Science fiction is a contemporary literary genre that explores possible future worlds, and that is distinguished from other speculative genres, such as fantasy and horror, by scientific and technological plausibility.
The genre formally emerged in the West, where the social transformations brought about by the Industrial Revolution first led writers and intellectuals to extrapolate the future impact of technology.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a series of standard science fiction 'sets', also called subgenres, had already been developed around certain themes: space travel, robots, extraterrestrial beings, time travel …
Common sci-fi storylines often feature human behaviors stemming from the process of technosocial change, and include prophetic warnings, utopian aspirations, elaborate scenarios for wholly imaginary worlds, titanic disasters, strange travels, and political upheaval of many extreme tastes.
HG Wells, CS Lewis, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, James Tiptree, Jr., Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Arnold, Stanisław Lem or Carl Sagan are some of the most representative authors of this genre.
Some of the works that we collect in this gallery have inspired successful and splendid film adaptations, which are new works of art in themselves due to the mastery of the language of the big screen; and most of them, in turn, have made a deep impression on popular culture.
Get ready to dive into our compilation of the best science fiction novels. How many have you read?
