Top 20 Sci Fi Reads [4 Years of Booktube Top5s]

Indexé : 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]So, I have been on BookTube for 3 years now. But, I have 4 years of ranking books distilled into this video. So, let's travel back in time and look at the top five science fiction books from each of my last four years. It's going to be amazing. Let me know how many of these books you've read and which one or two maybe you'd like to pick up and read. Let's go. We're starting with 2022.

[00:00:24]Top reads. At number five, Childhood's End by of course Arthur C. Clarke, the legend.

[00:00:33]This is a classic classic science fiction novel exploring first contact with a benevolent alien who comes to Earth to end war and poverty, but eventually leads to interesting consequences, let's just say. No spoilers in this video.

[00:00:49]I'll just add that the ending of Childhood's End surprised me greatly.

[00:00:53]The book is broken down into like three sections with major time jumps between.

[00:00:59]And I found each section interesting.

[00:01:01]But, everyone of course talks about section two and the famous reveal that takes place there. I thought it was fantastic. I loved it.

[00:01:08]At number four, The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu.

[00:01:13]And here I'm including the whole series as it simply, in my opinion, must be read together. You cannot stop at book one.

[00:01:20]In fact, maybe book two is might be my favorite, The Dark Forest. Anyway, what is it about, in case you don't know?

[00:01:25]It's an epic epic science fiction series that begins with humanity making first contact with an alien civilization from a dying world. Very interesting.

[00:01:38]Very interesting concepts there. And what starts as kind of a mysterious scientific conspiracy on Earth gradually expands into a vast story spanning centuries. There's survival, like cosmic sociology, advanced tech, all kinds of stuff. Talks about humanity's place in this dark and indifferent universe. I'm spitting. I'm so excited. The series blends hard science fiction with philosophy, politics, existential dread.

[00:02:05]Just escalates, you know, into this mystery of cosmic stakes. It's fantastic. Huge ideas. I love the series, found it mind-blowing for sure, but the writing is a bit dry. The characters are definitely wooden.

[00:02:20]And other than perhaps the beginning, there is just little emotional attachment to any humans, any of their plight. The writing just, you know, is it's an idea-driven book, but still essential for SF fans. At number three, here we go.

[00:02:38]And here I'll just say that the the top three could be really in any order. I didn't know how to rank them. I still wouldn't know how to rank them. So, let's just leave them as I did back then.

[00:02:48]House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. What a story. A far-future space opera following a group of nearly immortal clones who travel the galaxy over millions of years, periodically reuniting to like share ideas.

[00:03:02]One of those meetings, something happens. They're attacked. They're dying, and two members are forced into a mystery that uncovers ancient secrets, forgotten histories, and this threat that stretches across the cosmos. It's fabulous, mind-blowing.

[00:03:18]Every 50 pages, the novel combines these grand-scale science fiction with deep-time galactic exploration, philosophical reflection, and like humanity also at its core. So, there is some emotion.

[00:03:31]Good stuff. Love story also. Great chase sequence, guys. It takes place over like tens of thousands of years. I don't remember exactly how long, but it's it's crazy.

[00:03:39]Yeah, it's a good action.

[00:03:41]Sense of wonder for sure. I love the ending of this one. And it's a perhaps one of my favorite, maybe the best kind of pure standalone space opera novels in science fiction. At number two, Solaris at number two. Shouldn't it be number one? Well, when it comes to thrills, I'm just going to inject a quick video here. Imagine, if you can, a planet with an ocean covering its entire surface.

[00:04:07]Now, imagine that ocean to be alive, to be a single organism with a mind beyond anything we can conceive of. Let's go further. This ocean, this planet, is sentient and capable of manipulating matter, reaching into and studying human minds, and manifesting human memories into physical beings. Let's call these beings visitors.

[00:04:35]The planet communicates with humans with an incomprehensible logic. It acts as a psychological mirror. This is the planet our protagonist, Chris Kelvin, arrived to study.

[00:04:50]Welcome to Stanisław Lem's 1961 classic, Solaris.

[00:04:57]One of my all-time favorite science fiction books. Definitely top five. Amazing story.

[00:05:04]And at number one, Vernor Vinge with A Fire Upon the Deep.

