Hugonauts: The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time
Episodes
There Is No Antimemetics Division - This Book Erases Itself From Your Mind
21 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This is exactly the kind of philosophical sci-fi we love - something new, something fresh, and something that will make you think. We wish the second ...
Project Hail Mary - Book vs Movie (plus other sci-fi book to movie recommendations)
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
If you thought The Martian was intense, let's just go ahead and raise the stakes. We break down the movie version of Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary...
The Dark Tower: Unraveling Stephen King's Mid-World
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We had so much fun revisiting Mid-World for this episode – it’s the first series that brought us together as book nerds twenty years ago, and it’...
PAGE TURNERS: 15 binge-worthy Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books!
24 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve got 15 books and series here, so there should be something to love for almost every reader (although we need some traditional fantasy page tur...
The Best Space Operas Ever Written - the biggest stories and the best characters!
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We've got 18 books and series we highly recommend, so there's something here for all kinds of readers - and at the end of the episode we rank our top ...
Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age - Nanotech, Atom-scale 3D Printers, and a subversive Primer!
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This might be the best sci-fi book out there about nanotechnology. But Stephenson has so many good ones that this one isn't his best book - some of th...
The Myths that Inspired Fantasy and Sci-Fi
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From Sumeria, to Greece, to India, to the depths of the dark ages we explore the stories that have inspired everything that came later with a professo...
Best Science Fiction Books for Beginners
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you like ripping page turners, incredible characters, books that make you laugh out loud, exploring unforgettable new worlds, or literary book...
Cloud Atlas - A genre-bending book we can't stop thinking about!
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With six interconnected stories (in a narrative style that broke all kinds of new ground), it's hard not to find at least a few characters you love. A...
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe - Full Audiobook
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Really though we just wanted to do something scary for Halloween - put on a skin-tight leotard. Yes, Brent really did read this sitting next to bubbli...
The Best Time Travel Books... of all time
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There's scientifically plausible time travel, fantasy / sci fi time travel, 'traditional' time travel centered around real history, people trapped in ...
I Who Have Never Known Men - Review and Analysis
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Seen through the eyes of a main character who can't remember anything from life before the prison, you get to explore this strange, grim world from fi...
Interview with Robert Jackson Bennett - Author of The Tainted Cup!
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We got to interview Robert fresh from his Hugo win for The Tainted Cup - by far the best SFF book of last year! We couldn't be more excited to talk ab...
The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks - would utopia make you happy?
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Culture is Iain M. Banks' sci fi masterpiece - a futuristic society where benevolent AI minds provide humans whatever life they choose. Across the...
Ranking the 2025 Hugo nominees plus 4 more of the best sci-fi and fantasy books of the year!
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In addition to ranking the six nominees, we also talk about four more amazing books that deserve to be in contention for the best speculative fiction ...
2025 Nebula winner and nominees - the best fantasy books of the year?
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In addition to ranking all the nominees, we talk about why the entire shortlist this year was all fantasy, no sci-fi. This episode is sponsored by Th...
The 10 Best Fantasy Books and Series of all time!
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As sci-fi lovers who are looking to read more fantasy we could not be more excited to know what's good. Thanks to all y'all Hugonauts who filled out t...
Redshirts by John Scalzi - funny, rule-breaking scifi!
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As always, no spoilers until the end when we do our plot explainer and discussion.Join the Hugonauts book club on discord!Or you can watch the episode...
The God's Themselves - Asimov answering the biggest question in the universe!
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
That said, there are some problems with this book too, which made this a fun one to talk about - Brent liked it a lot more than Cody did. Plus, love e...
Altered Carbon - Wild tech, visceral action, and an unhinged plot!
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you like gritty cyberpunk settings, a page-turning, action-driven plot, and a lot of visceral explorations of violence and sexuality, this one's fo...
Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton - An Incredible Space Opera!
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Solid characters, amazing worldbuilding, and an epic plot that will keep you interested all the way through (and that's no mean feat in such a long bo...
Interview with Ann Leckie - author of Ancillary Justice!
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ann is also the author of Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, Translation State, Provenance (all set in her Imperial Radch universe), and the excellent ...
The 14 Best First Contact Books
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We also each rank our top three first contact books at the end of the episode.This episode is sponsored by The Pythagorean by Alexander Morpheigh, whi...
Ministry for the Future - Heatwaves, Super-Storms, and Cutting-Edge Climate Tech!
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The book somehow manages to be optimistic at the same time that it realistically portrays horrific climate catastrophes - the opening chapter will sti...
