I’ve been watching a lot of science fiction book reviewers on YouTube and quite often they make me feel completely out of touch with current science fiction. It seems like there are a thousand new science fiction books published each year, and I seldom read what people are talking about.
I feel well-read in the genre before 1980, maybe even 1990, but after that, when I hear young people talking about new science fiction I feel like I’ve been left behind. To see how unread I am I use the list builder feature and CSFquery to find any SF book that had gotten at least 3 citations published during the years 2000-2022. I created the checklist below. I marked the ones I’ve read with an R and the ones I’ve bought hoping to read with an O.
I haven’t done too bad for those books that have gotten a lot of attention, but as their recognition has fallen off, so has my rate of reading. When I was young I read one or two dozen new SF books each year, but that’s been decades. I recently read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, meaning I’m a year late. I don’t remember the last time I read an SF book just after it was published.
How well-read are you with 21st-century science fiction? Are you young or old? How many new SF books do you read each year? And what books do you recommend that are missing from the list?
| Title | Author | Year | Citations | Read/Own |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | 2008 | 17 | R |
| The Windup Girl | Paolo Bacigalupi | 2009 | 17 | R |
| The Road | Cormac McCarthy | 2006 | 16 | R |
| Altered Carbon | Richard K. Morgan | 2002 | 15 | R |
| Ancillary Justice | Ann Leckie | 2013 | 15 | R |
| The Martian | Andy Weir | 2012 | 13 | R |
| Old Man’s War | John Scalzi | 2005 | 13 | R |
| The Time Traveler’s Wife | Audrey Niffenegger | 2003 | 13 | R |
| Anathem | Neal Stephenson | 2008 | 12 | O |
| The City & The City | China Miéville | 2009 | 12 | R |
| Never Let Me Go | Kazuo Ishiguro | 2005 | 12 | R |
| Revelation Space | Alastair Reynolds | 2000 | 12 | O |
| World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War | Max Brooks | 2006 | 12 | |
| Cloud Atlas | David Mitchell | 2004 | 11 | R |
| Embassytown | China Miéville | 2011 | 11 | R |
| Little Brother | Cory Doctorow | 2008 | 11 | R |
| Oryx and Crake | Margaret Atwood | 2003 | 11 | |
| Station Eleven | Emily St. John Mandel | 2014 | 11 | R |
| Boneshaker | Cherie Priest | 2009 | 10 | R |
| Passage | Connie Willis | 2001 | 10 | |
| Accelerando | Charles Stross | 2005 | 9 | |
| Pandora’s Star | Peter F. Hamilton | 2004 | 9 | O |
| Ready Player One | Ernest Cline | 2011 | 9 | R |
| The Speed of Dark | Elizabeth Moon | 2002 | 9 | R |
| Spin | Robert Charles Wilson | 2005 | 9 | R |
| The Yiddish Policemen’s Union | Michael Chabon | 2007 | 9 | R |
| Air | Geoff Ryman | 2004 | 8 | |
| Blackout/All Clear | Connie Willis | 2010 | 8 | O |
| Leviathan Wakes | Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck | 2011 | 8 | R |
| Redshirts | John Scalzi | 2012 | 8 | R |
| The Years of Rice and Salt | Kim Stanley Robinson | 2002 | 8 | O |
| Among Others | Jo Walton | 2011 | 7 | R |
| Ancillary Sword | Ann Leckie | 2014 | 7 | |
| Annihilation | Jeff VanderMeer | 2014 | 7 | R |
| The Fifth Season | N. K. Jemisin | 2015 | 7 | O |
| Ilium | Dan Simmons | 2003 | 7 | |
| Midnight Robber | Nalo Hopkinson | 2000 | 7 | |
| Mockingjay | Suzanne Collins | 2010 | 7 | R |
| Rainbows End | Vernor Vinge | 2006 | 7 | |
| River of Gods | Ian McDonald | 2004 | 7 | |
| The Three-Body Problem | Cixin Liu | 2014 | 7 | R |
| Wool Omnibus | Hugh Howey | 2012 | 7 | O |
| Blindsight | Peter Watts | 2006 | 6 | O |
| The Calculating Stars | Mary Robinette Kowal | 2018 | 6 | R |
| Catching Fire | Suzanne Collins | 2009 | 6 | R |
| The Dervish House | Ian McDonald | 2010 | 6 | |
| Hominids | Robert J. Sawyer | 2002 | 6 | O |
| Light | M. John Harrison | 2002 | 6 | |
| The Scar | China Miéville | 2002 | 6 | |
| The Separation | Christopher Priest | 2002 | 6 | |
| All the Birds in the Sky | Charlie Jane Anders | 2016 | 5 | R |
| Ash: A Secret History | Mary Gentle | 2000 | 5 | |
