“What are the best Science Fiction & Fantasy books of 2016?” We aggregated 32 year-end lists and ranked the 254 unique titles by how many times they appeared in an attempt to answer that very question!

There are thousands of year-end lists released every year and, like we do in our weekly Best Book articles, we wanted to see which books appear on them the most. We used 32 Science Fiction & Fantasy book lists and found 254 unique titles. The top 42 books, all appearing on 3 or more lists, are below with images, summaries, and links for learning more or purchasing. The remaining books, along with the articles we used, can be found at the bottom of the page.

Be sure to check out our other Best Book of the year lists:

And if you want to see how they compare to last year, take a look at the 2015 lists as well!

Happy Scrolling!

The Top Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2016



Lists It Appears On:

Best Fantasy Books

Bookworm Blues

Amazon

“Michael J. Sullivan’s trailblazing career began with the breakout success of his Riyria series: full-bodied, spellbinding fantasy adventures whose imaginative scope and sympathetic characters won a devoted readership and comparisons to fantasy masters Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, and Tolkien himself. Now, Sullivan’s stunning hardcover debut, Age of Myth, inaugurates an original five-book series–and one of fantasy’s finest next-generation storytellers continues to break new ground. Since time immemorial, humans have worshipped the gods they call Fhrey, truly a race apart: invincible in battle, masters of magic, and seemingly immortal. But when a god falls to a human blade, the balance of power between men and those they thought were gods changes forever. Now, only a few stand between humankind and annihilation: Raithe, reluctant to embrace his destiny as the God Killer. Suri, a young seer burdened by signs of impending doom. And Persephone, who must overcome personal tragedy to lead her people.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

40 .) Revenger by Alastair Reynolds



Lists It Appears On:

Forbidden Planet

Best Science Fiction Books

SFFWorld 2

“The galaxy has seen great empires rise and fall. Planets have shattered and been remade. Amongst the ruins of alien civilizations, building our own from the rubble, humanity still thrives. And there are vast fortunes to be made, if you know where to find them… Captain Rackamore and his crew do. It’s their business to find the tiny, enigmatic worlds which have been hidden away, booby-trapped, surrounded by layers of protection – and to crack them open for the ancient relics and barely-remembered technologies inside. But while they ply their risky trade with integrity, not everyone is so scrupulous.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

39 .) Super Extra Grande by Yoss



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Kirkus

The Best Sci Fi Books

“In a distant future in which Latin Americans have pioneered faster-than-light space travel, Dr. Jan Amos Sangan Dongo has a job with large and unusual responsibilities: he’s a veterinarian who specializes in treating enormous alien animals. Mountain-sized amoebas, multisex species with bizarre reproductive processes, razor-nailed, carnivorous humanoid hunters: Dr. Sangan has seen it all. When a colonial conflict threatens the fragile peace between the galaxy’s seven intelligent species, he must embark on a daring mission through the insides of a gigantic creature and find two swallowed ambassadors—who also happen to be his competing love interests. Funny, witty, raunchy, and irrepressibly vivacious, Super Extra Grande is a rare specimen in the richly parodic tradition of Cuban science fiction, and could only have been written by a Cuban heavy-metal rock star with a biology degree: the inimitable Yoss.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

38 .) The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison



Lists It Appears On:

Publishers Weekly

Omnivoracious

Amazon

“In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth’s population—killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant—the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power—and the strong who possess it. A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Even fewer are safe from the clans of men, who, driven by fear, seek to control those remaining. To preserve her freedom, she dons men’s clothing, goes by false names, and avoids as many people as possible. But as the world continues to grapple with its terrible circumstances, she’ll discover a role greater than chasing a pale imitation of independence. After all, if humanity is to be reborn, someone must be its guide.”

Learn More / Purchase Book



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Booklist Online

Omnivoracious

“In this dark and gripping sci-fi noir, an exiled police detective arrives at a lunar penal colony just as a psychotic android begins a murderous odyssey across the far side of the moon. Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of eccentric billionaire, Fletcher Brass: a mecca for war criminals, murderers, sex fiends, and adventurous tourists. You can’t find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere in the universe. But trouble is brewing in Brass’s black-market heaven. When an exiled cop arrives in this wild new frontier, he immediately finds himself investigating a string of ruthless assassinations in which Brass himself—and his equally ambitious daughter—are the chief suspects. Meanwhile, two-thousand kilometers away, an amnesiac android, Leonardo Black, rampages across the lunar surface. Programmed with only the notorious “Brass Code”—a compendium of corporate laws that would make Ayn Rand blush—Black has only one goal in mind: to find Purgatory and conquer it.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

