by Arthur C. Clarke (1973)
In the twenty-second century, a massive cylindrical object fifty kilometers long tumbles into the solar system from deep interstellar space. The survey vessel Endeavour is dispatched to intercept it. What the astronauts find within its hollow, spinning interior is a perfectly engineered, enigmatic world devoid of biological life.
Andy Weir
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment. He must solve an extinction-level scientific puzzle with only an unexpected alien companion.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres, risks everything by traveling to the lush, capitalist home world of Urras to complete his General Temporal Theory. Le Guin crafts an unforgettable portrait of an ambiguous utopia, contrasting the hunger and freedom of collective life against the wealth and corruption of property.
Blake Crouch
Jason Dessen is knocked unconscious on a walk home to his wife and son. He wakes strapped to a gurney in a lab, greeted by strangers celebrating his groundbreaking invention of a quantum transit box into alternate realities.
James S.A. Corey
Humanity has colonized the solar system, but tensions between Earth, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt are at a boiling point. When ice-hauler captain Jim Holden discovers an abandoned derelict ship, he uncovers a conspiracy threatening humanity's existence.