Science fiction may be the genre that gains the most on audio: the right narrator makes alien dialogue, spacecraft and impossible worlds feel real in your ears. These ten are the best sci-fi audiobooks, from a first-contact thriller with legendary sound design to a full-cast trip across the deserts of Arrakis. Strap in.
Quick picks:
- Best overall: Project Hail Mary, narrated by Ray Porter. Find the audiobook
- Best epic: Dune, narrated by Scott Brick & cast. Find the audiobook
- Best modern classic: The Handmaid's Tale, narrated by Claire Danes. Find the audiobook
The essentials
1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Narrated by Ray Porter · Narrator steals the show
Ray Porter's performance turns the sound design and alien dialogue into something no page could match. The audiobook is the definitive version.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon2. The Martian by Andy Weir
Narrated by Wil Wheaton · Better on audio
Wheaton nails Watney's gallows humor. A survival thriller that plays like a stand-up set with rocket science.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon3. Dune by Frank Herbert
Narrated by Scott Brick & cast · Full cast
A partial full-cast production gives Arrakis scale and menace. The desert has never sounded this vast.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon4. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Narrated by Claire Danes · Narrator steals the show
Danes voices Offred's dread and defiance in Gilead. An Audie-winning performance of a modern classic.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon5. 1984 by George Orwell
Narrated by Garfield, Erivo & cast · Full cast
An Audible drama with Andrew Garfield and Cynthia Erivo. It won the 2025 Audie for audio drama.
→ Find the audiobook on AmazonMind-benders and more
6. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
Narrated by Craig Wasson · Narrator steals the show
A time traveler tries to stop the Kennedy assassination. Wasson's reading is quietly one of King's best on audio.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon7. Recursion by Blake Crouch
Narrated by Lindstrom & Craden
Memory as a weapon, reality coming apart. A dual-narrator mind-bender that's relentless on audio.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon8. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Narrated by Jon Lindstrom
A man meets the other lives he could have lived. Lindstrom keeps the panic and wonder pitch-perfect.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon9. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Narrated by Kirsten Potter
A troupe of actors after a pandemic collapse. Potter's clear, elegiac read fits the melancholy perfectly.
→ Find the audiobook on Amazon10. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Narrated by Sura Siu
An artificial friend narrates a child's fragile world. Siu's gentle precision is quietly devastating.
→ Find the audiobook on AmazonHow we chose these
Audiobooks live or die on the performance, so we curated for the ear, not just the page. We looked for the editions listeners actually rave about: authors reading their own memoirs, full-cast productions that play like radio drama and narrators whose performances became definitive. Every narrator pairing here is a real, well-known edition. Our links go straight to each title's Amazon page, where the Audible, Kindle and print editions are all one tab away, so you can pick the format you want.
