Best science fiction novels by year
Here’s an update to this list. I haven’t read any science fiction novels published in 2024 yet.
| Winner | Runner Ups | |||
| Year | Author | Title | Author | Title |
| 2023 | Annalee Newitz | The Terraformers | Sue Burke | Dual Memory |
| Mur Lafferty | Chaos Terminal | |||
| Ann Leckie | Translation State | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | The Downloaded | |||
| John Scalzi | Starter Villain | |||
| 2022 | Ren Hutchings | Under Fortunate Stars | Julie E. Czerneda | To Each This World |
| Mur Lafferty | Station Eternity | |||
| Emily St. John Mandel | Sea of Tranquility | |||
| John Scalzi | The Kaiju Preservation Society | |||
| Adrian Tchaikovsky | Children of Memory | |||
| 2021 | Sue Burke | Immunity Index | Orson Scott Card | The Last Shadow |
| Andy Weir | Project Hail Mary | Becky Chambers | The Galaxy, and the Ground Within | |
| Marina J. Lostetter | Activation Degradation | |||
| Adrian Tchaikovsky | Elder Race | |||
| 2020 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | The Doors of Eden | Stephen Baxter | World Engines: Creator |
| Marina J. Lostetter | Noumenon Ultra | |||
| Nnedi Okorafor | Binti | |||
| Olga Ravn | The Employees | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | The Oppenheimer Alternative | |||
| John Scalzi | The Last Emperox | |||
| Dennis E. Taylor | Heaven’s River | |||
| 2019 | Annalee Newitz | The Future of Another Timeline | Stephen Baxter | World Engines: Destroyer |
| Sue Burke | Interference | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Stealing Worlds | |||
| Adrian Tchaikovsky | Cage of Souls | |||
| Adrian Tchaikovsky | Children of Ruin | |||
| 2018 | Sue Burke | Semiosis | Becky Chambers | Record of a Spaceborn Few |
| Claire North | 84K | Marina J. Lostetter | Noumenon Infinity | |
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Red Moon | |||
| John Scalzi | The Consuming Fire | |||
| John Scalzi | Head On | |||
| 2017 | Annalee Newitz | Autonomous | Stephen Baxter | The Massacre of Mankind |
| Kim Stanley Robinson | New York 2140 | Kameron Hurley | The Stars Are Legion | |
| Mur Lafferty | Six Wakes | |||
| Ann Leckie | Provenance | |||
| Marina J. Lostetter | Noumenon | |||
| John Scalzi | The Collapsing Empire | |||
| Dennis E. Taylor | All These Worlds | |||
| Dennis E. Taylor | For We Are Many | |||
| Andy Weir | Artemis | |||
| Edward Willett | The Cityborn | |||
| 2016 | Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds | The Medusa Chronicles | Becky Chambers | A Closed and Common Orbit |
| Yoon Ha Lee | Ninefox Gambit | |||
| Mickey Zucker Reichert | I, Robot: To Preserve | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Quantum Night | |||
| Dennis E. Taylor | We Are Legion (We Are Bob) | |||
| Connie Willis | Crosstalk | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Last Year | |||
| 2015 | Neal Stephenson | Seveneves | Julie E. Czerneda | This Gulf of Time and Stars |
| Adrian Tchaikovsky | Children of Time | Ann Leckie | Ancillary Mercy | |
| Jack McDevitt | Thunderbird | |||
| Will McIntosh | Defenders | |||
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Aurora | |||
| John Scalzi | The End of All Things | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | The Affinities | |||
| 2014 | Becky Chambers | The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet | Stephen Baxter | Ultima |
| Ann Leckie | Ancillary Sword | |||
| John Scalzi | Lock In | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Lockstep | |||
| Emily St. John Mandel | Station Eleven | |||
| 2013 | Matt Haig | The Humans | Stephen Baxter | Proxima |
| Ann Leckie | Ancillary Justice | Will McIntosh | Love Minus Eighty | |
