak's 'City' out there. It's brilliantly written, and very reminiscent of Eastern European literature in that a serious and moving point is wrapped in sometimes absurd vignettes.

I read a book every day in High School. Authors such as Fred Saberhagen, Roger Zelazney are largely unknown today.

I tend not to favor science fiction that incorporates kings, queens, princesses, dukes, knights, etc. If I want to read that I can read history or Shakespeare.

Great content

Read Blindsight, the #1 on your list, after seeing this video. My review: not hard sci fi as claimed, a mishmash of technical term droppings with endless depressing character discussion instead of ideas. There are so many great sci fi books, this would not have made it in my list. (Spoiler alert: the plot boils down to an unlikable crew of super-humans blowing up an alien ship, with the least likable character getting a ride back to earth in an escape pod.)

I love that I've never heard of most of these, looking forward to checking some of them out.

Heinline & Asimov ...

Distraction by Bruce Sterling about the best book I’ve ever read

"Last and First Men" by Olaf Stapledon
"Way Station" by Clifford Simak
"Immortality, Inc." by Robert Sheckley
"The Book of Skulls" by Robert Silverberg

That's just a few more for folks to look at.

I have to have RingWorld in there.

i would like to through in this one:

Dietmar Dath - The Abolition of Species

Dath started of mainly as a journalist and caught my attention as a teenager by writing WILD (going from witty to enigmatic to sometimes crude as a meathammer) music album reviews for SPEX magazin and then - at some point - started to write sci-fi novels, that are unlike anything i have ever read before in that genre.
I can highly recommend all of his books, but Abolition of The Species is the crown jewel imo. The sheer scope of this book puts it on a similar level as "Three body problem" and the "intelectual" writing style is very pleasantly different from what one normally encounters in this genre. A bit like "Malazaan Book of the fallen" is an outlier in the Fantasy genre.

Anyway. i can not recommenmd this book enough.

You spoke about Vance as I would myself. And I consider myself an avid collector of his work. Veryt glad to see a man of my own heart. I will read each book you have chosen for this list that I havent already read. Thanks!

Good for you. A Jack Vance book on your list. One of the better ones as well.

Fascinating, thanks. Blindsight is added to my list now. Solaris is my favourite book of all time.

Great video

I love science fiction and to my eternal shame i haven't read any of the books on this list! I had a go at dune when I was a teenager but I couldn't get into it at the time, and several of the other books are on my current backlog.

Lists of the best science fiction should always include Philip K Dick! Most people know about Blade Runner / Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but IMO his best work was Ubik, closely followed by some of his short stories eg Second Variety.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons is one of the finest sci-fi works of the 20th century. I highly recommend the series.

Anything from Ian M. Banks!

The stars my destination is my favorite read of all time. My first two reads, it was hard to put down.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is a book I actually devoured, in 2 hours and re-read it on a regular basis, a little light compared to some of the stuff on your list but a massive part of my teenage years.

Kinda glad to see Larry Niven make the list. I feel like he gets missed alot on sci fi greats lists.

For me Ender's Shadow is my all time #1 nothing even comes close.

Best SciFi that stuck with me and highly recommend. Roadside picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

I just recently read the dying earth and the stories are so fun, his writing style is incredible. It feels almost biblical in a sense, like you're reading the old testament but it's about future earth filled with a bunch of weird shit 😂😂😂

Clicked this just to check it has Lem in it. Now i can sleep well.

You can use the word "think" if you want to. You (and far too many people on the planet today) use the word "feel" or "feels" way too much. It must be similar to people beginning to use "rad" or "clutch". But the switching of the word "think" for the word "feel" takes away from the sincerity, the unique quality, the not-so-obvious-meme-ishness of what you say.

So stoked you talked about Fire Upon the Deep, one of my favorite favorite books. So incredible. Really glad I found your content!