Today's reality is on its rough side right now with all the pandemic, natural calamities, and even election fiasco that keep on popping in the news every day. It is no wonder people keep wondering “what's next?” or “what will the future be?”. Well, for those wanting to take a break from our present and somewhat unsightly reality, rekindling our passion for Science Fiction books is a proven lifesaver to help us be more engaged with big issues, indefinite possibilities, and what the future holds for us.

Below is the list of best science fiction adventure books of all time that we can read and enjoy while keeping all the gruesome and exhausting realities at bay. These books will truly satisfy all readers, especially those cute nerds and geeks who simply love science and fiction at the same time.

What Are The Best Sci-fi Adventure Novels?

Sarcaun: The Journey, by Simone Voltaire

The planet has been successfully inhabited by the Gens for millions of years. But then, humans became a real danger. The Gens realized that departing their planet would probably be the best way to preserve the race.

It's a bit of a different approach because most sci-fi adventure books I've read put humans in danger, but this one's different. Anyway, the story takes us years later, in the future, and follows Norellyia.

The princess is sent to earth for correction because of her attitude. She’s immediately adopted by a family and befriends Melanie, the daughter.

However, Melanie has a big secret, and that's when it gets exciting.

I won’t give you too many spoilers, but Melanie ends up in big trouble. Norellyia has to get involved to rescue her, only to cause chaos all over the world.

Things escalate pretty quickly, causing the young princess to join an adventure that will change her life forever.

Conjunction, by A. D. Zoltan, Steven N. Nagy

A long awaited spiritual, coming of age sci-fi adventure.

Keat lives in an utopian society, resulted by a new world order in the 27th century. Thanks to technological advancement humanity is able to do it's first intergalactic travel and visit the best candidates of planets for foreign life. The authors are describing a lot of details about this new world order, but also reveal the limitation of technological development, since technology isn't capable to solve all the problems of people.

Experience a groundbreaking moment in human history as the first G-type spaceship arrives at the Füzenil system and makes contact with extraterrestrial beings. Get ready for an unexpected journey as conversations unfold and a new perspective on life is revealed.

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells

Despite being released in the past decade, I believe this title will soon become a classic because it brings in a different approach.

Anyway, it's one of my favorite sci-fi adventure books, and, of course, the action takes place in the future, in a world with flying spaceships, robots, and scientists.

The book introduces us to the rules. Every planetary mission must be approved by the leadership. Then, each team needs some security robots for protection. But safety is not always the reason behind all these. Sometimes, it’s all about the money…

Then, the action takes us to a different planet, where a bunch of scientists are conducting a research operation. Unfortunately, one of the robots offering protection has a problem and starts referring to itself as Murderbot.

Even worse, the robot seems to have a bit of a conscience and tries to figure out what it is and what its role is. This is when the situation gets messy… And interesting.

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

I’m not sure how to describe this book, to be perfectly honest with you. It’s an interesting description of the future society, definitely worth your imagination.

But at the same time, I find it quite outrageous because if you think about it, it may actually become a reality. That's what makes your emotions float.

The action follows Hiro. He delivers pizza for a local pizza place, nothing special about it. However, his purpose and life are completely different in the Metaverse. In a virtual reality, he’s a prince with impressive fighting capabilities.

Now, a virus is threatening to destroy everything. It’s something no one has ever seen before. It can strike anyone and anything, from hackers to innocent people.

Hiro’s mission is to prevent the infocalypse now. It sounds like one of those classic sci-fi adventure books, but once the adventure begins, the action will hook you in straight away.

There’s no time for breaks, you’ll just read one page after another, that’s how addictive it gets. Honestly, I think they could do a movie after this book.

Infinit: The Last Bridge of Sam, by Mariia Nova

Let us join the extraordinary journey of Sam as she travels to the 7 infinits to save the woman who raised her, while at the same time saving the Planet Earth from the Dark Forces.

This science fiction adventure is a brainchild of Nova, and is packed with a stellar futuristic plot and exciting adventure with an added romance for a superb reading experience.

Start reading this promising book to accompany Sam as she deals with her romantic relationship with Fear, and braves herself to all the storms that come her way just to save her family and the rest of mankind.

Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton

This book welcomes you to a world where dinosaurs exist. Billionaire John Hammond wants the most benefit out of these wild creatures by thinking of a way to make money out of them. However, the dwindling population and rare sightings of these creatures left him frustrated that he funded Genetic research to clone them. He built a Jurassic Theme Park to inhabit the cloned dinosaurs and start making a profit. Even with the discouragement from experts saying the park is not sustainable in the long run, Hammond did not listen and proceeded to make his plan come true.

Everything seems a perfect set-up, but what will happen if these dinosaurs suddenly escaped from the park and went into a rampage?

Read this thrilling book and find out how humans and the advancement of technology joined forces to defeat these giant and deadly creatures.

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

Dr. Victor Frankenstein wants to play God, and through his vast knowledge and intelligence successfully created a Monster using different body parts of different species stitched together.
His creation is named after him, Frankenstein, but seeing its hideous appearance and potential danger, he resolutely abandoned it and started a normal life with his fiancé.

However, the Creator's obligation to care and provide for his creations cannot be easily cut by abandonment and rejection. The creation has to obey and remain faithful to his creator like how the creator is obliged to be with his creations to provide them the care they need.

Rejected and abandoned, the Monster “Frankenstein” is now back for revenge. What will Dr. Victor do to salvage his normal life when a raging monster suddenly comes back into his life?

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Anything motivated by greed leads to destruction and chaos. This is the very essence of Herbert's book, Dune, as he takes us to the year 10191 when feudal interstellar society exists.

The emperor chose the Noble House of Atreides to manage and control the desert planet Arrakis. This royal decree invoked envy and hate from the rival Noble House of Harkonnens who also ultimately desired the desert planet because of the powerful and miraculous spice called melange that grows on the said planet.

The rivalry turned to bloodlust and murder, which forces the main character Paul Atreides to avenge his murdered family and take back the desert planet from the control of the Herkonnens with the help of the Fremen who locally inhabit the planet.

Neuromancer, by William Gibson

Henry Dorsett Case is a wasted computer hacker due to his damaged nervous system that he got as punishment for stealing data from his employer. Once a talented computer hacker, Henry now lives in a dystopian underworld society in Japan heavily dominated by AI, virtual reality, and cyberspace, that becomes suicidal and depressed. However, an opportunity came his way when Molly and Armitage offered to cure him with a condition that he lend his hacking service to them.

He was cured and became part of the team as a hacker but everything changed when they accepted the job requested by Wintermute who wants to unite with its twin AI named Neuromancer. This book is jam-packed with cyberpunk themes with a little bit of romance to spice up your reading time. Find out what dangers Henry and his team will meet while taking on this one highly special and difficult job.

Prelude to Extinction, by Andreas Karpf

Captain Jack Harrison leads the first manned interstellar mission to investigate a planet called Epsilon Eri-D (if lifeforms can exist there similar to the Earth). However, multi-year travel was never easy due to poor cooperation and weak organizational management among the crew members. The real problem also started to arise when their mother ship reached the planet, and they discovered a sign of lifeform there. They left the ship and investigated a single dome where traces of habitation and bomb massacre were apparent.

While investigating the dome, they heard a blast and it was too late for them to realize that they were under attack by aliens.

With the mothership heavily damaged and hostile aliens set to kill them, can Captain Jack with his crew still be able to go back to Earth?

Recursion, by Blake Crouch

NYPD detective Barry Sutton is left bewildered by the growing cases of a new type of False Memory Syndrome that causes people afflicted with it to have new and strange memories of other lives. His path coincides with a Scientist named Helena with a mother who has Alzheimer's disease. Together, they conducted an in-depth investigation to find an answer to this strange disease and discover the dark forces pulling the strings to this bizarre event all along.

Blake Crouch created a thrilling and suspenseful plot that will truly leave readers some interesting riddles about the creation, augmentation, and erasing of reality.

