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1. Rainbows End
by Vernor Vinge
- On the same lists
Rainbows End, for all it sounds like the title of a children's fantasy book, is some incredibly relevant sci fi. Sitting at number eight on our top 25 hard science...
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2. Everyone In Silico
by Jim Munroe
- On the same lists
Sticking with cyberpunk, but moving beyond it, we come to Everyone in Silico. Written in 2002, it rose to fame because it's author invoiced the companies mentioned for product placement...
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3. Tau Zero
by Anderson, Poul
- On the same lists
Tempted as we were to place this at number one, it's at number three of our top 25 hard science fiction books because this isn't just hard science fiction, it's...
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4. Natural History
by Justina Robson
- On the same lists
In the far future, humanity has split into the Unevolved and the Augmented. The latter have been forged by biotechnology into forms that allow them to live anywhere, including acting...
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5. Galapagos
by Kurt Vonnegut
- On the same lists
This is the story of a band of people shipwrecked on an island in the Galapagos after a crippling global financial crisis and a bacterium that spreads and makes women infertile—except on the shipwrecked island. The book covers the evolution of humanity over the next million years.
It was in the isolated environment of the Galapagos Islands that Charles Darwin made the observations that were crucial to the development of his ideas of natural selection, and it...
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Brainship book 1 Start here
6. The Ship Who Sang
by Mccaffrey, Anne
- On the same lists
Like both Blood Music and Man Plus, The Ship Who Sang deals with the transformation of one person’s body in a way that comes close to horror. But this novel,...
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7. Evolution
by Stephen Baxter
- On the same lists
This novel chronicles human evolution by telling a story where each character represents a different evolutionary stage.
If Last and First Men is the most spectacular, panoramic view of the future of life in our Solar System, Evolution runs it a close second. It begins 65 million...
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8. Man Plus (1977)
by Pohl, Frederik
- On the same lists
With nuclear war looming, the United States decides that the only way for humanity to survive is on Mars, and that people must be rebuilt for the planet's thin air....
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Rama book 1 Start here
9. Rendezvous With Rama (1974)
by Clarke, Arthur C.
- On the same lists
Has several echoes of ancient myths, the myth of Prometheus in particular.
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke won the 1974 Nebula Award for Best Novel
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10. Xenogenesis
by Butler, Octavia E.
- On the same lists
When the Earth is destroyed, the only hope for human life is in the form of the alien Oankali, who have rescued a precious few survivors. But will humans cope...
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The Color Of Distance book 1 Start here
11. The Color Of Distance
by Amy Thomson
- On the same lists
A look at a world where the inhabitants live in balance with their environment—with a bit of darkness and complexity as you delve deeper.
The Color of Distance makes the top five of our top 25 hard science fiction novels thanks to it's innovative use of biology and anthropology instead of the usual physics...
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Cheela book 1 Start here
12. Dragon's Egg
by Robert L. Forward
- On the same lists
Another great hard sci-fi epic, Forward’s book shows us the challenges humans face is they would live on a neutron star.
Dragon's Egg by Robert L Forward is the story of a civilisation that grows fast enough for humans to observe - with each day of the new civilisation being equivalent...
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Jean Le Flambeur book 1 Start here
13. The Quantum Thief
by Hannu Rajaniemi
- On the same lists
The Quantum Thief is the story of a heist. However, it's a heist set in a posthuman future, so expect something special. Coming in at 24 of our top 25...
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14. Triton
by Delany, Samuel R.
- On the same lists
Also published as Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia, the novel was conceived as a response to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Ambiguous Utopia, The Dispossessed. But at the core of...
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15. Fools
by Pat Cadigan
- On the same lists
Cyberpunk, despite its interest in body modifications and computer interfaces, was never really concerned with the posthuman. But occasionally a cyberpunk work would start probing towards the posthuman, raising issues...
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16. Incandescence
by Greg Egan
- Same author
This novel has two narratives, each told from two different alien civilizations as they explore scientific ideas.