36 .) The Hike by Drew Magary



Lists It Appears On:

Omnivoracious

Tor

Amazon

“When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects. On a quest of epic, life-or-death proportions, Ben finds help comes in some of the most unexpected forms, including a profane crustacean and a variety of magical objects, tools, and potions. Desperate to return to his family, Ben is determined to track down the “Producer,” the creator of the world in which he is being held hostage and the only one who can free him from the path.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

35 .) The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Omnivoracious

“One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction… Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

34 .) The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Tor

SFFWorld

“Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . . But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms. With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land . . . before it’s bathed in blood.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

33 .) The Race by Nina Allan



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

The Guardian

Tor

“A child is kidnapped with consequences that extend across worlds… A writer reaches into the past to discover the truth about a possible murder… Far away a young woman prepares for her mysterious future… In a future scarred by fracking and ecological collapse, Jenna Hoolman’s world is dominated by illegal smartdog racing: greyhounds genetically modified with human DNA. When her young niece goes missing that world implodes… Christy’s life is dominated by fear of her brother, a man she knows capable of monstrous acts and suspects of hiding even darker ones. Desperate to learn the truth she contacts Alex, who has his own demons to fight… And Maree, a young woman undertaking a journey that will change her world forever.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

32 .) The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis



Lists It Appears On:

Omnivoracious

Bookworm Blues

Amazon

“ELKA BARELY REMEMBERS a time before she knew Trapper. She was just seven years old, wandering lost and hungry in the wilderness, when the solitary hunter took her in. In the years since then, he’s taught her how to survive in this desolate land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other. But the man Elka thought she knew has been harboring a terrible secret. He’s a killer. A monster. And now that Elka knows the truth, she may be his next victim. Armed with nothing but her knife and the hard lessons Trapper’s drilled into her, Elka flees into the frozen north in search of her real parents. But judging by the trail of blood dogging her footsteps, she hasn’t left Trapper behind—and he won’t be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she’s going to survive, Elka will have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about the dark road she’s been set on. “

Learn More / Purchase Book

31 .) United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

The Best Sci Fi Books

The Verge

“Decades ago, Japan won the Second World War. Americans worship their infallible Emperor, and nobody believes that Japan’s conduct in the war was anything but exemplary. Nobody, that is, except the George Washingtons – a shadowy group of rebels fighting for freedom. Their latest subversive tactic is to distribute an illegal video game that asks players to imagine what the world might be like if the United States had won the war instead. Captain Beniko Ishimura’s job is to censor video games, and he’s working with Agent Akiko Tsukino of the secret police to get to the bottom of this disturbing new development. But Ishimura’s hiding something… He’s slowly been discovering that the case of the George Washingtons is more complicated than it seems, and the subversive videogame’s origins are even more controversial and dangerous than either of them originally suspected. “

Learn More / Purchase Book

30 .) A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers



Lists It Appears On:

The Guardian

Tor

The Verge

SciFiNow

“Embark on an exciting, adventurous, and dangerous journey through the galaxy with the motley crew of the spaceship Wayfarer in this fun and heart-warming space opera—the sequel to the acclaimed The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in a new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow. Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.”

Learn More / Purchase Book



Lists It Appears On:

Booklist Online

The Biblio Sanctum

The BiblioSanctum

Stevereads

“Since Newton witnessed a bubble rising from his bathtub, mankind has sought the stars. When William III of England commissioned Capt. William Kidd to command the first expedition to Mars in the late 1600s, he proved that space travel was both possible and profitable. Now, one century later, a plantation in a flourishing British colony on Mars is home to Arabella Ashby, a young woman who is perfectly content growing up in the untamed frontier. But days spent working on complex automata with her father or stalking her brother Michael with her Martian nanny is not the proper behavior of an English lady. That is something her mother plans to remedy with a move to an exotic world Arabella has never seen: London, England.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

28 .) Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Best Fantasy Books

Booklist Online

Stevereads

“From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the grand khalif at his request—and possibly to do more—and a fiercely intelligent, angry woman, posing as a doctor’s wife, but sent by Seressa as a spy. The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the accomplished younger son of a merchant family, ambivalent about the life he’s been born to live. And farther east a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif—to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming. As these lives entwine, their fates—and those of many others—will hang in the balance, when the khalif sends out his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world…”

Learn More / Purchase Book

27 .) Everfair by Nisi Shawl



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Tor

Bookworm Blues

Best Science Fiction Books

Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium’s disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo’s “owner,” King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.

