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  1. Genres
  2. ›Science Fiction

Best Science Fiction Books

Science fiction stories

1,193 summaries

Showing 193–216 of 1,193

  1. A Swiftly Tilting Planet

    Madeleine L'Engle

    ★ 4.1 (101k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace, aided by a unicorn and the telepathic bond with his pregnant sister, hurtles through time to prevent a mad dictator from unraveling existence.

  2. Something Wicked This Way Comes

    Ray Bradbury

    ★ 3.9 (100k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    When a sinister carnival visits their quiet town, two young boys must confront its dark magic and the terrible cost of their deepest desires before it consumes everything.

  3. Revival

    Stephen King

    ★ 3.8 (100k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    A small-town minister's intense connection with a young boy turns into a lifelong, devastating pact with cosmic horror after tragedy transforms him into a showman who uses dark electricity.

  4. Armada

    Ernest Cline

    ★ 3.5 (99k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A teen gamer, whose life mirrors a popular sci-fi flight simulator, finds his virtual skills are Earth's only hope when an alien invasion rips his reality straight from the screen.

  5. Small Gods

    Terry Pratchett

    ★ 4.3 (99k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A cynical, disillusioned god, shrunken to tortoise form, must rely on an honest and unwitting monk to restore his faith and influence in a desert world teeming with forgotten deities and dangerous dogma.

  6. Warm Bodies

    Isaac Marion

    ★ 3.9 (99k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A zombie who loves Frank Sinatra and human souvenirs finds his dead heart beating again when he falls for a living girl, starting an impossible romance that could save or doom humanity.

  7. Cryptonomicon

    Neal Stephenson

    ★ 4.2 (99k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    From the code-breaking battlefields of World War II to a modern-day quest for a data haven and Nazi gold, brilliant mathematicians and their descendants navigate a maze of deception, cryptography, and shadowy conspiracies orchestrated by an enigmatic immortal.

  8. Wither

    Lauren DeStefano

    ★ 3.8 (97k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a future where women die at twenty and are forced into polygamous marriages, a kidnapped bride must escape her enigmatic husband and his corpse-hoarding father.

  9. The Island of Doctor Moreau

    H.G. Wells

    ★ 3.7 (96k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    On a remote Pacific island, a shipwrecked man finds a doctor's horrifying experiments in vivisection, blurring the lines between man and beast and forcing a terrifying confrontation with the dark side of science.

  10. I Am Legend

    Richard Matheson

    ★ 4.1 (96k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    As the last man on Earth, Robert Neville lives in a desolate world where he is a hunter by day and the hunted by night, pursued by the vampiric hordes that now inhabit the planet.

  11. They Both Die at the End

    Adam Silvera

    ★ 4.1 (95k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    On a day when a futuristic service announces their impending deaths, two strangers connect through an app to find love and live an entire lifetime of adventure before their final goodbyes.

  12. Pawn of Prophecy

    David Eddings

    ★ 4.1 (95k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A farm boy starts a quest spanning a continent, dealing with ancient magic and prophecy, and learns about his family as a dark god threatens to reawaken.

  13. Seveneves

    Neal Stephenson

    ★ 4.0 (95k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    When the moon shatters and Earth faces an extinction-level meteor storm, humanity launches a desperate, multi-generational exodus to the stars, only to return millennia later to a transformed, alien home world.

  14. Prince of Thorns

    Mark Lawrence

    ★ 3.9 (95k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Haunted by a brutal past, the charming yet ruthless Prince Jorg leads a band of outlaws through a post-apocalyptic world, carving a bloody path to his father's throne while confronting the monstrous horrors that shaped him.

  15. A Canticle for Leibowitz

    Walter M. Miller Jr.

    ★ 4.0 (93k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    In a post-apocalyptic world, cloistered monks guard ancient knowledge, watching centuries of rediscovery, hubris, and humanity's endless cycle of self-destruction.

  16. The Tombs of Atuan

    Ursula K. Le Guin

    ★ 4.1 (91k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A young woman, stripped of her name and confined as high priestess to ancient powers in a labyrinthine tomb, finds her desolate life upended by a wizard seeking stolen treasure, who ultimately offers her a perilous path to freedom.

  17. The Day of the Triffids

    John Wyndham

    ★ 4.0 (90k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    Amidst a world blinded by a celestial event, a sighted few must navigate the ruins of civilization while fending off towering, carnivorous plants that now freely stalk the Earth.

  18. The Obelisk Gate

    N.K. Jemisin

    ★ 4.3 (89k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    As a world-ending season approaches, a mother with immense power must master ancient magic under a mad savior's guidance to either save or destroy a dying civilization, all while searching for her lost daughter.

  19. A Scanner Darkly

    Philip K. Dick

    ★ 4.0 (89k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In dystopian Los Angeles, an undercover narcotics agent's mind breaks as he succumbs to the drug he is fighting, blurring the lines between hunter and hunted until his identity is lost.

  20. The Foundation Trilogy

    Isaac Asimov

    ★ 4.4 (89k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    A secret society of scientists uses psychohistory to guide humanity through a millennium of collapse and rebirth, battling warlords, empires, and psychic mutants to ensure a new, enlightened empire.

  21. The Dispossessed

    Ursula K. Le Guin

    ★ 4.2 (88k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    On a barren anarchist moon, a brilliant physicist grapples with the sacrifices of freedom and the allure of a hierarchical, resource-rich homeworld he's forbidden to embrace.

  22. Altered Carbon

    Richard K. Morgan

    ★ 4.0 (87k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a future where death is a mere inconvenience and consciousness can be 'resleeved' into new bodies, a cynical ex-envoy is resurrected into a world of corporate intrigue and violent conspiracy to solve the murder of a billionaire's previous self.

  23. The Twelve

    Justin Cronin

    ★ 4.0 (87k) average on GoodreadsThriller

    In a man-made apocalypse, society collapses, and an ancient evil evolves. Survivors, including a pregnant doctor, a lone warrior, and a protective teenager, struggle for hope and connection as humanity faces an enemy more terrifying than extinction.

  24. Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

    James Patterson

    ★ 4.2 (87k) average on GoodreadsFantasy

    With the world facing a genetic 'Re-evolution,' Max and her winged Flock must reunite across continents and escape captors to save humanity from a scientifically engineered master race.

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