Best Contemporary Science Fiction Books

You might also call this list 'The Best Science Fiction Books of the 21st Century or even 'The Best Science Fiction of the 2000's. Whatever you call this list, it's the list that reflects the best books of the past 15 years -- books that brings a new perspective to the genre, embracing new technology and reinventing old ideas. And also, science fiction that is unequivocal fun and well written

The new century (2000's) began with the very science-fictional angst of the so-called "millennium bug" which, of course, never happened. It also began with the "British Boom", the explosion of exciting new work by British writers that had been building during the 1990s but that now burst forth to dominate science fiction around the world for several years at the start of the century. In the wake of the British boom came the new hard sf and the new space opera, the reinvention of the most traditional forms of science fiction to give them a new vigour and freshness that has made the twenty-first century so far a thrilling time to be reading science fiction.

And the changes keep on coming. Right now we are just beginning to discover the wealth of science fiction that is starting to emerge from Latin America, from Africa and from Asia. When we come to update this list in a few years time it would be surprising indeed if there weren't several examples of what we call "World SF" appearing here. But for now these are the novels that we think have made the most impact on science fiction during the first fifteen years of the new century.