Learn More / Purchase Book

26 .) Morning Star by Pierce Brown



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

The Best Sci Fi Books

Goodreads 2

Amazon

“Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within. Finally, the time has come.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

25 .) The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Tor

NPR

Michael Patrick Hicks

“People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn’t there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father’s head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping. A storm that might swallow the world is building in Brooklyn. Will Black Tom live to see it break?”

Learn More / Purchase Book



Lists It Appears On:

The Verge

Booklist Online

Best Science Fiction Books

SFFWorld 2

What if life was neverending? What if you could change your body to adapt to an alien ecology? What if the pope were a robot? Spanning galaxies and millennia, this must-have anthology showcases classic contributions from H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia E. Butler, and Kurt Vonnegut, alongside a century of the eccentrics, rebels, and visionaries who have inspired generations of readers. Within its pages, you’ll find beloved worlds of space opera, hard SF, cyberpunk, the New Wave, and more. Learn about the secret history of science fiction, from titans of literature who also wrote SF to less well-known authors from more than twenty-five countries, some never before translated into English. In The Big Book of Science Fiction, literary power couple Ann and Jeff VanderMeer transport readers from Mars to Mechanopolis, planet Earth to parts unknown. Immerse yourself in the genre that predicted electric cars, space tourism, and smartphones. Sit back, buckle up, and dial in the coordinates, as this stellar anthology has got worlds within worlds.

Learn More / Purchase Book

23 .) The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu



Lists It Appears On:

Best Fantasy Books

NPR

MPR News

SciFiNow

With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features many of Ken’s award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon Award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre’s history, “The Paper Menagerie” (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).

Learn More / Purchase Book

22 .) The Summer Dragon by Todd Lockwood



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Tor

SFFWorld

“Maia and her family raise dragons for the political war machine. As she comes of age, she hopes for a dragon of her own to add to the stable of breeding parents. But the war goes badly, and the needs of the Dragonry dash her hopes. Her peaceful life is shattered when the Summer Dragon—one of the rare and mythical High Dragons—makes an appearance in her quiet valley. The Summer Dragon is an omen of change, but no one knows for certain what kind of change he augurs. Political factions vie to control the implied message, each to further their own agendas. And so Maia is swept into an adventure that pits her against the deathless Horrors—thralls of the enemy—and a faceless creature drawn from her fears. In her fight to preserve everything she knows and loves, she uncovers secrets that challenge her understanding of her world and of herself.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

21 .) The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu



Lists It Appears On:

The Best Sci Fi Books

Bookworm Blues

Passionate Foodie

The Verge

“In the much-anticipated sequel to the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR) Grace of Kings, Emperor Kuni Garu is faced with the invasion of an invincible army in his kingdom and must quickly find a way to defeat the intruders. Kuni Garu, now known as Emperor Ragin, runs the archipelago kingdom of Dara, but struggles to maintain progress while serving the demands of the people and his vision. Then an unexpected invading force from the Lyucu empire in the far distant west comes to the shores of Dara—and chaos results. But Emperor Kuni cannot go and lead his kingdom against the threat himself with his recently healed empire fraying at the seams, so he sends the only people he trusts to be Dara’s savvy and cunning hopes against the invincible invaders: his children, now grown and ready to make their mark on history.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

20 .) Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

The Guardian

The Best Sci Fi Books

Tor

“Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer–a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away. The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labelling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world’s population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

19 .) Version Control by Dexter Palmer



Lists It Appears On:

Booklist Online

Washington Post

MPR News

NPR

“The acclaimed author of The Dream of Perpetual Motion returns with a compelling novel about the effects of science and technology on our friendships, our love lives, and our sense of self. Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. She spends her days working in customer support for the internet dating site where she first met her husband. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband’s decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a “time machine”) has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

18 .) Borderline by Mishell Baker



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Best Fantasy Books

NPR

Bookworm Blues

MPR News

“A cynical, disabled film director with borderline personality disorder gets recruited to join a secret organization that oversees relations between Hollywood and Fairyland in the first book of a new urban fantasy series from debut author Mishell Baker. A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she’s sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales. “

Learn More / Purchase Book

17 .) Company Town by Madeline Ashby



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

The Biblio Sanctum

The Best Sci Fi Books

Michael Patrick Hicks

The BiblioSanctum

“New Arcadia is a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd. Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she’s the last truly organic person left on the rig–making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline?”

