Jurassic Park. Ex Machina.
Stranger Things. Black Mirror.
Akira. Ghost in the Shell.
Kindred. Ready Player One.
Detroit: Become Human. Starfield.
What do all these pieces of media have in common? They are all classified as science fiction.
Though you’ve probably consumed more sci-fi media than you realize, getting into sci-fi books can be intimidating for many. No worries; we’ve put together this handy-dandy guide to help you understand the genre a little bit better and some audiobook recs to help get you started on your journey.
So what is sci-fi? You might be surprised to learn the definition isn’t as cut and dry as you think.
It’s generally agreed upon that science fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction that uses scientific fact and theory as the foundation for its plot and worldbuilding. Some sci-fi is very concerned with depicting scientific accuracy, while other stories focus more on depicting the consequences that science has on the characters and the larger world.
But sci-fi is about more than just entertainment. As Lavie Tidhar (an author we’ve included in this blog) explains:
“For me, science fiction was at its best a radical literature, a fiction borne out of the counterculture. It was about challenging assumptions, subverting society, about considering radical new ideas – whether about religion, economy, or humanity’s place in the cosmos.”
Okay – now that you’re a little more knowledgeable about science fiction, we’ve got some tips to ensure smooth sailing into all these strange new worlds and characters.
Start Small
When diving into an unfamiliar genre, it can be easy to pick up the huge tome everyone on the internet keeps recommending. Resist. You’ll find novellas and short novels more accessible and digestible than you will with a doorstopper.
Feed Them Silence
Written by Lee Mandelo, narrated by Natalie Naudus
In this near-future novella about environmentalism, consent, and connection, Sean’s tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill her dream to dive into the minds of wolves – at a cost.
What does it mean to “be-in-kind” with a nonhuman animal? Or, in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject’s perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness.
Sean’s tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her venture capital funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she’s invading.
The Past is Red
Written by Catherynne M. Valente, narrated by Penelope Rawlins
Did you enjoy the “Three Robots: Exit Strategies” episode of Netflix’s animated anthology Love Death + Robots? Then perhaps you’ll like this satirical commentary on the climate crisis, overconsumption, and humans’ role in the destruction of our environment.
Tetley Abednego is a resident of Garbagetown, formerly the Great Pacific Garbage Patch before the world flooded. She knows that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it’s full of hope. But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected.
Read a Classic
There’s a reason these titles have endured. Give a listen to books that have stood the test of time.
Countess
Written by Suzan Palumbo, narrated by Chanté McCormick
While this audiobook is a recent addition to the sci-fi space, it’s based off the classic novel Count of Monte Cristo with a queer Caribbean anti-colonial twist.
Virika Sameroo lives in colonized space under the Æerbot Empire, much like her ancestors before her in the British West Indies. After years of hard work, she’s finally become first lieutenant on an interstellar cargo vessel in the empire’s merchant marine.
But when her captain dies under suspicious circumstances, Virika is arrested for murder and charged with treason. Her conviction and subsequent imprisonment set her on a path of revenge, determined to take down the empire that wronged her, while the fate of her people hangs in the balance.
The Fortunate Fall
Written by Cameron Reed, narrated by Frankie Corzo
In this heralded underground cyberpunk classic, a reporter with broadcasting equipment wired into her nervous system uncovers long-hidden political secrets.
Maya Andreyeva is a “camera,” a reporter with virtual-reality-broadcasting equipment implanted in her brain. What she sees, millions see; what she feels, millions share.
And what Maya is seeing is the cover-up of a massacre. As she probes into the covert political power plays of a radically strange near-future Russia, she comes upon secrets that have been hidden from the world… and memories that AI-controlled thought police have forced her to hide from herself. Because in a world where no thought or desire is safe, the price of survival is betrayal—of your lover, your ideals, and yourself.
Quozl
Written by Alan Dean Foster, narrated by Paul Bellantoni
Rabbitlike aliens from outer space colonize Earth during humankind’s Second World War in a delightfully funny and thought-provoking novel of first contact and coexistence.
The Quozl, a gentle race of extraterrestrial rabbits, have a propensity for reproduction that has left their home planet, Quozlene, overpopulated. They have discovered the perfect place to start over: a world they call Shiraz. A world already inhabited by humans.
A helpfully distracting global conflict the Shirazians call World War II allows the colony ship to land undetected and the space rabbits immediately go into hiding. But the Quozl can only be concealed for so long as their numbers increase and rebellious members decide the time is ripe to claim their place in world they believe is rightfully theirs.
Try a Subgenre
So many subgenres exist in the sci-fi space, no doubt you’ll find a book that satisfies your specific itch and feels familiar to genres you already like to read.
