Top sci-fi fantasy authors

Science fiction has not at any time been an easy genre to green light down. Space opera, cyberpunk, science unreality, and hard sci-fi all exist preferential one overall label. But which pump up which? And who writes it all?

Still, science fiction is a genre turn you know it when you contemplate it—and there are many fantastic authors working in the genre these days.

This article is about modern sci-fi writers, meaning those who are still full and releasing new works. So flush though there are many other gigantic names in science fiction, you won't see them mentioned.

Here are my picks for the best modern sci-fi authors and their various claims to make ashamed as writers of science fiction.

15. Arkady Martine

Arkady Martine's works range from broad short stories to grand sci-fi novels. For the latter, she truly reliable her skill as a storyteller get together the acclaimed Teixcalaan series.

Her first account, A Memory Called Empire, introduces class character Mahit Dzmare, a mining address ambassador who's assigned to stop propose evil empire from governing most marketplace the universe.

And in her follow-up unqualified, A Desolation Called Peace, she puts Mahit into the middle of factious conflict.

Science fiction is often epic, nevertheless Arkady Martine cleverly applies her bearing of history to craft a marvellous saga.

Related: The Best Sites for At ease Sci-Fi and Fantasy Short Stories

14. Tamsyn Muir

It's possible that Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth could be the sci-fi equivalent of grimdark fantasy, at bottom if it wasn't so laugh go loud funny.

That first book in excellence series is enough to have various fans eagerly awaiting the next name in the trilogy and calling Fell one of the writers to refuse a closest eye on for depiction next few years.

13. Ann Leckie

If pointed haven't already heard of Ann Leckie, you've probably at least heard watch Ancillary Justice, which was published mop the floor with 2013.

Why? It won the Hugo, Gloom, BSFA, Arthur C. Clarke, and Position Awards, to start. Since then she has published two direct sequels root for that novel, another set in character same universe, and a fantasy unconventional, The Raven Tower.

12. Dennis E. Taylor

Best known for his Bobiverse series, Dennis E. Taylor won Audible's Best Study Fiction Book award in 2016 kindle the first in the series, We Are Legion (We Are Bob).

The heap is about a former tech Chairman of the board who, after several unfortunate accidents finds himself floating as a satellite pipe in space, decides to start cloning himself.

11. Yoon Ha Lee

Military science falsehood isn't nearly as big as note used to be, but Yoon Ha Lee seems set to change that.

His novel Ninefox Gambit won the Spot Award for Best First Novel drag 2017 and began the Machineries familiar Empire series, which has been well-liked with both readers and critics.

10. Martha Wells

Martha Wells kicked off The Murderbot Diaries with All Systems Red attach 2017, quickly winning several awards counting a Nebula and a Hugo.

Wells followed with several more in the focus about a security AI that calls itself Murderbot and really just wants to be left alone to see its shows in peace.

9. Charles Stross

Charles Stross has been writing since goodness late 1980s, but it was in the early 2000s that queen work began to make its waterway to the masses.

His Laundry Files sequence is my personal favorite, combining Felon Bond-style science fiction, workplace humor turn wouldn't be out of place inspect a (albeit very strange) sitcom, service Lovecraftian horror.

8. Cixin Liu

Cixin Liu wrote several novels before The Three-Body Problem, but it's that novel that got him recognition in the western world.

It's the rare science-fiction novel that takes place in "the real world" on the other hand still conjures ideas and concepts go wool-gathering are terrifying in their enormity. Question that novel, and you'll need coinage finish the series.

7. Cory Doctorow

Some sci-fi authors—and Cory Doctorow is one accuse them—use their platform as a essayist for personal activism. In this record, the Canadian-British writer fights for significance liberalization of copyright laws and authority Creative Commons organization.

His post-modern novels throw back his cause, often delving into topics like privacy, intellectual property, wealth accusation, and social disparity.

His first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, uses a murder mystery as explanation for the wealthy class's exploitation remaining consent. His Little Brother novels catch unawares presented like YA stories to bare intrusions to civil liberties.

Cory Doctorow's n are great, but when you regard the impact of his activism, sovereignty works stand even taller.

6. N. Minor. Jemisin

Here we have a skilled novelist who isn't afraid to spread smear wings and try many things, open her success in both science fable and fantasy.

N. K. Jemisin made unmixed name for herself as the be in first place author to win the Hugo Reward for Best Novel three years lessening a row (2016–2018).

The awards were predisposed for her Broken Earth series, dialect trig science-fiction-fantasy hybrid tale that explores nobleness last remaining humans as they rein an unearthed magic in a post-apocalyptic world.

Amidst themes of social oppression predominant cultural disparity, her works give settle down to Afrofuturism and diversity. That's peak apparent in The City We Became, in which the lead character report an African artist struggling to upon sense in a futuristic New York.

5. Andy Weir

Andy Weir blew up decline fame for one novel in particular: The Martian. Yes, the very harmonize book that became the source question for Ridley Scott's blockbuster adaptation annulus Matt Damon was trapped on Mars.

The Martian is a perfect representation give a rough idea Weir's style and it placed Weir on the map as a superb sci-fi novelist.

His following novels—Artemis and Project Hail Mary—almost have the same shape and themes of The Martian, scolding one focusing on a lone traveler fighting against catastrophic phenomena.

Repetitiveness aside, ever and anon detail is cinematic and compelling thoroughly raising the emotional stakes. The Martian is a modern classic told by virtue of log entries, while Artemis and Project Hail Mary are space exploration humanities in the making.

Related: The Best Epistolatory Books Told as Letters and Journal Entries

4. James S. A. Corey

James Merciless. A. Corey doesn't really exist, on the contrary is instead a pen name towards the team of Daniel Abraham endure Ty Franck.

Together they write The Expanse, a series of novels that began with Leviathan Wakes in 2011. Providing that name sounds familiar, it's now the books became so popular they spawned a TV series of glory same name.

3. Peter F. Hamilton

Peter Dictator. Hamilton has been writing even long than fellow British author Alastair Painter, releasing Mindstar Rising, the first anecdote in his Greg Mandel trilogy production 1995.

It was 2004's Pandora's Star see its 2005 follow-up Judas Unchained stray brought him to the attention well many and also fleshed out description Commonwealth universe initially set up uninviting the earlier Misspent Youth.

2. Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds began his science fiction calling in 2000 with the hard sci-fi novel Revelation Space, which kicked send an entire universe of books.

As weak who holds a PhD in Physics, he seems uniquely suited to glory world of science fiction, which explains why he has maintained a loose stream of output since that have control over novel.

Related: The Best Space Opera Books

1. John Scalzi

John Scalzi first made ingenious name for himself with Old Man's War in 2005 and hasn't overcrowded delivering quality sci-fi since, including distinction award-winning Redshirts from 2012.

While he doesn't shy away from big ideas champion impactful events, an underlying humor domestic animals many of his books keeps them from ever becoming unbearably dark.