When the world seems bleak and stressful, I find that few things hold existential dread at bay as well as burying my nose in a good book — doubly so if that book is some kind of science-fiction story of escapism and wonder. Sci-fi has always been a genre of hope, one that explores humanity's potential and the myriad of ways we may yet expand and explore our universe.

Yet for those who didn't spend their childhoods with noses buried in sci-fi books that are dense, dry, or even painfully dated. There are as many subgenres and takes on sci-fi as there are stars in the sky, though, and these 10 books are all wonderful places for someone to start their journey of exploring the infinite frontier of the possible and impossible.

10 Dune By Frank Herbert

First Published In 1965

While it's heavily debatable how well the Dune series, as a whole, is suitable for new explorers of the genre, Dune itself is very much a must-read. Sure, the pacing is occasionally glacial and the world-building is incredibly dense. But reading Dune and feeling maybe a little overwhelmed by it is a rite of age for any science-fiction fan; as an early teenager, I read my first copy of Dune over and over until it fell apart.

the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. There's nothing requiring anyone to enjoy reading Dune, but understanding a genre is best achieved by looking at its highs and lows, and there's no disputing the fact that Frank Herbert's greatest book set a high bar for generations of authors to follow.

9 Old Man's War By John Scalzi

First Published In 2005

Old Man's War was John Scalzi's first traditionally published novel, and was written as a direct response to the classic Robert Heinlein novel Starship Troopers. While Starship Troopers is a confused book, seemingly both a celebration and condemnation of fascism, Old Man's War is a far more humanist perspective on the idea of a galaxy defined by conflict, and the sacrifices made by humanity in order to survive.

While military sci-fi, particularly space opera, is often a bleak and difficult genre, as most good war stories tend toward a grimness that often extinguishes the optimism and joy that less martial sci-fi aims to encapsulate, Old Man's War is a beautiful tale of exploring the very nature of humanity in situations that defy normal human experiences. It's a great litmus test for anyone unsure if military sci-fi is right for them – and it's the kickoff point for a brilliant, genre-savvy series of novels.

8 The Calculating Stars By Mary Robinette Kowal

First Published In 2018

2016's Hidden Figures, a story about the real Black women who worked as computers for the earliest incarnation of NASA's space program in 1961, was a phenomenal success of a film, lauded for its attention to a profoundly underrated group of scientific heroes. Two years later, The Calculating Stars looked at the same concept, but added a big-picture twist – what if those same women had the survival of the human race on their shoulders?

The Calculating Stars is a story of people overcoming a lifetime's worth of prejudices, both internal and external, as they work together to put not just one astronaut into Earth's orbit, but the entire human race. An unexpected calamity in 1950 sets the Earth on a course to a sudden new Ice Age, and the nascent space program, driven by the women serving as computers, must find a way to secure humanity's survival. It's brilliant, cerebral, funny, and occasionally profoundly sad, and makes a great example of science fiction that's still strongly rooted in the real world.

7 Space Opera By Catherynne M. Valente

First Published In 2018

A dare from a Twitter follower prompted Catherynne M. Valente to write a novel that was basically the science fiction version of Eurovision, and the result was Space Opera, a brilliantly witty tale of humanity's survival resting on the shoulders of unlikely heroes. In this case, those heroes are the two surviving of washed-up glam rock trio Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, who must either win an intergalactic song contest or see the Earth destroyed.

Space Opera is a hilarious read that still finds the time to make some interesting observations about human foibles in and among all the completely gonzo space aliens

While it's not the most profound book, and while the plot may sometimes seem dangerously similar to that one Rick & Morty episode with the giant head aliens, Space Opera is a hilarious read that still finds the time to make some interesting observations about human foibles in and among all the completely gonzo space aliens. For those who enjoy Space Opera's brand of weird, its sequel Space Oddity was just published at the end of 2024.

6 A Wrinkle In Time By Madeleine L’Engle

First Published In 1962

Like I think most children labeled as "weird" and born in the 20th century, I developed a deep and personal connection with A Wrinkle in Time, a story that dares to say that the love felt by weird children is a force more powerful than both profound evil and quantum mechanics. Madeleine L'Engle reportedly got rejected by somewhere between 26 and 40 publishers as she worked to bring A Wrinkle in Time to life at a time when the idea of a childrens' book that deals with absolute morality – and has a female protagonist, no less – was unthinkable.

The best way to experience it is one page at a time.

There's a magic to A Wrinkle in Time that's never been recaptured. L'Engle wrote four more novels following the Murray family, all of which were equally esoteric, but none of which had the same kind of gripping, crackling energy. Despite multiple attempts by Disney, no film version of A Wrinkle in Time has succeeded. Despite being nominally for children, A Wrinkle in Time is an earnestly humanist work of sci-fi, with a message and uniqueness that continue to elude adapting – which means the best way to experience it is one page at a time.

