The Defining Science Fiction Books of the 1990s
Author jameswharris
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s We've added a new feature that allows you to create your own lists from our database of recognized novels and short stories. You can set your own date ranges. Change the citation numbers to focus on more popular titles. The 1990s was the last decade of the century and the…
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1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

We've added a new feature that allows you to create your own lists from our database of recognized novels and short stories. You can set your own date ranges. Change the citation numbers to focus on more popular titles.

The 1990s was the last decade of the century and the millennium, and although science fiction has been around for centuries, it feels like the genre blossomed in the second half of the 20th century. By the last decade it feels fantasy flavored SF had overtaken hard science fiction in popular appeal, but many of the most successful science fiction books of the 1990s were about space travel. Vernor Vinge, Iain M. Banks, Dan Simmons, and Peter F. Hamilton began paving the way for the New Space Opera of the 2000s. Ben Bova, Greg Bear and Kim Stanley Robinson used NASA’s recent knowledge of the solar system to build new visions of interplanetary colonization. And more than ever, science fiction is concerned with the post-human future.

SF writers of 1990s represents the centennial descendants of H. G. Wells, and his genre originating novels The Time Machine (1895) and War of the Worlds (1898). Where Wells explored the impact of Darwinism, 1990s science fiction writers were inspired by NASA interplanetary probes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the many breakthroughs in contemporary cosmology. It’s quite amazing, but in the 1990s, both the scientific universe and science fictional universes are tremendously bigger than the objective reality of the 1950s and its science fictional universes. Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke loom large in our history, but modern science fiction writers stand on their shoulders and see much further than they ever imagined.

Yet, I would claim by the 1990s that it was obvious that science fiction had forked in its evolution. On one hand, we still have a branch of science fiction inspired by science, but on the other hand, it’s all too obvious that the larger branch of science fiction is inspired by older science fiction. New sub-genres like Military SF, seemed descended from 1959’s Starship Troopers by Heinlein, and isn’t the sub-genre of galactic empire romances descended from Asimov’s Foundation stories? NASA will never be able to send a probe to either of these universes. Whereas, Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Flynn are practically begging NASA to use their books as blueprints for its future budgets.

A handful of writers dominated the decade with their series books. Lois McMaster Bujold, Connie Willis, Kim Stanley Robinson and Vernor Vinge, all won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards as well as getting many nominations, and winning other genre awards.

Kim Stanley Robinson set the standard for hard science fiction with his decade spanning Mars trilogy. He won two Hugos and one Nebula by writing about a realistic colonization of the Red planet.

Lois McMaster Bujold had so many award winning books in the 1990s that picking the best is impossible. The Vor Game, Barrayar, Mirror Dance, Cetaganda, Memory, Komarr and A Civil Campaign are probably getting even more readers today than in the 1990s. The Vorkosigan Saga just keeps on growing. And fans debate whether new readers should follow publication order or internal chronological order.

Connie Willis won five Hugos and three Nebulas in the 1990s, with The Doomsday Book winning both. Willis has carved out a much loved series based on time travel and history, blending two genres together, and like Bujold, Willis keeps expanding her series today.

Vernor Vinge picked up two Hugos and two Nebula nominations for A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, proving that fans still love a good space opera.

Some people have asked me how I make up these lists of memorable science fiction books. The first one, about the 1950s, was more from personal memory, but eventually I discovered various resources I used for the later decades. I start with Internet Speculative Fiction Database. I use its advanced search and look up novels, language and type. I only worry about books in English. I go down their listings looking for books I remember reading or reading about. I can right click on any title to bring up it’s bibliographic record which includes how often it was reprinted and whether or not it won any awards. Most valuable is whether the book made the Locus Poll that year. That’s the first indicator how popular a book was with the fans during the year it came out.

I also study various best of lists to discern long term popularity. I look for books that get picked time and again. This is how I create the short list called the Best Remembered books. The longer Defining Books list are those books which got particular notice during the year they came out. Most of these have been frequently reprinted and are often on some of the best SF of all time lists. I avoided fantasy novels unless they won or were nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, or other SF award.

Best of Book Lists

The Classics of Science Fiction By Year

Top 100 Sci-Fi Books

Next 100 Sci-Fi Books

NPR Top 100 SF/F Books

Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels (David Pringle pre-1985)

Locus Best SF Novels of All-Time (pre-1990)

ISFDB Top Books by Year

All the Lists at Worlds Without End

The Best Remembered Science Fiction Books of the 1990s

The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (1990)

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick (1991)

A Fire Upon the Deep/A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)

The Doomsday Book/To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)

Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (1995)

The Sparrow/Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

The Vor Game/Barrayar/Mirror Dance/A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

The Defining Science Fiction Books of the 1990s

1990

Earth by David Brin

In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Only Begotten Daughter by James Morrow

Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Difference Engine by Gibson and Sterling

The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

Use of Weapons Iain M. Banks

Voyage of the Red Planet by Terry Bisson

1991

A Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason

All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

Bone Dance by Emma Bull

Fallen Angels by Niven, Pournelle and Flynn

King of Morning, Queen of Day by Ian McDonald

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick

Synners by Pat Cadigan

The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson

The Summer Queen by Joan D. Vinge

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card

1992

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

Chanur’s Legacy by C. J. Cherryh

China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh

Fools by Pat Cadigan

Jumper by Steven Gould

Mars by Ben Bova

Quarantine by Greg Egan

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Sideshow by Sheri S. Tepper

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Steel Beach by John Varley

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

1993

A Plague of Angels by Sheri S. Tepper

Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks

Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress

Glory Season by David Brin

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Growing Up Weightless by John M. Ford

Moving Mars by Greg Bear

Nightside the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe

On Basilisk Station by David Weber

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Norton Book of Science Fiction ed. Le Guin and Attebery

The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith

Virtual Light by William Gibson

Vurt by Jeff Noon

1994

Brittle Innings by Michael Bishop

Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks

Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh

Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling

Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold

Mother of Storms by John Barnes

Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson

Permutation City by Greg Egan

Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Remake by Connie Willis

The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott

1995

Brightness Reef by David Brin

Distress by Greg Egan

Invader by C. J. Cherryh

Legacy by Greg Bear

Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams

Slow River by Nicola Griffith

The Bohr Maker by Linda Nagata

The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer

The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter

Women of Wonder ed. Pamela Sargent

1996

Bellwether by Connie Willis

Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold

Endymion by Dan Simmons

Excession by Iain M. Banks

Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling

Memory Lois McMaster Bujold

Reclamation by Sarah Zettel

Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon

Starplex by Robert J. Sawyer

The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Voyage by Stephen Baxter

1997

/ by Greg Bear

Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

City of Fire by Walter Jon Williams

Diaspora by Greg Egan

Fool’s War by Sarah Zettel

Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

Jack Faust by Michael Swanwick

The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

1998

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

Distraction by Bruce Sterling

Dreaming in Smoke by Tricia Sullivan

Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg

The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

1999

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold

A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear

Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Teranesia by Greg Egan

The Sky Road by Ken MacLeod

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s