Best science fiction novels by year
Here’s an updated version of this list, including novels I read in the last 2 years.
| Winner | Runner Ups | |||
| Year | Author | Title | Author | Title |
| 2015 | John Scalzi | The End of All Things | Thunderbird | Jack McDevitt |
| Will McIntosh | Defenders | |||
| 2014 | Emily St. John Mandel | Station Eleven | Stephen Baxter | Ultima |
| John Scalzi | Lock In | |||
| 2013 | Robert Charles Wilson | Burning Paradise | Stephen Baxter | Proxima |
| Will McIntosh | Love Minus Eighty | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Red Planet Blues | |||
| John Scalzi | The Human Division | |||
| 2012 | Kim Stanley Robinson | 2312 | Orson Scott Card | Shadows in Flight |
| Robert J. Sawyer | Triggers | |||
| John Scalzi | Redshirts | |||
| 2011 | Will McIntosh | Soft Apocalpyse | Robert J. Sawyer | Wonder |
| Joan Slonczewski | The Highest Frontier | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Vortex | |||
| 2010 | Robert J. Sawyer | Watch | ||
| 2009 | Jack McDevitt | Time Travelers Never Die | Robert J. Sawyer | Wake |
| Robert Charles Wilson | Julian Comstock | |||
| 2008 | Alastair Reynolds | House of Suns | Stephen Baxter | Weaver |
| Neal Stephenson | Anathem | Orson Scott Card | Ender in Exile | |
| Douglas Preston | Blasphemy | |||
| John Scalzi | Zoe’s Tale | |||
| 2007 | Stephen Baxter | Navigator | Stephen Baxter | Conqueror |
| Joe Haldeman | The Accidental Time Machine | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Rollback | |||
| John Scalzi | The Last Colony | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Axis | |||
| 2006 | Peter Watts | Blindsight | Stephen Baxter | Emperor |
| Julie E. Czerneda | Regeneration | |||
| Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson | Hunters of Dune | |||
| John Scalzi | The Android’s Dream | |||
| John Scalzi | The Ghost Brigades | |||
| Vernor Vinge | Rainbows End | |||
| 2005 | Robert Charles Wilson | Spin | Julie E. Czerneda | Migration |
| Joe Haldeman | Old Twentieth | |||
| Karin Lowachee | Cagebird | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Mindscan | |||
| John Scalzi | Old Man’s War | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Lady of Mazes | |||
| Charles Stross | Accelerando | |||
| John Varley | Mammoth | |||
| Edward Willett | Lost in Translation | |||
| 2004 | Julie E. Czerneda | Survival | Joe Haldeman | Camouflage |
| James Alan Gardner | Radiant | |||
| 2003 | Robert Charles Wilson | Blind Lake | Julie E. Czerneda | Hidden in Sight |
| William Gibson | Pattern Recognition | |||
| Karin Lowachee | Burndive | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Humans | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Hybrids | |||
| 2002 | Stephen Baxter | Evolution | David Brin | Kiln People |
| Robert J. Sawyer | Hominids | Julie E. Czerneda | To Trade the Stars | |
| Karin Lowachee | Warchild | |||
| Scott Mackay | Orbis | |||
| Jim Munroe | Everyone in Silico | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Permanence | |||
| Michael Swanwick | Bones of the Earth | |||
| 2001 | Connie Willis | Passage | Julie E. Czerneda | In the Company of Others |
| Robert Charles Wilson | The Chronoliths | Candas Jane Dorsey | A Paradigm of Earth | |
| James Alan Gardner | Ascending | |||
| Scott Mackay | The Meek | |||
| Adam Roberts | On | |||
| 2000 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Telling | Julie E. Czerneda | Changing Vision |
| Karl Schroeder | Ventus | James Alan Gardner | Hunted | |
| Jim Munroe | Angry Young Spaceman | |||
| Alastair Reynolds | Revelation Space | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Calculating God | |||
