Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is, and works out one clue at a time that he is humanity’s last chance against an extinction-level threat. It won the 2022 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year and has a 4.9 from more than 316,000 ratings. It is a standalone.

A dust storm forces his crew to leave, and astronaut Mark Watney is stranded on Mars, certain he will be the first person to die there. He stays alive by solving one engineering and chemistry problem after another. Wil Wheaton reads this newer production, which includes bonus material, and it has a 4.8 from more than 46,000 ratings.

A catastrophe turns the Earth into a ticking time bomb, and nations race to get people into orbit before it is too late. The story then runs for five thousand years. It is heavy on the mechanics of living and traveling in space, and at nearly 32 hours it is the longest pick on this page. It has a 4.3 from 26,000 ratings.

Jazz Bashara is a small-time smuggler on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, and a harmless bit of contraband turns into something bigger. It is a heist story set in a carefully worked-out lunar city. Rosario Dawson reads it, and it has a 4.3 from more than 100,000 ratings.

Astronomers spot an alien spacecraft accelerating toward Saturn, and the United States and China race to get there first. Audible pitches it to fans of The Martian, and it has a 4.4 from more than 4,000 ratings.

Cave diver James Tighe is invited to a billionaire’s private island and ends up on a team recruited to launch the first deep-space mining operation. Jeff Gurner reads it, and it has a 4.5 from more than 4,400 ratings.

In 1952 a huge meteorite hits the East Coast of the United States, and the resulting climate effects mean humanity has to start leaving the planet. The author reads her own book, which is the first of the Lady Astronaut series. It has a 4.3 from more than 4,700 ratings.

Humanity’s first contact with an alien civilization is set against China’s Cultural Revolution, and the physics gets stranger the further it goes. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel and has a 4.4 from more than 31,000 ratings. Book two, The Dark Forest, is read by P. J. Ochlan and rated 4.6 by more than 18,000 listeners.

The last remnants of humanity leave a dying Earth to find a new home, and discover a terraformed world that someone else has already inherited. Mel Hudson reads both sides of the story. It has a 4.5 from more than 41,000 ratings, and the sequel, Children of Ruin, is rated 4.5 too.

A signal turns up that seems to come from far beyond our solar system, and the book follows what people on Earth do with it. It was written by Carl Sagan, the astronomer behind Cosmos. Laurel Lefkow reads it, and it has a 4.5 from nearly 6,000 ratings.

In 2082, after an event called the Firefall, a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted ship Theseus is sent to intercept an unknown intelligence. Audible calls it fast-moving hard SF. It has a 4.2 from more than 4,000 ratings.

Human scientists make contact with the cheela, intelligent life on a neutron star where one Earth hour equals hundreds of their years. The cheela go from savagery to science while the humans watch. The author was a physicist. It has a 4.5, but only about 800 ratings, so it gets less attention than it should.

This is a character-driven story about people settling a distant planet and learning to live alongside an intelligence that is not human. Two narrators split the large cast, and AudioFile praised their work on the alien voices. It has a 4.2 from more than 1,500 ratings.

A huge object hurtling through the solar system turns out to be an interstellar spacecraft, and explorers go aboard to find out what it is. This edition includes an introduction by Robert J. Sawyer. It has a 4.4 from more than 11,000 ratings.

Humanity has colonized Mars, the Moon and the Asteroid Belt, but a missing girl leads a ship captain, his crew and a detective into a conspiracy that spans the solar system. Jefferson Mays reads it, and it has a 4.7 from more than 34,000 ratings.

An international group of settlers begins the long job of colonizing Mars. The Nebula Award winner is praised by scientists for its detailed vision of future technology. It is the first of a trilogy, and it has a 4.0 from more than 5,000 ratings.

This novel is told through fictional eyewitness accounts of how climate change will affect all of us. It was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year, and a cast of narrators gives it a documentary feel. It has a 4.2 from nearly 3,800 ratings.

Luna is a penal colony run by an Authority on Earth, and a ragtag group of dissidents, including a one-armed computer jock and a nearly omnipotent supercomputer, plots a revolt. It has a 4.5 from more than 11,000 ratings.

The story runs from the dawn of humankind to the rings of Saturn, where the ship Discovery and its computer, HAL 9000, follow a signal from a monolith. Dick Hill reads it, and at under seven hours it is the shortest book here. It has a 4.6 from more than 12,000 ratings.

A team of explorers sets out to investigate a vast ribbon of matter some 180 million miles across, with a sun at its center. It won both the Hugo and the Nebula Award. It has a 4.1 from nearly 9,000 ratings.

William Mandella is a soldier in Earth’s elite brigade, fighting an interstellar war in which time distortion means each trip home is farther from the world he left. It won the Hugo and Nebula Awards and has a 4.3 from more than 8,500 ratings.

Most of humanity has moved into software since the Introdus, and the story follows a digital being grown from a mind seed in a network that spans the solar system. It is the most demanding book on the page, with about 500 ratings and a 4.0.

Nine hundred thousand years ago something wiped out the Amarantin civilization just before it could reach space. Now a scientist named Dan Sylveste will do anything to solve the mystery, including striking a deal with the cyborg crew of a starship. It has a 4.0 from nearly 6,000 ratings.

This collection holds nine stories, two of them published for the first time, that tackle old questions and new ones about time, technology and free will. Four narrators share the reading, and the author reads one of the stories. It has a 4.4 from more than 4,000 ratings.

Bob Johansson sells his software company and signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved, then wakes up a century later as an artificial intelligence running a space probe. Audible named it its Best Science Fiction Book of 2016. It has a 4.7 from more than 109,000 ratings.