08/13/2026
Serving as a warning and a guide for humanity, the best science fiction books entertain their readers while encouraging them to speculate on humanity's future. Whether they are exploring galaxies or focusing on down-to-earth stories, the best sci-fi novels of the 21st century offer critical societal and scientific evaluations of contemporary life through nuanced, character-driven storytelling.
Some of the best science fiction books of the last 10 years ! (Including Dungeon Crawler Carl!😂)
10 The Collapsing Empire John Scalzi 🌌
Written by acclaimed science fiction and space opera writer John Scalzi in 2017, The Collapsing Empire is a witty, action-packed space opera set in The Interdependency — a vast human empire connected by a network of "streams", called "The Flow", allowing faster-than-light travel across 48 star systems. The first book in a completed trilogy, it follows three key POV characters who uncover the truth about The Flow's impending collapse and must battle political rivals to save a doomed civilization.
9 Sunrise on the Reaping Suzanne Collins🏹
Set 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins' latest addition to this beloved YA dystopian series is the 2025 prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping. It follows sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy as he enters the 50th Hunger Games and the Second Quarter Quell. With an adaptation set for a November release, the novel chronicles Haymitch's journey from life in District 12 to the traumatic victory that ultimately shaped his life and his role as a mentor to Katniss and Peeta decades later.
8 Dungeon Crawler Carl Matt Dinaman 👾
Originally self-published in 2020, Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is a science fantasy LitRPG book and webcomic series with its eighth novel published in May 2026. It follows Coast Guard veteran Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, enduring the sudden destruction of all man-made structures on Earth by the interstellar corporation Borant. Intending to mine Earth's resources, the aliens offer survivors a chance to reclaim their planet by entering a brutal 18-level dungeon, where they must battle, level up, and build a galactic audience. This hilarious fast-paced adventure perfectly blends slapstick humor, explosive action, and dark dystopian stakes.
7 All Systems Red Martha Wells🤖
First in Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries, a popular sci-fi book series, All Systems Red is a 2017 novella that follows a self-aware and socially anxious security cyborg designed to protect humans on a research mission. After overriding its "governor module", the cyborg, which nicknames itself "Murderbot", has developed independence, and while they just want to watch soap operas all day, they are constantly forced to save its human clients. Struggling with anxiety and awkwardness in social situations, Murderbot's snarky, introverted internal monologue is deeply relatable
6 Project Hail Mary Andy Weir🧑🚀
Recently adapted into the blockbuster box-office hit considered to be the best sci-fi movie of the decade, Project Hail Mary is the 2021 hard science fiction novel by Andy Weir. The ultimate "competence p**n", the novel follows Ryland Grace as he wakes up alone on a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there or why, and his eventual discovery of his one-way mission to save Earth from a solar-eating microbe that's destroying the sun.
5 This Is How You Lose the Time War Gladstone 🕦
Written by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose the Time War is a 2019 science fiction epistolary novel with a q***r love story that defies time itself. It follows two enemy agents, Red and Blue, traveling back and forth in time to alter history on behalf of their warring empires while sabotaging each other's work. With beautifully lyrical prose, the novel is written through clandestine correspondences between the rival time travel agents that test the limits of their loyalty. Showcasing brilliant co-author dynamics, with Gladstone writing for Red and El-Mohtar for Blue, this distinct division gives each agent a unique and recognizable voice.
4 A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine🌠
Arkady Martine's Hugo Award-winning debut novel, A Memory Called Empire, is the first in the political space opera duology, the Teixcalaan Series. It follows Mahit Dzmare, ambassador to the sprawling Teixcalaanli Empire, who is tasked with investigating her predecessor's mysterious death while navigating deadly imperial court politics and preventing the Empire from annexing the small mining outpost she calls home. Celebrated for its cerebral, character-driven approach to space opera, the series explores the psychology of imperialism, the weight of history, and how language shapes thought, power, and perception.
3 We Are Legion (We Are Bob) Dennis Taylor🧠
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is the first installment in Dennis E. Taylor's hard science fiction series that follows software engineer and sci-fi fan Bob Johansson, who wakes up 117 years in the future after ironically and tragically passing when he signs up to have his brain preserved after death. As a "corpsicle" with no rights, Bob is now property of the state and is uploaded into a deep-space probe sent out to find a new home for an endangered and war-torn humanity. Exploring the universe and encountering alien lifeforms, the protagonist creates copies of his mind and deploys these "Bobs" across the galaxy.
2 Sea of Tranquility Emily St John Mandel 🌕
From Emily St. John Mandel, the author of the dystopian novel Station Eleven that's now adapted into a flawless HBO miniseries, Sea of Tranquility is a metaphysical time travel novel published in 2022. Following time-traveling detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts as he is tasked with investigating a space-time anomaly, the narrative spans centuries from 1912 British Columbia to a moon colony in 2401, connecting multiple characters who all witness the same strange anomaly. Written during COVID-19, the novel details Mandel's own experiences of the pandemic through the eyes of novelist Olive Llewellyn, who writes about a fictional influenza pandemic while unaware of real-world viral outbreaks on Earth in 2203.
1 Dark Matter Blake Crouch🌑
Adapted by Apple TV in 2024, Dark Matter is Blake Crouch's 2016 sci-fi countdown thriller that follows a physics professor who is abducted and sent to an alternate reality in which his life was dramatically altered when he decided not to marry his wife and instead chose to pursue his career as a physicist. Drawing on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the novel's thought-provoking science explores identity, the consequences of choices, the nature of reality, and the power of love through the emotional "what ifs" that linger in everyone's everyday lives.
