The Best Sci-Fi Books You Haven't Read...Yet

In the wake of the apocalypse, a tech servant looks to escape the dangers of Bloom City. Danae is not only looking to get herself and her partner Naoto out, but also a secret that she is hiding inside her body, involving a collective. With the help of an ex-mercenary guide, Danae and Naoto traverse the broken world, while enemies old and new seek them out.

Sleeper ships grow more and more popular in sci-fi as our own planet continues to fall apart. They’re ships that set out to find habitable new planets, designed to sustain humans in stasis for the long journeys. But what happens if Earth never hears back from them? In this exciting novel, three humans on Earth join up with alien allies to find these long-lost ships and discover what became of them, while something is making a move to control the universe for itself.

This is a wildly inventive novel in which humans are the solution to climate change. Literally. In future Bangladesh, scientists have figured out that by filling a city with biological nanotech, the dense population can actually moderate the temperature. But it means everyone has to stay where they are—for good. However, restless citizens and surprising side effects make it difficult to regulate everything that is happening, leading to some wacky adventures.

When the junk Freighter Jonah breaks down in space, it’s fortunate (pun intended) that another ship happens by and can help. What’s weird, though, is that the Gallion claims to be from over 150 years in the future. And even weirder, the Gallion crew recognizes the Jonah—it’s legendary in their time for bringing an end to a generations-long war. But no time for “Huh?”, Dr. Jones! First, both crews will have to figure out a way to get going before the very-much not-ended-yet war catches up to them.

Last but not least, this excellent collection of speculative stories goes from not too far from reality to way out there. There’s the title story, about a woman searching for her missing daughter at a restaurant for runaways; a woman discovers love with a model partly made of biotech; a man begins having the same dreams as his girlfriend, but doesn’t understand why; and the survivors of a pandemic must decide if they should join a cult determined to repopulate the Earth.