A Clockwork Orange - the classic dystopia of crime and punishment!
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The book is shocking, disturbing, entertaining, and unbelievably thought provoking all at once - no wonder Stanley Kubrick decided to turn the book in...
Neuromancer by William Gibson - an unforgettable world of sleek techno-criminals, AI, and body mods!
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neuromancer is an incredible science fiction classic, a page turner full of gripping action sequences, wild futuristic ideas, and a unique, techno-cri...
The Silo Series by Hugh Howey - Wool, Shift, and Dust
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As always, no spoilers until the end when we clearly call it out before getting into the full plot explanation and discussion.Join the Hugonauts boo...
The Best Dystopian Books of All Time
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is sponsored by The Dawn series by Ray N. Kuili, which you can get on print, audiobook, or kindle here.Join the Hugonauts book club on di...
The Mercy of Gods - Reviewing James S. A. Corey's new book
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Mercy of Gods follows a team of research scientists trying to survive an alien invasion. The Carryx are ruthless - killing 1/8 of the population i...
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell - A doomed mission to an alien planet!
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A radio astronomer discovers a signal coming from Alpha Centauri - strange, beautiful alien voices, singing. While the rest of the world is transfixed...
Starship Troopers: the deeply Philosophical classic of Military Sci-Fi!
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 23rd century Johnny Rico enlists in the Mobile Infantry, the heart of the human military. As he nears completion of an intensely rigorous train...
12 Books - the best of last year! Ranking the Hugos plus Six More
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We rank the nominees for the 2024 Hugo award, plus 6 more from last year!Join the book club on discord and read The Sparrow! https://discord.gg/fHejh3...
7 Amazing, Short Sci-Fi Books for when you need a quick read!
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the years we've built up a pretty big backlog of short novels that we really liked but hadn't had a chance to cover on the show - so today we're ...
Embassytown - Aliens who are truly alien and a wild, techno-organic world!
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is only one human settlement on the planet of Arieka. There, in Embassytown, a young woman named Avice grows up in a strange world between world...
Your top 20 sci-fi books - listener survey results!
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you want to see the complete survey results, including all the top books, favorite authors, and short stories come find them on the discord.Video v...
2024 Nebula nominees - 3 great books on this short list!
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 2024 Nebula awards are coming up, so we read and ranked all the books for ya. And we've got good news, this was a great year for fantasy and sci...
Metro 2033 - The book that inspired the hugely popular video games!
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The survivors live in the Moscow Metro - the biggest air-raid shel...
The Martian - Poop, Taters, and Tenacity
26 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Six days ago astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a ...
Roadside Picnic - the book that inspired Stalker and Metro 2033!
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of the young rebels who venture illegally into the Zone, one of six areas on Earth that have been profoundly changed by...
The Expanse - Full series review!
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Space ships whip across the solar system, ice haulers burn in from the gas giants, stolen Martian corvettes sneak behind enemy lines, and very human c...
We - The book banned by the Soviets that inspired 1984!
23 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the One State of the great Benefactor, there are no individuals, only numbers. Life is an ongoing process of mathematical precision, a perfectly ba...
Beyond Lies the Wub by Philip K. Dick - complete short story audiobook!
02 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A starship is taking off from Mars, and just before it does one of the crewman arrives with a strange new creature. What will the Wub bring to those o...
The Mountain in the Sea - Octopuses, AI, and the struggle to communicate!
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rumors are swirling about a species of super-intelligent octopus living off the coast of Vietnam. As corporations and other non-state actors begin to ...
The Top 15 Sci-Fi Books of All Time!
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ranking our top 15 sci fi books of all time:15 - Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu 14 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy13 - Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujol...
Permutation City - A mind-bending look at the singularity, consciousness, and immortality!
31 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Durham has begun experimenting on his own mind. He uploaded a copy of his neural patterns - everything that makes him who he is - into a computer...
Interview with Peter Watts - Author of Blindsight!
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We talked with Peter about:Why he quit science to write fictionThe real-world science that inspired BlindsightWhy vampires?!Blindsight movie(s) in the...
Spin - A first contact book that starts with a bang (and the stars going out)!
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tyler, Jason, and Diane are growing up together in the suburbs of Washington, DC. One night, as they are outside looking up at the sky, something shoc...
1984 - The techno-surveillance dystopia that keeps coming true!
12 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Winston Smith is a Party member living in London. He, like every other member of the Party, is under constant surveillance. Despite the risk, he dares...
