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 |