42 Best Sci-Fi Audiobooks of All Time

Ryland Grace wakes alone on a spaceship with no memory and one job: save humanity. Ray Porter’s performance makes it unforgettable, and it won Audiobook of the Year at the 2022 Audie Awards.

Bob Johansson wakes up as a digital copy of himself inside a space probe, and then makes more Bobs. Ray Porter, who also reads Project Hail Mary, gives the Bobs plenty of personality in this clever, funny listen.

A terraforming experiment goes wrong and a species of spiders slowly evolves intelligence while the last humans search for a new home. Mel Hudson carries a story that spans thousands of years.

Astronaut Mark Watney is stranded on Mars and has to science his way home. Wil Wheaton gives the sarcastic log entries a perfect dry delivery, which makes this an easy first sci-fi audiobook.

A scientist’s link to a secret project during China’s Cultural Revolution sets off a mystery that reaches the stars. This edition is translated by Ken Liu and read by Rosalind Chao. It’s dense, but gripping.

The moon breaks apart and humanity has two years to get off Earth. At nearly 32 hours it’s a commitment, but Mary Robinette Kowal’s narration makes the engineering feel like a thriller.

A team of explorers travels to a gigantic artificial ring built around a distant star. Grover Gardner’s steady reading suits this big-idea classic.

A missing girl and an abandoned ship pull a ragged crew into a conspiracy that spans the solar system. Jefferson Mays reads book one of nine, so there’s a long run to binge if you like it.

Seven pilgrims travel to the Time Tombs and tell their stories along the way. A cast of narrators voices them, so each tale has its own sound.

A mathematician predicts the fall of a galactic empire and sets up a plan to shorten the dark age that follows. Scott Brick narrates this idea-packed classic with clarity.

Ender Wiggin is a child sent to battle school to prepare for an alien invasion. Stefan Rudnicki’s reading is rated highly by tens of thousands of listeners.

Soldier William Mandella fights across interstellar distances, and every trip home finds Earth decades older. George Wilson reads this short, bleak classic in under ten hours.

Joe Bishop, an everyday soldier, is pulled into an alien conflict far above his pay grade. R.C. Bray plays the humor straight in the first book of the long-running Expeditionary Force series.

Breq was once a starship controlling thousands of bodies and is now one person with a score to settle. Adjoa Andoh’s elegant reading carries a story that plays with identity and language.

Two teens flee a corporate attack on their planet while their ship’s AI turns dangerous. The story is told through emails, transcripts and reports, so a full cast is the perfect way to hear it.

Murderbot is a security android that hacked its own controls and mostly wants to watch TV. Kevin R. Free nails the deadpan, and at about three hours it’s the easiest way into a hit series.

Binti is the first of her people accepted to a top galactic university, and the trip there turns dangerous. Robin Miles reads this 2.5-hour novella, the first of a trilogy.

A mining crew finds out a quiet planet isn’t empty, and Ellen Ripley is drawn back into the story. Jeff Harding reads this tie-in novel, a good pick if you love the Alien films.

Winston Smith rewrites history for the Party and begins to rebel against Big Brother. Theo Solomon’s reading keeps this grim classic moving across its 12 hours.

A comfortable, drug-numbed world of engineered castes starts to crack when an outsider arrives. Michael York’s polished reading suits Huxley’s satire, and it pairs well with 1984.

Guy Montag burns books for a living until he starts to read them. Penn Badgley reads this short, sharp classic in under five hours.

Offred lives in Gilead, where fertile women are assigned to bear children for the ruling class. Claire Danes leads a full-cast production that also features Margaret Atwood herself.

Darrow is a Red miner at the bottom of a color-coded caste system who infiltrates the ruling Golds to bring them down. Tim Gerard Reynolds’s intense reading makes this a fast, brutal listen.

Lauren Olamina survives a collapsing California and builds a new belief system along the way. Lynne Thigpen’s reading gives Butler’s near-future warning real weight.

Life in an underground silo runs on one rule: anyone who asks to go outside is sent out to clean the sensors. Edoardo Ballerini’s narration makes this a gripping listen.

A superflu wipes out most of humanity and the survivors gather on opposite sides of good and evil. At almost 48 hours it’s the longest listen here. More in our best Stephen King audiobooks.

A UN investigator collects first-person accounts of the zombie war. The Complete Edition is a full-cast recording with performers like F. Murray Abraham and Alan Alda, and it works brilliantly as audio.

A flu collapses civilization, and a traveling theater troupe keeps Shakespeare alive. Kirsten Potter’s warm narration brings out the hope in this quiet, beautiful story.

Linked stories follow people through a pandemic that begins with a thawing Arctic and spans decades. Julia Whelan leads a multi-narrator cast, which suits the book’s many voices.

A mysterious monolith guides humanity from the dawn of man to the edge of the solar system. Dick Hill’s clear reading suits Clarke’s big ideas, and it runs under seven hours.

Arthur Dent is whisked off Earth moments before it’s demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Stephen Fry’s reading is hard to beat, and yes, 42 is the answer that inspired this list.

Bounty hunter Rick Deckard tracks escaped androids through a ruined future, in the novel that inspired Blade Runner. Scott Brick’s tense reading fits Dick’s big question: what makes someone human?

A Victorian inventor travels 800,000 years into the future and finds a world far stranger than he hoped. David McAlistair reads this short classic in under three and a half hours.

Paul Atreides’s family takes charge of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the universe’s most valuable substance. This is a multi-narrator production with music and sound, so it feels like an epic drama.

A writer researching the creator of the atomic bomb stumbles into the strange religion of Bokononism. Tony Roberts reads Vonnegut’s dark satire in just over seven hours.

Linked stories trace the rise of robots under Asimov’s Three Laws and the clever ways those laws go wrong. Scott Brick reads this 8-hour classic, which is quite different from the film.

Valentine Michael Smith, raised by Martians, arrives on Earth and begins to question human customs. Christopher Hurt narrates this landmark novel, a counterculture classic.

Klara is an artificial friend waiting in a shop for a child to choose her. Sura Siu narrates Ishiguro’s quiet, moving look at love and what it means to be human.

Two rival agents on opposite sides of a time war begin trading letters that slowly become something more. Each narrator voices one of the pair, which makes this short listen special.

In 2044, teenager Wade Watts hunts for a prize hidden in a vast virtual world. Wil Wheaton is a perfect fit for all the 80s pop-culture references.

A physicist is kidnapped and wakes up in a life that looks like his but isn’t. Jon Lindstrom keeps the tension high in this fast, twisty story about parallel lives.

Scientists clone dinosaurs from DNA preserved in amber, and the park falls apart. Scott Brick reads this 15-hour thriller, which is darker and more detailed than the films.