Learn More / Purchase Book

16 .) The Last Mortal Bond by Brian Staveley



Lists It Appears On:

Best Fantasy Books

Kirkus

Passionate Foodie

Stevereads

The Verge

“The ancient csestriim are back to finish their purge of humanity; armies march against the capital; leaches, solitary beings who draw power from the natural world to fuel their extraordinary abilities, maneuver on all sides to affect the outcome of the war; and capricious gods walk the earth in human guise with agendas of their own. But the three imperial siblings at the heart of it all–Valyn, Adare, and Kaden–come to understand that even if they survive the holocaust unleashed on their world, there may be no reconciling their conflicting visions of the future.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

15 .) Arkwright by Allen Steele



Lists It Appears On:

The Biblio Sanctum

The Best Sci Fi Books

The BiblioSanctum

SFFWorld 2

The Verge

Sci-Fi and Scary

“Written by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele’s Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life he becomes reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true, timeless legacy. Convinced that humanity cannot survive on Earth, his Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to creating a colony on an Earth-like planet several light years distant. Fueled by Nathan’s legacy, generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and weight of their name.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

14 .) Central Station by Lavie Tidhar



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

The Guardian

The Best Sci Fi Books

Tor

NPR

Best Science Fiction Books

“A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper. When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik—a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

13 .) City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett



Lists It Appears On:

Best Fantasy Books

Passionate Foodie

SFFWorld

SciFiNow

Tor

Amazon

“A triumphant return to the world of City of Stairs. A generation ago, the city of Voortyashtan was the stronghold of the god of war and death, the birthplace of fearsome supernatural sentinels who killed and subjugated millions. Now, the city’s god is dead. The city itself lies in ruins. And to its new military occupiers, the once-powerful capital is a wasteland of sectarian violence and bloody uprisings. So it makes perfect sense that General Turyin Mulaghesh— foul-mouthed hero of the battle of Bulikov, rumored war criminal, ally of an embattled Prime Minister—has been exiled there to count down the days until she can draw her pension and be forgotten. “

Learn More / Purchase Book

12 .) Crosstalk by Connie Willis



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads 2

The Best Sci Fi Books

NPR

Best Science Fiction Books

SciFiNow

“In the not-too-distant future, a simple outpatient procedure to increase empathy between romantic partners has become all the rage. And Briddey Flannigan is delighted when her boyfriend, Trent, suggests undergoing the operation prior to a marriage proposal—to enjoy better emotional connection and a perfect relationship with complete communication and understanding. But things don’t quite work out as planned, and Briddey finds herself connected to someone else entirely—in a way far beyond what she signed up for. It is almost more than she can handle—especially when the stress of managing her all-too-eager-to-communicate-at-all-times family is already burdening her brain. But that’s only the beginning. As things go from bad to worse, she begins to see the dark side of too much information, and to realize that love—and communication—are far more complicated than she ever imagined.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

11 .) Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Tor

MPR News

Michael Patrick Hicks

Bibliotropic

“Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children

No Solicitations

No Visitors

No Quests Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

10 .) Infomocracy by Malka Older



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Kirkus

Washington Post

The Best Sci Fi Books

Bookriot

The Verge

“It’s been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything’s on the line. With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?”

Learn More / Purchase Book



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Best Fantasy Books

Tor

Bookworm Blues

SFFWorld

Stevereads

Goodreads

“Four months have passed since the shadow stone fell into Kell’s possession. Four months since his path crossed with Delilah Bard. Four months since Rhy was wounded and the Dane twins fell, and the stone was cast with Holland’s dying body through the rift, and into Black London. In many ways, things have almost returned to normal, though Rhy is more sober, and Kell is now plagued by his guilt. Restless, and having given up smuggling, Kell is visited by dreams of ominous magical events, waking only to think of Lila, who disappeared from the docks like she always meant to do. As Red London finalizes preparations for the Element Games-an extravagant international competition of magic, meant to entertain and keep healthy the ties between neighboring countries-a certain pirate ship draws closer, carrying old friends back into port.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

