Looking to tempt a friend to the dark side? Beloved by readers who don't typically gravitate toward the genre, these sci-fi books are sure to do the trick! Keep this list handy next time you are eager to recommend a science fiction book to a friend who says they "don't read sci-fi." They'll be changing their tune, tout suite! 

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

It is so easy to get sucked into this story, and fast! There are a fair number of action packed battle scenes, but if that's not one's jam, they are pretty easy to read over without missing the heart of the story. 

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.

Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.

Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Read Ender's Game here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Published in 2014, Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven enjoyed something of a renaissance early the recent pandemic (the fact of which Mandel gives a nod to in her newest book, the 2022 release Sea of Tranquility.) Station Eleven is a bit of a slow burn but as with the author's other works, is beautifully written and intricately plotted. Just thinking about it now has us wanting to pick it up again! 

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.

Read Station Eleven  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

This highly accessible sci-fi classic turns 70 this year and feels just as modern and relevant today as it did in 1953. Fahrenheit 451 manages a lot in less than 200 pages, giving us much to ponder and ultimately leaving the reader with a sense of hope—a welcome surprise given the dystopian setting of the book. 

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

Get your copy of Fahrenheit 451 here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Read Handmaid's Tale  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

When it hit the shelves fifteen years ago, Suzanne Collins' dystopian thriller The Hunger Games ignited the interest of even the most reluctant readers. And why not? With a fierce, loveable heroine, complex villains, heaps of actions, and unrelenting tension, it has a lot to recommend it! Put this one in a friend's hand and they won't be coming up for air until they've read all three books in the original trilogy and the prequel! 

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to death before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Still, if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

 Grab The Hunger Games here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Save this recommendation for your friend who loves feel-good reads! Becky Chambers is a great storyteller and with The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet treats readers to a well paced tale with incredible worldbuilding, a loveable cast of characters, and so much more. If you haven't read this one, do! Once you do, you to will be singing it's praises to everyone whether they are sci-fi lovers or not! 

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Get your copy of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

This one is a fun, fast, mind-bender! Dark Matter was first mentioned on the blog in a post from August 2020 where DSF readers voted it into the top 10 sci-fi stand-alones published since 2010. It's interesting and exciting, yet undemanding, and so hard to put down. These qualities make it a great option for any reader and a fabulous choice for one with an entire day spread out before them to spend doing nothing but reading! 

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. Hiswife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

Grab Dark Matter here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

Whatever you do, don't tell the friends you're recommending this one to that it's a zombie book. With outstanding world building, skillful twists, a loveable main, and emotional heft, The Girl With All the Gifts will capture the interest and heart of any reader who gives it a shot! 

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.

Dive into The Girl With All the Gifts here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Silo Series by Hugh Howey

With the recent success of the first season of Silo on Apple+, this one is an obvious choice! How many of your friends who don't typically read sci-fi have already come running to you to rave about the series? We bet all of you know at least a few! We'd suggest you keep a copy of the book on hand for the next it happens; you can smile and nod and hand it to them to take home. They can thank you later. 

The remnants of humanity live underground in a vast silo. In this subterranean world, rules matter. Rules keep people alive. And no rule is more strictly enforced than to never speak of going outside. The punishment is exile and death.

When the sheriff of the silo commits the ultimate sin, the most unlikely of heroes takes his place. Juliette, a mechanic from the down deep, who never met a machine she couldn’t fix nor a rule she wouldn’t break.

What happens when a world built on rules is handed over to someone who sees no need for them? And what happens when a world broken to its core comes up against someone who won’t stop until things are set to right?

Their world is about to fall. What—and who—will rise?

Get your copy of The Silo Series
here on Amazon.

Which other titles do you feel would be at home on this list of books beloved by non sci-fi fans? Which one of these sci-fi reads will you be recommending to your friends? Are there any book here you previously missed that you're planning to pick up for yourself? Fill us in in the comments here, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook Group! 

*All book-related copy in this post was pulled from Amazon, Goodreads & Wikipedia, unless otherwise credited.