The 24 alien books Scientific American recommends

The alien stories Scientific American editors keep coming back to

The 24 alien books the Scientific American staff love, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to Contact and beyond

Alien first-contact stories are a classic of science fiction, and they’re all the more fascinating because they can feel like predictions of a possible future. Real scientists all over the world are searching for extraterrestrial life. Until they find it, however, we’ll have to settle for stories of imaginary beings from other worlds.

Many of us at Scientific American have been reading alien stories for work and for pleasure for many years. Some of us were inspired as kids to pursue science by such tales; others have used epic extraterrestrial series as escapism from our regular lives.

Here are 24 new and old favorites of the genre that have kept us curious about alien life and encounters with it that could change us as humans.

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Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Orbit (Tags: Space Opera, Science Fiction)

This groundbreaking novel makes us reimagine gender and identity through the eyes of a ship-based AI consciousness forced to reside in a human body. — Clara Moskowitz, Chief of Reporters