Hear how science fiction changed with the world.
Science-fiction audiobook and book recommendations from the 1940s through the 2020s, organised by decade and subgenre. Start with a decade, then move sideways into dystopia, first contact, cyberpunk, climate fiction, AI or space opera.
Three books that open the decade.
1945 · social science fictionCheck current audio edition
That Hideous Strength
Institutions, power and technology collide in a strange final Space Trilogy novel.
1949 · dystopianCheck current audio edition
1984
A foundational surveillance-state novel with language and power at its centre.
Check current audio edition
Earth Abides
A patient look at rebuilding society after catastrophe.
Three books that open the decade.
1950 · planetary fictionCheck current audio edition
The Martian Chronicles
Linked stories about Mars, longing and the failures people carry with them.
1951 · galactic historyCheck current audio edition
Foundation
A sweeping sequence about prediction, institutions and civilisational decline.
1953 · dystopianCheck current audio edition
Fahrenheit 451
A concise warning about censorship, distraction and cultural memory.
Three books that open the decade.
1962 · science fantasyCheck current audio edition
A Wrinkle in Time
An accessible family adventure through space, conformity and courage.
1965 · space operaCheck current audio edition
Dune
Ecology, religion and political power on a desert world.
1969 · social science fictionCheck current audio edition
The Left Hand of Darkness
An envoy learns how culture and climate shape trust.
Three books that open the decade.
1973 · first contactCheck current audio edition
Rendezvous with Rama
Explorers investigate a silent artificial world passing through the Solar System.
1974 · political science fictionCheck current audio edition
The Dispossessed
A physicist crosses between rival societies and tests both sets of ideals.
1979 · comic science fictionCheck current audio edition
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Fast, absurd and highly listenable interstellar comedy.
Three books that open the decade.
1984 · cyberpunkCheck current audio edition
Neuromancer
The vocabulary and mood that helped define network-era science fiction.
1985 · military science fictionCheck current audio edition
Ender's Game
Training, strategy and manipulation viewed through a gifted child.
1989 · space operaCheck current audio edition
Hyperion
Multiple travellers tell sharply different stories on one dangerous pilgrimage.
Three books that open the decade.
1992 · cyberpunkCheck current audio edition
Snow Crash
A fast satire of virtual worlds, private power and information contagion.
1992 · space operaCheck current audio edition
A Fire Upon the Deep
Civilisations with radically different capabilities collide across the galaxy.
1993 · climate dystopiaCheck current audio edition
Parable of the Sower
A grounded journey through social collapse and community building.
Three books that open the decade.
2002 · cyberpunk noirCheck current audio edition
Altered Carbon
A murder investigation in a world where identity can move between bodies.
2005 · military science fictionCheck current audio edition
Old Man's War
A brisk entry point into questions about age, war and engineered bodies.
2006 · post-apocalypticCheck current audio edition
The Road
A spare, intimate survival story about a father and son.
Three books that open the decade.
2011 · hard science fictionCheck current audio edition
The Martian
A practical survival puzzle driven by engineering and dry humour.
2015 · climate science fantasyCheck current audio edition
The Fifth Season
A broken world, structural oppression and a daring narrative design.
2015 · evolutionary science fictionCheck current audio edition
Children of Time
Two civilisations develop on very different timelines before contact.
Three books that open the decade.
2021 · AI and societyCheck current audio edition
Klara and the Sun
An artificial companion observes love, status and human self-deception.
2021 · hard science fictionCheck current audio edition
Project Hail Mary
A lone mission becomes a problem-solving friendship story.
2022 · time travelCheck current audio edition
Sea of Tranquility
Linked lives across centuries form a compact mystery about reality.
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