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Best Science Fiction Books of 2016

The Science Fiction Novels of 2016 That Won Awards and Readers' Votes

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Best Science Fiction Books of 2016

Which science fiction novels defined 2016? This list ranks the year's books by how many independent signals back them: the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke awards, and the Goodreads Choice Awards science fiction vote.

Books that won or were shortlisted for several awards come first, followed by the books readers voted for most.

The ranking

1

Ninefox Gambit

Ninefox Gambit (Machineries Of Empire) Start here

Yoon Ha Lee is a name that science fiction fans will want to keep in mind for decades to come. Lee’s debut novel, Ninefox Gambit, is exactly the kind of military science fiction that will be defining the sub-genre thr...

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2

A Closed and Common Orbit

A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers)

by Becky Chambers

Once, Lovelace had eyes and ears everywhere. She was a ship's artificial intelligence system - possessing a personality and very human emotions. But when her ship was badly damaged, Lovelace was forced to reboot and rese...

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3

All the Birds in the Sky

All the Birds in the Sky

by Charlie Jane Anders

Nebula winner 2016

An ancient society of witches and a hipster technological startup go war as the world from tearing itself. To further complicate things, each of the groups’ most promising followers (Patricia, a brilliant witch and Laure...

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4

The Obelisk Gate

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth)

by Jemisin, N. K.

Hugo winner 2017

"Intricate and extraordinary." - New York Times on The Fifth Season Continuing the trilogy that began with the award-winning The Fifth Season Winner of the Hugo Award Shortlisted for the Nebula, Audie, and Locus Awards T...

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5

Death's End

Death's End (Three Body Series)

Mutually assured destruction has led to decades of peace between humanity and the Trisolarans, but a new force is awakening and this delicate balance can no longer hold... Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the un...

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6

Too Like the Lightning

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota) Start here

"The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on...

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7

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

by Colson Whitehead

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. Whe...

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8

Morningstar

Morningstar (Red Rising Trilogy)

by Brown, Pierce

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating next...

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9

Dark Matter

Dark Matter

by Blake Crouch

One night after an evening out, Jason Dessen, forty-year-old physics professor living with his wife and son in Chicago, is kidnapped at gunpoint by a masked man, driven to an abandoned industrial site and injected with a...

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10

After Atlas

After Atlas

"Acclaimed author Emma Newman returns to the captivating universe she created in Planetfall with a stunning science fiction mystery where one man's murder is much more than it seems... Govcorp detective Carlos Moreno was...

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11

Central Station

Central Station

by Tidhar, Lavie

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and d...

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12

Occupy Me (cover not available)

Occupy Me

by Tricia Sullivan

Pearl is an angel with wings and no clear memory of her origins, who works as a flight attendant and for a Resistance that tries to improve the world through small acts of kindness. She chases a killer living in another...

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13

Everfair

Everfair

An "alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's ... colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier"--Amazon.com.

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14

Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files) Start here

by Neuvel, Sylvain

A page-turning debut in the tradition of Michael Crichton, World War Z, and The Martian, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by an earthshaking mystery—and a fight to control a gargantuan power. A girl named Rose is ri...

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15

The Long Cosmos

The Long Cosmos (The Long Earth)

by Pratchett, Terry

The Next--the hyper-intelligent post-humans--realize that the missive they received from the center of the galaxy contains instructions for kick-starting the development of an immense artificial intelligence knows as The...

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16

A Murder in Time

A Murder in Time

by Julie McElwain

Kendra Donovan is an FBI profiler who, while chasing a killer, is thrown back to 1815 England. There she has to investigate a murder in a country house without the tools she knows. A time-travel mystery that mixes the mo...

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17

The Last One

The Last One

by Alexandra Oliva

A woman known as Zoo joins a twelve-person reality show, In the Dark, that sends contestants into the woods for a million-dollar prize. While they are out of contact, something catastrophic happens, but Zoo has no idea;...

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18

Underground Airlines

Underground Airlines

by Ben H. Winters

"It is the present-day, and the world is as we know it: smartphones, social networking and Happy Meals. Save for one thing: the Civil War never occurred. A gifted young Black man calling himself Victor has struck a barga...

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19

Crosstalk

Crosstalk

by Willis, Connie

Science fiction icon Connie Willis brilliantly mixes a speculative plot, the wit of Nora Ephron, and the comedic flair of P. G. Wodehouse in Crosstalk-- a genre-bending novel that pushes social media, Smartphone technolo...

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20

Gentleman Jole And The Red Queen

Gentleman Jole And The Red Queen (Vorkosigan Saga)

by Bujold, Lois Mcmaster

The last volume of Bujold's award winning Vorkosigan saga, Cordelia needs to find a new direction for her life.

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Trending Books in Best Science Fiction Books of 2016

Ninefox Gambit

Ninefox Gambit (Machineries Of Empire) Start here

Buy on Amazon

Crosstalk

Crosstalk

Buy on Amazon

A Murder in Time

A Murder in Time

Buy on Amazon

Gentleman Jole And The Red Queen

Gentleman Jole And The Red Queen (Vorkosigan Saga)

Bujold, Lois Mcmaster

Buy on Amazon

Everfair

Everfair

Buy on Amazon

The Obelisk Gate

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth)

Buy on Amazon

Death's End

Death's End (Three Body Series)

Buy on Amazon

Too Like the Lightning

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota) Start here

Buy on Amazon

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

Colson Whitehead

Buy on Amazon

Sleeping Giants

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files) Start here

Neuvel, Sylvain

Buy on Amazon

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