25 Best Sci Fi Book Series

In this list of the best sci-fi book series, we explore some of the very best SciFi series available. Some of the series that are included were chosen because they showed great potential and had many raving reviews. If you are interested in listening to any of these science fiction book series go to Audible's one month free trial and you can test out their services for free with two books. 

1.

Zones of Thought Series

By Vernor Vinge


No products found.

Years into the future humans are no longer the only creatures living in a universe where one's mind's potential is solely determined by its location in space. Ranging from the superintelligent entities in the Transcend all the way to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths. No one knows exactly how the universe got to be like this, separated by "regions of thought". But when the warring Straumli realm get ahold of an ancient artifact as a weapon chaos is unleashed and Ravna is left to flee from it all. 

Book 1: A Fire Upon The Deep

Book 2: A Deepness in the Sky

Book 3: The Children of the Sky

Book 4: After the Battle on Starship Hill

2.

Sprawl Trilogy

By William Gibson


No products found.

The Sprawl Trilogy consist of 3 books following the adventures of a data-thief who goes by the name of Case. Case was the best there ever was until he got caught up with the wrong people. Who damaged his nervous system and banished him from the cyberspace. But Case was given a second chance by his new mysterious employer and two friends who swore to always have his back. 

Book 1: Neuromancer

Book 2: Count Zero

Book 3: Mona Lisa Overdrive

3.

The Dune Chronicles

By Frank Herbert


No products found.

The Dune Chronicles is a 8 book science fiction series dream. Set on a desert plant known as Arrakis, Paul Atreides – a boy who would later be called Muad'Dib – has his mind set on bring the family's dream to reality. The dream was to bring fruition to humankind's oldest and most unattainable dream to life once again. 

Book 1: Dune

Book 2: Dune Messiah

Book 3: Children of Dune

Book 4: God Emperor of Dune

Book 5: Heretics of Dune

Book 6: Chapterhouse

Book 7: Hunters of Dune

Book 8: Sandworms of Dune

4.

The Heechee Saga

By Frederik Pohl


No products found.

Gateway is what started it all. it opened on all the wealth of the Universe and unleashed horrors unimaginable to most. It was Bob Broadhead who had decided that on his flight on the Heechee spacecraft he would make himself the richest man alive. This worked for him but did not help the rest of the universe. 

Book 1: Gateway
Book 2: Beyond The Blue Event Horizon
Book 3: Heechee Rendezvous
Book 4: The Annals Of The Heechee


5.

The Shadow Saga Series

By Orson Scott Card


No products found.

As the human race is at war with an alien species, the "Buggers", Earth prepares itself with a group of military geniuses who can fight and win the war. The training for such a group begins in childhood in the high orbital facility called the Battle School. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is not the only child there, he is simply the best of the best. 

Book 1: Ender's Shadow

Book 2: Shadow of the Hegemon

Book 3: Shadow Puppets

Book 4: Shadow of the Giant

Book 5: Shadows in Flight

6.

The Eternal Sky Trilogy

By Elizabeth Bear


No products found.

Temur was the grandson of the Great Khan. He was walking from the battlefield from which he was left to die alone. Around him were the armies of his cousin and brother who had started the war in order to rule the Khaganate. Now he was the rightful heir to the thrown. But he was not the strongest. The only way he was to survive from his cousin was to go into exile. 

Book 1: Range of Ghosts

Book 2: Shattered Pillars

Book 3: Steles of the Sky

7.

Hunter Series

By Mercedes Lackey


No products found.

This 3 book series is a mixture of science fiction and a fantasy. With kings and queen and entirely different universes join Joyeaux Charmand and her adventures as she and her fellow Hunters to protect the most important people. 

Book 1: Hunter

Book 2: Elite

Book 3: Apex

8.

Shades of Magic

By V. E. Schwab


No products found.

Being one of the last of her kind with the rare capabilities to travel between parallel dimentions, a Antari, Kell has a lot on her mind. She was raised in Arnes and serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador. She is a smuggler, serving only those who are willing to pay top price. However after an exchange goes wrong Kell is forced to escape to Grey London and runs into a fellow thief. 

Book 1: A Darker Shade of Magic

Book 2: A Gathering of Shadows

Book 3: A Conjuring of Light

9.

The Foundation Series

By Isaac Asimov


No products found.

In the year 12020 G.E. nothing is like what it may seem. With Emperor Cleon I sitting uneasily on his Imperial Throne of Trantor, forty billion people have create civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. But Cleon knows there are some out their wanting and waiting to see him fall. Those who he would destroy first if he could only see into the future. 

Book 1: Prelude to Foundation

Book 2: Forward the Foundation

Book 3: Foundation

Book 4: Foundation and Empire

Book 5: Second Foundation

Book 6: Foundation's Edge

Book 7: Foundation and Earth

Book 8: Foundation's Fears

Book 9: Foundation and Chaos

Book 10: Foundation's Triumph

10.

The Ender Game Series

By Orson Scott Card


No products found.

