A Space Odyssey

The world's most wanted terrorist falls in love with someone he can't really be with. Sounds like one of those hackneyed romantic-thrillers perhaps?

Except this "girl" is a law-enforcement memory probe robot who was "born" deaf and mute. So as it goes, their lives cross and they now have to learn about each other without the help of sound. Is this a star-crossed love affair that's doomed to fail? Or will these two ill-fated lovers get their happy ending?

Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warning isn't hard sci-fi like most books in the shelf, but this collection of short stories range from ghost stories, fabulism, horror and of course, smatterings of sci-fi still. It even includes a piece he wrote for the 50th anniversary of the British TV series, Doctor Who. Now that's the definitive sci-fi/pop culture mash up we want to read.

Ken Liu's incredible short story "The Paper Menagerie" just became the first work of fiction to win all three of SF's major awards: the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award. It's a short read, but the impact is lasting and long. Now, with 14 other short stories in this epic collection, we're expecting to curl up in bed and savour every last bit of his writing.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbeg has raved so much about this book - so what are you waiting for? Liu Cixin's book merges the sci-fi and the cultural history that China has been burdened with. After a series of suicides by scientists in Beijing, Wang Miao is tasked to infiltrate a secret society of scientists. But he finds out that the recent discovery of alien life might just be linked to the Cultural Revolution that took many lives in the 60s. Truly an amazing read that seamlessly weaves these two seemingly unrelated events so perfectly.

The real problem is surviving in a sci-fi universe. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is exactly what the title is. With the time-machine repairman protaganist is stuck in an eternal loop, yet makes the rookie mistake of shooting his future self. How is he ever going to survive that? This novel is witty and self-aware in its absurdist tone, and Charles Yu may have just written one of the most humourous sci-fi novels ever.

All the Birds in the Sky combines science-fiction and fantasy in a near-future setting that seems to be both a warning and a prediction of what might actually happen. The world is beset by ecological and political disasters and two childhood friends who meet again after 10 years are working, in their own ways, to save the earth. One is a witch in a magical organisation, the other a scientist working to create another star. It's an old school vs new thought kind of novel, and the result is a weird, yet charming read.

Hugo Award winner Robert Charles Wilson is back with this alternate universe novel that will grip you like no other. It's set in 2015 in the United States - but it's a place and time that you do not recognise. There was no World War II, no Great Depression; poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But something about this place and time is unsettling and protagonist 19 year old Cassie knows. She knows that her parents been killed by something - that something is back and it's no human.

A longtime observer of life online, Doctorow, a digital-rights activist, depicts a cashless economy based on the constant, automatic tracking of public reputations by a nameless online utility. The book is similar to Reamde, in the sense that it's set in online - but Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is less action-packed, but conceptually thought-provoking - with the idea that the body could perhaps be obselete.

Set mostly in a Walt Disney World, where they try to use brain patterns to create the best ride experiences ever. And when a young man, Jules, who's just 100 years old, is killed, he's going all out in a war to try and get justice back for himself. Even if he doesn't have a body anymore.

It is the era of the posthuman. Humans are no more as artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect, and biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. The collection of interconnected short stories focus on three generations on the Macx clan, who find themselves at the forefront of changing humanity forever.

The Locus Award winning title was also nominated for several other awards including the Hugo, Campbell, Clarke, and British Science Fiction Association Awards, and we think this is one of the best sci-fi stories in the 21st century.

In this edgy, 21st century tale, Neal Stephenson, one of the most ambitious and prophetic writers of our time, returns to the terrain of his cyberpunk masterpieces Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, leading readers through the looking glass and into the dark heart of imagination.

It follows the addiction of video games, and how one man became addicted to an online fantasy game in which opposing factions battle for power and treasure in a vast cyber realm. It's international espionage and terrorism all set within the virtual reality. Yet its consequences are scarily real.

If you think you have no time to finish a thick book, then these collection of 19 short stories edited by Ian Whates might just be your solution. Acclaimed sci-fi writer Ian Whates brings together some of the best authors like Stephen Baxter, Stephen Palmer, Paul di Filippo and Richard Salter to explore the broad range of science fiction writing. From exploration the present to bizarre futures, from drug-induced tragedy to time-hopping serial killers, and from Earth under alien ravage to other surreal worlds, Solaris Rising is a real treat for everyone - no matter if you're a sci-fi connoisseur or a newcomer to the genre.