8 .) After Atlas by Emma Newman



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Forbidden Planet

Publishers Weekly

The Biblio Sanctum

Bookworm Blues

MPR News

The BiblioSanctum

“Gov-corp detective Carlos Moreno was only a baby when Atlas left Earth to seek truth among the stars. But in that moment, the course of Carlos’s entire life changed. Atlas is what took his mother away; what made his father lose hope; what led Alejandro Casales, leader of the religious cult known as the Circle, to his door. And now, on the eve of the fortieth anniversary of Atlas’s departure, it’s got something to do why Casales was found dead in his hotel room—and why Carlos is the man in charge of the investigation. To figure out who killed one of the most powerful men on Earth, Carlos is supposed to put aside his personal history. But the deeper he delves into the case, the more he realizes that escaping the past is not so easy. There’s more to Casales’s death than meets the eye, and something much more sinister to the legacy of Atlas than anyone realizes…”

Learn More / Purchase Book

7 .) Dark Matter by Blake Crouch



Lists It Appears On:

Barnes & Noble

Goodreads 2

The Biblio Sanctum

MPR News

Michael Patrick Hicks

The BiblioSanctum

NPR

““Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

6 .) Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

The Guardian

Omnivoracious

The Best Sci Fi Books

Tor

Best Science Fiction Books

“To win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general. Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

5 .) Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel



Lists It Appears On:

The Best Sci Fi Books

Bookriot

MPR News

Stevereads

The West

Goodreads 2

SciFiNow

“A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand. Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected. But some can never stop searching for answers.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

4 .) The Fireman by Joe Hill



Lists It Appears On:

Forbidden Planet

Tor

NPR

SFFWorld

SFFWorld 2

Sci-Fi and Scary

SciFiNow

“The fireman is coming. Stay cool. No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe. Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

3 .) The Obelisk Gate by N K Jemisin



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kirkus

Publishers Weekly

NPR

Bookriot

Bibliotropic

The Verge

“This is the way the world ends, for the last time. The season of endings grows darker, as civilization fades into the long cold night. Essun — once Damaya, once Syenite, now avenger — has found shelter, but not her daughter. Instead there is Alabaster Tenring, destroyer of the world, with a request. But if Essun does what he asks, it would seal the fate of the Stillness forever. Far away, her daughter Nassun is growing in power – and her choices will break the world.”

Learn More / Purchase Book



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Forbidden Planet

Kirkus

NPR

Barnes & Noble

The Best Sci Fi Books

Tor

Best Science Fiction Books

The Guardian

“With The Three-Body Problem, English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China’s most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Now this epic trilogy concludes with the New York Times bestelling Death’s End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

1 .) All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders



Lists It Appears On:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Forbidden Planet

Goodreads

Kirkus

Washington Post

The Best Sci Fi Books

Tor

NPR

Bookworm Blues

MPR News

Best Science Fiction Books

The Verge

SciFiNow

“Childhood friends Patricia Delfine and Laurence Armstead didn’t expect to see each other again, after parting ways under mysterious circumstances during middle school. After all, the development of magical powers and the invention of a two-second time machine could hardly fail to alarm one’s peers and families. But now they’re both adults, living in the hipster mecca San Francisco, and the planet is falling apart around them. Laurence is an engineering genius who’s working with a group that aims to avert catastrophic breakdown through technological intervention. Patricia is a graduate of Eltisley Maze, the hidden academy for the world’s magically gifted, and works with a small band of other magicians to secretly repair the world’s every-growing ailments. Little do they realize that something bigger than either of them, something begun years ago in their youth, is determined to bring them together―to either save the world, or plunge it into a new dark ages.”

Learn More / Purchase Book

The Remaining 214 Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Books of 2016