The government agencies breed child geniuses in order to defend themselves against a hostile alien race's next attack. One of these child geniuses was Andrew "Ender" Wiggin. Ender lived with his parents, sadistic brother Peter, and the his sister Valentine –who he loved more than anyone. As Ender leaves his family to be drafted into the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training, follow his story in this 5 book series. 

Book 1: Ender's Game

Book 2: Speaker for the Dead

Book 3: Xenocide

Book 4: Children of the Mind

Book 5: Ender in Exile

11.

Fallen Empire


No products found.

As the tyrannical empire has finally fallen to the Alliance it is time for celebration. However, not for fighter pilot Captain Alisa Marchenko. After having barely survived her crash in the final battle Captain Marchenko was stranded on a planet billions of miles away from her daughter. Without any money or resources and no transports heading to Perun she still have a plan. 

Book 1: Star Normad

Book 2: Honor's Flight

Book 3: Starseers

Book 4: Relic of Sorrows

Book 5: Cleon Moon

Book 6: Arkadian Skies

Book 7: Perilous Hunt

Book 8: End Game

12.

Mote Series

By Larry Niven


No products found.

Being spread across vast distances due to the Alderson Drive the united 'Second Empire of Man' has the capabilities to allow human to easily travel between the stars. However, after an alien probe has been discovered the Navy set out on a mission to determine whether or not the aliens are a threat to their society. 

Book 1: The Mote in God's Eye

Book 2: The Gripping Hand

Book 3: Outies

13.

The Hyperion Cantos

Dan Simmons


No products found.

On a world beyond reach of the galactic law known as Hyperion awaits a creature called the Shrike. There are some who worship it. Some who wish to destroy it. And then there are some who fear the Shrike. Hidden behind huge structures moving backwards through time in the Valley of the Time Tombs the Shrike awaits for them all. 

Book 1: Hyperion

Book 2: The Fall of Hyperion

Book 3: Endymion

Book 4: The Rise of Endymion

14.

The Book of the New Sun

By Gene Wolfe


No products found.

The Book of the New Sun is one of Gene Wolfe most famous novel series. Within it 4 books that master the art of science fiction and fantasy. The series starts out with the tale of a young Severian who is an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on a world known as Urth. Yet he was exiled for committing the ultimate sin to his profession, showing mercy towards a victim. 

Book 1: Shadow & Claw

Book 2: Sword & Citadel

Book 3: The Citadel of the Autarch

Book 4: The Urth of the New Sun 

15.

The Culture Series

By Iain Banks


No products found.

As the war continued to spread across the galaxy billions of more people were dying. Planets, moons, and stars awaited their destruction. The Idirans fought for their Faith and Culture fought for its moral right to exist. 

Book 1: Consider Phlebas

Book 2: The Player of Games

Book 3: Use of Weapons

Book 4: State of the Art

Book 5: Excession

Book 6: Inversions

Book 7: Look to Windward

Book 8: Matter

Book 9: Surface Detail

Book 10: The Hydrogen Sonata

16.

The Mars Trilogy

By Kim Stanley Robinson


No products found.

For centuries the barren landscape of the red planet has called for humankind. Now a group of one hundred colonists starts off on their mission to transform Mars into a more Earthlike planet.

Book 1: Red Mars

Book 2: Green Mars

Book 3: Blue Mars 

17.

Space Odyssey Series

By Arthur C. Clarke


No products found.

This series takes you through a time of humanity's explorations of the universe. And the universe's reaction to humankind. It follows the crew of the spacecraft Discovery as the take off on their journey to Saturn. 

Book 1: 2001

Book 2: 2010

Book 3: 2061

Book 4: 3001

18.

Ancillary World

By Ann Leckie


No products found.

Alone on a remote and icy planet Breq, a soldier, knew she was getting closer and closer to completing her quest. In her past she was the Justice of Toren – a massive starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of their soldiers into the service of the great Radch. The empire that had conquered the galaxy. But with a simple act of treachery all of that was ripped away from her and left her just like every other human, fragile, alone, and a burning desire for vengeance. 

Book 1: Ancillary Justice

Book 2: Ancillary Sword

Book 3: Ancillary Mercy

19.

The Young Elites

By Marie Lu


No products found.

Decades ago a deadly disease swept through Adelina Amoureru's nation. Most who were effect died soon there after. While the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina's hair had turned silver, her lashes were now pale and where her left eye once was is now a jagged scar. Some of the others affected with scars are rummored to now carry more than just the scars. Some say they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts. They have come together and call themselves the Young Elites. 

Book 1: The Young Elites

Book 2: The Rose Society

Book 3: The Midnight Star

20.

The Gap Cycle

By Stephen R. Donaldson


No products found.

Angus Thermopyle was a pirate and a well known pirate. Even the most fearsome of the Delta Sector stayed out of his way when he came through. But when Thermopyle came through Mallory's Bar & Sleep with a beautiful woman at his side, the commoners could not but help to take notice. Her name was Morn Hyland and before she came to be with Thermopyle she was a police officer. 

Book 1: The Real Story

Book 2: Forbidden Knowledge

Book 3: A Dark and Hungry God Arises

Book 4: Chaos and Order

Book 5: The Day All Gods Die

21.

