I love a book club. Reading and loving (or not loving) stories on your own is certainly wonderful, but there’s something incredibly fulfilling about reading and discussing a book together. But as anyone who has participated in or run a book club can tell you, choosing a book for your book club can be a real pain.
In this list I have gathered 10 contemporary science fiction books that are perfect for a book club to read and discuss. They each present complex themes, rich characters, and engaging plots worthy of thought and discussion, and are widely enjoyable and accessible to a diverse audience of readers. Whether your book club is scifi/SFF focused, or looking to explore the scifi genre for the first time, or anywhere in between, any of the books on this list should prompt engaging dialogue and rich thought.
Please note that all of the discussion questions linked in this list are filled with spoilers. As I publish new Discussion Questions for the books below, I will update this list to include links to those collected questions. As always, click with caution.
Velocity Weapon
Velocity Weapon (2019) is an excellent example of the best of modern science fiction. In it, Megan E. O’Keefe tackles many of the longest-running scifi themes, including trans-universe exploration, artificial intelligence development and ethics, grand-scale political intrigue, time travel via stasis, and tragedy. All this in a story focused on character development and the human element in each one of these themes.
O’Keefe presents beautifully rich characters, a complex universe, and action balanced by peaceful and fretful moments alike to tell a story that your book club will be eager to discuss. And any book with this many “wait – what?” moments is sure to keep the discussion lively and engaging for all readers.
Check out my review and discussion questions to help you prepare for this discussion.
Exhalation
I really love the idea of choosing a collection of short stories for a book club read, and I don’t think enough book clubs consider it. There are some challenges, though, in choosing the right collection; that’s where Ted Chiang’s Exhalation (2019) comes in.
In Exhalation, Chiang presents nine stories each characterized by his particular blend of fantastic speculation and hard science, and otherwise different in every detail. His stories are of a piece moving and inspiring, and many in this collection are heart-wrenchingly beautiful. There’s so much for a book club to discuss in a short story collection, and all of it is well served by Chiang’s masterful work.
Check out my review to help you prepare to discuss this book.
The Sparrow
I remember first reading Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow (1997) and feeling for the first time this aching longing to talk to someone about what I had read, how it had made me feel, and why. In the years since, I’ve recommended this book countless times – but never without the warning that it broke me open and rebuilt me, and it might do that to you, too.
Reading a book this powerful, this elegantly written, this full of meaning, can be an incredible experience for a book club. However, it’s always important to remember that strong emotions can surface during discussions of major themes like hope, fear, religion, faith, destiny, and morality, and if your book club reads this book it should be prepared to create a supportive and understanding environment in which to do so.
All these years later I still struggle to summarize Russell’s The Sparrow with any degree of objectivity. Instead, I would encourage you to familiarize yourself with its themes before reading it. It is worth your time (an understatement if I’ve ever written one), and I recommend it with my whole heart.
Note: This story does include some elements of body horror, and book clubs should be sensitive to readers’ needs and boundaries around this topic.
The Power
Naomi Alderman’s 2017 scifi epic explores a future in which girls across the world are suddenly and inexplicably blessed (or burdened) with a shocking ability. In The Power, Alderman explores what change might come to people, to families, communities, nations, and the world as this power immediately shifted the balance for the first time in the favor of teen girls. Despite this story’s wide scope and the far-reaching consequence of its beginning, Alderman keeps the story focused on specific people. The Power traverses the globe, illuminating the new world through the eyes of the influential and (seemingly) inconsequential alike in a tale that is at once deeply emotional and profoundly observant.
Check out my review to help you prepare to discuss this book.
Calculating Stars
Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars (2018) reimagines a space race in which women and POC are recognized for their work and celebrated for their accomplishments, visibly driving progress instead of being forced to do their calculations in the shadows. It all begins in 1952, when a meteor crash sets off a catastrophic chain of events. Kowal burns the world only to build it up again with women at the forefront.
What unfolds is a narrative of grief and hope, failure and success, and a future for humanity rising from literal ashes. But of course while the landscape changes overnight, human nature struggles to catch up. Throughout The Calculating Stars, Kowal does not shy away from facing humanity’s uglier natures, and themes of racism and bigotry are at the forefront of this narrative and its character’s struggles.