If you’re looking to branch out, try military, space opera (sci-fi’s equivalent to epic fantasy, which you can read more about here), cyberpunk, or alien contact for something out of this world.
Him
Written and narrated by Geoff Ryman
Fans of The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd will want to check out this retelling of the story of Jesus of Nazareth, born a girl.
Avigayil is born to virgin Maryam and Yosef barLevi in the village of Nazareth. As Avigayil grows, it’s clear she believes that she is destined to be someone greater than just the daughter of Maryam. From leading a gang of village boys to challenging the priests in the temple, Avigayil is determined to find her way as Yeshu, a man.
Yeshu can work miracles. He can see futures. He can speak for God.
“I wanted to imagine the thrill people must have felt when finally someone preached that everyone is equal in the eyes of God,” Ryman explained in an interview about the book. “After years of reading, stalling, and false starts the writing was finally sprung from me by one simple idea. Parthenogenesis—virgin birth—would work like cloning. If Jesus were actually female, why don’t we know it? Then I heard an angry child say with terrifying certainty and power, ‘I am a boy,’ and I had my first scene.”
Neom
Written by Lavie Tidhar, narrated by Rasha Zamamiri
In this literary sci-fi novel set in the same universe as Central Station, the far-future fate of ambitious desert-city Neom is imagined—and revolution is on the horizon.
The fictional city of Neom was inspired by a real-life futuristic city concept being built in the Saudi Arabian desert. It’s in this cyberpunk city that Tidhar describes the main players:
“Neom is about a robot who comes to the city of Neom one day to buy a rose; about a woman, Mariam, who works multiple jobs and gets entangled with the robot’s past; a boy, Saleh, who travels through the desert to Neom; and about a terrorartist, Nasu, who comes back from the stars to wreak havoc of the city of her youth…”
Past Crimes
Written by Jason Pinter, narrated by Ellen Quay
Ready Player One meets Black Mirror in this stunning speculative thriller set in a future world where virtual reality isn’t just a game—it’s daily life.
Welcome to Earth+. The year is 2037, and nearly all human interactions have migrated to the virtual world. True-crime fans can participate in hyper-realistic simulations and hunt for clues to solve famous crimes. Past Crimes, known as the Disneyland of Death by its fans, is at the forefront of the multibillion-dollar criminal entertainment industry.
Cassie West licenses crimes, convincing grieving families to allow her to sell their tragedies to the highest bidder. Life is hard and cost of living high, but she and her husband Harris are happy.
But when leaving work late one evening, Cassie starts to worry. Harris isn’t responding to texts or calls, and emergency drones seem to be heading towards their home.
What she finds there changes everything. Soon, Cassie finds herself fighting for survival, becoming a target in both the real and virtual worlds. But if she can’t uncover the truth of what happened to her husband, thousands more may die.
The Psychology of Time Travel
Written by Kate Mascarenhas, narrated by Ellie Heydon
In a society where time traveling is the norm, one woman is told of a murder that will happen in the future and must do everything she can to prevent it.
In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project—and future of time travel—in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team—erasing her contributions from history.
Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother Granny Bee was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: could it be Bee? Who would want her dead? And most importantly of all: can her murder be stopped?
Time travel parameters are more restricted here than listeners might expect – characters cannot travel to any era before the machine’s invention and the past cannot be changed. But it’s here Mascarenhas poses a question: “What sort of person would cope with knowing their ability to change things was limited?”
The Ragpicker
Written by Joel Dane, narrated by Rupert Degas and Catherine Ho
In this “cozy postapocalyptic novel”, the Ragpicker searches for remnants of his late husband while Ysmany flees her village to save an orphaned baby.
The Ragpicker—a man, bonded into a mysterious ‘secondskin’ that has prolonged his life after the digital apocalypse—wanders the lush, deserted Earth, haunted by failing avatars and fragmented texts. He’s searching for traces of his long-dead husband but his journey is interrupted by a girl, Ysmany, fleeing her remote village in order to save a baby orphaned by a military-grade secondskin, ‘The Server,’ the fanatical ruler of their town.
Together they cross the flourishing, treacherous landscape towards sanctuary. Yet the signals and static of the previous age echo in the Ragpicker’s mind and whisper in the girl’s dreams, drawing them toward the gap between map and territory—while offering precious hope.
Rakesfall
Written by Vajra Chandrasekera, narrated by Shiromi Arserio
Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell – and that is certainly true for Annelid and Leveret.
In their SFF Pick of the Month, Library Journal summarizes Rakesfall as:
“a sweeping slipstream epic that follows two intertwined personalities as they recur in new guises through time, moving from the mythic past to modern Sri Lanka to a far-future Earth abandoned by humanity. One of them always dies, but is there an escape from the cycle—and should they take it if there is?”
