By now, I’m sure you’re all aware that I read a lot of fantasy.

It’s easily the majority of what I read. But hey, I do read other things. Sometimes. Every now and then. Like … sci-fi! And no, that’s not cheating, just because the lines between fantasy and sci-fi are often blurred and they’re essentially very similar things. Still totally counts!

In case you hadn’t heard, November is #SciFiMonth, hosted by Imyril. You can click there to get all the details and Sci-Fi goodness. When I first heard about it, I wasn’t sure I had much to contribute, but that’s not true, is it? I totally read sci-fi. Even if I’m just a baby, sci-fi initiate.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is ten non-bookish hobbies, but since all my hobbies are essentially bookish and besides which I’m an utterly boring lump … I thought I’d spin it for sci-fi month!

Come, let me lead all you fantasy readers onto the path of sci-fi! I confess that there have been times in the past when I’d given up on particular parts of sci-fi or thought it wasn’t for me, and I’m so thankful for the people who have talked me into giving it another go, because I’ve found quite a few sci-fi books that I love. So I want to share them with you.

Here are 10 sci-fi books that you should totally start with if you’re normally a fantasy reader.

Illuminae

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra — who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents — including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more — Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Reasons to Read:

• Epistolary with a really interesting format.
• Larger-than-life space opera adventure.
• Squad vibes and found family.
• AI doing its AI thing … in space!
• Lots of sarcastic humor.

Scythe

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

Reasons to Read:

• post-Age of Mortality world where people don’t die.
• They just … you know … go deadish for a while.
• System where people known as Scythes cull humans to keep the population steady.
• Because obviously, what could possibly go wrong about that?!
• Epic AI called the Thunderhead.
• Lots of secrets and betrayal and plot twists!

The Last Human

Sarya is the civilized galaxy’s worst nightmare: a Human.

Most days, Sarya doesn’t feel like the most terrifying creature in the galaxy.

Most days, she’s got other things on her mind. Like hiding her identity among the hundreds of alien species roaming the corridors of Watertower Station. Or making sure her adoptive mother doesn’t casually eviscerate one of their neighbors. Again.

And most days, she can almost accept that she’ll never know the truth–that she’ll never know why humanity was deemed too dangerous to exist. Or whether she really is–impossibly–the lone survivor of a species destroyed a millennium ago.

That is, until an encounter with a bounty hunter and a miles-long kinetic projectile leaves her life and her perspective shattered.

Thrown into the universe at the helm of a stolen ship–with the dubious assistance of a rebellious spacesuit, an android death enthusiast on his sixtieth lifetime, and a ball of fluff with an IQ in the thousands–Sarya begins to uncover an impossible truth.

What if humanity’s death and her own existence are simply two moves in a demented cosmic game, one played out by vast alien intellects? Stranger still, what if these mad gods are offering Sarya a seat at their table–and a second chance for humanity?

Reasons to Read:

• Epic space drama including space ships and various species.
• Humanity ruins everything, as we already know.
• Interesting new races of beings and social structures.
• Alien squad!
• Large-scale philosophic questions and ideas.

Gideon the Ninth

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.

Reasons to Read:

• Foul-mouthed anti-hero protagonist.
• But how can you not love her?
• NECROMANCY! Except each house uses it a bit differently.
• Space opera with plenty of drama and surprises.
• A bit of an ongoing murder mystery subplot.

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind

For Teagan Frost, sh*t just got real.

Teagan Frost is having a hard time keeping it together. Sure, she’s got telekinetic powers—a skill that the government is all too happy to make use of, sending her on secret break-in missions that no ordinary human could carry out. But all she really wants to do is kick back, have a beer, and pretend she’s normal for once.

But then a body turns up at the site of her last job—murdered in a way that only someone like Teagan could have pulled off. She’s got 24 hours to clear her name—and it’s not just her life at stake. If she can’t unravel the conspiracy in time, her hometown of Los Angeles will be in the crosshairs of an underground battle that’s on the brink of exploding…

Reasons to Read:

• Sarcastic, irreverent, anti-hero protagonist.
• Who just so happens to be able to move things with her mind.
• Some large-scale mysteries to solve and unravel.
• All the action sequences.
• Baby squad finally learning how to actually squad!

All Systems Red

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

Reasons to Read:

• Murderbot. Do you really need more reason than that?
• Antisocial, entirely awkward murder robot as a protagonist.
• Dry, sarcastic humor.
• Series of novellas that pack in a lot of action and feels.
• Robot tries to learn what it means to be human.
• And then dismisses it all as silly and illogical, which is fair.

The God Game

You are invited!
COme inside and play with G.O.D.
Bring your friends!
It’s fun!
But remember the rules. Win and ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.™ Lose, you die!

With those words, Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of creeping vines, smoldering torches, runes, glyphs, gods, and mythical creatures. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them with expensive tech, revenge on high-school tormentors, and cash flowing from ATMs. Slaying a hydra and drawing a bloody pentagram as payment to a Greek god seem harmless at first. Fun even.

But then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Complete a mission, however cruel, or the game reveals their secrets and crushes their dreams. Tasks that seemed harmless at first take on deadly consequences. Mysterious packages show up at their homes. Shadowy figures start following them, appearing around corners, attacking them in parking garages. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win?

And what of the game’s first promise: win, win big, lose, you die? Dying in a virtual world doesn’t really mean death in real life—does it?

As Charlie and his friends try to find a way out of the game, they realize they’ve been manipulated into a bigger web they can’t escape: an AI that learned its cruelty from watching us.

God is always watching, and He says when the game is done.

Reasons to Read:

• Augmented reality game app overlaid onto the real world.
• Some really creepy, horror-ish things going on in-game.
• What happens when your video game leaks into the real world?
• Mystery and creepiness.
• Super high stakes.
• Do you play the game, or does the game play you?

Into the Drowning Deep

Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy.

Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves.

But the secrets of the deep come with a price.

Reasons to Read:

• Murder mermaids! Murmaids!
• Monster lurking in the deep trope, but with lots of science.
• Beautifully crafted horror and suspense atmosphere.
• Will keep you on the edge of your seat to find out what happens next.

Just One Damned Thing After Another

“History is just one damned thing after another.”

Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary’s, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don’t do ‘time-travel’ – they ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time’. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power – especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.

Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document – to try and find the answers to many of History’s unanswered questions…and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back – to the death. And, as they soon discover – it’s not just History they’re fighting.

Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake….

Reasons to Read:

• Hilarious situations that will have you dying laughing.
• The chance to see what real historians get to do.
• You know, as in go back and study history. Duh!
• Trips to interesting moments in the past.
• Including dinosaurs! Who doesn’t like dinosaurs?
• A cast of characters you’ll fall in love with.
• Time travel that’s more than worth it.

Vicious

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Reasons to Read:

• Gray characters and anti-heroes.
• A compelling narrative about what makes a hero and what makes a villain.
• Spoiler alert: they’re both. All of them. For real.
• A plot that’ll really make you question morality.
• Superhumans with special powers, doing their superhuman thing!
• Quest for revenge plotline.

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