100 Must-Read Books About Space

It’s funny (wonderful?) that the books we so often associate with our future–books about space–are full of the same themes our very oldest stories contain. Adventure. Discovery. Confronting the unknown. Finding our limits. Constantly and always questioning what it means to be human. In this list of must-read books about space, you’ll have your space opera epics, like the Vorkosigan Saga, or hard science favorites, like The Martian. I’ve also included some nonfiction books about space that nod heavily towards story-telling. But, hopefully within this list, you’ll also find some new and overlooked classics of the genre. And whether each book takes place at the end of a long journey across space, on a fleet of warships patrolling the universe, or at the moment of first contact with an alien species, the thread combining all of these books is the thought of Space as a character onto itself. Space with a capital S. Space as a stand-in for all that we don’t know, but could discover.   1. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 2. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (non-fiction) 3. A Passion for Space by Marianne J. Dyson (non-fiction) 4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle 5. Aftermath by Chuck Wendig 6. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space by Betty Ann Holtzmann Kevles (non-fiction) 7. Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan 8. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield (non-fiction) 9. Anathem by Neal Stephenson 10. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie 11. Arrival by Ted Chiang 12. Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi 13. Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers 14. Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh (non-fiction) 15. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor 16. Bitch Planet by Kelly DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, and Robert Wilson IV 17. Central Station by Lavie Tidhar 18. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 19. Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris (non-fiction) 20. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks 21. Contact by Carl Sagan 22. Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman 23. Dawn by Octavia Butler 24. Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson (non-fiction) 25. Death of a Neutron Star by Eric Kotani 26. Descender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen 27. Dove Arising by Karen Bao 28. Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh 29. Dune by Frank Herbert 30. Dust by Elizabeth Bear 31. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card 32. EVE: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales 33. Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells 34. Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach 35. Foundation by Isaac Asimov 36. Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair 37. Gravity by Tess Gerristen 38. Half Way Home by Hugh Howey 39. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (non-fiction) 40. How It Ends by Chris Impey (non-fiction) 41. Hyperion by Dan Simmons 42. Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley 43. Kim & Kim #1 by Magdalene Visaggio, Eva Cabrera, and Claudia Aguirre 44. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey 45. Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith 46. Lightless by C.A. Higgins 47. Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin and Ken Abraham (non-fiction) 48. Mechanical Failure by Joe Zieja 49. Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee 50. ODY-C by Matt Fraction and Christian Ward 51. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi 52. On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard 53. On Basilisk Station by David Weber 54. Packing For Mars by Mary Roach (non-fiction) 55. Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku 56. Planetfall by Emma Newman 57. Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro 58. Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente 59. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson 60. Red Rising by Pierce Brown 61. Rogue Squadron by Michael A. Stackpole 62. Ringworld by Larry Niven 63. Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt (non-fiction) 64. Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin 65. Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples 66. Second Star by Dana Stabenow 67. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold 68. Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer 69. Singularity Sky by Charles Stross 70. Solaris by Stanislaw Lem 71. Southern Cross by Becky Cloonan, Andy Belanger, and Lee Loughridge 72. Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein 73. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber 74. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 75. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman 76. The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord 77. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 78. The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal 79. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 80. The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu 81. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 82. The Martian by Andy Weir 83. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury 84. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein 85. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton 86. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe 87. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 88. The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge 89. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 90. The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj 91. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu 92. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells 93. Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer 94. Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon 95. Triplanetary by E.E. Smith 96. Trouble on Triton by Samuel R. Delaney 97. Unbreathable by Hafsah Laziaf 98. Valor’s Choice by Tanya Huff 99. We Who Are About To… by Joanna Russ 100. Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee As you noticed, there’s only 100 spots on this list. Because of that, I’ve limited it to one book per author, and if their best work is a series, included the first one from that series. Now is where you chime in. I only had 100 spots. What other books about space would you add to help us hit 200? Shout out your absolute favorite books about space in the comments.