Looking to escape Earth for a little bit? Or to travel in time? Spanning enthralling alien invasions to adventures across space and time, science fiction is the perfect genre to lose yourself in.
For an even more immersive experience, why not tune into an audiobook? Here are ten of the best sci-fi audiobooks to lose yourself in.
1) The Dispossessed
First on our list is Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hugo Award-winning The Dispossessed. Travel across the stars with physicist Shevek as he abandons his home planet, Anarres, an anarchist ‘utopia,’ to journey to Urras, a capitalist world totally unlike his own.
Widely considered one of the best sci-fi novels ever written, this is a riveting listen that spans hard-hitting themes from war and capitalism to utopia and feminism and is essential reading for sci-fi fans looking for a masterclass in world-building.
2) Ready Player One
Ready Player One is a dystopian tale of global warming, video games, and easter egg hunts. This sci-fi fantasy follows 18-year-old Wade Watts, who lives in a near-future world ravaged by an energy crisis. Looking to escape his life in the ‘stacks,’ Wade spends his time logged onto a VR system called OASIS, searching for an Easter egg. Why? Because the game’s eccentric creator has promised to leave his billions to the first person who finds it.
Following themes close to many of our hearts, this listen is equal parts thrilling, hilarious, and bleakly realistic.
3) Dune
Thanks to 2021’s Academy Award-winning film adaption, everyone’s heard of Dune. But if you’ve not listened to the full-cast audio adaptation of this epic fantasy tale, you’re missing out.
Dune is an incredible piece of speculative fiction that blends mysticism, environmentalism, and futuristic tech, telling the story of Paul Atreides, who is destined to rule the desert planet of Arrakis and must avenge the murder of his family.
4) Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Even when exploring themes of power and purpose, the infallible Douglas Adams manages to infuse his work with intoxicating absurdism.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an important piece of the British literary canon, which makes it especially fitting that this tale is voiced by the legend Stephen Fry himself. Few books lend themselves so well to the audiobook format as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which sees Arthur Dent’s life change forever when he discovers his friend is an alien and is immediately catapulted into an utterly ridiculous adventure in space.
5) About Time
If you want to dive head-first into a sci-fi multiverse that’ll keep you entertained for months on end, we’re excited to introduce you to Jodi Taylor.
Creator of The Chronicles of St Mary's series and its spin-off, The Time Police, Taylor is a brilliant sci-fi writer who does time travel better than anyone else across time and space.
Set in a world where time travel is accessible to everyone and anyone, About Time (the fourth installment in The Time Police series) follows Luke, Jane, and Matthew, employees of the Time Police, as they work to keep the timelines intact — no matter what.
6) The Memory Librarian
If you’re going to read any book penned by a celebrity this year, make it singer, actor, and author Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian. Written to accompany her 2018 album Dirty Computer, this collection of short stories addresses the album’s underlying themes of identity, racism, technology, and feminism.
Voiced by acclaimed narrator Bahni Turpin, The Memory Librarian is a thought-provoking and unique project from a modern visionary that offers readers a look into what it would be like to live a totalitarian existence — and to break out of it.
7) To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Now, let’s throw it back to the early 1970s. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, the first book in Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld Saga, is a concise exploration of what would happen if everyone who’d ever lived were suddenly resurrected.
This imaginative story follows Sir Richard Francis Burton (yes, the very real 19th-century explorer) and a motley crew of compatriots as they seek out the true purpose of the Riverworld, making it a must-listen for fans of the wacky and wonderful.
8) To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars has the longest run-time of all entries on this list. But we promise the 32 hours you spend lost in this fast-paced epic will fly by.
Written by sci-fi legend Christopher Paolini, creator of Eragon, this 2020 title introduces listeners to xenobiologist Kira Navárez, who, after discovering a strange alien relic, is thrust into an adventure that’ll change the course of history.
9) This Is How You Lose the Time War
Here’s something a bit different for you. Part romance, part time-travel fantasy, This Is How You Lose the Time War follows two enemy agents as they jump through time, fighting a war (a time war, to be precise) all the way.
Cynthia Farrell and Emily Woo Zeller beautifully bring this tightly plotted tale of espionage, intrigue, and love to life, doing incredible justice to its enchanting, lyrical prose.
10) Ender’s Game
We’re closing out our list with a hard-hitter: military science-fiction Ender’s Game.
Orson Scott Card’s double Hugo-Nebula winner is set during a time of war and follows a collection of child prodigies at the Battle School orbiting Earth as they prepare for the next battle with the aggressive insect-like race known as ‘Formics’ threatening their world.
If you listen to and love this book, we have great news for you: it’s part of a series that comprises sixteen novels, thirteen short stories, comic books, and a film. Have fun!
