science fiction writers
Here is a list of science fiction authors with a description of one book.
Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedic science fiction adventure that follows Arthur Dent, an ordinary human, as he is whisked away on an intergalactic journey after Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
Kevin J. Anderson's The Saga of Seven Suns is a sprawling space opera that explores an ancient alien threat, political intrigue, and a battle for control over a star system teetering on the edge of destruction.
Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars is a genre-blending story about a transgender violinist, a space-faring queen, and a deal with the devil, all set against a backdrop of intergalactic mystery and human connection.
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian tale of a future where books are outlawed, and a fireman tasked with burning them begins to question his society's values.
Octavia E. Butler's Kindred follows an African-American writer who is inexplicably transported to the Antebellum South, where she must confront the realities of slavery and her own ancestral ties.
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game centers on a young boy, Ender Wiggin, who is recruited into a military academy to train for a war against alien invaders, testing his leadership and strategic skills.
Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet follows the diverse crew of a spaceship as they journey through the galaxy, exploring themes of friendship, identity, and the meaning of home.
Mike Chen's Here and Now and Then tells the story of a time-traveling agent who becomes stranded in the 1990s, building a life while desperately trying to return to his own time.
James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes is the first book in The Expanse series, where a detective and a rogue spaceship captain become entangled in a conspiracy involving a powerful alien technology and the fate of humanity.
S.B. Divya's Machinehood imagines a future where humans compete with AI and robots for jobs, and explores issues of ethics, identity, and the human condition.
Cory Doctorow's Little Brother follows a teenage hacker who uses his skills to fight back against the surveillance state after a terrorist attack leads to widespread government control and repression.
Neil Gaiman's American Gods blends mythology with the modern world, as the old gods struggle to survive in a country increasingly devoted to new gods of technology and media.
Peter F. Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction is an epic space opera that chronicles the conflict between humanity and a mysterious alien race, set against a vast, complex universe of political intrigue and high-stakes warfare.
Mary Robinette Kowal's The Calculating Stars follows a female pilot and mathematician in an alternate 1950s, where a meteor strike accelerates humanity’s space program to ensure the survival of the species.
Nancy Kress' Beggars in Velvet delves into a world where a scientist’s discovery of a way to slow aging leads to social and moral dilemmas in a future society.
Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice is a space opera about a former soldier seeking revenge against the AI who betrayed her, exploring themes of identity and the nature of consciousness.
Linden A. Lewis' The First Sister follows a female soldier and a rebel caught in a deadly interstellar war, grappling with issues of loyalty, love, and betrayal in a vast, divided universe.
Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem is a hard science fiction novel about the first contact between humanity and an alien civilization, set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution and a mysterious cosmic puzzle.
Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight is the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series, where humans ride dragons to protect their world from a deadly, spore-like organism that threatens their planet's survival.
Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark tells the story of an autistic man who is faced with a medical procedure that could change his brain chemistry and his entire way of experiencing the world.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic is a horror-infused, gothic science fiction novel set in 1950s Mexico, where a young woman investigates her cousin’s mysterious illness in a decaying mansion with terrifying secrets.
Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth is a darkly humorous science fiction novel about a necromancer and a swordswoman who become involved in a deadly competition for power in a universe full of danger and intrigue.
Annalee Newitz's Autonomous is a dystopian novel that explores issues of patenting, corporate control, and personal freedom, as a pirate mercenary tries to evade a powerful corporate force and uncover her own identity.
Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death is set in a post-apocalyptic Africa and follows a young woman with magical powers on a quest to stop an evil sorcerer who threatens the future of the world.
Tochi Onyebuchi's Riot Baby is a powerful, speculative novel that explores systemic racism through the lives of two siblings with extraordinary powers, set in a near-future America filled with civil unrest.
Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space is a complex space opera that explores humanity’s first contact with a mysterious alien intelligence and the political intrigue that surrounds it, set in a universe full of ancient secrets.
John Scalzi's Old Man's War tells the story of elderly humans who are recruited into an interstellar military to fight a brutal alien war, with their minds and bodies rejuvenated through advanced technology.
Daniel Suarez's Daemon is a techno-thriller that follows the aftermath of the death of a video game designer, whose secret program triggers a global conspiracy with the power to change the world.
Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time is a space opera about a humanity desperate to survive on a dying planet, and their efforts to colonize a new world inhabited by a species of highly intelligent, evolving spiders.
Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South is an alternate history novel where time-traveling white supremacists provide the Confederate Army with advanced weaponry, leading to a different outcome in the American Civil War.
K.B. Wagers' Behind the Throne is a political space opera about a former princess who returns to her home planet to take the throne after the assassination of her family, navigating interplanetary power struggles.
David Weber's On Basilisk Station is the first book in the Honor Harrington series, where a brilliant naval officer must confront political intrigue and alien threats in a space-faring military universe.
Andy Weir's The Martian is about an astronaut who is stranded on Mars and must use his ingenuity and science skills to survive while awaiting rescue in this tense, humorous tale of survival against the odds.
Martha Wells' All Systems Red introduces the Murderbot, a rogue security android who has hacked its own programming and just wants to be left alone, but must protect its human clients from danger.
Alex White's A Song for a New Day is a near-future science fiction novel where a young woman with the ability to manipulate sound gets caught up in a resistance movement against a powerful corporation.
Connie Willis' Doomsday Book is a time-travel story where a historian from the future is sent back to the medieval period, but a time travel mishap lands her in the midst of the Black Plague, complicating both her mission and her survival.