This novel has two narratives, each told from two different alien civilizations as they explore scientific ideas.
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Culture book 3
17. Use Of Weapons
by Iain M. Banks
- On the same lists
Features a Utopian society (culture) that's post scarcity, controlled by benevolent A. I.'s who act for the good of the society. When Culture encounters less enlightened societies, the fun begins.
Iain Banks burst onto the literary scene with his controversial first novel, The Wasp Factory, the violent story of a girl who had been brought up as an emasculated boy....
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18. Accelerando
- On the same lists
Ever since the computer became a fixture in the ordinary life of every one of us, it has been one of the most potent images in the idea of posthumanity....
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19. Lilith's Brood
by Butler, Octavia E.
- On the same lists
Science fiction isnât always meant to be comfortable or easy reading. Quite the opposite, any literature so based on ideas must challenge the reader, make them think differently (if only...
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Six Million Dollar Man book 1 Start here
20. Cyborg
by Martin Caidin
- On the same lists
Frederik Pohl’s Man Plus is, to say the least, ambiguous about the benefits of cyborgisation. But that is not how most people see it. The most popular examples of the...
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Firefall book 1 Start here
21. Blindsight
by Peter Watts
- On the same lists
A group of freaks (who are also astronauts) are sent on a one way mission to investigate a mysterious object that appears at the edge of human space. Atmospheric and creepy.
This novel has been hailed as one of the best hard sf stories written this century. It's an awesome novel, packed with invention and new ideas and challenges to the...
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22. The Xipehuz And The Death Of The Earth
- On the same lists
The Belgian writer, who used the pseudonym J.-H. Rosny aîné, was possibly the leading continental rival to H.G. Wells, producing a string of vivid and inventive short novels. This one,...
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Who Fears Death book 2
23. The Book Of Phoenix
by Okorafor, Nnedi
- On the same lists
As we have seen in books like Man Plus, one way to achieve posthumanity is to remake ourselves in a new form. But experimenting upon ourselves in that way comes...
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24. Schismatrix Plus
by Bruce Sterling
- On the same lists
This series is a pioneering example of this sub-genre.
Almost as important as Greg Egan’s work in describing posthumanity is Bruce Sterling’s sequence of Mechanist and Shaper stories in which posthumanity is divided between those who use mechanical means...
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25. The Hampdenshire Wonder
by J D Beresford
- On the same lists
This was the first novel to fully explore the consequences of the birth of homo superior. Victor Stott is born weak and awkward, with an enlarged head, and at first,...
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26. Contact
by Sagan, Carl
- On the same lists
Scientists discover a message from an intelligent source and must travel deep into space to meet it.
In the year 1999 a multinational team of astronauts sets out to discover the secrets of the universe.
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27. Falling Free (1989)
by Bujold, Lois Mcmaster
- On the same lists
A long running and award winning series that mixes politics, romance, medical ethics, personal identity, and hierarchies.
The quaddies are a generation of people engineered by the corporation GalacTech to work in zero gravity, with four arms and no legs, and they are treated as company property....
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28. World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War
by Max Brooks
- On the same lists
The zombie war told as interviews with the survivors, Max Brooks's chilling oral history.
The Zombie Apocalypse has become one of the most pervasive themes in sf and horror over the last few years, so much so that it has escaped genre and become...
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Mars Trilogy book 1 Start here
29. Red Mars (1994)
by Robinson, Kim Stanley
- On the same lists
A mission is launched to terraform Mars in this scientific epic.
In 2026, a hundred colonists set off on the first long voyage to Mars. Among them are John Boone, the first man to walk on the planet, and his rival...
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30. More Than Human
by Theodore Sturgeon
- On the same lists
There was a period when science fiction tended to refer to the next stage in human evolution as homo superior, and one of the ways of achieving this state was...
Matches come from series and authors, from the lists the books share, and from the books readers open together. They are rebuilt every night. Back to Diaspora.
The shortlist
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