The Top 10 Best Friendships in Science Fiction

“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." —Oprah Winfrey. 

Leave it to Oprah to accurately and succinctly get at the heart of what makes a true friend. The friendships you submitted as examples of the very best in science fiction ran the gamut, but what is true for all of them is this: no matter circumstance or the risk—be it to their person or to their pride—they show up for one another. Still, only one can take top spot. Curious to find out who? Read on to find out! 

As always, these top ten lists are not meant to be all-inclusive or definitive, but give a great finger on the pulse of our communities interests and favorites. Want to see who missed out? Here's the original nomination list from the blog.

Without further ado, based on the combined nominations and votes here on the Discover Sci-Fi blog and the Facebook group, here are your top choices for the best friendships found in the pages of science fiction.

10. Alex and Julien from The Silver Ships

When asked in a reddit AMA about the inspiration for Julien, the SADE of his Silver Ships series, author S.H. Jucha had this to say, "Julien is the 'stalwart man' even though he's a SADE (self-aware digital entity). He's the kind of friend each and everyone of us wishes they had ... always with us and dependable through thick and thin, but his trust has to be earned." Knowing that Julien was written to be, above all else, a loyal and reliable friends, it is no surprise that this pair made the top 10; yet, the fact that they only just made it suggests that just maybe there are a fair number of you in our community who are unacquainted with the series. If you are one of those folks, be sure to put The Silver Ships on your TBR list!

An explorer-tug captain, Alex Racine detects a damaged alien craft drifting into the system. Recognizing a once in a lifetime opportunity to make first contact, Alex pulls off a daring maneuver to latch on to the derelict.

Alex discovers the ship was attacked by an unknown craft, the first of its kind ever encountered. The mysterious silver ship's attack was both instant and deadly.

What enfolds is a story of the descendants of two Earth colony ships, with very different histories, meeting 700 years after their founding and uniting to defend humanity from the silver ships.

Start The Silver Ships here on Amazon

9. Kim and Casmir from the Star Kingdom Series

Fans of Lindsay Buroker know she often puts some romance in her series, but she told us that when she started plotting out the first Star Kingdom book Casmir and Kim came to mind, that she knew right away that they would be roommates and best friends, and that things would stay that way. 

We readers aren't treated to a lot of male-female buddy relationships in fiction, and so to come across one like the Kim and Casmir's makes for a refreshing change! Their world (universe) goes crazy and their lives change forever, but they can always lean on each other. They don’t always agree with each other’s choices, but they’ve got each other’s backs, and we think everyone can agree that we all need friends like that.

What if being a hero was encoded in your genes?

And nobody told you?

Casmir Dabrowski would laugh if someone asked him that. After all, he had to build a robot to protect himself from bullies when he was in school.

Fortunately, life is a little better these days. He's an accomplished robotics engineer, a respected professor, and he almost never gets picked on in the lunchroom. But he's positive heroics are for other people.

Until robot assassins stride onto campus and try to kill him.

Read Shockwave, Book One in the Star Kingdom Series here on Amazon.

8. Alex, Amos, Jim and Naomi from The Expanse

While most of the friendships nominated were between two, we were not surprised to see a few ensemble selections, and we were especially unsurprised to see the crew of the Rocinate on the list. This team has been through it all, and it’s only served to deepen their bonds.

The first book in the revolutionary New York Times bestselling Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, is a modern masterwork of science fiction. Leviathan Wakes introduces Captain James Holden, his crew, and Detective Miller as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl. Now a Prime Original series.

Get your copy of Leviathan Wakes here on Amazon.

7. The crew of The Phoenix from Omega Force

Courageous, loyal, stalwart, and implacable. These are terms that describe the men and women that have served in elite fighting units since the beginning of warfare. They are not, however, terms that apply to Omega Force.  

The Omega boys are a collection of borderline sociopaths that, while trying to mostly do the right thing, would just has happily knife each other as they would the enemy. This has actually happened twice over suspected cheating at cards. The mercenary crew operates under a loose mandate to help those that can't help themselves… and if they can turn a quick buck by killing some scumbag that had it coming? All the better. They are a team forged in the fire of common purpose, individuals so completely different from each other they would have never been friends otherwise. But after fighting and bleeding together for years, they've formed an unbreakable bond. If you come at one of them, just know that they would all die protecting each other.

Jason Burke was a man hiding from himself in a small cabin high in the American Rocky Mountains when his simple, quiet life was shattered one night by what he first assumed was an aviation mishap. But when he investigates the crash, what he finds will yank him out of his self-imposed exile and thrust him into a world he could have never imagined.

Start the adventure with Omega Rising here on Amazon.

6. Elijah Baley and Daneel from the Robot Series

What began as an unlikely friendship, became one for the literal ages when thousands of years after Baley’s death Daneel is asked about the now mythic figure of Baley (whose existence is now questioned), and he states that Baley was greater than any myth claimed him to be.

