16 Stellar Books That Take Place in Space

Arthur Dent’s best friend Ford Prefect drags him away from Earth moments before its destruction. Arthur gets pulled into the universe headlong, following Prefect through the stars in an irreverent adventure with the president of the galaxy, his girlfriend, and a depressed robot.

It’s 3326, and Nigel Sheldon gets enlisted in a plan to infiltrate the Void—a dark structure in the middle of the galaxy that poses a threat to everything surrounding it. Once inside, Nigel realizes that a group of humans aren’t the only ones who’ve been trapped there. An intelligent and lethal alien race resides there, too. Though dangerous, these aliens may hold a key to saving all those stuck in the Void—by destroying it forever.

Far in the future, mankind has settled planets throughout the universe, each one under the caretaking of a noble family. A classic feat of science fiction, Dune follows Paul Atreides, the mysterious man later known as Muad’Dib, as he sets out to avenge a plot against his family and the planet under their responsibility, Arrakis.

U.S. astronauts Donald Pettit and Kenneth Bowersox, and Russian flight engineer Nikolai Budarin, remained orbiting Earth after the Columbia shuttle disintegrated at the end of their mission. Jones’s account gives readers a behind-the-scenes look into the harrowing last-ditch efforts by mission control to save the three men who lost their ride home.

Asimov’s Foundation novels chronicle the efforts of Hari Seldon, a psychohistorian with inside knowledge of the future of the human race. As the longstanding Galactic Empire falls, Seldon attempts to save at least a little part of mankind’s knowledge and history. In a journey to the edge of the galaxy, Seldon leads a group of men and women who hope to carry man’s legacy through the fast-approaching age of darkness.

Humanity has been divided in a caste system, and the Reds are saddled with the responsibility of mining Mars in hopes of making the surface habitable. Darrow is a Red, proud of his role in making the future brighter for the next generations. Yet Darrow and the Reds have been betrayed—Mars’ surface has been habitable for years, and the Reds have been exploited. Now Darrow is bent on working his way to the top of the caste system in search of justice.

This classic novel, later turned film, defined an era of science fiction. After discovering a monolith transmitting radio signals buried under the moon’s surface, a group of astronauts embark on a mission to investigate one of Saturn’s moons where the radio signals are being received. The mission goes awry, and the astronauts have a lot to contend with, from HAL 9000—the artificially intelligent computer—to the truth behind the society situated in the depths of our solar system.

Amy’s parents are important members of a mission to colonize a new planet… but that means Amy is along for the ride, too. She has to leave behind her boyfriend, her best friends, and all her extended family so that she can be cryogenically frozen for the next 300 years on the journey to the new world. Yet, part of the way through the mission, someone tries to kill her, waking her from her sleep. Stuck in the middle of space hundreds of light years from any solid ground, in danger, and completely alone, her options are limited. What’s a girl to do?

Luke Skywalker dreamed of adventures out among the stars and alien worlds. But when he intercepted a message from a beautiful captive princess, he got more than he had bargained for—and that was how the adventure of his life began…

This wonderfully imagined space opera takes place on a military spacecraft, Ananke. Althea, a computer scientist aboard the ship, has a strong bond with the electronic systems. When a terrorist group threatens Ananke, Althea must access her heart and soul to defend her beloved ship.

A Novel of the U.S.S. Merrimack, The Twice and Future Caesar takes place in the year 2448. The interstellar Empire of Rome spans an area almost as wide as the far-flung colonial worlds of the United States of America, and War’s end left Caesar Romulus in a nanovirus-induced coma, captive of Caesar Numa Pompeii.

Don’t get caught. This intergalactic thriller takes us into the lives of people deemed as criminals. But they’re not criminals at all, they defied megacorporations in order to save others. Now, they’re on the run and taking refuse on a crimelord-run Crossways Station.

Lines of energy control the galactic powers in this world. Ean Lambert’s unique talents must uncover a mysterious alien ship that’s discovered at the edges of the galaxy. If anyone approaches the lines of energy, a defense system is triggered that annihilates everything in a 200 kilometer radius.