Hyperion, by Dan Simmons

This brilliant book of Simmons is composed of six parts with different plots that are connected. The book is about the futuristic setting wherein humans became the victor in conquering the solar system and the milky way by creating a hegemony of humanity that resides and controls the different planets and stars. Humanity in this era is divided into two, the hegemony who are allied with the Artificial Intelligence called TechnoCore, and the group of modified humans known as Ousters.

The stories take place on a planet called Hyperion where Time Tombs were structured and protected by the legendary creatures called Shrikes. This compelling book will surely present mind-boggling facts that would make many readers question the ethics of what is truly bad or good.

Dark Matter, Blake Crouch

The story started when the main protagonist, Jason, was kidnapped and brought to a different universe where he was not married and had a child. It was revealed that before his simple marriage life, while he was working as a research scientist, he created a box capable of creating a multiverse or different parallel universe.

The original Jason was trapped in one of the parallel universes and was determined to go back to the version of a universe where he has a wife and a child. Unexpectedly, while jumping to different universes to find his way back home, he unintentionally created a different version of himself who has the same goal of going back home like him.

With the army of Jason in town, the original Jason must find a way to get rid of the doppelgangers who wanted to replace him and save his family. Will the original Jason find his way to his wife and child? And how would he deal with his doppelgangers who eagerly want to snatch his family life from him?

Winter World, by A.G. Riddle

What happens when the Earth keeps on cooling and suddenly, winter is permanent? This is the bizarre situation introduced in Riddle's book where humanity is facing extinction. Scientists investigated the sudden and unstoppable cooling of the Earth, and found out that it may be due to the low supply of solar radiation from the sun. Upon further research and exploration, it was discouraged as a terrifying cause that leads to the freezing of the Earth.

There was something strange, inhuman, and terrifying that was purposely blocking the sun from the Earth. Humans are now forced to believe the idea that we are not alone and other lifeforms are inhabiting the galaxy we are in. Will humanity survive? Start reading to find out who will win in this game of survival between different races.

Pandemic, by A.G. Riddle

There is a strange disease haunting the people in Kenya, and more cases of the mysterious flu around the world were being reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). Not long after, the dreaded thing happened- the start of a pandemic.

Dr. Peyton Shaw, an epidemiologist, is determined to find out the truth and hurriedly travel to Kenya where the pandemic started. What is unsettling in the plot is the major discovery that the virus was not of natural origin but a man-made one.

Will Dr. Peyton be successful in finding a cure for this deadly pandemic? Let us join the medical mission of Dr. Peyton and the WHO to stop the pandemic and save millions of people.

Ice, by Anna Kavan

The world is facing an ice apocalypse due to the nuclear war among countries. Slowly, the world is being engulfed with an ice shelf making the earth uninhabitable for humans and animals.

What is more intriguing in this apocalypse plot is the strange relationships among the three main characters. The male protagonist mobilizes a hot pursuit of his lover who seeks refuge to another frontier guarded by a warden. His obsession with her made him chase her for a long time without even bothered by the creeping annihilation of humanity due to the worsening ice age.

The book greatly tackles the unsettling mental state of people living in a world where extinction is slowly happening.

The Resisters, by Gish Jen

This book brings us to the future of America where the government is majorly run by Artificial Intelligence, lands are half-submerged in water, and people are greatly divided into hierarchical subclasses.

The plot focuses on the family of three who lives in futuristic America called AutoAmerica. In this new society, everything is automated, and home surveillance is mandatory. People are divided into Surplus (the unemployed) and the Angelfair (the elite). Due to the high advancement of technology, fewer jobs are offered to humans making them unemployed.

Grant with his wife and daughter started to resist the AI dictatorship that challenges their humanity and existence. Will they succeed or be forgotten like the others before them?

Final Thoughts on the best Science Fiction Adventure Books

Indeed, it is high time to treat our brains and curiosity with this list of the Best Science Fiction Adventure Books of All Time. These books will not only entertain us but impart important and mind-blowing information we never thought we needed.

Let us keep the engine of our brains running by reading these remarkable Science Fiction books. If you are looking for a sign when to start reading Science Fiction books, then this is it. Get ready to grab a copy of these top 14 Sci-Fi books and start your chosen adventure!

Cover artist: Aleksey Litvishkov

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