The Top 10 YA Sci-Fi Book or Series of All Time

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” – Ray Bradbury

We agree! No matter what section of the library or bookstore books come from, let's just keep reading them, okay? Okay!

Who knew that the world of young adult fiction could be so filled with contention? As with many of our polls, there was plenty of debate around the selections, but this time, the debate had more to do with whether or not individual titles actually qualify as young adult fiction, rather than the merit of the titles themselves as being masterful works, worthy of recognition. For the most part, there seemed no doubt as to the caliber of each of the nominated books or series, but perhaps because the lines have blurred so much between adult and young adult fiction over the last decade, we couldn't reach a consensus on what objective criteria a book requires to fit this particular category. Nevertheless, we posted the second poll based on the results of the first, and thanks to the hundreds of you who voted, we have now arrived at our top ten.

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 multi-book sci-fi series of all time.

10. Star Kingdom by David Weber

One of the indisputably YA submissions to our poll is David Weber’s Star Kingdom Series. The Star Kingdom series is set in the Honorverse and the books are technically prequels to the main series, starring Stephanie Harrington, a distant ancestor of Honor Harrington. 

Stephanie Harrington absolutely hates being confined inside her family's compound on the pioneer planet of Sphinx, a frontier wilderness world populated by dangerous native animals that could easily tear a human to bits and pieces. Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries—and the biggest discovery of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.

Read the first book A Beautiful Friendship  here on Amazon.

9. The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison

In ninth place on our list is The Stainless Steel Rat written by Harry Harrison who is also the author of Deathworld, Make Room! Make Room! (filmed as Soylent Green), and many other famous works of Science Fiction. Harrison wrote the first Stainless Steel Rat book in 1985 and continued through 2010; he died in 2012.

James Bolivar diGriz goes by many aliases, including "Slippery Jim" and "The Stainless Steel Rat," and is "one of science fiction’s most beloved rogues." He is a futuristic con man, thief and all-round rascal. He is charming and quick-witted. He is also a master of disguise and martial arts, an accomplished bank robber, a criminal mastermind, an expert on breaking and entering, and (perhaps most usefully) a skilled liar. Master of self-rationalization, the Rat frequently justifies his crimes by arguing that he is providing society with entertainment; and besides which, he only steals from institutions that have insurance coverage. He displays a strong sense of morality, albeit in a much more restricted sense than is traditional. For example, diGriz will steal without compunction, but deplores killing.

A fine example for youth, indeed!  

Read The Stainless Steel Rat  here on Amazon.

8. Ringworld by Larry Niven

The submission of Larry Niven’s award winning Ringworld was yet another that had some people in our community vexed, those members conveying they felt that it was written with an adult audience in mind. Many seemed to acknowledge that while it is true that many science fiction lovers cut their teeth on Niven’s beloved work, it is also true that just because a book is appropriate for some young adult readers doesn’t mean that the book was written for them.  Regardless, the work made it through to the second round of voting where it wound up in eighth spot on our list. 

Ringworld follows the unforgettable adventures of Louis Wu, accompanied by a young woman with genes for luck, and a captured kzin – a warlike species resembling 8-foot-tall cats -- are taken on a space ship run by a brilliant 2-headed alien called Nessus. Their destination is the Ringworld, an artificially constructed ring with high walls that hold 3 million times the area of Earth. Its origins are shrouded in mystery.

Get your copy of Ringworld  here on Amazon.

7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The first Hunger Games book came out just over 10 years after the first Harry Potter, and held huge appeal to a young adult audience looking for something to fill the void left behind by their beloved Potterverse. Collins gruesome epic did not disappoint these readers, nor the millions of adult readers who picked up the series as well.  In August 2012, the series ranked second, exceeded only by the Harry Potter series in NPR's poll of the top 100 teen novels, which asked voters to choose their favorite young adult books. On August 17, 2012, Amazon announced The Hunger Games trilogy as its top seller, surpassing the record previously held by the Harry Potter series

The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a North American country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 12 districts in varying states of poverty. Every year, children from the districts are selected via lottery to participate in a compulsory televised battle royale death match called The Hunger Games.  A prequel novel, titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, about the early days of Panem and The Hunger Games is written and will be released on May 19, 2020

Get your copy of The Hunger Games the first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy, Here on Amazon

6. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

Though considered a coming of age novel, the inclusion of Heinlein’s best-selling Starship Troopers into this poll had some fans scratching their heads. Perhaps fitting as this Hugo award winning book is no stranger to controversy!  

Starship Troopers was submitted to Scribner's for publication as part of Heinlein's juvenile collection and it's rejection brought to an end to that series of novels. It was later published by Putnam and became enormously controversial because of the political views it seemed to support.

The novel opens with Rico aboard the corvette transport Rodger Young serving with the platoon known as "Rasczak's Roughnecks". The platoon carries out a raid against a planetary colony held by Skinnies. The raid is relatively brief: the platoon lands on the planet, destroys its targets, and retreats, suffering two casualties in the process. One of them, Dizzy Flores, dies while returning to orbit.... 

Starship Troopers has been referred to as a coming of age story for Rico, as he matures through his tenure in the infantry. His training, both at boot camp and at officer candidate school, involves learning the value of militarism thus inviting the reader to learn it as well.

Get your copy of Starship Troopers here on Amazon.

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5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

It is no surprise the beloved multi-award winning classic A Wrinkle in Time made our final list and further, it is no surprise it managed to rise to the top five, as it was one of the few selections on the list whose eligibility for consideration as a YA novel was not one of contention.