# Books Authors Lists (All Appear On 2 Lists Each) 42 A Head Full of Ghosts Paul Tremblay SFFWorld SciFiNow 43 A Night Without Stars Peter F. Hamilton Kirkus Forbidden Planet 44 A Taste of Honey Kai Ashante Wilson Barnes & Noble Tor 45 Admiral Sean Danker The Biblio Sanctum The BiblioSanctum 46 An Accident of Stars Foz Meadows Tor Bibliotropic 47 Azanian Bridges Nick Wood The Guardian Best Science Fiction Books 48 Babylon’s Ashes James S.A. Corey The Best Sci Fi Books SFFWorld 2 49 Bite K.S. Merbeth The Biblio Sanctum The BiblioSanctum 50 Black Panther Ta-Nehisi Coates Tor 51 Cloudbound Fran Wilde The Best Sci Fi Books Tor 52 Conspiracy of Ravens Lila Bowen Tor SciFiNow 53 Creation Machine Andrew Bannister Forbidden Planet SFFWorld 2 54 False Hearts Laura Lam Forbidden Planet Bookworm Blues 55 Gemina Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff The Biblio Sanctum The BiblioSanctum 56 Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen Lois McMaster Bujold Barnes & Noble SFFWorld 2 57 Iraq + 100: Stories from a Century After the Invasion The Guardian Tor 58 Kingfisher Patricia A. McKillip Kirkus Publishers Weekly 59 Labyrinth Lost Zoraida Córdova Tor NPR 60 League of Dragons Naomi Novik Best Fantasy Books Booklist Online 61 Lovecraft Country Matt Ruff Tor SciFiNow 62 Machinations Hayley Stone Amazon Omnivoracious 63 Magic Binds Ilona Andrews Best Fantasy Books Goodreads 64 Marked in Flesh Anne Bishop Best Fantasy Books Goodreads 65 Mongrels Stephen Graham Jones Tor SciFiNow 66 Queen of the Night Alexander Chee SFFWorld 2 Tor 67 Saint’s Blood Sebastien De Castell Passionate Foodie Best Fantasy Books 68 Star Wars: Bloodline Claudia Gray The Biblio Sanctum The BiblioSanctum 69 Star Wars: Dark Disciple Christie Golden The Biblio Sanctum The BiblioSanctum 70 The Bands of Mourning Brandon Sanderson Best Fantasy Books Goodreads 71 The Blood Mirror Brent Weeks Barnes & Noble Stevereads 72 The Burning Isle Will Panzo Amazon Omnivoracious 73 The Devourers Indra Das Barnes & Noble Washington Post 74 The Gradual Christopher Priest The Guardian Best Science Fiction Books 75 The Last Days of Jack Sparks Jason Arnopp Bookworm Blues SFFWorld 76 The Last Days of New Paris China Mieville Best Science Fiction Books Stevereads 77 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers Tor SFFWorld 2 78 The Medusa Chronicles Stephen Baxter and Alasdair Reynolds Tor SciFiNow 79 The Nightmare Stacks Charles Stross Forbidden Planet SFFWorld 80 The Power Naomi Alderman Tor SciFiNow 81 The Raven King Maggie Stiefvater Best Fantasy Books Tor 82 The Sunlight Pilgrims Jenni Fagan Tor NPR 83 The Unfinished World Amber Sparks Washington Post Tor 84 The Waking Fire Anthony Ryan Best Fantasy Books Stevereads 85 The Wheel of Osheim Mark Lawrence Best Fantasy Books Bookworm Blues 86 The Winged Histories Sofia Samatar Best Fantasy Books NPR 87 Underground Airlines Ben H. Winters Goodreads 2 The Verge (All Appear On A Single List Each) 88 A Green and Ancient Light Fredrick S. Durban Bookworm Blues 89 A City Dreaming Tor 90 A Collapse Of Horses: A Collection Of Stories Brian Evenson NPR 91 A Conspiracy of Ravens Lila Bowen Barnes & Noble 92 A Murder in Time (Kendra Donovan, #1) Julie McElwain Goodreads 2 93 A Promise Of Fire Amanda Bouchet NPR 94 A Tree or a Person or a Wall Matt Bell Tor 95 Alight Scott Sigler SFFWorld 2 96 All Good Children Dayna Ingram Publishers Weekly 97 AND I DARKEN KIERSTEN WHITE SciFiNow 98 Arcadia Iain Pears Booklist Online 99 Armada Ernest Cline Booklist Online 100 Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard Lawrence Schoen Passionate Foodie 101 Beyond Redemption and The Mirror’s Truth Michael Fletcher Passionate Foodie 102 Binary Storm Christopher Hinz Passionate Foodie 103 Bloodline Claudia Gray Goodreads 2 104 Bloodmage & Chaosmage