The sci-fi genre is so massive that it can feel quite daunting when looking into which books you should pick up next. Some of the best out there are sci-fi thrillers, but again, it’s difficult to know which ones are worth your time and which ones are slow burns, part of a series that you need to read in its entirety or should be avoided for now.
I find that the best way to uncover new science fiction books you want to read is to think about what you want to get from them. For example, I’ve watched a fair few older sci-fi movies and shows on Netflix, but the ones that stand out to me are those where the stakes for the characters are raised. I love it when it feels like one person is going up against insurmountable odds instead of trying to retain multiple story threads for a dozen characters across an entire galaxy. That’s why I’ve put together this list of my top 15 sci-fi thriller picks.
Our top picks for the best science-fiction thriller books
Below are our top picks for the best science-fiction thriller books that you can pick up today and immerse yourself in. They’ll keep you reading all through the night if you let them because the odds are always against the protagonists and there’s a lot at stake if they fail.
15. Artemis: Andy Weir
Artemis is a fantastic sci-fi thriller. If you only read one book from this list, let it be this one. The story is set on the Moon, in the very first colony established there, where society has been around long enough for a Moon culture with its own hierarchy to form. It follows a heist gone terribly wrong but blends sci-fi action with grounded science to make for a gripping tale you just won’t be able to put down.
14. The Andromeda Strain: Michael Crichton
The Andromeda Strain is an intense story about an alien virus that manages to make it to Earth, killing everything that gets close to it within seconds. Scientists scramble to contain it in the world’s best lab facility, but realize too late that not only is there very little they can do to combat it, but their efforts to destroy it will only make it stronger and threaten humanity.
This is a fantastic story for those who enjoy sci-fi thrillers that focus on the more realistic, though still fictional, encounters humanity might face in the future. Every outcome has solid reasoning and will get you thinking about the horrors that might lie wait for us in a spacefaring future.
13. Upgrade: Blake Crouch
In Upgrade, protagonist Logan Ramsey awakens feeling different somehow. He can’t quite put his finger on it at first, but then he comes to know that his genome has been hacked. He’s part of a plan that’s been set in motion and will affect everyone in the world. Since he’s also the only one it’s happened to, he’s the only one who can stop it. This is a pulse-pounding sci-fi thriller about saving the world from annihilation and a warning about altering ourselves one step too far.
12. The Martian: Andy Weir
As with most Andy Weir novels, The Martian is a masterpiece that blends real science and fiction in a way you can’t untangle them. This story follows the first astronauts to establish a base on Mars. After a storm cuts their stay short, one of them is left behind, presumed dead. Except he isn’t. Now, that lone human stranded in a cold, red, deserted world must find a way to survive with fewer supplies than he needs to survive and absolutely no one around to help him.
11. Jurassic Park: Michael Crichton
The Jurassic Park novel might be what the movie is based on but it’s a very different story. The major plot points are the same, but there’s a bigger focus on InGen, and many of your favorite characters, surprisingly, don’t make it off the island alive. It’s very much worth a read if you love the films because this is where it all began, and it paints a much grimmer outcome of humanity’s attempt to circumvent mother nature by bringing back ancient lizards.
10. 11/22/63: Stephen King
11/22/63 is a must read sci-fi thriller, and not just for King fans. While its ending is exactly what you’d expect of the author, the story itself is something you might expect from a Netflix show. It follows Jake Epping as he discovers a time slip that takes him back to 1958. He quickly hatches a plan to help his friend but then moves on to bigger fish and prevents the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Don’t expect sunshine and rainbows, though. This book is a warning not to mess with the past in one of the darkest ways possible.
9. The Passengers: John Marrs
If you love your self-driving car, this book will make you question your next journey in it. The Passengers follows the the passengers of eight self-driving cars after someone hacks into their controls and sets them on fatal courses. The twist is that it’s not the people in the cars who can save themselves. The public must decide who will live among the various people they’re watching drive ever closer to certain death. It’s a book with high stakes, secrets, and will drive you to turn page after page until you’ve reached its conclusion.
8. The Rig: Roger Levy
The Rig is set in a dark future where the idea of God has been killed and replaced with AfterLife, a social media platform where subscribers have a chance at resurrection based on votes from others. It’s a winding tale that has you reading about multiple protagonists, but the sinister Rig is at the center of it all, changing the universe. It’s the stakes you’re reading about in this book that make it a thriller, as well as the idea that social media could get to the point where we’re voting on who gets another chance at life.
7. Project Hail Mary: Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary might be Andy Weir’s most ambitious book. It’s set around the global dimming, an event that’s set to plunge earth into an ice age, so humanity needs to get thinking if it wants to survive. Told across two separate storylines, you’ll first see how our world prepares for this event and then where it ends up in the far future, having thrown people out into the universe in a bid for survival. Once again, Weir’s scientific knowledge comes into play beautifully here and makes for a powerfully realistic read, even though the story takes you to places you could only dream of.
6. Altered Carbon: Richard K. Morgan
If you’ve seen the Altered Carbon TV show, then you’ll know what you’re getting into with the book. The show stuck very close to the source material, though there are some differences, as you might expect. What I find so incredible about the world that’s been created here is how people can be preserved with nothing more than digital information, and you can enter pretty much anyone’s body. It poses so many questions about humanity’s future, and I think everyone should give it a read for that alone.
5. Dark Matter: Blake Crouch
Dark Matter is a mind-altering sci-fi thriller about Jason Dessen, a quantum mechanics physicist who is one day kidnapped and drugged, and wakes to find himself in an alternate universe. In this universe, he’s known as Jason2, and he’s being questioned about how he created the cube that allows people to travel between universes. Except, this isn’t Jason2, and he has no idea how to answer these questions. Jason becomes determined to return home and has to use his knowledge to work out what his alternate self did and engineer a way out.
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: Phillip K. Dick
Renowed for being the basis of Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep will make you question your humanity and our future just as much as you did the first time you watched the movie. The book is about protagonist Rick Deckard, who is tasked with hunting down and killing six androids who have recently escaped Mars and come to Earth. I love thought-provoking stories like this, but here you’ve got one that’s also gripping and fast-paced. One to clear your schedule for if you can devour a book in a day.
3. The Invincible: Stanislaw Lem
The Invincible, which has also been made into a rather good video game, is a fascinating sci-fi thriller that’ll keep you guessing until the very end. It’s about intergalactic lifeforms, but not as you may know them, and how evolution can occur on a scale we can’t percieve over amazing lenghts of time. It’s also quite an old novel, so it’s full of Soviet era imagery that I think makes it quite striking as a sci-fi novel. It’s like immersng yourself in the past but looking into an alternate sci-fi future.
2. Blindsight: Peter Watts
Blindsight is another sci-fi thriller novel that will just get your brain going and keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished it. The story follows a small group of humans who head out into space after a series of coordinated events signal the existence of extraterrestrials. When the crew find these aliens, they discover they’re much more advanced, and begin to question their existence and purpose in the universe. There’s also a brilliant underlying storyline that I don’t want to spoilt but is very much worth reading for. Like I said, this book will hook you and won’t let you go.
1. The Fold: Peter Clines
The Fold is a fantastic and unexpected sci-fi thriller you absolutely must read. It focuses on the idea of teleportation, specifically what the science behind it might be. Clines does a fantastic job of dropping hints about what’s to come as you read, but you’ll still never see the twist or revelation before it arrives. This book fits into the Threshold series but can be read without knowledge of any of the other books. If you enjoy it, you’ve got to go and pick up the rest, though.