Aside from being a multi-award winning science fiction book written by a woman and featuring a female protagonist, the book is notable because it was rejected by at least 26 publishers before it was picked up by Random House.  

A Wrinkle in Time is the first novel in the Time Quintet, a series of five young adult novels written by Madeleine L'Engle. The series follows the adventures of Meg Murry, her youngest brother Charles Wallace Murry, their friend Calvin O'Keefe, and her twin siblings Sandy and Dennys Murry. Throughout the series, the friends band together to travel through space and time as they attempt to save the world from the grasps of evil.

Get your copy of A Wrinkle in Time here on Amazon.

4. Heinlein's Juveniles by Robert Heinlein

Robert Heinlein's Heinlein’s Juveniles stole the show in the first poll, so much so that we felt the need to combine the individual entries and the entry for ‘Heinlein’s Juveniles’ into one in order to allow for more diversity in the final poll. Between the entries, in the opening poll they won over 170 votes—almost four times as many as the next runner up.  Amazing! Given that show of support in the opening round, it is surprising, to say the least, that it didn’t fare better in the deciding poll. Were we betting people, we might have bet the collection would have easily taken the top spot. To see that it didn't make it into the top three in the final round is a bit of a mind-bender.

The twelve novels that comprise the collection were published by Scribner's between 1947 and 1958, and together tell a single story of space exploration. A thirteenth—Starship Troopers, which landed in sixth spot on our list—was submitted to Scribner's but rejected and instead published by Putnam.      

Careful and exciting science, witty, smart dialog, its lessons of responsibility and the transition from “boys” to “men” have made Rocket Ship Galileo one of Heinlein’s most influential books since its first publication in 1947. The importance of this classic in attracting young people to careers in science and technology, as well as developing abiding interests among all its readers in spaceflight, has been widely noted.

Get your copy book 1 in Heinlein's Juveniles collection, Rocket Ship Galileo,  here on Amazon.

3. Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card's wildly popular and award winning books Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow  were submitted together and turned out to be a selection of great contention for this particular poll. Like so many of the other selections on this list, many in the DSF community felt that while the books are a favourite among young adult readers—and while each story does centre on a young boy—the stories themselves were perhaps too mature to be classified as young adult. Regardless, the books advanced to round two of voting and eked their way into the top three.

Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperilled humankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species they dub the "buggers." In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin are trained from a very young age by putting them through increasingly difficult games, including some in zero gravity where Ender's tactical genius is revealed. Is Ender the general Earth needs?

Is Ender the general Earth needs? Pick up the award winning Ender's Game here on Amazon

2. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Here in second place, we have Asimov’s Foundation, which was yet another controversial entry! Many of you acknowledged that you'd read the foundational Foundation as young adults, some even crediting the award-winning work as being what made you fall in love with reading in general and with science fiction, specifically. Maybe so, folks argue, but that doesn't mean it is a young adult novel. Be that as it may, it struck a chord with so many of you as young readers that it based on your votes, it rocketed to second spot in our poll. 

Called forth to stand trial on Trantor for allegations of treason (for foreshadowing the decline of the Galactic Empire), Seldon explains that his science of psychohistory foresees many alternatives, all of which result in the Galactic Empire eventually falling. If humanity follows its current path, the Empire will fall and 30,000 years of turmoil will overcome humanity before a second Empire arises. However, an alternative path allows for the intervening years to be only one thousand, if Seldon is allowed to collect the most intelligent minds and create a compendium of all human knowledge, entitled Encyclopedia Galactica. The board is still wary but allows Seldon to assemble whomever he needs, provided he and the "Encyclopedists" be exiled to a remote planet, Terminus. Seldon agrees to these terms – and also secretly establishes a second Foundation of which almost nothing is known, which he says is at the "opposite end" of the galaxy.

Get your copy of Foundation, here on Amazon

1. Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Handily taking top place in this poll is Anne McCaffrey's award-winning series Dragonriders of Pern. This series has long been a staple among young adult readers with a love of adventure and, of course, of science fiction. While the larger series may not have been written specifically for young adult readers, within the series there is a trilogy that indisputably was. The Harper Hall Trilogy is a series of three novels, targeted at young adults, set within Anne McCaffrey’s beloved and bestselling Dragonriders of Pern series, it is a seminal work and a must-have for any fantasy or science fiction fan of any age. 

Here we meet Menolly as she navigates her way as the first journeywoman Harper in the history of Pern; and fellow student Piemur whom is secretly asked to leave Harper Hall, drafted by Masterharper Robinton to embark on a dangerous mission to the Southern Hold.

Get started with the first book in the Harper Hall Trilogy, Dragonsong, here on Amazon

And so, we have more to think about...

We opened our inquiry with the idea that well written young adult novels have broad appeal and the capacity to capture the hearts of adult readers; where we have landed as a result of submissions, which were reflective of the experience of our readers as young adults, is the idea that—go figure—literature aimed at adult audiences can also provide immense value and hold everlasting meaning to a younger demographic. Octavia Butler was right and her words bear repeating: "Good stories are good no matter how they're categorized." Whether or not we can agree on what constitutes young adult fiction (could the categorization have as much to do with trends and marketing than anything else?), it seems we CAN agree on what constitutes a good story. The books and series that made the top ten are worthy classics likely to appeal to readers from age 12-112 and we hope that if you haven't read them yet, you'll make a point of picking them up.

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