The Uplift Saga

By David Brin


No products found.

Since the beginning of time no species had ever reached the stars without the guidance of a patron, except of course mankind. In this 6 book series follow an adventure that takes you through space on a voyage like non other. 

Book 1: Sundiver

Book 2: Startide Rising

Book 3: The Uplift War

Book 4: Brightness Reef

Book 5: Infinity's Shore

Book 6: Heaven's Reach

22.

Hainish Cycle

By Ursula K. Le Guin


No products found.

This series of novels consist of stories written by Ursula K. Le Guin. They take you through time and space on journeys that leave stranded human colonist on a planet one by one killing them. And where ethnologist are sent to a bronze-age planet in order to help defeat an intergalactic enemy. 

23.

The Red Trilogy

By Linda Nagata


No products found.

With advancements in technology and reality TV this series of novels comprises of high drama and political thrillers that combines both military action and classic science fiction. 

Book 1: The Red

Book 2: The Trials

Book 3: Going Dark

24.

Majipoor Series

By Robert Silverberg


No products found.

Being a man with no past and a lone wanderer without the knowledge of his origins, Valentine is a member of a motley group of entertainers. Traveling across the magical planet of Majipoor he continues to hope that one day soon he will meet someone that can give him back what he had all lost. 

Book 1: Lord Valentine's Castle

Book 2: Majipoor Chronicles

Book 3: Valentine Pontifex

25.

Lucky's Marines

By Larry Niven


No products found.

As humankind is in a desperate fight against insurmountable odds their only hope is in a lifer Marine that has a violent past. Without even remembering his past the marine is known for picking fights he shouldn't win. 

Book 1: Lucky Universe

Book 2: Lucky Legacy

Book 3: Lucy Empire

Book 4: Lucky Forever

Book 5: Lucky Invasion

What Makes a Sci-Fi Book Series So Good?

What happens when a story ends? Have you ever been left with that question and a longing for more action, adventure, and SciFi goodness?

Guarantee it. I know I have wondered what happens next. That's the joy of a great novel. The joy of a great series is exploring that notion. 

Series are a great way to really fully explore a story. What may be just a passing detail in Book One becomes highly relevant and critical to the plot in Part Two. Or what about a favorite character's backstory? Or maybe some side quests?

That's what makes a series so good. The ability to continue an already interesting notion and to further explore the underlying universe.

When SciFi Series Meet the Idiot Box

Reading is an amazing way to open up your mind and imagination. Especially with Science Fiction novels.

But as awesome as series are... they do have their drawback. They take much longer to read. Plus add that in with your normal daily schedule... It can be hard to settle down for a good book. Let alone three or four. 

But good news is that SciFi series are exceeding popular for television. Stargate, Star Trek, Firefly, Quantum Leap... Bottom line is this: 

SciFi makes for good TV. 

But what about our favorite books? Are there any series for them? Or is it all made for TV?

There are plenty of adaptations of book series to TV. The 100 series from Kass Morgan. The Space Odyssey Series from Arthur C. Clarke. And there are plenty in production now. I personally can't wait for the adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series for Apple TV. I'm definitely looking forward to those nights in. 

Best SciFi Series on TV

How were these Best SciFi Series Books Chosen?

There were a number of variables that went into choosing these particularly series. First off, I chose some of my own personal favorites i.e. The Ender's Game series. For those of you who don't know, I'm a nut for military science fiction.

Another aspect I looked at was the impact that the series made to the science fiction community. Have you ever met a SciFi reader who hadn't heard of (let alone reread many, many times) The Dune Chronicles? Go ahead and ask around. I'll wait. Frank Herbert set a whole new precedent for Science Fiction with this series. Some would argue that it is the greatest canon in all of SciFi.

And some... you just gotta add because they're classics! Can you image SciFi without Asimov's Foundation series? Or Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey? Stanley Kubrick couldn't. That I know for fact.

Get These Best SciFi Book Series for Free!

If you are looking for another way to enjoy these novels try listening to them in auidobook form! Here are two ways in which you can listen to these best scifi books for free: 

1. Audible's One Month Free Trial: When signing up for Audible you will be able to get your first month free. And you also get to pick any two books of your choice for free. After your trial is over and if you would like to continue using Audible's services you can pay $14.95 per month and get one book a month. 

2. Playster's One Month Free Trial: When signing up for Playster you can also experience their services for free for your first month. After your trial is over you can also pay $14.95 per month and listen to an unlimited amount of books per month. However if you would like to access everything that Playster has to offer including thousands of more books you can pay for a premium membership of only $29.95. 

More...

1 thought on “25 Best Sci Fi Book Series”

  1. I am searching for an old series (4 or more) about an alien commander coming g to earth to find wives/slaves to sell on other planets! I can’t remember the author or the book titles! However, my memory is not as good as I would like it. Can you help me please? I found it in a Pamida store in Two Harbors, Minnesota about 25 years ago. Thank you and Good Luck!

    Reply

Leave a Comment