The Best Speculative Fiction Books To Read Right Now
Speculative fiction describes a genre of writing where supernatural, paranormal, and fantastical elements are introduced in a similar reality to our own. Some of the most well-known speculative fiction books often blend multiple genres, and is embraced by Nobel Prize laureates to comic book writers. Recently, authors from marginalized communities have taken liberties to introduce their culture’s mythologies into their fictional works. This unique and refreshing addition to the speculative canon adds more complex literary devices, making compelling stories for readers.
Chances are, if you are reading this, you are looking for a starting point to dive into speculative fiction. The best way to get your toes wet in speculative fiction is to start with the genres you already love to read. Historical, literary, sci-fi, and even horror have a range of titles that include speculative influences throughout. But don’t worry, we have rounded up 15 titles of books that defy and cross genres with unforgettable speculative fiction themes that will make you a fan for the rest of your reading days.
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Add to BookshelfThe Antidote
by Karen Russell
Dive into this historical fiction tale that will transport you to Nebraska during the record-breaking dust storm known as Black Sunday. As the Great Depression looms over the nation, this book follows multiple perspectives, including a prairie witch, a scarecrow with the ability to think, and a photographer who owns a camera that can travel through time. This all occurs during a historic rainstorm that floods this small town for 24 hours. While each character is unique, the real story is watching them navigate themes such as grief, financial insecurity, and climate change. Russell seamlessly blends literary fiction, magical realism, and a bit of mystery to deliver an unforgettable speculative read.
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The Expert of Subtle Revisions
by Kirsten Menger-Anderson
Menger-Anderson combines family drama, secrets, and time travel in this story that follows Hase and her father, who both live a nomadic lifestyle. With a dual timeline spanning between 1933 and 2016, this literary sci-fi bridges together different historical events and includes a bit of romance as well. You’ll be swept away as these characters go out of their way to search for the unknown.
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$28.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Memory Police
by Yoko Ogawa
Can you imagine a world where your memories could get you arrested? This Japanese novel uses speculative themes that are both eerie and Orwellian. On a mysterious island, small items such as non-essential things like socks and ribbons begin to disappear. Most of the small population is oblivious, but one young novelist suspects her editor might be one of the few people who can retain these memories of the lost items, thus making him a target. In an attempt to preserve memories, the author recounts what has occurred to her editor into her upcoming book while hiding her editor in her home, while more things disappear right in front of them.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
When a talented author like Whitehead blurs the lines between magical realism and literary fiction, you get a masterpiece such as this one. Cora is an enslaved, young Black girl who wants to escape the horrors of the Antebellum South. Cora dreams of freedom, so when she meets Caesar, who is also fleeing for his freedom, she decides to take up his offer to join him on the Underground Railroad. In this world, the Underground Railroad is a secretive network that runs beneath the tumultuous soil in the South. With unforgettable prose, readers are given a front-row seat at the intimate, oftentimes brutal reality of what one will do to be free.
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Ours
by Phillip B. Williams
This sweeping speculative fiction is set during the Antebellum South before the Civil War, when Black people were still enslaved. An elderly woman named Saint has mysterious, ancestral powers that she uses to help Black people escape the plantations and terrors of the South. She eventually settles in a town near the city of St. Louis that she and others refer to as “Ours”. But this town is unlike other Black-founded towns in history. This town can only be visible to those invited, as the magic Saint possesses makes it invisible to outsiders. But as Saint grows older, her magic and memory begin to slip, allowing evil to infiltrate. Williams uses the tradition of conjuring that was first made popular by Zora Neale Hurston.
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$22.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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This Cursed House
by Del Sandeen
Southern Gothic takes a sinister turn in this historical fiction speculative mystery read. Jemma is excited about the opportunity to start anew when she receives word of possible employment as a tutor with the prominent Duchon family. Jemma leaves Chicago to settle into her new job and life but is met with the scorching heat of New Orleans in the summer. While the locals are nice, she can’t help but notice how people look at her and treat her when she mentions the Duchon family. While the Duchons are a Black family from Louisiana, they all have passe blanc, distinct features, which adds a complex colorism aspect that is often considered taboo. As Jemma tries to save herself, she realizes that the Duchon family is stuck in time – figuratively and literally.
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Sea of Tranquility
by Emily St. John Mandel
Locus Award nominee and author of Station Eleven delivers another spellbound speculative hit that spans different locations and periods. It may seem jarring to be inundated with the number of characters you follow, but you will be pleasantly surprised to watch it all unfold and connect. Between following an unruly teen who gets exiled from society, to learning about the life of an author who is on a book tour on Earth and a citizen of a moon colony. It all comes full circle when Detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is sent to investigate the peculiar happenstance occurring in North America.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Bloodchild and Other Stories
by Octavia E. Butler
No speculative fiction list is complete without Octavia. E. Butler. Today, Butler is more popular than ever and still attracts new readers posthumously. Jumping into Butler’s work can be unnerving, but this collection of short stories is great for new and dedicated fans. Besides the number of awards this novella has garnered, this book highlights her pessimism about humanity under a sci-fi speculative lens. Part disturbing, yet reflective, readers will find Butler’s shorts just as immersive as her novels, as she continues to challenge readers by creating realistic and gripping narratives that reflect the spectrum of human morality and politics.
