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This selection of highly-reviewed science fiction novels published within the last two to three years offers a mix of award winners, popular bestsellers, and critically acclaimed debuts. Award-winning science fiction The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (2022): This novel, which won the 2024 Arthur C. Clarke Award, explores first contact with a sentient species of octopus and is praised for its intellectual depth. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (2023): A recent Hugo Award winner, this space opera follows a young woman raised to be a warrior against the aliens who destroyed Earth. The story addresses complex themes of identity and gender. In Ascension by Martin MacInnes (2022): Winner of the 2023 Arthur C. Clarke Award, this highly literary novel is an existentially charged story about a marine biologist's journey into a mysterious, deep ocean trench. Highly acclaimed and popular novels The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (2024): A major recent bestseller, this book is a clever blend of sci-fi, romance, and historical fiction that follows an agent tasked with relocating "expats" from the past to the present day. The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (2022): This fast-paced and fun adventure follows a COVID-19-laid-off worker who takes a job that turns out to involve saving giant monsters on a parallel Earth. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (2022): From the acclaimed author of Station Eleven, this novel interweaves a few character stories over several centuries as a time travel detective investigates a timeline anomaly. Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2022): The third book in the Children of Time series, this space opera can be read on its own. It centers on a crew settling a new planet where strange creatures lurk in the jungle. The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (2023): This fantasy novel with strong speculative fiction elements won a Nebula Award and was a Hugo finalist. It follows a young man whose destiny is to murder his sorcerer father. The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville (2025): The actor and the sci-fi author collaborated on this novel about an 80,000-year-old warrior. The Ferryman by Justin Cronin (2023): A mysterious and suspenseful novel, it explores a dystopian island society where residents are repeatedly "reborn" into new bodies. Critically praised debuts The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei (2023): In this thriller, a survivor of a bombing on Earth must unravel the mystery of who killed her shipmates before they reach their new home. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (2022): An intellectual and philosophical story about the first contact with a sentient octopus species. Flux by Jinwoo Chong (2023): This novel blends a literary character study with a sci-fi mystery, following a man who gets entangled in a decades-old corporate conspiracy involving a famous talk show