| Joan Slonczewski | Brain Plague | |||
| 1999 | Neal Stephenson | Cryptonomicon | Orson Scott Card | Ender’s Shadow |
| Vernor Vinge | A Deepness in the Sky | Julie E. Czerneda | Ties of Power | |
| James Alan Gardner | Vigilant | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Flashforward | |||
| Peter Watts | Starfish | |||
| 1998 | Robert J. Sawyer | Factoring Humanity | Julie E. Czerneda | Beholder’s Eye |
| Robert Charles Wilson | Darwinia | James Alan Gardner | Commitment Hour | |
| Nalo Hopkinson | Brown Girl in the Ring | |||
| Scott Mackay | Outpost | |||
| Jack McDevitt | Eternity Road | |||
| Connie Willis | To Say Nothing of the Dog | |||
| 1997 | Dan Simmons | The Rise of Endymion | Julie E. Czerneda | A Thousand Words for Stranger |
| James Alan Gardner | Expendable | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Illegal Alien | |||
| Robert Wright | A Scientific Romance | |||
| 1996 | Robert J. Sawyer | Starplex | Orson Scott Card | Children of the Mind |
| Orson Scott Card | Pastwatch | Peter F. Hamilton | The Reality Dysfunction | |
| Jack McDevitt | Ancient Shores | |||
| Dan Simmons | Endymion | |||
| Alison Sinclair | Blueheart | |||
| 1995 | Stephen Baxter | The Time Ships | Julia Ecklar | ReGenesis |
| Neal Stephenson | The Diamond Age | Robert J. Sawyer | The Terminal Experiment | |
| 1994 | Vonda N. McIntyre | Nautilus | Robert J. Sawyer | End of an Era |
| Robert J. Sawyer | Foreigner | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Mysterium | |||
| 1993 | Joan Slonczewski | Daughter of Elysium | Robert J. Sawyer | Fossil Hunter |
| 1992 | Neal Stephenson | Snow Crash | Greg Egan | Quarantine |
| Vernor Vinge | A Fire Upon the Deep | Maureen F. McHugh | China Mountain Zhang | |
| Vonda N. McIntyre | Metaphase | |||
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Red Mars | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Far-Seer | |||
| Connie Willis | Doomsday Book | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | The Harvest | |||
| 1991 | Isaac Asimov | Forward the Foundation | Orson Scott Card | Xenocide |
| Vonda N. McIntyre | Transition | |||
| 1990 | Robert J. Sawyer | Golden Fleece | Iain M. Banks | Use of Weapons |
| Michael Crichton | Jurassic Park | |||
| Dan Simmons | The Fall of Hyperion | |||
| 1989 | Dan Simmons | Hyperion | Vonda N. McIntyre | Starfarers |
| Joan Slonczewski | The Wall Around Eden | |||
| 1988 | Iain M. Banks | The Player of Games | Isaac Asimov | Prelude to Foundation |
| Jack L. Chalker | Masks of the Martyrs | |||
| Kim Stanley Robinson | The Gold Coast | |||
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Pacific Edge | |||
| Sheri S. Tepper | The Gate to Women’s Country | |||
| 1987 | Iain M. Banks | Consider Phlebas | Jack L. Chalker | Warriors of the Storm |
| Jack L. Chalker | Pirates of the Thunder | |||
| Michael Crichton | Sphere | |||
| 1986 | Orson Scott Card | Speaker for the Dead | Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Earth |
| Joan Slonczewski | A Door Into Ocean | Jack L. Chalker | Lords of the Middle Dark | |
| Arthur C. Clarke | The Songs of Distant Earth | |||
| Wayland Drew | The Master of Norriya | |||
| Clifford D. Simak | Highway of Eternity | |||
| Vernor Vinge | Marooned in Realtime | |||
| 1985 | Orson Scott Card | Ender’s Game | Greg Bear | Blood Music |
| Greg Bear | Eon | |||
| David Brin | The Postman | |||
| Wayland Drew | The Gaian Expedient | |||
| Frank Herbert | Chapterhouse: Dune | |||
| Carl Sagan | Contact | |||
| 1984 | Kim Stanley Robinson | The Wild Shore | Douglas Adams | So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish |
| Wayland Drew | The Memoirs of Alcheringia | |||
| Suzette Haden Elgin | Native Tongue | |||
| Frank Herbert | Heretics of Dune | |||
| William Gibson | Neuromancer | |||
| Vernor Vinge | The Peace War | |||
| 1983 | ||||
| 1982 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation’s Edge | Douglas Adams | Life, the Universe and Everything |
| 1981 | Frank Herbert | God Emperor of Dune | Julian May | The Many-Colored Land |
| Clifford D. Simak | Project Pope | |||
| 1980 | Douglas Adams | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe | Joan Slonczewski | Still Forms on Foxfield |
| Gene Wolfe | The Shadow of the Torturer | |||
| 1979 | Douglas Adams | The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | Arthur C. Clarke | The Fountains of Paradise |
| 1978 | ||||
| 1977 | Frederik Pohl | Gateway | ||
| 1976 | Frank Herbert | Children of Dune | ||
| 1975 | ||||
| 1974 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Dispossessed | Joe Haldeman | The Forever War |
| Niven & Pournelle | The Mote in God’s Eye | |||
| 1973 | David Gerrold | The Man Who Folded Himself | Arthur C. Clarke | Rendezvous With Rama |
| 1972 | Isaac Asimov | The Gods Themselves | John Brunner | The Sheep Look Up |
| Robert Silverberg | Dying Inside | |||
| Arkady & Boris Strugatsky | Roadside Picnic | |||
| 1971 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Lathe of Heaven | ||
| 1970 | Larry Niven | Ringworld | ||
| 1969 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Left Hand of Darkness | Michael Crichton | The Andromeda Strain |
| Philip K. Dick | UBIK | |||
| Frank Herbert | Dune Messiah | |||
| Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. | Slaughterhouse-Five | |||
| 1968 | Arthur C. Clarke | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Philip K. Dick | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? |
| Anne McCaffrey | Dragonflight | |||
| 1967 | Ursula K. Le Guin | City of Illusions | ||
| 1966 | Ursula K. Le Guin | Rocannon’s World | Robert A Heinlein | The Moon is a Harsh Mistress |
| Ursula K. Le Guin | Planet of Exile | |||
| 1965 | Frank Herbert | Dune | Philip K. Dick | The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch |
| Clifford D. Simak | All Flesh is Grass | |||
| 1964 | ||||
| 1963 | Clifford D. Simak | Way Station | Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. | Cat’s Cradle |
| 1962 | Philip K. Dick | The Man in the High Castle | Madeline L’Engle | A Wrinkle in Time |
| 1961 | Harry Harrison | The Stainless Steel Rat | Robert A Heinlein | Stranger in a Strange Land |
| Stanislaw Lem | Solaris | |||
| 1960 | Walter M. Miller, Jr. | A Canticle for Leibowitz | ||
| 1959 | Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. | The Sirens of Titan | ||
| 1958 | James Blish | A Case of Conscience | ||
| 1957 | ||||
| 1956 | Alfred Bester | The Stars My Destination | ||
| Arthur C. Clarke | The City and the Stars | |||
| 1955 | Isaac Asimov | The End Of Eternity | ||
| 1954 | Arthur C. Clarke | Childhood’s End | Isaac Asimov | The Caves of Steel |
| Ray Bradbury | Fahrenheit 451 | |||
| Hal Clement | Mission of Gravity | |||
| 1953 | Alfred Bester | The Demolished Man | Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation |
| Theodore Sturgeon | More Than Human | |||
| 1952 | Clifford D. Simak | City | Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Empire |
| 1951 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation | John Wyndham | The Day of the Triffids |
| 1950 | Ray Bradbury | The Martian Chronicles | ||
| 1949 | George Orwell | Nineteen Eighty-Four | ||