Best Literary Science Fiction Books

What does Literary Science Fiction mean? Well not plot-heavy shoot-em-up adventures for a start, but that still leaves a lot of territory. Not 'literary' authors condescending to write sf, because that way leads to junk like O-Zone by Paul Theroux. Not science fiction authors writing mainstream fiction; there are some superb examples out there but, well, it's just not science fiction is it?

No, for the purposes of this list, we're looking at novels by mainstream authors that were published as mainstream, reviewed as mainstream, but subsequently recognised as science fiction. And pretty damned amazing science fiction it is too. Well, just look at the books we've chosen.

Literary SF also tends to focus on literary structures (plot, prose, themes) and there is usually JUST as much focus on HOW the story is told, in the prose used to tell the story, in the narrative structures binding the story (you know, all those literary devices you learned in English lit class), and the themes / subtext present. While SF is genereally concerned with telling a future story, the literary SF focuses on HOW it's told just as much as WHAT is told.

It's the 'HOW' part that makes it complicated to pin down literary -- is it just a publishing term used to categorize a book that's published mainstream rather than genre or does it define a separate style of SF that focuses on themes, language, and literary devices, or is it a genre?

Let me say that perhaps it's 'all of fhese', 'some of these' and 'non of these' and leave it at that.

If you want a breakdown of the what defines SF as 'literary', please read our Literary Science Fiction subgenre guide.