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Best Science Fiction Books of 2021

The Science Fiction Novels of 2021 That Won Awards and Readers' Votes

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Best Science Fiction Books of 2021

Which science fiction novels defined 2021? 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

Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alon...

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2

A Desolation Called Peace

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan)

by Arkady Martine

Hugo winner 2022

Sequel to A Memory Called Empire.An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.In a desperate a...

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3

Light From Uncommon Stars

Light From Uncommon Stars

An adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entic...

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4

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers)

by Becky Chambers

With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wor...

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5

Machinehood

Machinehood

In 2095 most people depend on pills that keep them alive and let them compete with AI in a gig economy. Welga Ramirez, a former special forces soldier turned bodyguard, loses a client in an attack by the Machinehood, a g...

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6

Klara and the Sun

Klara and the Sun

by Ishiguro, Kazuo

"Klara and the Sun, the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in th...

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7

Plague Birds

Plague Birds

by Jason Sanford

Ten thousand years after civilisation collapsed, humans altered with animal genes live in farming villages. Plague birds are enforcers with AIs in their blood who can kill anyone judged guilty. Crista saw one kill her mo...

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8

Deep Wheel Orcadia

Deep Wheel Orcadia

by Harry Josephine Giles

Harry Josephine Giles's verse novel is written in Orkney dialect, with an English version alongside, and set on a distant space station struggling to survive. Astrid, an art student returning from Mars, and Darling, who...

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9

A River Called Time

A River Called Time

by Courttia Newland

In an alternate history where colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade never took hold and African cosmologies shaped the world, Markriss Denny lives in Dinium, a city split between an elite enclosed habitat and a p...

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10

Skyward Inn

Skyward Inn

by Aliya Whiteley

Jem and Isley, two veterans who fought on opposite sides of the invasion of the planet Qita, run an inn in an isolated corner of England. Their quiet is broken when a visitor from Isley's past arrives asking for help. A...

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11

The Echo Wife

The Echo Wife

by Gailey, Sarah

Evelyn Caldwell is a leading cloning scientist who discovers that her husband Nathan has used her research to make Martine, a copy of her who is his idea of the perfect wife and has become his lover. The story turns on N...

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12

Fugitive Telemetry

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries)

by Wells, Martha

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine...

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13

Winter's Orbit

Winter's Orbit

by Everina Maxwell

While the Iskat Empire has long dominated the system through treaties and political alliances, several planets, including Thea, have begun to chafe under Iskat's rule. When tragedy befalls Imperial Prince Taam, his Thean...

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14

The End of Men

The End of Men

by Christina Sweeney-Baird

A virus kills most of the world's men in 2025, and Dr Amy Lennox, a Scottish doctor, sees the first cases. The novel follows women across the world as societies break down and are rebuilt, through the voices of those who...

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15

Remote Control

Remote Control

by Okorafor, Nnedi

After a meteor shower, a glowing seed lands near a shea tree in northern Ghana and gives a girl named Fatima a deadly power: anything she touches dies. After a tragedy forces her from her home she becomes Sankofa, who wa...

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16

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot) Start here

by Becky Chambers

It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth an...

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17

Shards of Earth

Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture) Start here

by Tchaikovsky, Adrian

Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed by an alien 'Architect'. Some escaped, but millions more died. So to protect its colonies, humanity shaped the minds of Idris and others into weapons and sent them into battle. But t...

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18

Rabbits

Rabbits

Conspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast.It'...

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19

Termination Shock

Termination Shock

by Stephenson, Neal

A billionaire has an idea for reversing global warming, but will it work? And what will the consequences for the planet be? A disparate group of characters from around the globe fight to solve the problem of global warmi...

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20

Constance

Constance

by Matthew FitzSimmons

In a near future where the rich back themselves up with clones, Constance D'Arcy wakes in a clinic eighteen months after her last upload, with her recent memories missing, and is told that her original body is dead. As s...

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Trending Books in Best Science Fiction Books of 2021

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers)

Buy on Amazon

Machinehood

Machinehood

Buy on Amazon

Constance

Constance

Matthew FitzSimmons

Buy on Amazon

Remote Control

Remote Control

Okorafor, Nnedi

Buy on Amazon

Winter's Orbit

Winter's Orbit

Everina Maxwell

Buy on Amazon

Klara and the Sun

Klara and the Sun

Ishiguro, Kazuo

Buy on Amazon

Plague Birds

Plague Birds

Buy on Amazon

Deep Wheel Orcadia

Deep Wheel Orcadia

Harry Josephine Giles

Buy on Amazon

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot) Start here

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The End of Men

The End of Men

Christina Sweeney-Baird

Buy on Amazon

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