Quinn kicked things off (as always) by arguing that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy belongs on the list based solely on cultural impact. “Fourteen million copies sold,” he waved his hands. “Everyone knows Deep Thought says the answer is 42. Adams showed us science fiction could actually be funny without being stupid.”
“You’re arguing from sales numbers?” Kathleen blinked at him defensively. “Books that Changed Science Fiction is supposed to be about the books that changed what science fiction could do, not the books that sold the most copies.”
“Few people have read the book,” Dylan countered reasonably, ever eager to point out that books can change culture through film adaptations. “How many people know that 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything without having watched the movie? It’s literally our highest-ranked cultural item that most people have experienced via meta-narrative rather than direct.”
Zara had been busy creating a weighted ranking system based on accuracy of technological predictions, which predictably lead to several shouting matches with Luna about whether cyberspace was a bigger idea than predicting sentient A.I. evolution. Jaxon had spent most of the discussion insisting on an objective philosophical litmus test, despite everyone else rolling their eyes that Dick deserved the top spot over books that asked bigger questions about reality.
Choosing the books was hell. Did we rank books that influenced the most other writers? Popularised subgenres? Accurately predicted technological and/or societal trends? Asked the biggest philosophical questions of humanity’s place in the cosmos? Went boldly where no science fiction books had gone before and actually managed to explore new themes and ideas in an effective way? After three hours and several strongly-worded emails debating these choices, we settled on science fiction novels that measurably expanded what science fiction could be as a genre. Books that opened new doors. Ideas that became sci-fi standards. Books that proved science fiction could tackle themes and ideas previously considered beyond the genre’s purview.
So here they are. The books that didn’t just change science fiction but changed everything. They might not be the smoothest reads, they might not even be our personal favourites. But these are the science fiction novels that kicked down the wall of science fiction’s imagination and announced that sci-fi could contain multitudes. From cyberpunk prophesying the techtopian nightmares of modern life to comedy being legitimate philosophy, from deconstructing gender to mathematically predicting the collapse of civilisation, these books prove that science fiction is the most ambitious genre in literature.
## Quick Rankings
1. Neuromancer – our digital lives spelled out in literary magic
2. The Left Hand of Darkness – gender as societal not biological imperative
3. Foundation – saw the multiversal flow of historical mathematics
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – what makes us truly human?
5. Hyperion – when literature has space opera hugs space opera
6. Brave New World – your reward for being obedient is getting to watch porn
7. The Forever War – what if Vietnam had spaceships?
8. Childhood’s End – evolution is the worst
9. Snow Crash – meme stock before it was cool to read about memes
10. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Space. Totally ruins your day.
## 1. Neuromancer (1984)
| Awards Triple Crown | First novel to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards |
| Big Words | Coined the terms “cyberspace” and “the matrix” |
| Reviews | 17,594 Goodreads reviews |
| Legacy | Founded the cyberpunk movement |
Few books have created a vocabulary quite like Neuromancer. Before Neuromancer, science fiction books with computers treated them like IBM mainframes run by systems using punched cards. Gibson imagined hackers plugging their consciousness into a global data landscape, artificially intelligent beings reaching godlike levels of technological ascendancy, and technology that augmented humanity as much as it enslaved it.
What makes it essential: The language of cyber space that became standard for all media that occurred “on the internet”. The film noir mood imported into high tech futures. The recognition that our technological advances would create a corporate powered hell rather than democracy’s shining city on the hill. Gibson’s writing that made drug-addled psychosis sound like a psychedelic fantasy.
Does it hold up? You can see where we get a lot of modern technological buzzwords from, but the tech itself feels woefully outdated. Frankly, Gibson was eerily on point about how immense corporate power would become and how data would become a currency of its own. Reading Gibson is like taking a caffeine pill, which fits perfectly with his themes but might be tough going if you don’t keep caffeine pills on hand while reading.
As you may have guessed by now, Luna loves Neuromancer. Read [Luna Vega’s take down of Neuromancer](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12291) →
## 2. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
| Awards | Hugo and Nebula Award winner 1970 |
| Reviews | 20,716 Goodreads reviews |
| Universities | Standard university curriculum text for gender studies |
| Breaking Stereotypes | Demonstrated gender as social rather than biologically compulsory |
Imagine a world where there are no men and no women, just people. But it’s not a hermaphroditic world, instead gender doesn’t exist because the aliens from Winter experience sexuality only once a month when they enter “kemmer”. Genderless (or should we say agender?) Gethenians force the human protagonists to question how deeply gender divides and rules humanity.
