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This curated list features a selection of highly-reviewed science fiction novels published within the last few years, including award-winners and popular favorites. Recent standouts and award winners The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (2024): A time-traveling romance that won the 2024 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction. The novel follows a civil servant who is tasked with assisting "expats" from the past as they acclimate to life in present-day London. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (2022): A science fiction adventure about an astronaut who awakens with amnesia on a mission to save the Earth from a global catastrophe. It was the Goodreads Choice winner in 2021. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (2022): This ambitious novel weaves together a story spanning centuries, from the early 20th century to a moon colony in the future. It was the Goodreads Choice winner in 2022. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler (2022): A captivating first-contact novel in which a marine biologist is sent to Vietnam to study a highly intelligent species of octopus that has developed its own language and culture. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2019): This novel won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2020. The story follows a diplomat who must unravel a political conspiracy within a vast, interstellar empire. Network Effect by Martha Wells (2020): A novel-length installment in the popular "Murderbot Diaries" series. The story continues the adventures of a security android who has hacked its own governor module and gained independence. Critically praised novels of the 2020s Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2024): The newest book from a respected voice in the genre, this novel features a human colonist investigating strange goings-on at a terraforming facility. Exordia by Seth Dickinson (2024): This book from the author of the critically acclaimed The Traitor Baru Cormorant series tells the story of an alien invasion from the perspective of a single human. The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (2021): A tense thriller about a scientist who discovers her husband has created a clone of her to replace her and must confront the clone over her husband's murder. The City Inside by Samit Basu (2022): A dystopian cyberpunk novel set in near-future Delhi, following the lives of a social media influencer and a virtual reality artist. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2021): An anthropologist from an advanced space-faring civilization is viewed as a wizard by the native people of a planet he is studying. This novella won the BSFA award for Best Novel.