Stephen Aryan SFFWorld 105 Certain Dark Things Silvia Garcia-Moreno NPR 106 Chains of the Heretic Jeff Salyards Best Fantasy Books 107 Children of the Dark Jonathan Janz Michael Patrick Hicks 108 Children Of The New World: Stories Alexander Weinstein NPR 109 Children of Time Adrian Tchiakovsky Barnes & Noble 110 Citizen of the Galaxy Robert A Heinlein SFFWorld 2 111 Cold-Forged Flame Marie Brennan Tor 112 Crooked Kingdom Leigh Bardugo Best Fantasy Books 113 Dark Run Mike Brooks The Best Sci Fi Books 114 Deadlight Jack Mark Onspaugh Sci-Fi and Scary 115 Demon, Volume 1 Jason Shiga NPR 116 Drake Peter McLean Best Fantasy Books 117 End of Watch Stephen King SFFWorld 118 Escapology Ren Warom Barnes & Noble 119 Eternity’s Mind Kevin J Anderson SFFWorld 2 120 Europe in Winter Dave Hutchinson Best Science Fiction Books 121 Every Anxious Wave Mo Daviau NPR 122 Faith Volume 1: Hollywood And Vine Jody Houser, illustrated NPR 123 Fear The Drowning Deep Sarah Glenn Marsh NPR 124 Fellside M.R. Carey NPR 125 Feverborn (Fever, #8) Karen Marie Moning Goodreads 126 Fire Touched (Mercy Thompson, #9) Patricia Briggs Goodreads 127 Fix Ferrett Steinmetz Bibliotropic 128 Foundation and Foundation and Empire Isaac Asimov SFFWorld 2 129 Four Roads Cross Max Gladstone Barnes & Noble 130 Furnace and Other Stories Livia Llewellyn Tor 131 Ghostland Colin Dickey Tor 132 Good Morning Midnight Lily Brooks-Dalton Sci-Fi and Scary 133 Hag-seed Margaret Atwood Tor 134 Harmonic Resonance Nico Laesser Sci-Fi and Scary 135 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8) J.K. Rowling Goodreads 136 Heroine Complex Sarah Kuhn Barnes & Noble 137 Hex The West 138 Hope and Red Jon Skovron SFFWorld 139 HUNTERS AND COLLECTORS M SUDDAIN SciFiNow 140 I AM PROVIDENCE NICK MAMATAS The Verge 141 Icon Genevieve Valentine The Best Sci Fi Books 142 Invisible Planets Ken Liu Bibliotropic 143 Javelin Rain Myke Cole SFFWorld 144 Jerusalem Alan Moore NPR 145 Judenstaat Simone Zelitch Barnes & Noble 146 Kings Rising The West 147 Lies, Damned Lies, and History (The Chronicles of St Mary’s, #7) Jodi Taylor Goodreads 2 148 Lights Out Nate Southard Michael Patrick Hicks 149 Livia Lone Barry Eisler Michael Patrick Hicks 150 Los Nefilim Teresa Frohock Passionate Foodie 151 Malafrena Ursula Le Guin Tor 152 MASTERS’ MYSTERIUM: LAS VEGAS R.R. Reynolds Huffington Post 153 Mechanical Failure Joe Zieja Barnes & Noble 154 Monstress: Vol. 1 Marjorie Liu MPR News 155 MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM GRADY HENDRIX SciFiNow 156 Necessity: A Novel Jo Walton NPR 157 Necrotech K.C. Alexander Passionate Foodie 158 Night of the Animals Bill Broun Stevereads 159 Night Without Stars Peter F Hamilton (See: told you so! MarkY) SFFWorld 2 160 NOD ADRIAN BARNES SciFiNow 161 Northwoods Bill Schweigart Sci-Fi and Scary 162 NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT Michael Swanwick Kirkus 163 Occupy Me Tricia Forbidden Planet 164 Odd Man Out James Newman Michael Patrick Hicks 165 ODY-C: Cycle One Matt Fraction, illustrated NPR 166 On the Edge of Gone Corinne Duyvis Sci-Fi and Scary 167 Patience Daniel Clowes NPR 168 PHILOMENA Mark Guiney Huffington Post 169 Pirate Utopia Bruce Sterling Best Science Fiction Books 170 Planetfall Emma Newman Bibliotropic 171 Plutona Emi Lenox and Jeff Lemire, illustrated NPR 172 Pretty Deadly Volume 2: The Bear Kelly Sue DeConnick, illustrated NPR 173 Red Right Hand Levi Black Passionate Foodie 174 Regeneration Stephanie Saulter Bibliotropic 175 Roses and Rot Kat Howard Barnes & Noble 176 RUN RAGGED Kari Aguila Huffington Post 177 Savages Greg F. Gifune Michael Patrick Hicks 178 SERVANT OF DARKNESS, SERVANT OF LIES and SERVANT OF FIRE Simon J Cambridge Huffington Post 179 SHRIVERS Jeb Kinnison Huffington Post 180 Sisters of Tomorrow edited Lisa Yaszek & Patrick