Slow Sci-Fi: 11 Thoughtful And Low Action Sci-Fi Reads

The first book in Chambers’s Hugo Award–winning series, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet follows the crew of the Wayfarer, a starship taking the scenic route to their final destination. The crew of the Wayfarer is a mix of human and alien, and the story itself is more about the journey and the characters than their adventures or a large overarching plot.

Delving deep into philosophical questions around consciousness, life, and death, this first installment in the Tangled Axon series is a fantastic thoughtful sci-fi read. Following the story of sky surgeon Alana Quick, who is struggling to make ends meet thanks to the spreading influence of new tech, Ascension gives the reader plenty of food for thought around topics such as living with chronic pain or dealing with the evils of corporate capitalism.

If you were creeped out by The Handmaid’s Tale, Louise O’Neill’s dystopian novel will take you to the same terrifying places. Only Ever Yours is set in an intensely patriarchal world that feels like Stepford gone global, where girls are created and raised to be perfect companions to the ruling class of men — at least, until they age out, and are promptly disposed of and replaced. Best friends Freida and Isabel are coming up to their graduation, where they will be ready to be chosen by the latest generation of boys, until Isabel starts rebelling against the system, straining her friendship with Freida as a result.

Thoughtful sci-fi lends itself well to the short story form, and no-one does short stories better than Octavia Butler. The titular “Bloodchild,” a story focusing on a world where aliens and humans have built a symbiotic relationship involving female aliens laying their eggs in male human hosts, is the best-known, but the other stories are also well worth a read — special mention to “The Evening and the Morning and the Night,” which will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.

The second novel from brilliant children’s author Elle McNicoll, Show Us Who You Are follows the story of Cora, who befriends Adrien, the son of her brother’s boss. Cora is autistic and Adrien has ADHD; Adrien’s father’s company, Pomegranate Technologies, an institute that creates realistic holograms of people, is particularly interested in mapping their neurodivergent brains. While Cora is intrigued, Adrien is more reluctant, and as the two friends learn more about Pomegranate, the reader is invited to think about mortality, ableism, and what it means to be neurodiverse in a world focused on neurotypicality.

A sci-fi and feminist classic by the late, great Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand of Darkness explores sex, gender and what it means to be human. Ai, a human man, is sent as an envoy to the planet Gethen, where the inhabitants have no concept of fixed sex. While there are action sequences and high stakes, the most compelling part of The Left Hand of Darkness is the world-building and the barriers Ai encounters while trying to negotiate a society that does not have a concept that is so important to his own identity.

A dystopian sci-fi that leans into horror, Never Let Me Go is a chilling read. It follows the story of Kathy H, who spends much of the book reminiscing about her time growing up in a boarding school known as Hailsham, under the care of a group of teachers known as guardians. As the story unfolds, we learn (spoiler!) that Kathy and her classmates are clones created to act as organ donors to regular humans. Unlike many dystopian stories, Never Let Me Go focuses on the day-to-day living within a terrifying situation, rather than looking at rebellion.