My Favourite Science Fiction

The Player of Games 🔗

by Iain M. Banks

My all time fave book from my all time fave sci-fi author. Delicious, inventive, well-written scifi.

Use of Weapons 🔗

by Iain M. Banks

My second fave book from my all time fave sci-fi author! I'd probably start at the beginning of the culture series but these two stick out as being superb.

The Sparrow 🔗

by Mary Doria Russell

A mind-bending novel of magnificent proportions. Deeply human, deeply weird and challenging to all kinds of ideas. No other book I've read has come close to being like this one.

Cosmicomics 🔗

by Italo Calvino

Magical. Feels like reading poetry. Inventive, playful and just a joy to read.

Pattern Recognition 🔗

by William Gibson

Near-future fiction that probably qualifies as sci-fi. Feels distinctly relevant to our modern age but also timeless. Fantastic writing, plots that intrigue and characters that leave you wanting more.

The Left Hand of Darkness 🔗

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Deeply human stories told on alien worlds. The closest thing to a culture novel that wasn't written by Iain M Banks.

Embassytown 🔗

by China Miéville

Everything by China Mieville is staggering but this is the only one distinctly sci-fi (that I've read anyway). A story about spaceships and language, with incredible descriptions and memorable characters.

Flowers for Algernon 🔗

by Daniel Keyes

Made me bawl my eyes out. The kind of sci-fi Steinbeck would have written.

The Dispossessed 🔗

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Literary sci-fi that's a joy to read.

Annihilation 🔗

by Jeff VanderMeer

More biology-fiction than science-fiction but a staggering work of damp genius none the less. This whole triology is one of my all time faves from the last few years.

Light 🔗

by John Harrison

Farenheight 451 🔗

by

Contact 🔗

by Carl Sagan