| Mickey Zucker Reichert | I, Robot: To Obey | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Red Planet Blues | |||
| John Scalzi | The Human Division | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Burning Paradise | |||
| 2012 | Kim Stanley Robinson | 2312 | Stephen Baxter | Iron Winter |
| David Brin | Existence | |||
| Orson Scott Card | Shadows in Flight | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Triggers | |||
| John Scalzi | Redshirts | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Ashes of Candesce | |||
| 2011 | Will McIntosh | Soft Apocalpyse | Stephen Baxter | Bronze Summer |
| Laura J. Mixon | Up Against It | |||
| Mickey Zucker Reichert | I, Robot: To Protect | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Wonder | |||
| John Scalzi | Fuzzy Nation | |||
| Joan Slonczewski | The Highest Frontier | |||
| Neal Stephenson | Reamde | |||
| Vernor Vinge | The Children of the Sky | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Vortex | |||
| 2010 | Connie Willis | All Clear | Stephen Baxter | Stone Spring |
| Cixin Liu | Death’s End | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Watch | |||
| Connie Willis | Blackout | |||
| Charles Yu | How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe | |||
| 2009 | Paolo Bacigalupi | The Windup Girl | Stephen Baxter | Ark |
| Julie E. Czerneda | Rift in the Sky | |||
| David Marusek | Mind Over Ship | |||
| Jack McDevitt | Time Travelers Never Die | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Wake | |||
| Karl Schroeder | The Sunless Countries | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Julian Comstock | |||
| 2008 | Alastair Reynolds | House of Suns | Stephen Baxter | Flood |
| Neal Stephenson | Anathem | Stephen Baxter | Weaver | |
| Orson Scott Card | Ender in Exile | |||
| Julie E. Czerneda | Riders of the Storm | |||
| Cixin Liu | The Dark Forest | |||
| Douglas Preston | Blasphemy | |||
| John Scalzi | Zoe’s Tale | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Pirate Sun | |||
| 2007 | Stephen Baxter | Navigator | Stephen Baxter | Conqueror |
| Jule E. Czerneda | Reap the Wild Wind | |||
| Joe Haldeman | The Accidental Time Machine | |||
| Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson | Sandworms of Dune | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Rollback | |||
| John Scalzi | The Last Colony | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Queen of Candesce | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Axis | |||
| 2006 | Cixin Liu | The Three-Body Problem | Stephen Baxter | Emperor |
| Peter Watts | Blindsight | Julie E. Czerneda | Regeneration | |
| Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson | Hunters of Dune | |||
| John Scalzi | The Android’s Dream | |||
| John Scalzi | The Ghost Brigades | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Sun of Suns | |||
| Vernor Vinge | Rainbows End | |||
| 2005 | Alastair Reynolds | Pushing Ice | Julie E. Czerneda | Migration |
| Robert Charles Wilson | Spin | Joe Haldeman | Old Twentieth | |
| Karin Lowachee | Cagebird | |||
| David Marusek | Counting Heads | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Mindscan | |||
| John Scalzi | Agent to the Stars | |||
| John Scalzi | Old Man’s War | |||
| Karl Schroeder | Lady of Mazes | |||
| Charles Stross | Accelerando | |||
| John Varley | Mammoth | |||
| Peter Watts | Behemoth Book Two: Seppuku | |||
| Edward Willett | Lost in Translation | |||
| 2004 | Julie E. Czerneda | Survival | Joe Haldeman | Camouflage |
| James Alan Gardner | Radiant | Alexander C. Irvine | Have Robot, Will Travel | |
| Scott Mackay | Omnifix | |||
| Peter Watts | Behemoth Book One: B-Max | |||
| 2003 | Robert Charles Wilson | Blind Lake | Julie E. Czerneda | Hidden in Sight |