What makes it essential: The deconstruction of gendered language, sexuality, and power dynamics. The road trip at the centre of the novel that turns into a story about devotion and sacrifice. The way Le Guin doesn’t hit you over the head with gender as social construct by instead illustrating how humanity defaults to gendered thinking in politics, language, and personal relations. Beautiful prose that proves science fiction can wrestle with gender in just as literarily competent a way as any mainstream fiction.
Does it hold up? This should be required reading in 2019. Gender is a cultural construct, but many people are still fighting this notion. Politics aside, some readers find the novel’s choices in pronouns and political system cringe-worthy. None of that detracts from the core truths here of how we perceive gender roles and how damaging it can be when society mandates them.
You should know by now that Kathleen is a devoted Le Guin fanatic. Read [Kathleen’s breakdown of Le Guin’s essential novel](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12297) →
## 3. Foundation (1951)
| Awards | Retro Hugo Award winner 2018 |
| Reviews | 19,717 Goodreads reviews |
| First Copy | $2.75 copy of first edition (premium for 1951 release) |
| Scale Inspiration | For the first true galaxy spanning epic |
Isaac Asimov didn’t just predict the concept of massive galactic empires that spanned hundreds of stars. He was the first to predict psychohistory; the mathematical concept that allows you to predict the actions of large groups of people across centuries because when you analyse entire populations statistical patterns become predictable. It was this concept that lead to the rebuilding of society at the conclusion of Foundation.
What makes it essential: The sheer scale of Asimov’s vision that could move between planets lightyears apart whilst maintaining coherence and plotting. Psychohistory that wouldn’t just inspire later epic visions like Dune but modern concepts like Big Data. The anthology style allowed Asimov to delve into the grimdark collapse of society in numerous ways without becoming bogged down in plot. The ultimate optimism that through knowledge we can save ourselves from repeating history’s relentless cycles of civilization and barbarism.
Does it still hold up? Asimov’s characters aren’t known for being deep, and his sexism is egregious by modern standards. Thankfully the key concepts; mathematical predictions of future events through study of the past, preserving scientific knowledge through technology, and the concept of deliberately guiding social development rather than leaving it up to nature hold up just fine. Modern readers are forgiving of the novels flaws because the ideas are that good.
We all know Dylan loves his space opera, so of course he’s defending Foundation. Read [Dylan Arkwright’s look at Asimov’s giant sized reputation](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12293) →
## 4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
| Film Adaptation | Inspired an entire franchise with the film Blade Runner |
| Editions | 88 editions available (Goodreads) |
| Publisher | Doubleday (publisher bonus points!) |
| Downloads | Downloaded by Archive.org |
Science fiction is filled with stories that ask what it means to be human. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? probed this question by asking what differentiated humans from genetically altered humans with constructed memories. Was empathy the defining quality of human life?
What makes it essential: The Voigt-Kampff test to measure empathy as the only way to tell if you’re talking to a human or a replicant. The religion of shared suffering that unified humanity called Mercerism. The capitalism that made owning a live animal status symbol in a post-apocalyptic world where almost all animal life is extinct. The anxiety of unknowing that there was any truth to what was real.
Does it still hold up? The question of artificial empathy is only becoming more pressing as AI becomes more integrated into our lives. An entire planet allowed to die ecologically is scary accurate. Who’s to say what’s real these days?
Jaxon doesn’t just love Dick, he loves quoting Dick at inappropriate times. Read [Jaxon Trent’s analysis of Dick’s classic](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12295) →
## 5. Hyperion (1989)
| Awards | Hugo Award winner for Best Novel (1990) |
| Editions | 186 editions recorded (Goodreads) |
| Translations | Awarded at the ConFiction awards in The Hague 1990 |
| Structure | A modern Canterbury Tales set in space |
Chip assimilated space opera and The Canterbury Tales and didn’t drop the ball. Each pilgrim’s story delves into a different mystery of the universe Hyperion inhabits whilst building towards a revelation about the world that justifies every information drop along the way.
What makes it essential: Chip borrowed from just about every science fiction subgenre to create a mystery that brought them all together. Seriously, there’s hard science fiction, horror, literary fiction, cyberpunk? All in service to this bigger mystery. The Shrike. Androids gaining sentience and worshiping their own technological developments. Time manipulation. Chip showed space opera could be just as complex as classic literature without losing wonder.