| The Chronoliths | Robert Charles Wilson | 2001 | 5 | |
| Ninefox Gambit | Yoon Ha Lee | 2016 | 5 | |
| Pattern Recognition | William Gibson | 2003 | 5 | |
| Red Rising | Pierce Brown | 2014 | 5 | O |
| The Telling | Ursula K. Le Guin | 2000 | 5 | |
| Zoo City | Lauren Beukes | 2010 | 5 | |
| The Algebraist | Iain M. Banks | 2004 | 4 | |
| Ancillary Mercy | Ann Leckie | 2015 | 4 | |
| Bold as Love | Gwyneth Jones | 2001 | 4 | |
| Chasm City | Alastair Reynolds | 2001 | 4 | |
| The City We Became | N. K. Jemisin | 2020 | 4 | |
| Diplomatic Immunity | Lois McMaster Bujold | 2002 | 4 | |
| The Goblin Emperor | Sarah Monette | 2014 | 4 | |
| How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe | Charles Yu | 2010 | 4 | O |
| In War Times | Kathleen Ann Goonan | 2007 | 4 | |
| The Last Colony | John Scalzi | 2007 | 4 | |
| The Long Way to a Small, Angry, Planet | Becky Chambers | 2014 | 4 | O |
| Look to Windward | Iain M. Banks | 2000 | 4 | |
| Matter | Iain M. Banks | 2008 | 4 | |
| A Memory Called Empire | Arkady Martine | 2019 | 4 | |
| Network Effect | Martha Wells | 2020 | 4 | |
| Piranesi | Susanna Clarke | 2020 | 4 | |
| The Plot Against America | Philip Roth | 2004 | 4 | |
| Seveneves | Neal Stephenson | 2015 | 4 | R |
| Spinning Silver | Naomi Novik | 2018 | 4 | |
| The Year of the Flood | Margaret Atwood | 2009 | 4 | |
| 11/22/63 | Stephen King | 2011 | 3 | |
| 1Q84 | Haruki Murakami | 2011 | 3 | O |
| 2312 | Kim Stanley Robinson | 2012 | 3 | R |
| Absolution Gap | Alastair Reynolds | 2003 | 3 | |
| All Systems Red | Martha Wells | 2017 | 3 | R |
| Ancient, Ancient | Kiini Ibura Salaam | 2012 | 3 | |
| Black Sun | Rebecca Roanhorse | 2020 | 3 | |
| The Book of Phoenix | Nnedi Okorafor | 2015 | 3 | |
| Brasyl | Ian McDonald | 2007 | 3 | |
| Children of Time | Adrian Tchaikovsky | 2015 | 3 | R |
| The City in the Middle of the Night | Charlie Jane Anders | 2019 | 3 | |
| The Collapsing Empire | John Scalzi | 2017 | 3 | |
| Crescent City Rhapsody | Kathleen Ann Goonan | 2000 | 3 | |
| Cryoburn | Lois McMaster Bujold | 2010 | 3 | |
| Daemon | Daniel Suarez | 2006 | 3 | |
| Death’s End | Cixin Liu | 2016 | 3 | |
| A Desolation Called Peace | Arkady Martine | 2021 | 3 | |
| Divergent | Veronica Roth | 2011 | 3 | |
| The Dreaming Void | Peter F. Hamilton | 2007 | 3 | |
| The Drowning Girl | Caitlín R. Kiernan | 2012 | 3 | |
| Dust | Hugh Howey | 2013 | 3 | |
| The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August | Claire North | 2014 | 3 | O |
| Genesis | Poul Anderson | 2000 | 3 | |
| Gideon the Ninth | Tamsyn Muir | 2019 | 3 | |
| The Girl with All the Gifts | M. R. Carey | 2013 | 3 | R |
| The Highest Frontier | Joan Slonczewski | 2011 | 3 | |
| The Host | Stephenie Meyer | 2008 | 3 | |
| House of Suns | Alastair Reynolds | 2008 | 3 | |
| The Islanders | Christopher Priest | 2011 | 3 | |
| Jack Glass | Adam Roberts | 2012 | 3 | |
| Jade City | Fonda Lee | 2017 | 3 | |
| The Kappa Child | Hiromi Goto | 2002 | 3 | |
| Life | Gwyneth Jones | 2004 | 3 | |
| Lilith’s Brood | Octavia E. Butler | 2000 | 3 | |
| The Long Earth | Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter | 2012 | 3 | |
| Mexican Gothic | Silvia Moreno-Garcia | 2020 | 3 | |
| The Mount | Carol Emshwiller | 2002 | 3 | |
| My Real Children | Jo Walton | 2014 | 3 | |
| The Obelisk Gate | N. K. Jemisin | 2016 | 3 | |
| Omega | Jack McDevitt | 2003 | 3 | |
| Perdido Street Station | China Miéville | 2000 | 3 | |
| The Prefect | Alastair Reynolds | 2007 | 3 | |
| Probability Space | Nancy Kress | 2002 | 3 | |
| Pushing Ice | Alastair Reynolds | 2005 | 3 | O |
| The Quantum Rose | Catherine Asaro | 2000 | 3 | R |
| The Quantum Thief | Hannu Rajaniemi | 2010 | 3 | |
| Quicksilver | Neal Stephenson | 2003 | 3 | O |
| The Red: First Light | Linda Nagata | 2013 | 3 | |
| Redemption Ark | Alastair Reynolds | 2002 | 3 | |
| Rosewater | Tade Thompson | 2018 | 3 | |
| Shadow of the Hegemon | Orson Scott Card | 2001 | 3 | |
| Shift | Hugh Howey | 2013 | 3 | |
| Singularity Sky | Charles Stross | 2003 | 3 | |