Daneel is introduced in Issac Asimov's book The Caves of Steel, where he is tasked to assist Elijah Baley in the investigation of the murder of his creator, Roj Nemennuh Sarton. Initially, Baley is suspicious of Daneel and constructs two separate theories in which the Robot is responsible for the murder. After both theories are disproven, Baley begins to feel a friendship with Daneel. At the same time, watching Baley gives Daneel a more nuanced view of justice, coming to understand that it is better to convert evil to good than to simply destroy evil.

Baley's and Daneel's friendship grows with each novel, ultimately leading to Daneel being the first of only two robots to ever set foot on a Settler world when Elijah Baley specifically asks to see him on his deathbed.

A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together.

Grab the first book in Issac Asimov's Robot Series, The Caves of Steel, here on Amazon.

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5. Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Publisher’s Weekly described Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as “a whimsical odyssey” and we couldn’t agree more! At the center of it, are friends Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, an unlikely pair perhaps, but one which readers through the years have become incredibly fond of.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? For all the answers, stick your thumb to the stars!

Seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together, this dynamic pair began a journey through space aided by a galaxy full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox—the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian (formerly Tricia McMillan), Zaphod’s girlfriend, whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he’s bought over the years.

Get your copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy here on Amazon.

4. Honor Harrington and Nimitz from the Honorverse

The bond of a treecat to a human might be one of the most intense described in science fiction, and one that is, in most cases, only broken through death. Nimitz and Honor Harrington shared just such a bond, forged when she was 12 T-years old, and maintained through her distinguished life and career; through her most trying and triumphant times, Nimitz was by her side.

You see Nimitz perched on Honor’s shoulder on the cover of the first book of David Weber's bestselling Honor Harrington series, On Basilisk Station, and upon cracking the cover, you are immediately introduced to him in a scene that gives you a sense of exactly how important these characters are to each other and how instrumental the friendship is to the story.

The book finds Honor Harrington exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling, the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up to Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system.

But the people out to get her have made one mistake.

They've made her mad!

Get your copy of On Basilisk Station here on Amazon.

3. Han and Chewbacca from Star Wars

These two go together like peanut butter and jelly. Seriously. Can you even think of one without thinking of the other? And when it comes to a willingness to put everything on the line for the other without question, is there really any competition? Apparently so! While the fan favorite twosome landed in the top three they fell a whopping 100 votes short of 1^st place. Still a pair worth celebrating and definitely one worth reading about!

With so many Star Wars books out there, it can be hard to know where to start, but if you really want to get an idea of Han and Chewbacca and what makes their relationship one worth aspiring to, we suggest you start with The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley.

Han Solo trusts no one, and does no favors. But when the best illegal ship rebuilder in the galaxy disappears, Han and Chewbacca agree to go after him—after all, the Millennium Falcon needs some very special repairs. Their search pits them against powerful and ruthless enemies out to destroy them, and finally leads them to an airless speck of desolate asteroid—the Authority prison planet known as Stars’ End.

Get your copy of The Han Solo Adventures  here on Amazon.

2. Joe and Skippy from Expeditionary Force

The comments section of our poll was alive with Ex-force fans in favor of a more unconventional paring here, but as one fan wisely pointed out, the relationship between Joe and his <ahem> shower, well, “that’s not friendship, that’s love.” Hat tip to the conversation though, because the joke itself originated with Skippy the Magnificent, infamous AI with a biting sense humor—the kind best reserved for enemies, or for the very best of friends. If you like your military sci-fi action packed and your friendship with a side of hard-hitting humor,  Craig Alanson's WILDLY popular Expeditionary Force is definitely the series for you!

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.

Start the series with book 1, Columbus Day, here on Amazon.

1. Kirk and Spock from Star Trek

Is it fair to say that what most people understand about the relationship between Captain Kirk and the Vulcan, Lieutenant Commander Spock, comes from the T.V series or from the Star Trek movies? While the iconic friendship was canonized on screen and only later made into a book series, we felt the friendship was well worth inclusion on this list, fully supporting the nomination and not too surprised to see it shoot to the top of the list, landing in first place! 

The first books were novelizations of the episodes; later, original novels were published, the first of which was Spock Must Die! written by James Blish in 1970. Whether you are feeling nostalgic for an old favorite or <gasp> haven't read it yet, now is as good a time as any to take a read! 

When a freak transporter malfunction during a Klingon attack creates an an imposter Spock, Captain Kirk must discover how to save his friend from the machinations of his exact replica

Read Spock Must Die!  here on Amazon.

The best friends are yet to come?

One thing that jumped out at us about the selections on this list is how representative they are of science fiction, past and present. Starting with The Caves of Steel, published back in the 50s, there is a friendship from almost every decade represented. What does that mean for the future? Among other things, it means that years from now, as new books come out, this list could look very different. We are almost certain that some of these favorites will remain, but who knows? Maybe the best is yet to come. For now, visit us  here in our Facebook group to chime in on the debate, and then check out our most recent poll while you're there. Don't have Facebook? Feel free to add to the comments below.

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