Does it still hold up? If anything, Hyperion’s ambitions makes it stand out against a lot of today’s science fiction that prefers minimal hooks and stand-alone novels. Some modern audiences balk at the timeline and managing multiple books, but they’re just not paying attention. Though some may find it dated, the android developments predicted our modern concerns with AI.
Zara refuses to believe people don’t see how great Hyperion is. Read [Zara Valen’s review of Hyperion](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12299) →
## 6. Brave New World (1932)
| Ratings | 2,125,227 ratings across multiple platforms |
| Reviews | 60,878 reviews |
| Rating | 8.00 rating on the ISFDB |
| Published | Published 1932, accurately predicted modern consumer culture |
When most people try to imagine dystopia they think Oceania watching Big Brother spy on them at all times. But Huxley predicted that far easier than a dystopia run on pleasure. A world in which everyone is so thoroughly indoctrinated into consumer culture and mood altering drugs that they don’t realise they’re being oppressed until they try to leave society. Sound familiar?
What makes it essential: People didn’t realise they were programming themselves to accept oppressive controls until Brave New World. The world is caste with conditioning instead of prisons and soldiers. Happiness without pills? Feel good drugs that don’t come with side effects? Reproductive technology that challenges social structures and human relationships.
Does it still hold up? Truly the canonical version of the “your reward for being obedient is watching porn” version of dystopia. As far a sexual politics go, some of it hasn’t aged well but Huxley did posit that giving people everything they wanted would leave them profoundly unhappy.
Remember how Dylan just defended Foundation? Now he’s gunning for Brave New World. Read [Dylan’s breakdown of Huxley’s novel](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12301) →
## 7. The Forever War (1974)
| Awards | Hugo (1976) and Nebula (1975) Award winner |
| Triple | Hugo, Nebula, and Ditmar Award winner |
| Series | SF Masterworks Series – book 1 of Hugo award winning series |
| Released | Vietnam vet Joe Haldeman’s story of the future of war published 1974 |
This is the hardest war novel to read because Haldeman was a veteran of Vietnam and he translated his experience into warfare on a universal scale. Forever War tackles the military with brutal honesty few authors care to approach. War becomes a dance with death you sign up for to avoid dying of boredom at home. Each battle ages the soldiers decades due to time dilation and by the time they return home the world has continued on without them.
What makes it essential: Forever War may be the only honest book about the military experience. Time dilation makes every battle feel like you’re returning to a world decades beyond your own. Soldiers feel more alienated from society than the aliens they fight against. Even the economy wants you to fight forever wars.
Does it still hold up? If you’ve read any of our books about military experience this should feel the most realistic. As Far as themes go, Forever War could not be more relevant. Haldeman’s message about the stupidity of war isn’t preachy because you feel it with every character.
Do you think Dylan only likes books about space? Read [Dylan’s review of The Forever War](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12303) →
## 8. Childhood’s End (1953)
| Ratings | 173,362 ratings with a 4.12 average on Goodreads |
| Reviews | 8,584 reviews |
| Trivia | Three distinct acts that tell the story of generations |
| Archived | Archived by the Internet Archive |
Childhood’s End is a painful read. Clarke was commenting on the inevitability of human development and how beautiful and tragic that growth on a species level is. Overlords invade the world and create a utopia on Earth that lasts for generations, but we reach the shining city on a hill by sacrificing the generation that made it possible. Get through the pain of transcendence and you’re left with something truly wonderous.
What makes it essential: The screaming irony that humanity’s evil past made our ascension prey upon by godlike aliens with the knowledge and technology to end all war, hunger, and disease. The idea that we evolve beyond our own bodies and there is a price for that miracle. Clarke was tackling philosophy, religion, and science in equal measure without insulting your intelligence or dropping into lecturing.
Does it still hold up? Clarke’s imaginings of posthuman development haven’t stood the test of time as well as his other science fictional ideas, but emotionally it is a powerhouse. That’s probably why some readers find the book slow. Modern audiences have a hard time investing in characters wh0 wholly accept their lot in life.
Zara keeps saying Clarke predicted modern fascinations with AI and posthuman futures. Read [Zara Valen’s breakdown of Clarke’s haunting book](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12305) →
## 9. Snow Crash (1992)
| Ratings | 297,694 ratings with a 13,691 review average on Goodreads |
| Rating | 8.19 average rating on the ISFDB |
| Film | Coining “Metaverse”, inspired the modern obsession with VR |
| Cyberpunk | The Cyberpunk genre’s satire with a cyberpunk mystery at it’s heart |
Snow Crash was chaos pretending to be ordered. Stephenson predicted VR social spaces, modern feudalistic corporate takeovers, and even information as a virus that infects both computers and human minds. But it was also satire so cynical about cyberpunk that it satirized itself.