[00:05:08]A vast space opera set in a galaxy where the laws of physics themselves change depending on where you are. Civilizations across the galaxy are threatened with extinction. So, meanwhile, we also kind of get a condensed action within a group of stranded humans, young kids, on a distant world. They're entangled in a desperate struggle that may determine the fate of the intelligent life itself. It's a book that blew my mind in 2022 and led me to really to start the channel. This is one of the reasons, these books that I read in 2022. I loved it because of the enormous sense of scale, inventive alien species, times, incredible structural writers, fantastic big ideas about intelligence, technology, >> [snorts] >> blend of cosmic adventure with personal stakes, fantastic. However, I recently have to say I read two Vernon Vinge novels, Peace War and Marooned in Realtime, and was very disappointed. So, I wonder if Fire Upon the Deep would hold up on a reread. Maybe I'll have to find out soon.

[00:06:07]Anyway, moving on.

[00:06:09]Do you know the first year I started in channel 2023? Here we go. At number five. This should be higher, guys, but this is where I ranked it back then.

[00:06:16]Ubik by Philip K. Dick.

[00:06:19]>> [sighs] >> Crazy story, wild, difficult to describe what it's about. The less you know, the better. Let's just go again to a recent video where Ubik was featured among 10 weird books, and I'll link the video down below as well if you want to check out the full weird book video.

[00:06:37]His books His books ooze strangeness. I'm talking, of course, about Philip K. Dick. Ubik, my favorite Philip K. Dick story, I think.

[00:06:48]Incredible, strange, weird.

[00:06:52]This is a fantastic, funny also, easy, weird read. You may be confused at times. Our protagonists are confused at times. They're not even sure if they're alive or dead, or maybe in techno limbo called half-life in this book. This is again a hallucinatory nightmare.

[00:07:16]Interesting thing is how this book kind of crumbles on its own reality. [music] Philip K. Dick, fabulous writing here, fantastic story, definitely, in my opinion, the [music] type of weird I like. If this was ranked by weirdness, this one would be pretty high on the list of my books. If you haven't read Ubik, what are you waiting for? Do it.

[00:07:40]Do it now.

[00:07:42]All right, at number four we have Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. One of my favorite authors, she's great.

[00:07:49]Always delivers. This is a thoughtful, surreal exploration of power, control, morality, and the unintended consequences of trying to perfect humanity, blending philosophical depth with a hunting science fiction premise in an easy-to-read package.

[00:08:03]Definitely lighter in tone than many other Le Guin books like The Dispossessed of or maybe Left Hand of Darkness, both books I love. In this book, Lathe of Heaven follows George Orr, a man whose dreams have a terrifying power to alter reality itself, to come true.

[00:08:20]Yep. So, when a psychiatrist discovers this ability, he attempts to use George's dreams to kind of reshape the world into what he thinks is a better place.

[00:08:29]But every change brings unexpected, sometimes funny, and often catastrophic consequences in this case. It's a fantastic read.

[00:08:37]All right, let's get into my top three now. At number three, 11/22/63 by King, the king himself. Great time travel story with a huge heart in my opinion. This is maybe my favorite King novel. Was emotionally connected to to the story, riveted until the end. Great action, superb dialogues, great sense of time and place. King at his best when it comes to that.

[00:08:59]And also my favorite romance. By the way, no spoilers, but tears were shed when I read this book. One of King's best endings in my opinion. The plot is interesting.

[00:09:11]Um we go back in time to save JFK.

[00:09:14]Well-researched book, too. It has it all. Morality, edifying element as well.

[00:09:19]I loved it. Easy recommendation. At number two, check two. At number two, Tchaikovsky with Children of Time.

[00:09:28]This is about the last remnants of humanity searching for a new home among the stars. Earth is kaput.

[00:09:35]And on a distant terraformed planet, an experiment meant to uplift monkeys goes wrong [snorts] and instead accelerates the evolution of spiders leading to the rise of intelligent civilization completely unlike our own. Their imagined evolution is the best part of the book for me. I cared and connected more with the spiders than with the humans in this book.

