Dragons in Space and Robots in Camelot: Top 10 Science Fiction Fantasy Books of All Time

Science fiction readers like aliens, spaceships, time travels, artificial intelligence, laser blasters, and robots. Fantasy readers enjoy stories about wizards, magic, elves, goblins, swords, griffins, fire-breathing dragons, titans, and shapeshifters. The former expects to grapple with how technologies and scientific advancements affect the world and humanity at large, whereas the latter wants nothing less than epic tales about good versus evil. While the two genres shouldn’t – in theory – be able to mix well, it’s not uncommon to see them seamlessly merge thanks to the ingenuity and creative storytelling styles of many brilliant authors. The list below includes only a fraction of all the science fiction fantasy books out there, but we do hope it’s going to be enough to fill your reading list for months to come.

Dragonflight (1968) by Anne McCaffrey

We promised you dragons, so here they are. Dragonflight, the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series, is a blend of two novellas: “Weyr Search” and “Dragonrider,” winners of the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novella and the 1969 Nebula Award for Best Novella (in respective order), making McCaffrey the first female author to win both awards. The story is set in the distant future, when humans on the Planet Pern can harness the power of the indigenous fire-breathing dragons. As you’ve probably expected, every dragon can develop a lifelong bond with its rider.

Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert

If you’ve read A Song of Ice and Fire and think the series is not complex enough, Dune might be right up your alley. Since it involves religions, evolution, ecology, and politics in one go, you’ll be properly pleased to follow the journey of Paul Atreides as he rises to power and becomes a prophet-like figure with his ability to foresee the future. Dune foremost is an adventure narrative, and it has a convincingly detailed planetary ecology with an impressive depiction of a world almost completely devoid of water.

The Gunslinger (1982) by Stephen King

In a distant future of a severely deteriorated world, the gunslinger embarks on a quest to hunt down his evil nemesis. Although at some points the story might sound obtuse (if not strange), the book achieves its primary objectives well: to take readers into the mind of the gunslinger in question (Roland Deschain), and firmly establish his intention to find the Dark Tower and kill the Crimson King.

A Princess of Mars (1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

John Carter is a gold prospector and a Confederate veteran. While he’s hiding from the Indians in a cave in Arizona, he somehow gets transported to Mars. The locals seem to know him well and refer to him as Barsoom. His newly discovered superhuman strength and agility – mostly thanks to the planet’s low gravity – bring him to a prominent position among the Green Martians. He soon falls in love with Princess Dejah Thoris, who is almost a female human except that she lays eggs.

Kindred (1979) by Octavia Butler

Dana Franklin is just an ordinary African American woman in present day America. Following an episode of dizziness, she comes to realize that she can travel back in time to the early 1800s, when slavery was still a widespread practice. With all the modern sensibility she can muster, she has to witness first-hand the horror and wickedness of slavery, racial conflict, and gender politics of the past.

Hyperion (1989) by Dan Simmons

The world as we know it today is no more. A catastrophic accident destroys the world we’re all familiar with, and replaces it with something else so bizarre full of “farcasters,” some sort of singularity-controlled portals that can take humans anywhere anytime with no delay whatsoever. Advanced artificial intelligence is to keep those gates in working conditions and maintaining the existence of a vast empire. But if someone, or something, is playing with space and time, all might not be as good as it seems.

Cloud Atlas (2004) by David Mitchell

The stories in the novels take place in different periods of time, hopping from the 1850s to a dystopian future and impacting each other. And then the narratives jump back to the past, resolving the series of events they started. You get some weird combinations of stories here, involving an interview with a clone, a thriller, and some other misadventures connected by a tattoo. According to the author himself, the main characters are supposed to be reincarnations of the same person.

The Einstein Intersection (1967) by Samuel R. Delany

In a distant future, when humans no longer reign supreme on Earth, the aliens take the place of humans and make it their mission to understand the myths of the planet’s past. This is the story of Lobey, as he takes on a quest to resurrect his dead lover. With plenty of mythic archetypes and poetic imagery, The Einstein Intersection is an exemplary novel to mark the outlines of the human condition.

Under the Skin (2000) by Michel Faber

Let’s be blunt. You’ve probably seen the movie adaptation first before you’ve ever heard of the novel. Like in the film, the main character in Under the Skin is an alien disguised as a woman. While the story certainly falls under science fiction fantasy, it reads more like a mystery thriller. She might be powerful, dangerous, advanced, and all that, but it remains true that she is irreparably damaged. Her pain, wonderment, resignation, and curiosity blend into one messy feeling that colors her misadventures.

Doomsday (2015) by R. L. Gemmill

Doomsday follows the Bishop siblings – Jon, Kelly, and Travis – who reunite after years in foster care when adopted by a loving couple. During a cave expedition with their foster father, an earthquake reveals a dark secret: the cave harbors demons plotting humanity’s downfall. Kelly, gifted with telepathy, can’t read the demons’ minds. When most of their group is captured, a rescue mission brings everyone back alive but changed. This supernatural thriller explores family bonds, human resilience, and hidden threats beneath the surface.

Medieval Robots (2015) by E. R. Truitt

There aren’t any widely popular novels with stories about robots in medieval times, but if you’re willing to include a non-fiction exploration of the concept, Medieval Robots should be on your reading list. Truitt, who has a PhD in History of Science from Harvard, offers a detailed overview of mechanical devices (or robots) in medieval Europe and examines how those inventions were perceived within the context of culture, art, and literature.

We think it only makes sense that science fiction and fantasy books are often shelved together. Arthur C. Clarke once said something to the effects of magic being pretty much indistinguishable from sci-fi, as long as the science fiction features sufficiently advanced technologies. For instance, extraterrestrial species are clearly in the realm of sci-fi, but if you change the plotline just enough and replace those aliens with fairies and mermaids, suddenly the narrative sounds like an entirely different genre. What if a civilization somewhere in outer space has laboratory facilities where the aliens bioengineer dragons? Is the “Force” in Star Wars dark matter or magic? Instead of trying to separate them, sometimes it’s just pure fun to mix the genres together and let the imaginations run wild.

Do you think there’s a clear boundary between science fiction and fantasy – in the broader sense of the terms? What exactly is space opera? We’d love to hear from you.

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