2023 Hugo Nominees - plus 3 great SF books that should have made the list!
15 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ranking the 2023 Hugo nominees: N/A: Nona the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir #5: Spare Man - Mary Robinette Kowal #4: Daughter of Doctor Moreau - Silvia Moren...
The Dispossessed - Anarchy, capitalism, and fighting for freedom across two planets!
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shevek is a brilliant physicist, working on a new theory that may be as transformative and foundational as the work of Einstein. In pursuing his theor...
The Road - the best post-apocalyptic book ever written?!
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The bombs fell, and the world ended. A man and his pregnant wife survived the blasts. Their son would be born into a world changed entire. It grew dar...
Solaris - An intensely creative, mind-blowing first contact book!
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kris Kelvin is traveling to the ocean world of Solaris. For more than 100 years, scientists have been trying to understand and communicate with alien ...
The Expanse - Books 1 thru 3 - the biggest space opera of the modern era!
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jim Holden is XO of an ice hauler making runs from the rings of Saturn to the asteroid cities of the Belt. Out in the darkness, they detect a distress...
Fahrenheit 451 - book propaganda or flamethrower celebration?
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guy Montag is a fireman - one whose job is to burn books, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag and his wife, Mildred (who spends all...
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick's best book?
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Substance D is a new drug sweeping the nation and slowly destroying the minds of its users. As the connection between the two halves of their brains d...
Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2022: Part 1 - The Nebula Nominees
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For all six of the nominated books we'll give you a quick summary (with no spoilers), a review, and a rundown of what kind of reader is likely to love...
Brave New World - Sex, Drugs, and Dystopia
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Set in a futuristic, unified World State, Brave New World tells the story of a very different kind of dystopia. The population is not tightly controll...
Providence by Max Barry - an AI battleship, a hapless crew, and black-hole spewing aliens!
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Four soldiers are serving a four year tour of duty as the only crew members on a super-advanced AI battleship, dispatched to fight the alien Salamande...
Interview with Becky Chambers - author of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet!
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
All of Becky's writing is excellent, but if you haven't read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet it's a great place to start. It's a wonderful, wa...
Contact by Carl Sagan - a scientifically grounded and totally ground-breaking first-contact story!
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ellie is a brilliant radio astronomer who has often felt alone in the world. When she detects an indisputably intelligent signal emanating from the Ve...
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - The wildly entertaining book that invented the Metaverse!
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hiro Protagonist is a self-described hacker working as a pizza-delivery driver and living in a storage unit at LAX. He lives in a US that has been ful...
The Andromeda Strain - A scientific thriller about an alien virus!
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Crichton was fresh out of Harvard Medical School when he wrote the Andromeda Strain - and we're so glad he did! The book that launched his lit...
The Handmaid's Tale - A chilling, theocratic dystopian classic!
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story is told via the diary of a Handmaid - a young woman living in Gilead, an extremely repressive, patriarchal society that has taken over the U...
Dark Matter - A sci-fi thriller that is way too fun to put down!
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jason Dessen is walking home one night when he realizes he is being followed. A strange man in a geisha mask abducts him at gunpoint, drives him to an...
Double Star - A hilarious, lighthearted book that is a perfect introduction to Robert Heinlein!
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The story is told from the first person perspective of Laurence Smith—the self-styled “The Great Lorenzo”—a down-and-out actor who spends most...
Parable of the Sower - A very real dystopia that helped launch Afrofuturism!
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the year 2025, and society is descending into anarchy in the face of climate change and other disasters. We see the world through the diary ent...
Behind the scenes with Seth Fishman - agent for Cixin Liu, Ann Leckie & more!
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Seth Fishman is one of the biggest movers and shakers in the world of sci-fi publishing, representing Cixin Liu, Ann Leckie, Mary Robinette Kowal, Bec...
Blindsight - A haunting, mindblowing first contact book!
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Aliens have taken a snapshot of the entire earth, down to 1 meter of resolution - we know because they lit the entire sky on fire to do it. Then, hum...
Interview with Ken Liu - author of the Paper Menagerie!
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are so excited to interview Ken Liu! All of his writing and translation work is excellent, but if you haven't read his short story collec...
Author interviews from the Hugo Awards - Seanan McGuire, Ryka Aoki, and Joe Haldeman!
13 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We had a great time rolling out the red carpet in Chicago, and we're excited to release the first set of interviews!The Seanan McGuire interview start...