Check out my review to help you prepare to discuss this book.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter
Sometimes it’s nice to sit back with a tall glass of iced tea (or whatever wets your whistle) and lose yourself to a fun and engaging story – which is exactly what The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter offers. Reimagining the women (often victims) from classic horror and scifi stories as characters in their own right, Theodora Goss joins them together against the backdrop of Victorian London and women’s liberation to save themselves from the sad fate literature predestined them to, and then sets them off to rid England and the world of the very evil that had once threatened each and every one of them.
Check out my review to help you prepare to discuss this book.
Sleeping Giants
2016’s Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel is probably the most hotly contested book on this list. It met with critical acclaim, but reviews have been mixed in the years since – in large part because of this book’s unique format.
Through a series of interviews with an unnamed narrator, Sleeping Giants explores an incredible discovery and its awe-inspiring and terrible implications. This story’s small cast of characters and limited point of view only serve to magnify the true consequence of the discovery and the responsibility that has fallen on the shoulders of each member of the team tasked with understanding and “using” the artifact.
Note: This story does include some elements of body horror, and book clubs should be sensitive to readers’ needs and boundaries around this topic.
Check out my review and discussion questions to help you prepare to discuss this book.
Noumenon
Marina J. Lostetter’s Noumenon (2017) presents a classic hard scifi narrative. In it, generations of scientists dedicate their lives to a cross-universe journey of scientific discovery. On Earth, Reggie Straifer discovers an anomalous star and proposes a grand mission to uncover its mysteries. When his proposal is accepted, it becomes one of twelve Planet United Missions – globally-funded scientific missions to the stars. In preparation for the trip, scientists from all over the world are tested and (if they measure up) cloned to preserve the “genetic talent of the original crew”. It is these clones, along with a unique artificial intelligence, that will staff the ships of Reggie’s mission, Noumenon, on its eons-long journey there and back again.
Lostetter’s story is wistful and reverent, challenging, honest, and full of great fictional science. In it, readers will encounter many of the mainstays of the genre, at once familiar to scifi fans but refreshing as they are unburdened by the problematic themes that plague so much of classic science fiction.
Check out my review to help you prepare to discuss this book.
The Little Animals
The Little Animals (2019) by Sarah Tolmie is wildly unique. In it, Tolmie takes the straightforward, if little-known, real-world story of Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, a quiet linen draper in the Netherlands who in the 1600s discovered microorganisms, and turns it into something beyond belief.
Tolmie’s ability to evoke not just 1600s Dutch life but also the particular experience of single-handedly discovering microorganisms is astounding. She takes great care in her exploration of “the little animals” through Leeuwenhoek’s eyes to present an authentic and believable experience of discovery without coloring any of it with our modern understanding of even the basics of the science of microorganisms.
On top of that, she weaves an incredible air of mystery and otheworldliness. The resulting story is rich and provocative, and offers a feast of potential discussions. Some readers may quibble about The Little Animal‘s inclusion into a scifi list. To them I say “It has science and fiction and it is amazing – what more do you want?”
Note: This is the only book on this list that I did not personally enjoy. If you read my review, do not let my dislike color your impression. I wholeheartedly recommend it to book clubs and single readers, in full recognition of its many accomplishments – even if I struggled with the narrative voice.
Check out my review to help you prepare to discuss this book.
Hella
Hella (2020) is the latest in a decades-long string of exciting contributions to science fiction by accomplished author and screenwriter David Gerrold. In Hella, humans have left Earth and are beginning to settle on new worlds (including Hella). The Hellan colony is thriving, but faces challenges from within and without: from the unknowable and terrifyingly large flora and fauna native to their new planet to insidious flaws in human nature the settlers failed to leave behind on distant Earth.
Gerrold brings so much to the table in Hella, marrying a dry and self-aware wit with deep observations about what it means to be human, Gerrold tells the tale of Hella’s colony from the perspective of a young autistic boy. Through Kyle’s eyes we experience the awe and the terror inspired in equal measure by Hella’s native inhabitants, and we experience the hope, the hurt, the love, and the loss endemic to human experience no matter where it resides.
Check out my review to help you prepare to discuss this book.
