by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)
A human envoy is sent to the icy world of Gethen with the mission of facilitating its inclusion in a growing intergalactic confederation. But Gethen is unlike any world he has ever known: its inhabitants are ambisexual, possessing no fixed gender. To survive political scheming, Genly must make an impossible trek across the Karhide glacier with a disgraced politician.
Frank Herbert
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the "spice" melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for.
Stanislaw Lem
When psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives at the research station hovering above the oceanic planet Solaris, he finds the crew deranged and terrified by physical phantoms materialized from their deepest, most shameful memories. Stanislaw Lem crafts the definitive meditation on the terrifying impossibility of truly understanding an alien intelligence.
Frank Herbert
Twelve years after becoming Emperor, Paul Muad’Dib finds himself trapped by his own prescience and the unstoppable galactic jihad waged in his name as conspiracies brew in the shadows of his imperial palace.
Becky Chambers
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered into the wilderness, never to be seen again. One day, the life of a traveling tea monk named Dex is upended by the arrival of a wild robot who has come to ask a single question: "What do people need?"