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$22.95Buy from Other Retailers:
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9
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The Dream Hotel: A Read with Jenna Pick
by Laila Lalami
With increasing conversations about policing and artificial intelligence in mainstream culture, there are more books on how these structures can cause more harm than good. This riveting tale highlights humans and their incessant need to make technology comparable or even better than human logic and reasoning skills. In this novel, Sara is stopped at the airport while traveling home from abroad. The agency responsible for interrupting her journey is known as the Risk Assessment Administration. Often referred to as the RAA, this fictitious agency operates as a crime deterrent by stopping crimes before they happen. Confused, Sara is escorted to a facility where she meets other women like her who are being held due to their dreams and the potential harm they pose to society.
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The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic, reimagines H. G. Wells’s classic The Island of Doctor Moreau by adding her rich, yet bone-chilling prose on the backdrop of the Mayas seeking their freedom from the crooked politicians in Mexico. This book succeeds in incorporating historical events that occurred during the Mexican War while adding a speculative, blood-curdling element with its character Carlota, who suffers from a blood disorder. Her father, Dr. Moreau, is a mad scientist who is keeping her alive by injecting her with medicine to keep her from dying. But creating hybrid creatures tends to be expensive and Dr. Moreau is running low on funds. When a wealthy man moves into town, Dr. Moreau decides to marry his sickly daughter.
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Klara and the Sun: A GMA Book Club Pick
by Kazuo Ishiguro
When you think of coming-of-age stories, you tend to think of teens and young adults, not artificial intelligence. Nobel Prize-winning author Ishiguro brilliantly finds the humanity in a robot named Klara that is experiencing loneliness. As Klara narrates life through their eyes, readers will be swept away by how a dystopian world can make one second-guess what is and what isn’t ethical. In this world, robots are not evil or mean, and they serve humans the same way domesticated pets or toys do for mankind. Klara is positioned in a store and is energized by the sun while awaiting to be loved by a new owner.
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Escape Velocity
by Victor Manibo
This speculative sci-fi adds a thrilling and dystopian twist where Earth’s wealthiest and most privileged are invited to the luxurious Space Habitat Altaire. This one-of-a-kind resort is located in Earth’s low orbit. Having access to the Altaire means the chances of being selected for the new Mars settlement are higher because Earth is dying due to climate change and capitalism, and the rich are looking to escape. Rochford Institute is known for its celebrated alumni as it follows the characters who attend a reunion and find themselves in the crossfires of class wars, murder, climate change, and space tourism that delivers a cinematic space thriller with political intrigue.
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Marvel: Black Panther: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda
by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
If you are a fan of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Black Panther comic run, you must have this book in your comic book collection. Travel back to one of the richest countries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wakanda, as T’Challa finds himself in a parallel universe. But this Wakanda is not the same one as Earth. This version of Wakanda is the complete opposite, as it has seized at least five galaxies and has wiped all the memories of the people they have enslaved. T’Challa does not remember how he found himself in this position, but when the Maroons – a resistance group who fight for liberation – recruit T’Challa to help them overthrow this other Wakanda, he must answer the call of rebellion.
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Womb City
by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Part cyberpunk and part horror, this dark speculative fiction takes readers to a futuristic Botswana that serves as the epicenter of culture. However, things turn grim quickly as the unchecked power of government overreach reaches a tipping point, as it impacts anyone who can bear children more severely. Nelah is caught between wanting to surrender to the patriarchy that is disguising itself as law and maintaining her extramarital affair behind her husband’s back. Admittedly, Nelah doesn’t like the way her sexist husband treats her, but she does not want to give up her lifestyle to make it on her own. Now with a child in the picture, their relationship is almost at the point of no return.
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Indian Burial Ground
by Nick Medina
Set on a reservation, this paranormal horror follows one family who must navigate two timelines simultaneously. The first timeline is set in the 1980s, where we meet Louie, who has the entire weight of the world on his shoulders. As a teen, Louie had to navigate his troubled family life as well as learn that the bones of his grandmother had been stolen. When Louie finds himself back in the present at his rez for a pow wow, he learns his niece’s boyfriend has suddenly died. Louie begins to think his traveling through time is somehow allowing evil to run amok in his family and on the rez.
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Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey — with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake — through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.
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