The Windup Girl - A gene-hacking dystopia full of anti-heroes!
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The vast majority of the world's fossil fuels have been expended, leading to a climate and economic catastrophe. In the aftermath, calories from food ...
Ancillary Justice – A unique take on AI and a sprawling, complex galactic empire!
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Breq used to be the Justice of Toren - the huge, complex AI that inhabited a colossal starship and all of its thousands of ancillaries in the service ...
Ranking the best sci-fi books of 2021! Who are the frontrunners to win the Hugo award?
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ranking and reviewing the best speculative fiction books of 2021! Here's the extremely abridged version of the list, with a one sentence summary of ea...
House of Suns - An epic space opera with solid science!
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gentian line is one of the most powerful forces in the galaxy - one of the 'lines' of clones (called shatterlings) who have been traveling the galaxy ...
The Machine Stops - A dystopian short story that feels almost too real! (analysis episode)
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It is truly unbelievable that this story was written in 1909 - E. M. Forster's dystopian world feels all too real in our increasingly digitally connec...
The Machine Stops - Complete Short Story Audiobook with Full Cast!
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A world where everyone occupies a tiny cell, connected to each other only by machines, and where a parent's responsibility to their child ends at birt...
Interview with David Brin - Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of Startide Rising and the Postman!
14 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international best-selling novels include The Postman, Startide Rising, and the Uplift War. He consults for NASA...
Foundation - The rise and fall of a galactic empire!
31 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
These books are among the most popular works of the Golden Age of sci fi, and for good reason. The overall story arc established in the first book is ...
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The funniest thing to ever happen to sci fi!
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Douglas Adams passed away 21 years ago this week, so it seemed like a good time to revisit his amazing work. These are short, digestible books that ar...
Station Eleven - A character-driven post-apocalyptic survival story!
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Despite the grim nature of a story about a pandemic that destroys civilization, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is full of subtle optimism and...
The Three Body Problem - some of the biggest ideas in sci fi!
19 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review Cixin Liu's Hugo award winning Three Body Problem (the book that made him the first person from Asia to win the award), as w...
Ted Chiang's short stories - Like the optimistic version of black mirror episodes!
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review and discuss Exhalation and Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang's two short story collections. These seventeen stori...
Ender's Game - The page turner where empathy is a superpower!
22 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review Ender's Game, what makes it so inspiring to generation after generation of readers, why Ender is so incredibly likeable, dis...
An interview with Joe Haldeman, author of The Forever War!
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we were so excited to interview Joe Haldeman and his wife Gay! The Forever War is absolutely one of the best sci fi books of all time, and w...
Children of Time - A book so good it makes you root for the giant spiders!
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review Adrian Tchaikovosky's most popular book, talk about how he pulled off making giant spiders likeable, discuss how the book ...
The Mars Trilogy - colonizing and terraforming Mars!
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review KSR's magnum opus, talk about the technology he includes that makes the terraforming project possible, discuss the decline i...
Rendezvous with Rama - What if an alien ship flew into the solar system?
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review this timeless classic, talk about the real-life risk of meteors and comets hitting Earth, discuss how much it feels like non...
The City and the City - A Mystery in a Mystery!
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review The City and The City, talk about the things that make it so interesting and fun to read, how 'weird fiction' fits into sci ...
The Left Hand of Darkness - an incredible book that shattered the glass ceiling in sci fi
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we review Left Hand of Darkness, talk about the things that make it so timeless and fun to read, Ursula K Le Guin's real life experien...
A Fire Upon the Deep - Aliens and AI and Internet Trolls, oh my!
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In A Fire Upon the Deep, A colony of humans sets up in the transcendence, the part of the galaxy where computers work so well AI can ascend and become...
Hyperion - A space epic with a classic literary twist
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hyperion by Dan Simmons is one of the best sci fi books of all time, and won the Hugo and the Locus awards in 1990. We give it a 4.5 / 5. The book is...
The Vorkosigan Saga: what INCREDIBLE main characters!
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This series is beloved by its fans, but doesn't get enough recognition in the wider world. These are incredible, character-driven stories that are a b...
A Canticle for Leibowitz: Who knew the nuclear apocalypse could be so funny?
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A Canticle for Leibowitz is set in the aftermath of a horrible nuclear war. The survivors blamed science, and killed intellectuals and burned all the ...
Dune: Do you like sand?
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a no-spoiler review. In advance of the new Dune movie, we thought it would be fun to revisit Dune and remember what made it great (and the thi...