What a year for science fiction! There were dozens of notable titles nominated and voted on by YOU, our readers, for our 2021 Year End Readers' Choice Award.

With the exception of a tie for 10th place on our list, among those nominations, there were some clear favorites. Curious to see which titles were in the top ten according to Discover Sci-Fi readers across the globe? Read on! 

10.A. Starship Freedom by Daniel Arenson

The starship Freedom was once a mighty warship. Today she's a tourist attraction. The space wars ended long ago. The Freedom is now a flying museum. The tourists love it. The Changing of the Guard, the starfighter aerobatics, the starboard cannon salute . . . it's the best show in the galaxy.

James King commands the starship Freedom. He hates his job. He was a real soldier once. Back when the Freedom was a real warship. He never imagined himself running a tourist trap. Right after Christmas, he plans to retire.

Then, on Christmas day, the aliens attack. Horrifying aliens. Creatures of claws, fangs, and endless malice. Within hours, they devastate Earth's military. Millions die.

So much for retirement.

The aliens spare the starship Freedom. After all, she's only a tourist attraction. But not to Commander King. He will get his beloved starship battle-ready. He will enter the fight. The Freedom will fly to war again!

Read Starship Freedom  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

10b. Hell Divers VIII: King of the Wastes by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

A year has passed since the Hell Divers defeated the machines at Kilimanjaro. The freed captives have settled into their new home at the Vanguard Islands, joining survivors from around the world. But extreme weather and failed crops have raised the specter of famine. Ships must push deeper into dangerous red zones, only to come back with less loot—and fewer soldiers.

When the Hell Divers discover a scroll on a raid, King Xavier is faced with a long-buried truth that threatens the future of his people and all of humanity. The Vanguard Islands are not the salvation the sky people thought them to be. To survive, they must venture through the Panama Canal and into the wastes beyond.

With the future at stake, the Immortal once again dons his armor. But there is a reason the great Cazador armies never returned from the canal, and this time not even the King of the Wastes is prepared for what awaits them.

Read Hell Divers VIII  here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

9. Out of Time (The Delta Devlin Novels Book 3) by Matthew Mather

Newly promoted Marshal Devlin must stop a ruthless conspiracy that stretches across the globe—and even across the decades into the future.

Critical components of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful supercollider and largest machine ever built, have been stolen, and Delta Devlin is brought in by Interpol to investigate.

At the same time, a dead body appears washed up on the shores of the East River in Delta’s hometown of New York City—one with very similar injuries to those left by the serial killer she caught to start her career.

As events in the present collide in a tangle of secrets and lies, Delta cannot trust anyone—even her family and loved ones—as her own future and past weave together in a mind-bending web that only she can unravel to stop an apocalyptic disaster from unfolding.

Read Out of Time here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook

8. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Get your copy of Fugitive Telemetry here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

7. Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey

6. Into the Chaos (Rise of the Republic Book 4) by James Rosone and TC Manning

Captain Brian Royce brings Hadad to his home planet, which shows obvious signs of battle. Did any of his family survive?

Where are all the children...did the Zodarks take them?

Admiral Miles Hunt finds himself appointed to a new position beyond his current skillset. He now has to become more than just a ship captain and fleet commander…

...He must become the Viceroy of the Milky Way Galaxy.

On Alpha Centauri, an archaeology team makes a discovery that sends shockwaves through the Republic—a discovery so profound it could cause a division and a potential split within the alliance.

The newly deployed 2nd Republic Army Group on the planet Intus finds itself the vanguard of the alliance’s efforts to liberate the remaining Primord planets. As the Zodark forces are continually pushed back, the alliance edges closer to bringing the war to the enemies’ core worlds.

Can Miles Hunt become the leader humanity needs him to become?

Will the 2nd Republic Army Group survive a gruesome battle on a frozen planet?

Join us as book four uncovers another piece to the puzzle that ties humanity to more than just Earth and the Milky Way Galaxy.

Grab Into the Chaos here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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5. Jack the Ripper (Judge, Jury, Executioner Book 14) by Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle

A serial killer the likes of whom hasn’t been seen in centuries. A pretender who has outdone the master. Fifty planets. The dead are screaming for vengeance and only Rivka and her team can hear their cries. The Singularity. The Magistrate and her crew.

How many more must die before the killer can be brought to justice?

The battle of wits has begun, and only one can survive. Win or die trying.

Rivka has to dig deeper than ever before into her investigative skills to figure out who’s next and how to stop the one masquerading as…

Jack the Ripper. 

Get your copy of Jack the Ripper here on Amazon. 

4. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian - while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Grab Project Hail Mary here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

3. The Dark by Jeremy Robinson

Miah Gray is a twenty-seven-year-old, former Army soldier living in rural New Hampshire with his sister, mother, and her boyfriend. He is plagued by PTSD, finding solace, but not redemption, with the aid of prescribed cannabis. All he wants to do is get high, relax with a good sandwich, and watch a meteor shower with his neighborhood crush--Jen.

But when the sun's light is blotted out the following morning, and the world is plunged into darkness, Miah finds himself locked down with his family, covering windows with trash bags, lighting candles, and following the arcane rules of an ancient prophecy. But there is no escaping what comes next.

A brilliant flash of light fills the sky, leaving Miah changed, and an Old Norse death rune etched onto his forehead. He fears he has been marked for death until the neighborhood's parents start disappearing, and he's left behind. Leading Jen and a ragtag group of parentless kids, Miah hunts for answers and for their parents, while trying to keep his sister safe. He charges headlong down a path that will take him to the gates of Hell--and then straight through.

Start reading The Dark here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

2. Backyard Starship by JN Chaney and Terry Maggert

When Van Tudor returns to his childhood home, he inherits more than the family farm.

His grandfather used to tell him fantastic stories of spacemen and monsters, princesses and galactic knights. Little did Van realize, the old man's tales were more than fiction. They were real.

Hidden beneath the old barn, Van's legacy is waiting: a starship, not of this world.

With his combat AI, an android bird named Perry, Van takes his first steps into the wider galaxy. He soon finds that space is far busier and more dangerous than he could have ever conceived.

Destiny is calling. His grandfather's legacy awaits.

Start reading Backyard Starship here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

1. Omega Force: To Hell and Back by Joshua Dalzelle

A new killer is cutting a bloody swath through the frontier worlds. Rumors of its exploits are spreading and, like a ghost, nobody even knows what it looks like.

Captain Jason Burke and his crew watch this growing menace with a mix of unease… and guilt. They know who this killer is. He used to be one of them.

Seven, as he now called himself, is their former crewmate. The powerful, sentient machine that had once gone by Lucky has suffered a psychotic break and is now a problem that Omega Force has to deal with. Jason wants to believe that he can still save Lucky, but the longer Seven remains, the more he has to admit that it might be better for everybody if he was just eliminated before he can hurt any more innocents. The real question is can they even do it? Many have gone up against Seven already. None were alive to talk about it. The Omega Force crew is in for the fight of their lives against someone who knows everything about them.

Every strength.
Every weakness.
Can Jason take down Seven without losing anyone else?

Dive into To Hell and Back here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

How many of our top 10 list have you read? Which ones are you adding to your TBR for the coming year? Any stellar books you think didn't get their due? Let us know here in the comments, 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.