| Cory Doctorow | Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom | |||
| 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 | |||
| Mark W. Tiedemann | Aurora | |||
| 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 | |||
| Donald Kingsbury | Psychohistorical Crisis | |||
| Scott Mackay | The Meek | |||
| Adam Roberts | On | |||
| Peter Watts | Maelstrom | |||
| 2000 | Ursula K. Le Guin | The Telling | Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter | The Light of Other Days |
| Karl Schroeder | Ventus | Julie E. Czerneda | Changing Vision | |
| James Alan Gardner | Hunted | |||
| Jack McDevitt | Infinity Beach | |||
| Jim Munroe | Angry Young Spaceman | |||
| Alastair Reynolds | Revelation Space | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Calculating God | |||
| Joan Slonczewski | Brain Plague | |||
| Mark W. Tiedemann | Chimera | |||
| Mark W. Tiedemann | Mirage | |||
| 1999 | Neal Stephenson | Cryptonomicon | David Brin | Foundation’s Triumph |
| Vernor Vinge | A Deepness in the Sky | Orson Scott Card | Ender’s Shadow | |
| Joël Champetier | The Dragon’s Eye | |||
| Julie E. Czerneda | Ties of Power | |||
| James Alan Gardner | Vigilant | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Flashforward | |||
| Peter Watts | Starfish | |||
| 1998 | Robert J. Sawyer | Factoring Humanity | Greg Bear | Foundation and Chaos |
| Robert Charles Wilson | Darwinia | David Brin | Heaven’s Reach | |
| A. C. Crispin & Ru Emerson | Voices of Chaos | |||
| Julie E. Czerneda | Beholder’s Eye | |||
| James Alan Gardner | Commitment Hour | |||
| Nalo Hopkinson | Brown Girl in the Ring | |||
| Scott Mackay | Outpost | |||
| Jack McDevitt | Eternity Road | |||
| Mary Doria Russell | Children of God | |||
| Alison Sinclair | Cavalcade | |||
| Connie Willis | To Say Nothing of the Dog | |||
| 1997 | Dan Simmons | The Rise of Endymion | Gregory Benford | Foundation’s Fear |
| Arthur C. Clarke | 3001: The Final Odyssey | |||
| 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 | Roger MacBride Allen | Utopia |
| Orson Scott Card | Pastwatch | David Brin | Infinity’s Shore | |
| Orson Scott Card | Children of the Mind | |||
| A. C. Crispin & T. Jackson King | Ancestor’s World | |||
| Peter F. Hamilton | The Reality Dysfunction | |||
| Jack McDevitt | Ancient Shores | |||
| Maria Doria Russell | The Sparrow | |||
| Dan Simmons | Endymion | |||
| Alison Sinclair | Blueheart | |||
| 1995 | Stephen Baxter | The Time Ships | David Brin | Brightness Reef |
| Neal Stephenson | The Diamond Age | Julia Ecklar | ReGenesis | |
| Robert J. Sawyer | The Terminal Experiment | |||
| Alison Sinclair | Legacies | |||
| 1994 | Vonda N. McIntyre | Nautilus | Roger MacBride Allen | Inferno |
| A. C. Crispin & Kathleen O’Malley | Silent Songs | |||
| James Patrick Kelly | Wildlife | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | End of an Era | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Foreigner | |||
| Jules Verne | Paris in the Twentieth Century | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Mysterium | |||
| 1993 | Isaac Asimov | Forward the Foundation | Roger MacBride Allen | Caliban |
| Greg Bear | Moving Mars | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Fossil Hunter | |||
| Joan Slonczewski | Daughter of Elysium | |||
| 1992 | Neal Stephenson | Snow Crash | Ben Bova | Mars |
| Vernor Vinge | A Fire Upon the Deep | A. C. Crispin & Deborah A. Marshall | Serpent’s Gift | |
| Greg Egan | Quarantine | |||
| Maureen F. McHugh | China Mountain Zhang | |||
| Vonda N. McIntyre | Metaphase | |||
| Kim Stanley Robinson | Red Mars | |||
| Robert J. Sawyer | Far-Seer | |||
| Sean Stewart | Passion Play | |||
| Connie Willis | Doomsday Book | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | The Harvest | |||
