hardcover
Hardcover

NPR Top 50 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the 2010s

NPR conducted a poll for listeners' favorite science fiction and fantasy books released between 2011 and 2021. A panel of judges then went through the results and selected the top 50 books spanning both genres.

Acceptance

#3 of 4 in Southern Reach

Acceptance
ByJeff VanderMeer

2014 • 381 Readers • 353 pages 3.6

A Darker Shade of Magic

#1 of 3 in Shades of Magic

2015 • 1,801 Readers • 400 pages 4

A Little Hatred

#1 of 3 in The Age of Madness

A Little Hatred
ByJoe Abercrombie

2014 • 609 Readers • 20 pages 4.4

All Systems Red

#1 of 7 in The Murderbot Diaries

All Systems Red
ByMartha Wells

2017 • 2,708 Readers • 90 pages 4.1

A Master of Djinn

#1 of 1 in Dead Djinn Universe

A Master of Djinn
ByP. Djèlí Clark

2019 • 643 Readers • 464 pages 4.1

A Memory Called Empire

#1 of 2 in Teixcalaan

A Memory Called Empire
ByArkady Martine

2019 • 1,087 Readers • 464 pages 4.2

American War

American War
ByOmar El Akkad

2017 • 261 Readers • 352 pages 3.8

Ancillary Justice

#1 of 3 in Imperial Radch

Ancillary Justice
ByAnn Leckie

2013 • 976 Readers • 416 pages 4

An Unkindness of Ghosts

An Unkindness of Ghosts
ByRivers Solomon

2017 • 269 Readers • 351 pages 3.9

A Stranger in Olondria

Olondria

A Stranger in Olondria
BySofia Samatar

2013 • 85 Readers • 299 pages 3.2

Binti: The Complete Trilogy

#1-3 of 3 in Binti

2015 • 461 Readers • 342 pages 3.8

Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1)

#1 of 3 in The Dark Star Trilogy

2019 • 549 Readers • 612 pages 3.1

Black Sun

#1 of 3 in Between Earth and Sky

Black Sun
ByRebecca Roanhorse

2020 • 724 Readers • 464 pages 4.1

Children of Time

#1 of 3 in Children of Time

Children of Time
ByAdrian Tchaikovsky

2015 • 1,639 Readers • 600 pages 4.3

Circe

Circe
ByMadeline Miller

2018 • 2,802 Readers • 409 pages 4.2

City of Stairs

#1 of 3 in The Divine Cities

City of Stairs
ByRobert Jackson Bennett

2014 • 548 Readers • 452 pages 4.1

Every Heart a Doorway

#1 of 9 in Wayward Children

Every Heart a Doorway
BySeanan McGuire

2016 • 775 Readers • 174 pages 3.9

Exhalation

Exhalation
ByTed Chiang

2008 • 910 Readers • 208 pages 4.3

Gideon the Ninth

#1 of 4 in The Locked Tomb

Gideon the Ninth
ByTamsyn Muir,Jelena Katić Živanović(Translator)

2019 • 1,661 Readers • 448 pages 4.1

Her Body And Other Parties

Her Body And Other Parties
ByCarmen Maria Machado

2017 • 567 Readers • 245 pages 3.8

Jade City

#1 of 3 in The Green Bone Saga

Jade City
ByFonda Lee

2017 • 1,437 Readers • 498 pages 4.1

Leviathan Wakes

#1 of 9 in The Expanse

Leviathan Wakes
ByJames S. A. Corey

2011 • 2,026 Readers • 621 pages 4.2

Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic
BySilvia Moreno-Garcia,Dan Sociu(Translator)

2020 • 1,273 Readers 3.8

Ninefox Gambit

#1 of 3 in The Machineries of Empire

Ninefox Gambit
ByYoon Ha Lee

2016 • 416 Readers • 400 pages 3.6

On Fragile Waves

On Fragile Waves
ByE. Lily Yu

2020 • 38 Readers • 561 pages 4.3

Piranesi

Piranesi
BySusanna Clarke

2019 • 2,426 Readers • 246 pages 4.2

Radiance

Radiance
ByCatherynne M. Valente

2015 • 158 Readers • 432 pages 3.3

Riot Baby

Riot Baby
ByTochi Onyebuchi(Author, Narrator)

2020 • 176 Readers 3.8

Rosewater

#1 of 3 in The Wormwood Trilogy

Rosewater
ByTade Thompson

2017 • 288 Readers • 400 pages 3.8

Sorcerer to the Crown

2015 • 204 Readers • 13h 10m 3.6

Spinning Silver

Spinning Silver
ByNaomi Novik

2018 • 795 Readers • 480 pages 4.2

Station Eleven

Station Eleven
ByEmily St. John Mandel

2014 • 1,847 Readers • 333 pages 4.1

The Bird King

The Bird King
ByG. Willow Wilson

2019 • 133 Readers 3.9

The Buried Giant

The Buried Giant
ByKazuo Ishiguro

2015 • 403 Readers • 384 pages 3.6

The Calculating Stars

#1 of 4 in Lady Astronaut Universe

The Calculating Stars
ByMary Robinette Kowal

2018 • 533 Readers • 384 pages 4.1

The Changeling

The Changeling
ByVictor LaValle

2017 • 265 Readers • 448 pages 3.8

The City of Brass

#1 of 3 in The Daevabad Trilogy

The City of Brass
ByS. A. Chakraborty

2017 • 986 Readers • 533 pages 4

The Collapsing Empire

#1 of 3 in The Interdependency

2017 • 597 Readers • 336 pages 4.1

The Echo Wife

The Echo Wife
BySarah Gailey

2021 • 354 Readers • 256 pages 3.6

The Fifth Season

#1 of 3 in The Broken Earth

The Fifth Season
ByN.K. Jemisin

2015 • 2,257 Readers • 421 pages 4.4

The Goblin Emperor

#1 of 4 in The Chronicles of Osreth

The Goblin Emperor
ByKatherine Addison

2014 • 667 Readers • 512 pages 4.2

The Just City

#1 of 3 in Thessaly

The Just City
ByJo Walton

2015 • 120 Readers • 368 pages 3.7

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

#1 of 4 in Wayfarers

2014 • 1,487 Readers • 423 pages 4.1

The Martian

#1 of 1 in The Martian

The Martian
ByAndy Weir

2011 • 3,145 Readers • 384 pages 4.4

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

2001 • 463 Readers • 450 pages 4.3

The Poppy War

#1 of 3 in The Poppy War

The Poppy War
ByR. F. Kuang

2018 • 1,978 Readers • 544 pages 4

The Space Between Worlds

#1 of 2 in The Space Between Worlds

The Space Between Worlds
ByMicaiah Johnson

2015 • 534 Readers • 336 pages 3.8

The Three-Body Problem

#1 of 4 in The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem
ByCixin Liu,Ken Liu(Translator)

2006 • 3,055 Readers • 400 pages 3.9

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

#1 of 4 in The Masquerade

2015 • 495 Readers • 400 pages 3.9

This Is How You Lose the Time War

This Is How You Lose the Time War
ByAmal El-Mohtar,Max Gladstone

2019 • 2,341 Readers • 223 pages 3.9