B. Sharp Best Science Fiction Books 181 Skinner Luce Patricia Ward Amazon 182 SLIPPING LAUREN BEUKES SciFiNow 183 Smoke: A Novel Dan Vyleta NPR 184 Sorcerer to the Crown Zen Cho The Guardian 185 Star Nomad: Fallen Empire, Book 1 Lindsay Buroker Amazon 186 Stiletto Daniel O’Malley Bookworm Blues 187 Strike Delilah S. Dawson SFFWorld 2 188 Summerlong Peter S. Beagle Barnes & Noble 189 SUPERNOVA C.A. Higgins Kirkus 190 Survival Game Gary Gibson SFFWorld 2 191 The Bird and the Sword Amy Harmon Goodreads 192 The Bloodsworn Erin Lindsey Tor 193 The Chimes Anna Smaill Bibliotropic 194 The City of Mirrors Justin Cronin Best Fantasy Books 195 The Complex Brian Keene Michael Patrick Hicks 196 The Copper Promise Jen Williams Tor 197 The Corporation Wars: Dissidence Ken MacLeod SFFWorld 2 198 The Curse of Tenth Grave (Charley Davidson #10) Darynda Jones Goodreads 199 The Dark Days Club Alison Goodman NPR 200 THE DARKEST SIDE OF SATURN Tony Taylor Huffington Post 201 The Demonists Thomas Sniegoski Sci-Fi and Scary 202 The Devil You Know K.J. Parker Bookworm Blues 203 The Diabolic S. J. Kincaid Amazon 204 The Dream-Quest Of Vellitt Boe Kij Johnson NPR 205 The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain Mark Z. Danielewski NPR 206 The Fate of the Tearling Erika Johansen Best Fantasy Books 207 THE FIFTH SEASON NK JEMISIN SciFiNow 208 The Fisherman John Langan Tor 209 The Forgetting Moon Brian Lee Durfee Bookworm Blues 210 The Geek Feminist Revolution Kameron Hurley Bibliotropic 211 The Girl From Everywhere Heidi Heilig NPR 212 The Guns of Empire Django Wexler Tor 213 The Hatching Ezekiel Boone SFFWorld 214 The Island Will Sink The West 215 The Last Adventure of Constance Verity A. Lee Martinez Booklist Online 216 The Last Days of Magic Mark Tompkins Bookworm Blues 217 The Last One Alexandra Oliva Goodreads 2 218 The Liberation Ian Tregillis Tor 219 The Library at Mount Char Scott Hawkins Booklist Online 220 The Lie Tree Frances Hardinge NPR 221 The Long Cosmos (The Long Earth, #5) Terry Pratchett Goodreads 2 222 The Lost Time Accidents: A Novel John Wray NPR 223 The Lyre Thief Jennifer Fallon Stevereads 224 The Nature of a Pirate A M Dellamonica Bibliotropic 225 THE PRELAPSARIANS John Gaiserich Huffington Post 226 The Reader Traci Chee NPR 227 The Regional Office Is Under Attack!: A Novel Manuel Gonzales NPR 228 The Rogue Retrieval Dan Koboldt SFFWorld 229 The Second Death T Frohock Bibliotropic 230 THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS MARK FROST SciFiNow 231 THE SHADOW OF WHAT WAS LOST JAY ISLINGTON SciFiNow 232 THE SILVER TIDE JEN WILLIAMS SciFiNow 233 The Singing Bones Shaun Tan NPR 234 The Spider’s War Daniel Abraham Best Fantasy Books 235 The Story Of Hong Gildong edited and translated NPR 236 THE TIGER AND THE WOLF ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY SciFiNow 237 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead Best Science Fiction Books 238 The Vagrant Peter Newman Barnes & Noble 239 The War of the Worlds HG Wells SFFWorld 2 240 The Wicked + The Divine Gillen and McKelvie Tor 241 THIN AIR MICHELLE PAVER SciFiNow 242 Things From The Flood Simon Stålenhag NPR 243 This Census-Taker China Miéville NPR 244 This Savage Song Victoria Schwab Tor 245 Those Below Daniel Polansky Best Fantasy Books 246 VERSAILLES YANNICK HILL SciFiNow 247 Veterans’ Affairs Joseph Hirsch Sci-Fi and Scary 248 Vicky Peterwald: Rebel Mike Shepherd The Best Sci Fi Books 249 War Factory Neal Asher SFFWorld 2 250 We Are Legion (We Are Bob) Dennis E. Taylor Sci-Fi and Scary 251 What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours Helen Oyeyemi Tor 252 When The Sea Turned To Silver Grace Lin NPR 253 Who’s Afraid The West 254 Wicked Weeds Pedro Cabiya Tor

The 32 Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Lists Used