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To find the best recent science fiction novels, you can look at award winners from 2024 and critically acclaimed books published in late 2024 or early 2025. 2024 Award winners Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh: Nebula Award for Best Novel winner. In a post-Earth society, a young woman, raised in a militaristic colony to be a warrior against the aliens who destroyed her world, discovers secrets that reveal a far more complex universe. In Ascension by Martin MacInnes: Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. This literary science fiction story follows a marine biologist who takes part in a deep-sea exploration, but the narrative eventually becomes a cosmic journey that explores our place in the universe. System Collapse by Martha Wells: Locus Award for Best Sci-Fi Novel winner. The seventh book in the popular Murderbot Diaries series, it follows the anxious, highly relatable, and highly effective security android SecUnit as it navigates a new set of dangers and human interactions. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera: An award-winning story mixing sci-fi and fantasy, it follows a man who escapes a magical, cult-like family and moves to a strange city, only to find the magic he fled is still part of the world. The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz: A finalist for the Nebula Award, this is a multi-generational epic about terraforming a new planet and the conflicts that arise from an AI-governed society. The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord: A highly reviewed novel in which humanity races toward a new, technologically advanced future after first contact with aliens transforms Earth. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: Recently published and well-reviewed, this novel concerns a new secret government agency that brings "expats" from the past to the present day. One agent must grapple with her growing feelings for a Victorian explorer brought to modern-day London. Anticipated releases in late 2025 Katabasis by R. F. Kuang: From the author of Babel and Yellowface, this novel follows rival Cambridge students who journey into the underworld to find a deceased professor. A dark, magical academic tale inspired by Dante's Inferno. The Incandescent by Emily Tesh: From the author of Some Desperate Glory, this standalone novel is a tender and queer story about a magical school. It follows a burned-out Director of Magic trying to protect her students from demons. Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler: A near-future geopolitical thriller about a revolutionary cybernetic operation. It has been described as a "blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom".