25 of The Best Science Fiction Books Ever Written

[markus]

This is a list of 25 science fiction books that will go down or already are considered masterpieces.

Throughout Science Fiction’s history there have been hundreds perhaps thousands of great novels. Lots of these books were ground breaking in their approach and subject matter thereby adding to their appeal for readers. Although I could easily have considered 50 or 100 books to be on this list I have decided to just focus on twenty five books that are definitely masterpieces of science fiction. Now I know I will be excluding some books from this list that deserve to be on it but I am only putting on paper what I consider to be twenty five that deserve it. In any list ever created there will always be some books/authors that get left off no matter how big the list is so please consider this before posting any comments. I also limited each author to only one book each for this list. The list is no particular order so number one does not mean overall best. Here are my twenty five masterpieces of science fiction:

1. War of the Worlds HG Wells
2. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
3. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne
4. The Foundation Trilogy Isaac Asimov
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke
6. Dune Frank Herbert
7. Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
8. Stranger in a Strange Land Robert Heinlein
9. Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick
10. World of Null A AE Van Vogt
11. The Forever War Joe Haldeman
12. Flowers For Algernon Daniel Keyes
13. Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut
14. 1984 George Orwell
15. A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess
16. Ringworld Larry Niven
17. Princess of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs
18. Nueromancer William Gibson
19. Ender’s Game Orson Scott Card
20. Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. LeGuin
21. Hyperion Dan Simmons
22. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy & Mostly Harmless Douglas Adams
23. The Andromeda Strain Michael Chrichton
24. Gateway Frederick Pohl
25. A Fire Upon the Deep Vernor Vinge

Here are my personal favorite books not listed above (once again different authors) but all are probably considered or will be masterpieces too):

1. Mote in God’s Eye Jerry Pournelle & Larry Niven
2. Contact Carl Sagan
3. The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham
4. Solaris Stanislaw Lem
5. Red Mars Kim Stanley Robinson
6. A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter Miller
7. Startide Rising David Brin
8. To Your Scattered Bodies Go Philip Jose Farmer
9. Doomsday Book Connie Willis
10. The Speed of Dark Elizabeth Moon

[xannzan]

Thanks for the list. I'm not a Sci-Fy purist by any means, but most of those in your 1st list I've at least heard of and, without question, the authors are household names. If I get started on the genre again, I have a go-to!

P.S. My fav is anything Carl Sagan... absolutely brilliant.

[swamis00]

A good observation. While we need to acknwoledge masterpiece by these authors, I also feel that there are good contemporary authors whose works are not recognized. Can we have such a list??

[Williamlk]

This is a great list! I think I've read almost all of them.
Well done!

[moribund]

Hi WilliamLK, what would be your faves?

[Vernon98]

I think I've read almost all of them. Well done!

[belowforty]

Thanks for the great list. I have heard a lot about these books specially "World of Null A" by AE Van Vogt and "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess. I really want to read these novels. From where I can get these books.

[brian january]

Have you ever read Keith Laumer? He's always been one of my favorites and has a few titles out on Kindle.

[yuwushih2005]

While we need to acknwoledge masterpiece by these authors,

[yourkrishna]

Hi WilliamLK
Some of these are my favorite also in the list.