What makes it essential: The Metaverse. Stephenson literally coined the term that we’ve all been collectively using for nearly three decades. The mega-corporations that own country-sized territories and the franchise settlements that owe them fealty predicted globalization and the platform economies we see today. Snow crash both in computer programs and as a drug destroys people’s brains by altering how their brains interpret language.
Does it still hold up? Snow Crash has some of the best payoff for all the tech talk you have to power through. Seriously some of Stephenson’s jokes should’ve been paid patents. A few readers find Stephenson goes too far into the lectures but the concepts are bonkers enough they’re still relevant.
Quinn thinks Snow Crash predicted the metaverse and Stephenson invented the internet. Read [Quinn Mercer’s breakdown of Snow Crash](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12307) →
## 10. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
| Sales | Over 14 million copies sold |
| Recognition | 25 May is officially Hitchhikers Day |
| Collections | Trilogy in Five Parts series |
| Anniversary | 42nd Anniversary Edition |
Douglas Adams showed us that science fiction could make you laugh until you cried then punch you in the feels so hard that you’re not sure if you’re laughing or crying. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a perfect exploration of cosmic perspective that understands how little we matter on a universal scale but refuses to say that makes our lives meaningless.
What makes it essential: If you’ve ever felt like life was meaningless until you saw the infinite hospital and realised no one is cured. Guide entries that mock information dumps in sci-fi but somehow feel canonical. Mixing the big questions of philosophy and human existence with bathroom humor that shouldn’t work but completely does. Douglas Adams proved that science fiction can be the biggest possible canvas to hang your comedy on.
Does it still hold up? The culture drops might be a little British, but the jokes are truly universal. What’s amazing is on rereads you realise how much existential goodness is packed into this series behind the jokes. Honestly you can’t go wrong if you pick up Hitchhiker’s Guide.
We told you Quinn would go off about Snow Crash. Read [Quinn’s argument that Hitchhiker’s Guide is actually good literature in disguise](https://dystopianlens.co.uk/?p=12309) →
## Not Quite Making the Cut
Need we remind you that the decision on our final top ten was hotly contested? The reoccuring fight was over Dune, which Zara thought should have been on the list based on Herbert’s ability to juggle massive worldbuilding and political themes that predicted modern conversations about climate change. Meanwhile Quinn was whining about the prose and mystical elements. Dylan liked the realism of military science fiction and thought for Starship Troopers had all the biting satire of Forever War without the preaching. Heinlein could do no right in Kathleen’s eyes, which is why The Moon is a Harsh Mistress didn’t make the cut either.
2001: A Space Odyssey should have had a spot based on Arthur C. Clarke’s brilliance alone, but we felt the iconic film overshadowed the novel’s impact on culture. The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds both deserve eternal gratitude for inspiring everything these novels came after, but they show their age a little too much now. Asimov broke ground by making robots the focus of science fiction narratives, but I, Robot didn’t quite feel as impressive compared to the psychological depth of our final list.
Luna was devastated that Le Guin’s The Dispossessed didn’t make the cut, because how can you leave an anarchist fantasy behind The Left Hand of Darkness? Jaxon will never stop arguing for Ubik because Dick had his biggest insights about questioning reality in that book. Zara was stumped about why The Martian Chronicles didn’t make the cut, because few authors merged poetry and science fiction colonization better than Bradbury. And Dylan is still pissed that Heinlein didn’t make the cut with The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress because it’s his political and technological masterpiece.
Pick any one of our runners ups and swap them with someone on the list and we have a new version of the top ten science fiction novels. That’s kind of the beauty of lists though, right? There will never be a unanimous answer to the question, because science fiction has strength in its ability to tell different stories in different ways. But these are the books that pushed the envelope so far down that everything after them had bigger footsteps to fill.
There are so many books we love that didn’t make the cut. You’re probably crying salty tears about your favourite science fiction books right now. Don’t worry. So are we. Every single time we post a list like this.
But that’s not the point. We want to know your arguments. Where’s your X? What books blew your mind and inspired you to write? Comment below or hit us up on Twitter. We love nothing more than debating about science fiction and all the possibilities contained within.