[00:09:58]While slightly too long in the midsection maybe, I love the sweeping time scale, fascinating alien perspective, the evolution and themes themes and its blend of hard sci-fi with emotional storytelling. Great read from Tchaikovsky. But at number one my reread of Hyperion. This is a favorite for so many. I'll just keep it short here and say that while not necessarily an easy read maybe for beginners, lots of sci-fi concepts to wrap your head around, to me this along with Dune is an essential essential read in the same way that Lord of the Rings is for fantasy. Great epic quest, well written with flair Canterbury style of storytelling. We get a tale of pilgrims who travel to time tombs on the planet of Hyperion. Each one is here for a different reason and we get to hear their stories. Each story is fantastic in my opinion. Amazing. And Hyperion is just book one in the series, so if you love it, there are three more books waiting for you. And perhaps you'll also hear about them still in this video.

[00:10:57]All right, 2024, let's go. At number five, Dawn by Octavia Butler, could have been higher, too.

[00:11:03]Now, this is a deeply unsettling and thought-provoking first contact story that begins with humanity well, after humanity has nearly destroyed itself. I think in the nuclear war or something. Lilith, our protagonist, wakes up aboard an alien ship where the Oankali, I think, strange and highly advanced species have rescued the last last remnants of humanity. Thank you, Oankali. But their help, of course, comes with conditions and Lilith is forced to grapple with impossible choices about survival, identity, free will, and what it means to be human in like a major way in this case. Uh it's the kind of science fiction that feels intensely personal and psychological while so while also tackling massive ideas about power, consent, evolution, human nature.

[00:11:52]It's creepy as intelligent, uncomfortable, incredibly compelling. This is uh I mean, Butler is amazing. I've read few books by her. This was the first one. I love them all. At number four, we have Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks book three in an amazing Culture series, is one that is difficult to describe and a bit difficult to read, but ultimately extremely satisfying with huge like staying power. You're going to remember this. You will not forget this book.

[00:12:20]What is it about? Well, Use of Weapons is a dark, brilliantly structured science fiction novel centered on this guy Zakalwe who is a deeply damaged man who works for special he's like a operative for an ultra-advanced Culture civilization. Uh he is sent uh into conflicts across the galaxy to manipu- manipulate wars, governments, and revolutions using whatever methods are necessary. Anything goes. But as the story unfolds through two timelines moving in opposite directions, it slowly reveals the traumatic past that has shaped him into the person he's become.

[00:12:56]It's dark. It's a psychological character study with huge moral questions about violence, intervention, guilt, and whether the ends uh can and whether the ends can justify the means.

[00:13:08]The structure is challenging, not for the faint of heart, but the payoff is unforgettable. At number three, Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, a quiet, emotional science fiction novel told from the perspective of Klara, an artificial friend designed to keep lonely children company. Beautiful book.

[00:13:28]What makes this book so powerful, I think, is the gentle and intimate feel while quietly asking huge questions about love, consciousness, faith, and what it really means to care for someone. It's less about flashy sci-fi ideas and more about emotion, empathy, and the strange beauty of being human. I love Klara, and Ishiguro is a genius.

[00:13:47]Just for the record, this is not my favorite Ishiguro book, but I loved it.

[00:13:52]At number two, The Road by amazing Cormac McCarthy. Reading this book was a personal journey for me. I imagined myself in the shoes of the father trying to protect his child, one of the two protagonists in this brutal story. The Road takes takes place in a post-apocalyptic landscape that is presented to us in the bleakest of ways by the author. Everything is lost.

[00:14:14]Everything is gone, but the father and son go on. The sparse prose is fitting. The dialogues are heartbreaking. The book for me, unforgettable masterpiece.

[00:14:25]If you, however, want a more pleasant intro to Cormac McCarthy, read All the Pretty Horses. That's a beautiful story, well written, easier to digest. At number one, Inverted World by Christopher Priest. A surprising number one, but there are good reasons for the high ranking.

[00:14:42]This is one of those science fiction novels that starts out mysterious and kind of disorienting and just keeps pulling you deeper in. The story follows Hallward, man, our protagonist, a young man, living aboard a massive moving city that must constantly travel across this strange terrain to terrain to survive. The people in the city believe that if they stop moving, the world itself will become dangerously distorted. At first, almost nothing fully makes sense, and it's part of the experience. As the novel slowly reveals what's really happening, it turns into a fascinating exploration of perception, reality, time. It's eerie, cerebral, and incredibly rewarding once the pieces start falling into place. The ending worked for me, but I don't think it works for everyone from what I've seen online. So, let me know if you've enjoyed it. Now, we've made it to 2025.