| Six Wakes | Mur Lafferty | 2017 | 3 | |
| Song of Time | Ian R. MacLeod | 2008 | 3 | |
| Starshine | G. S. Jennsen | 2014 | 3 | |
| The Stone Sky | N. K. Jemisin | 2017 | 3 | |
| Stories of Your Life and Others | Ted Chiang | 2002 | 3 | O |
| Strange Bodies | Marcel Theroux | 2013 | 3 | |
| Surface Detail | Iain M. Banks | 2010 | 3 | |
| Trail of Lightning | Rebecca Roanhorse | 2018 | 3 | |
| Uglies | Scott Westerfeld | 2005 | 3 | O |
| Under the Dome | Stephen King | 2009 | 3 | |
| Valor’s Choice | Tanya Huff | 2000 | 3 |
James Wallace Harris, 8/9/22
Classics of Science Fiction 
That’s a great list! I’m going to use it.
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How many have your read Doug?
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James, you and I are in similar situations. I grew up reading what would be called classics today, I’m reasonable well read through about 1980, after that, not so much. Your list will help me become a little more contemporary. To an earlier post about Andy Weir’s Hail Mary………..a great book and it left a bit misty eyed too.
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It does feel like there are two kinds of science fiction – classic and modern. I guess that comes from getting old. I’ve been watching this YouTuber called Bookpilled, a young guy who often reviews classic science fiction. I feel he’s telling me about how he sees things from his side of the generation gap. I’ve been thinking I should read more new SF — and I do with short fiction, but not novels. Here’s one of Bookpilled’s videos:
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Great list, Jim. I have read several published this century, esp. E. Moon, A. Smale, A. Tchaikovsky, A. Martine, G. Benford, C. Paolini, S. Baxter, C. Liu, A. Weir, KSR, Brin, Kosmatka, etc.
I still feel like I am behind, however!
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FYI — I listed most of the SF novels (as well as SF/Alt-history) I read this century. I am not listing any anthologies (original or reprint), i.e., Ted Chiang, even though I’ve ready MANY. Many [25%?] in your list I do not consider as science fiction or is young adult (entirely different audience).
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I’ve read nine of these and have one more on my TBR list. Which is better than I thought I’d do. I’m also trying to read a few more recent books, so I might look up a few of these and see.
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Completed six, DNF six on your list. I only watch 2 SF booktubers, both British, and besides all the new books that I haven’t read, it seems that there are differences between US SF and British SF in the books they read and value.
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I’ve read 35 of these. Most of them where good. Anathem is the best of the list.
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Funny, I just counted, you read 35 too.
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Jim, thanks for an interesting and thought provoking question. I have taken a fairly brute force approach to comparing your table with what comes out of my Book Database for SF novels 2000 and after. I have attempted to omit collections, anthologies, fantasy, horror, etc, but I’m sure some has crept in. I also included entries where your list has a book that I read, even if not perhaps SF. I decided that I would not list a book as “Recommended to Jim” unless it was at least a “Great” rating by me. That results in 202 books that I would recommend to you. Of course, this is very personal and I suspect you might not want to read some of the authors I tend to follow. Here is a link to my Google Sheets table with the comparisons and recommendations. Good luck and best wishes, Dave Hook https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yb1kJnTAwYnHlp_3C2VInFtwW9K2oxAIJhjBz6X4mX0/edit?usp=sharing
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21 read. 10 partially read, with no intention of finishing.
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