| 1991 | Orson Scott Card | Xenocide | A. C. Crispin & Jannean Elliott | Shadow World |
| Alexander Jablokov | Carve the Sky | |||
| Vonda N. McIntyre | Transition | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | A Bridge of Years | |||
| 1990 | Robert J. Sawyer | Golden Fleece | Iain M. Banks | Use of Weapons |
| David Brin | Earth | |||
| Michael Crichton | Jurassic Park | |||
| A. C. Crispin & Kathleen O’Malley | Silent Dances | |||
| James Morrow | City of Truth | |||
| Robert Silverberg | The New Springtime | |||
| Dan Simmons | The Fall of Hyperion | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | The Divide | |||
| 1989 | Dan Simmons | Hyperion | A. C. Crispin | StarBridge |
| Dave Duncan | West of January | Vonda N. McIntyre | Starfarers | |
| Geoff Ryman | The Child Garden | |||
| Joan Slonczewski | The Wall Around Eden | |||
| Sheri S. Tepper | Grass | |||
| 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 | |||
| Robert Silverberg | At Winter’s End | |||
| Sheri S. Tepper | The Gate to Women’s Country | |||
| 1987 | David Brin | The Uplift War | Iain M. Banks | Consider Phlebas |
| Jack L. Chalker | Warriors of the Storm | |||
| Jack L. Chalker | Pirates of the Thunder | |||
| Arthur C. Clarke | 2061: Odyssey Three | |||
| Michael Crichton | Sphere | |||
| Robert Charles Wilson | Memory Wire | |||
| 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 | Isaac Asimov | Robots and Empire |
| Greg Bear | Blood Music | |||
| Greg Bear | Eon | |||
| David Brin | The Postman | |||
| Wayland Drew | The Gaian Expedient | |||
| Phyllis Gotlieb | The Kingdom of the Cats | |||
| Frank Herbert | Chapterhouse: Dune | |||
| Crawford Kilian | Brother Jonathan | |||
| Carl Sagan | Contact | |||
| 1984 | Kim Stanley Robinson | The Wild Shore | Douglas Adams | So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish |
| David Brin | The Practice Effect | |||
| 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 | David Brin | Startide Rising | Isaac Asimov | The Robots of Dawn |
| 1982 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation’s Edge | Douglas Adams | Life, the Universe and Everything |
| Arthur C. Clarke | 2010: Odyssey Two | Phyllis Gotlieb | Emperor, Swords, Pentacles | |
| Donald Kingsbury | Courtship Rite | |||
| 1981 | Frank Herbert | God Emperor of Dune | Julian May | The Many-Colored Land |
| Clifford D. Simak | Project Pope | |||
| Elisabeth Vonarburg | The Silent City | |||
| 1980 | Douglas Adams | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe | Gregory Benford | Timescape |
| David Brin | Sundiver | |||
| Phyllis Gotlieb | A Judgment of Dragons | |||
| 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 |
| John Varley | Titan | |||
| 1978 | Clifford D. Simak | Mastodonia | ||
| 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 | Isaac Asimov | The Naked Sun |
| Arthur C. Clarke | The City and the Stars | |||
| 1955 | Isaac Asimov | The End Of Eternity | ||
| 1954 | Arthur C. Clarke | Childhood’s End | Ray Bradbury | Fahrenheit 451 |
| Hal Clement | Mission of Gravity | |||
| 1953 | Alfred Bester | The Demolished Man | Isaac Asimov | The Caves of Steel |
| Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation | |||
| Theodore Sturgeon | More Than Human | |||
| 1952 | Clifford D. Simak | City | Isaac Asimov | The Currents of Space |
| Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Empire | |||
| 1951 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation | Isaac Asimov | The Stars, Like Dust |
| John Wyndham | The Day of the Triffids | |||
| 1950 | Ray Bradbury | The Martian Chronicles | Isaac Asimov | Pebble in the Sky |
| 1949 | George Orwell | Nineteen Eighty-Four | ||