[00:15:37]And if you're still watching, I'm going to ask you to hype the video, subscribe, like it. Most importantly, please leave a comment. Let me know what you think about these books.

[00:15:45]Anyway, at number five, On the Origin of Species and Other Stories by Bo-Young Kim, a South Korean author. Fabulous.

[00:15:52]This is my favorite short story collection, bar none. It's wildly imaginative. Science fiction stories that constantly play with perspective, evolution, language, identity, what it means to be alive. Stories range from deeply philosophical, kind of first contact tales to strange emotional explorations of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and humanity's place in the universe.

[00:16:18]It's got it all. What makes the collection stand out, is how inventive and maybe unpredictable it feels. The ideas are huge, but there's also a surprising emotional warmth running throughout all the stories. It's the kind of science fiction that can feel both intellectually stimulating and deeply humane at the same time. I loved it.

[00:16:39]Another translated work that I was able to read in the original language this time, Polish. I'm talking about Gniazdo Światów, Nest of Worlds by Marek Huberath, a Polish author. This is a mind-bending science fiction novel built around a reality that turns out to be far stranger than it at first appears.

[00:16:57]It follows a protagonist moving through what seems like a structured, almost layered world where different levels of existence and perception begin to blur into one another. As the story unfolds, it becomes less about the conventional plot and more about the questions of identity, free will, and whether the world itself is constructed the way we assume. It's a dense philosophical and kind of deliberately unsettling book. The kind of book that keeps reconfiguring itself in your head long after you finished it. It has this meta element that connects the reader to the story also, which gave me chills.

[00:17:34]It's an interesting book for sure. At number three, Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. So, this starts out as a simple impossible Well, it starts out with a simple impossible event. One night, the stars vanish from the sky. They're replaced by mysterious like a black barrier. Time outside Earth suddenly runs at a vastly accelerated rate, effectively trapping humanity under a cosmic spin membrane.

[00:18:03]The story follows a few characters growing up in the shadow of this mystery as they try to understand what happened, why it happened, and what it means for the future of Earth.

[00:18:14]It's part of the coming-of-age story, part first contact mystery, and part big idea science fiction about time, isolation, and the fragility of human civilization. What I liked about it, other than the intriguing storyline, was the prose. Wilson writes very well. I got this book from Richard from Vintage SF, and I'm so glad to have read it.

[00:18:34]Thank you, Richard. At number two, The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. What a great book, and what a fun super fun buddy read I had with Whitney from Secret Sus of Storycraft and Sam from Sam That's So Wise.

[00:18:46]Hey guys. So, the Algebraist by Iain M.

[00:18:48]Banks is a bit difficult to describe. So much happens in this sprawling kind of humorous space opera. The setting is a far future gar- galaxy where humanity is just one of many many advanced civilization, and the story follows Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer who studies the ancient gas giant dwelling dwellers, they're called, and an enigmatic alien species whose whose secrets could reshape interstellar politics. It's big, it's funny, it's chaotic, and full of Banks' signature mix of sharp ideas and inventive world building. If you haven't read any Banks, this standalone is perhaps the perfect place to start with Banks. Keeping in mind, of course, that this is not a Culture novel. Okay, and at number one, [clears throat] 2025, my favorite book, science fiction book, is The Rise of Endymion. For me, a perfect ending to my favorite science fiction series of all time, the Hyperion Cantos. Although seven books into the Culture series, I have to say it's close. It's close. But, since this is book four in a series, I won't go into any description of the plot, but I'll just say that if you have read book one, Hyperion, but did not continue on, I'm going to encourage you to consider further reading.

[00:20:03]If the Canterbury structure, for example, did not work for you, keep in mind it is dropped books two through four, uh and they're written in more traditional framing. And if you're interested in a quick and fun, in my opinion, exploration of science fiction genres, check out my recent video. I think it's awesome, and I wish more people watched it. So, anyway, it has been amazing 3 years on BookTube, and I'm looking forward to many, many more great reads. I've read a lot of amazing books this very year, and I think the top five for 2026 is going to be as good as the previous years, if not better. Amazing, and maybe more surprising. So, anyway, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.