It’s been a wild year for science fiction enthusiasts, as real life continues looking more like something out of an Arthur C. Clarke novel. Case in point: we just sent a robot to Mars and received a photo from it 8 minutes later. Here are our 10 favorite sci-fi books of 2018, from small-press debuts to Big Five bestsellers.

MEM

By Bethany C. Morrow

Unnamed Press



“A clever work of speculative fiction that reads like a Black Mirror episode set in Jazz Age Montreal.” —Adam Morgan in Electric Literature

The Book of M

By Peng Shepherd

William Morrow

A stunning apocalyptic thriller where people gain extraordinary powers…at the cost of their memories.

Semiosis

By Sue Burke

Tor Books



“The whole thing started with the houseplants on my dining room table. One day, I discovered that the little pothos in a mixed planter had wrapped itself around another plant and killed it.” —Sue Burke on her writing process in the Chicago Review of Books

Severance

By Ling Ma

FSG



“It’s a stunning book. I devoured Severance in as close to a single sitting as possible with a two-year-old daughter.” —Adam Morgan in the Chicago Review of Books

Rosewater

By Tade Thompson

Orbit

The first book in a trilogy set in Nigeria, where a human city has been constructed at the edge of a mysterious alien biome.

The Calculating Stars

By Mary Robinette Kowal

Tor Books



“The first novel in the [Chicagoan]’s new Lady Astronaut series imagines a very different space race, with women taking to the stars after a meteor destroys Washington, D.C., in 1952.” —Adam Morgan in Chicago magazine

Black Star Renegades

By Michael Moreci

St. Martins Press



“Combining Marvel wit with the geeky jokes of Galaxy Quest, the book is set in a universe filled with Jedi-like warriors, star-destroying weapons, and planet-hopping misfits.” —Adam Morgan in Chicago magazine

Blackfish City

By Sam J. Miller

Ecco



“A timely, engaging, imaginative, and ultimately hopeful novel about the importance of human connection in an era of great uncertainty.” —Amy Brady in the Chicago Review of Books

State Tectonics

By Malka Older

Tor.com Publishing

“Sparkling with big ideas, this cyberpunk political thriller sits smack dab in the intersection of policy wonk and science fiction geek.” —Eliot Peper on the trilogy in the Chicago Review of Books.

The Strange Bird

By Jeff VanderMeer

MCD Books



“This book, like much of his earlier work, explores some of humanity’s darkest impulses and the devastating ways we treat the natural world.”

—Amy Brady in the Chicago Review of Books