The Future of Humanity is one of the good books about space travel listed here.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

In its earliest days, science fiction was almost always about space travel. Back in the bad old days of the 1920s and 30s, when the genre was gathering steam in the American pulps, heavily muscled spacemen and bug-eyed alien monsters predominated. It was only when John W. Campbell Jr. took on the editorship of Astounding Stories in 1937 and began to recruit as contributors the likes of Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein that sci-fi started turning respectable (in its own eyes, if in few others at the time).

This post was updated on March 4, 2024.

Science fiction . . . or “speculative fiction?”

Later, widely acclaimed writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, and Doris Lessing began writing science fiction even though they denied that was what they were doing. And that was when critics started referring to the genre as “speculative fiction” while casting aspersions on mainstream efforts in the field. But that was a mistake. By then—the 1950s and 60s—the best science fiction authors were producing stories that could stand up to the best that the “literary” critics could point to . . . if only they weren’t looking down their noses with such disdain. And that is most assuredly still the case today.

Are space operas really about space travel?

Nowadays, space travel is merely one of a number of themes commonly explored in science fiction. While novels of that ilk still frequently appear, they’re matched by equal numbers of stories about artificial intelligence and robotics, dystopian visions of the future, speculation about time travel, and other themes. Thus, although I’ve read hundreds of science fiction novels and nonfiction books about science and technology, I find that only a few dozen are truly about space travel. Admittedly, thousands of space operas have been sold which, in my view, are only tangentially about space travel. They’re . . . well, the literary descendants of the old “horse operas” from the era of the pulps. And they rarely give any sense of what the experience of living and working in space might actually be like.

Now, I love good space operas. I’m a particular fan of the long-running Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, who has won numerous literary awards for the books. (You can find my reviews of those stories at The pleasures of reading the complete Vorkosigan Saga.) But I don’t regard these novels as casting any light on the reality of space travel, so I’m not listing them here.

Good books about space travel, including both nonfiction and fiction

The lists that follow include only those individual books that directly concern space travel. In several cases, trilogies or longer series of novels include only one such book, and that’s the only one I’m listing here. Also, I’m including only those books I’ve awarded scores of ★★★★☆ or ★★★★★. Numerous others that received lower scores don’t appear here.

I’ve listed six nonfiction books first. The rest are novels. In both lists, titles appear in alphabetical order by the authors’s last names.

Books about space travel: nonfiction

The Mission: A True Story by David W. Brown—Mission to Europa to find extraterrestrial life

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport—Four billionaires, private space companies, and humanity’s future in the cosmos

Beyond: Our Future in Space by Chris Impey—A colony on Mars? Really? An astronomy professor thinks so.

The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth by Michio Kaku—From the moon and Mars to the multiverse

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach—The nitty-gritty details of space travel, funny and otherwise

Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly—The amazing true story of the Black women in the space race

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance—Elon Musk wants to build a colony on Mars (for real)

Books about space travel: novels

Tau Zero by Poul Anderson—In this great example of classic hard science fiction, humankind reaches the stars

Colony One (Elderon Chronicles #1 of 5) by Tarah Benner—Conflict and suspense in Low Earth Orbit

Startide Rising (Uplift #2) by David Brin—Life in the Uplift Universe is endlessly fascinating

Neptune Crossing (Chaos Chronicles #1) by Jeffrey A. Carver—Chaos theory triggers an interplanetary adventure

Retrograde (Retrograde #1) by Peter Cawdron—What life on Mars would really be like

Cold Eyes (First Contact #18) by Peter Cawdron—First Contact with the people of a Super-Earth

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers—A delightful modern space opera that’s all about character development

Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh—In this interstellar war, the combatants are all human

Skywave (Rorschach Explorer #1) by K. Patrick Donoghue—A private space company threatens a decades-long government coverup

Gravity: A Novel of Medical Suspense by Tess Gerritsen—An action-packed medical thriller set in orbital space

The Forever War (Forever War Trilogy #1) by Joe Haldeman—This classic science fiction war novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards

The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal—This novel shows just how good hard science fiction can be

The Fated Sky (Lady Astronaut #2) by Mary Robinette Kowal—An astonishingly good science fiction novel about the first manned mission to Mars

The Relentless Moon (Lady Astronaut #3) by Mary Robinette Kowal—The third Lady Astronaut novel doesn’t live up to the promise of the first two

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal—Murder in space on an interplanetary cruise ship

If Tomorrow Comes (Yesterday’s Kin #2) by Nancy Kress—In this highly anticipated science fiction sequel, surprises are the order of the day

The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien—When hope dies on a generation starship

Noumenon (Noumenon #1) by Marina J. Lostetter—A visionary science fiction novel with hard science at its core

Amphitrite (Black Planet #1) Brandon Q. Morris—Journey to a newly discovered planet far out from the sun

A History of What Comes Next (Take Them to the Stars #1) by Sylvain Neuvel—An alternate history of the space race

Until the Last of Me (Take Them to the Stars #2) by Silvain Neuvel—Humanity’s route to the stars

Before Mars (Planetfall #3) by Emma Newman—A psychological thriller in a science fiction setting

Binti (Binti Trilogy #1) by Nnedi Okorafor—An African student travels to the stars in the first book of the Binti Trilogy

Quantum Space (Quantum #1) by Douglas Phillips—A breakthrough in quantum physics opens new vistas

Redshirts: A Novel With Three Codas by John Scalzi—Diabolically clever, and very, very funny

Across a Billion Years by Robert Silverberg—A science fiction master imagines a uniquely advanced alien civilization

Delta-V (Delta-V #1 of 2) by Daniel Suarez—A brilliant hard science fiction novel about asteroid mining).

Critical Mass (Delta-V #2 of 2) by Daniel Suarez—This is humanity’s future in space

Children of Time (Children of Time #1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky—Accelerated evolution is the theme in a superior science fiction novel

The Ark (Children of a Dead Earth #1 of 3) by Patrick S. Tomlinson—On a starship, an art heist, a murder, a coverup

Trident’s Forge (Children of a Dead Earth #2 of 3) by Patrick S. Tomlinson—A suspenseful mash-up of science fiction and mystery

Red Thunder (Thunder & Lightning #1) by John Varley—Wacky science fiction from a master of hard SF

The Martian by Andy Weir—Hard science fiction at its best

For more good reading, check out:

And if you want to read a less successful novel about space travel, see The Engines of God (The Academy #1 of 8) by Jack McDevitt (Archaeologists explore alien artifacts among the stars).

You might also check out Top 10 great popular novels.

And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, on the Home Page.