Print

Catherine Asaro, The Quantum Rose.
The ruler of an impoverished province is resigned to marrying the brutish but wealthy ruler of a neighboring land until a mysterious stranger starts courting her. 2001 Nebula Award.

Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves.
A device linking our universe to a parallel universe seems beneficial at first but is soon found to threaten life on Earth. 1972 Nebula Award.

Greg Bear, Darwin’s Radio.
Scientists find that an ancient virus encoded in human DNA has reemerged, unleashing a potential evolutionary apocalypse. 2000 Nebula Award.

Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon.
The legend of King Arthur seen through the eyes of the women who shape his life. 1984 Locus Award for Fantasy.

David Brin, Startide Rising.
A Terran exploration vessel carrying a vital secret crashes on an uncharted water world, where the human and dolphin crew battle rebellion and a hostile environment. 1984 Hugo Award.

Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls.
A woman with a dark secret sets out on a pilgrimage but instead discovers a threat to the world of Chalion. 2004 Hugo & Nebula Awards.

Orson Scott Card, Seventh Son.
In an alternate colonial America where folk magic is real, a boy sets out to stop the Unmaker of all things. 1988 Locus Award for Fantasy.

C.J Cherryh, Cyteen.
A scientist rises to power on Cyteen, haunted by the knowledge that her predecessor and genetic duplicate died at the hands of one of her trusted advisors. 1989 Hugo Award.

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
Two magicians who use magic to help England fight Napoleon start out as master and apprentice but become rivals. 2005 Hugo Award.

Samuel Delany, Babel-17.
In the far future, a poet must translate communications in an apparently alien language which appear to threaten invasion. 1966 Nebula Award.

Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair.
When Jane Eyre is kidnapped right out of Charlotte Bronte's original manuscript, Special Ops agent Thursday Next sets out to rescue her. 2002 Crawford Award.

Christopher Fowler, Full Dark House.
An aging detective reflects on the Peculiar Crimes Unit’s first case involving a series of ritualistic murders in a theater during the Blitz. 2004 British Fantasy Award.

Neil Gaiman, American Gods.
An ex-con hired as a bodyguard for a mysterious man soon learns his job is more dark and dangerous than he could ever have imagined. 2002 Hugo & Nebula Awards.

Guy Gabriel Kay, Tigana.
A band of survivors set out to overthrow the warrior sorcerers who destroyed their land. 1991 Aurora Award.

Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed.
A physicist from the anarchist moon Anarres risks his life by traveling to the mother planet of Urras in the hope of reuniting the two long-alienated worlds. 1975 Hugo Award.

George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones.
In a land where seasons last for decades, the winter is returning as sinister forces amass in the north while the King’s powers begin to fail. 1997 Locus Award for Fantasy.

Ian McDonald, River of Gods.
In a future India troubled by a water shortage and the effects of genetic engineering and artificial intelligence, nine people from different walks of life must help decide the fate of the nation. 2005 British Science Fiction Award.

China Mieville, Perdido Street Station.
In a vast city filled with different species, a scientist tries to restore the power of flight to a person shorn of his wings. 2001 Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Elizabeth Moon, The Speed of Dark.
An autistic man is asked by his employer to undergo an experimental procedure that could cure him but could also destroy his sense of self. 2003 Nebula Award.

Richard Morgan, Altered Carbon.
In a future where a person’s consciousness can be transferred to a new body, a private eye is hired by a man who thinks his former body was murdered. 2004 Philip K. Dick Award.

Frederik Pohl, Gateway.
Explorers from Earth discover an artifact from a long-dead civilization that can take travelers to unknown destinations where they may find immense wealth—or death. 1977 Nebula Award.

Tim Powers, The Anubis Gates.
A professor teams up with an eccentric millionaire who has discovered rifts in time left by the spell of an ancient Egyptian sorcerer. 1984 Philip K. Dick Award.

Terry Pratchett, Pyramids.
On Discworld, the new pharaoh of Djelibeybi builds a pyramid so big it wreaks havoc with the space-time continuum. 1990 British Science Fiction Award.

Christopher Priest, The Prestige.
Two magicians in Victorian London become obsessed with outdoing each other and their rivalry has a profound effect on them and their descendants. 1996 World Fantasy Award.

Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars.
The first colonists on Mars are divided on whether to terraform the planet to suit humankind or preserve its stark beauty. 1993 Nebula Award.

Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow.
A Jesuit is the sole survivor of humanity’s tragic first encounter with extraterrestrial life. 1996 James Tiptree Award.

Robert Silverberg, Lord Valentine’s Castle.
The mind of Lord Valentine, ruler of Majipoor, is transferred by a usurper to the body of a juggler with no memory of his true identity. 1981 Locus Award for Fantasy.

Dan Simmons, Ilium.
In the distant future, a group of metahumans on Mars reenact the Trojan War in the roles of the Greek gods while on Earth humanity begins to search for the truth of their past. 2004 Locus Award for Science Fiction.

Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age.
In a technologically advanced society with class divisions, a street urchin acquires a powerful educational device that changes her life. 1996 Hugo Award.

Charles Stross, Accelerando.
Three generations of humans experience the effects of advances in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. 2006 Locus Award for Science Fiction.

Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide.
A bureaucrat is sent to a planet about to be destroyed by floods in search of a man claiming to have the power to save people. 1991 Nebula Award.

Joan Vinge, The Snow Queen.
The Snow Queen hopes to prevent turning over the rule of Tiamat to the Summer by placing a clone of herself among the summer people. 1981 Hugo Award.

Vernon Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky.
An intelligent Spider race that hibernates during their sun’s “off” periods is about to awaken into a golden age when two human starfleets discover them. 2000 Hugo Award.

Kate Wilhelm, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.
After an ecological catastrophe causes infertility, a group of scientists experiment with cloning to perpetuate humankind. 1977 Hugo Award.

Sean Williams, The Crooked Letter.
After his death, a man’s spirit is sent to the Second Realm but remains linked to his mirror twin in the First Realm, leading to a world-warping cataclysm. 2005 Aurealis Award for Fantasy.

Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog.
A time traveler from the future is sent back to the Victorian era to recover a lost object and fix a glitch in the fabric of time. 1999 Hugo Award.

Robert Charles Wilson, Spin.
An unknown intelligence causes time to pass at a much faster rate on Earth than in the rest of the universe, so that the world will end in 40 years. 2006 Hugo Award

Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer.
An apprentice torturer shows mercy to a prisoner and is banished from the Citadel out into an unfamiliar world. 1981 World Fantasy Award.