5 Iron Widow By Xiran Jay Zhao

First Published In 2021

The debut novel of Chinese-Candian author Xiran Jay Zhao topped the New York Times Best Sellers list within a week of its release in late 2021, and wound up spending over six months on the chart. It was a phenomenal success for the young author, who drew heavily from their Chinese heritage when crafting Iron Widow, which takes the historical figure of Wu Zeitan, China's first and only female emperor, and interpolates her into a setting as inspired by historical Chinese dramas as it is by mecha anime.

While "mecha" as a word and a defined genre began with Japanese manga like 1940's Electric Octopus and Mitsuteru Yokoyama's seminal 1956 release Tetsujin 28, the roots of stories about giant machines lie in 19th-century science fiction stories like Jules Verne's The Steam House (1880), which featured a piloted, mechanical, steam-powered elephant, and H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds (1897), where the invading aliens piloted massive tripodal war machines.

Zhao's story of Zeitan and her story of revenge-turned-success is an imaginative, intensely feminist, and profoundly queer thrill ride that's part Romance of the Three Kingdoms, part Pacific Rim. The massive Chrysalises, the techno-organic mecha heavily featured in the books, feel much like characters in their own right, as is the case in the best mecha stories. Its sequel, Heavenly Tyrant, released in December 2024.

4 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy By Douglas Adams

First Published In 1979

If Dune was the trendsetter for high-minded space operas that tell of intergalactic political masterminds, massive armies, and intellectual debates over the necessities of power, then The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the template for every story written since that posits a galaxy run by graft, incompetence, and sheer chaos. It's become the Monty Python and the Holy Grail of comic sci-fi, and readers may be surprised at how many parts of it they recognize – and more surprised at how many parts are genuinely inconsistent.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first in a series of five novels by Douglas Adams (with a sixth in the series written after Adams' death by Eoin Colfer), but it's also a six-season radio play that took 40 years to finish, and also a six-episode BBC TV series, and a major motion picture starring Martin Freeman, all of which tell the same general story in extremely different ways. Every form of The Hitchhiker's Guide is more hilarious than the last, although the books remain probably the most easily-digested version.

3 The Prey of Gods By Nicky Drayden

First Published In 2017

Nicky Drayden's debut novel The Prey of Gods was one I grabbed off a bookstore shelf on a random whim, and then immediately devoured in a single sitting. It's a fantastically thrilling tale of technology and divinity clashing in the heart of a near-future South Africa, where four people from vastly differing walks of life wind up having to come together and face off against a spiteful demigoddess.

So much of mainstream science fiction, especially the books that are always touted as classics, is innately Western in its outlook and mode of storytelling, but it's important to that there are other cultural bases that stories can spring out from. The Prey of Gods isn't just a great first sci-fi book for a neophyte reader, it's also an excellent work of Afrofuturist fiction for anyone tired of the same old Asimov-adjacent sci-fi.

2 Neuromancer By William Gibson

First Published In 1984

Another key novel of science fiction history, William Gibson's Neuromancer is, in a very tangible way, directly responsible for the shape of the modern Internet. In 1981, Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his short story "Burning Chrome," and Neuromancer, set in the same dystopic near future, expands on the concepts that he first detailed there, from the massive global computer network that connected everyone in real time, to the tension in the lives of the people who live on the cutting edge of that space, who live and die in it and rely on it for their livelihoods – cyberpunks.

For all its brilliant predictions of technological development, some of Neuromancer has aged enough to feel anachronistic, such as its utterly flawless opening line: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Younger readers likely can't a time when dead air was a standard part of television broadcasts, before 24-hour cable networks and streaming platforms allowed people to inundate themselves with media constantly.

Neuromancer defined the cutting-edge of technology and coolness for an entire generation in the '80s, and that generation grew up to be responsible for the development of tech and media, meaning everything from the Oculus Rift to Keanu Reeves saying "I know kung fu" in The Matrix traces back to this one book. Much like Frank Herbert and Dune, Gibson isn't always the most accessible author, but Neuromancer is an exciting thrill ride through a world of technology that, even though its now past its 40th birthday, still feels as vibrant and relevant as ever.

1 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet By Becky Chambers

First Published In 2014

The ramshackle spaceship full of misfits and misanthropes that bumble their way across a harsh and uncaring galaxy is a fundamental sci-fi trope, providing the premise for shows like Firefly and Red Dwarf, characters like Star Wars' Han Solo, and a truly uncountable number of books. Yet Becky Chambers' debut novel stands out, even amid such numerous and august company, because what so many of those other stories lack is a genuine, comionate heart – and heart is something that The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet has in spades.

The book basically takes place over the course of a year, as the crew of the tunneling ship Wayfarer travel far across the galaxy to do a fairly simple, if dangerous, job. Yet although the idea of a simple year-long trip across space might seem boring, the phenomenal cast of characters showcases not only Chambers' brilliance at writing interpersonal conflict and relationships, but also her excellent sense for worldbuilding, which she has since used with aplomb to write three more books in the same universe.