“What are Connie Willis’s Best Books?” We looked at all of Willis’s authored bibliography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!

We took all of the books written by Connie Willis and looked at their Goodreads, Amazon, and LibraryThing scores, ranking them against one another to see which books came out on top. The books are ranked in our list below based on which titles have the highest overall score between all 3 review sites in comparison with all of the other books by the same author. The process isn’t super scientific and in reality, most books aren’t “better” than other books as much as they are just different. That being said, we do enjoy seeing where our favorites landed, and if you aren’t familiar with the author at all, the rankings can help you see what books might be best to start with.

The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page. We will update the article if/when a new book by Connie Willis is released. Although it probably won’t be immediate so the scores on each site have time to settle and aren’t overly influenced by the early, usually much more opinionated, users.

Happy Scrolling!

The Top Book’s Of Connie Willis

21 ) Remake (1994)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 21
• Amazon: 21
• LibraryThing: 18

Winner of more Hugo and Nebula Awards than any other science fiction author, Connie Willis is one of the most powerfully imaginative writers of our time. In Remake, she explores the timeless themes of emotion and technology, reality and illusion, and the bittersweet place where they intersect to make art.

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20 ) Uncharted Territory (1994)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 19
• Amazon: 18
• LibraryThing: 17

Planetary surveyors Fin and Carson battle hostile terrain, bureaucratic red tape, and renegade “planet crashers” in this latest novella by the talented author of Doomsday Book. Willis continues to demonstrate her endless versatility in this archly written satire, which is both a love story and a shameless expose of the dark side of political correctness.

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19 ) Water Witch (1982)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 20
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 20

“On the desert world of Mahali, he who controls water rules an empire. Mahali’s rulers for generations were Water Witches, who could feel the ebb and flow of precious water in their very bones. But the royal family was slaughtered in a bloody coup, and control of Mahali’s water passed to the impersonal hands of an immense computer network.

It was Deza’s father who hit upon the scheme, dressing Deza in ceremonial garb and passing her off as the last surviving member of the royal house. Deza demonstrated water control with tricks and illusions, and in turn she and her father would be lavishly fed and bribed by off-world traders who dreamed of wealth beyond measure. When their tricks ceased to please, they would cut their losses and move on to the next con.
“

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18 ) D.A. (2007)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 15
• Amazon: 15
• LibraryThing: 19

“Theodora Baumgarten has just been selected as an IASA space cadet, and therein lies the problem. She didn’t apply for the ultra-coveted posting, and doesn’t relish spending years aboard the ship to which she’s been assigned.

But the plucky young heroine, in true Heinlein fashion, has no plans to go along with the program. Aided by her hacker best friend Kimkim, in a screwball comedy that has become Connie Wills’ hallmark, Theodora will stop at nothing to uncover the conspiracy that has her shanghaied.”

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17 ) Light Raid (1989)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 18
• Amazon: 6
• LibraryThing: 21

As civil war rages between eastern and western North America–fought with massive laser beams called “light raids”–young Ariadne works desperately to clear her mother’s name from a charge of treason while struggling to survive the deadly onslaught.

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16 ) Lincoln’s Dreams (1987)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 17
• Amazon: 12
• LibraryThing: 15

For Jeff Johnston, a young historical reseacher for a Civil War novelist, reality is redefined on a bitter cold night near the close of a lingering winter. He meets Annie, an intense and lovely young woman suffering from vivid, intense nightmares. Haunted by the dreamer and her unrelenting dreams, Jeff leads Annie on an emotional odyssey through the heartland of the Civil War in search of a cure. On long-silenced battlefields their relationship blossoms–two obsessed lovers linked by unbreakable chains of history, torn by a duty that could destroy them both. Suspenseful, moving, and highly compelling, Lincoln’s Dreams is a novel of rare imaginative power.

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15 ) Promised Land (1997)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 12
• Amazon: 15
• LibraryThing: 15

Returning to her home planet of Keramos to settle her dead mother’s estate, Delanna finds that to sell her farm she must first live on it for one year and discovers that, from the moment of her mother’s death, she has also acquired a husband, Tarleton Tanner, heir to the adjoining farm.

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14 ) Inside Job (2005)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 14
• Amazon: 15
• LibraryThing: 12

Rob, a professional debunker, is watching yet another performance by a supposed psychic. But as she calls forth the spirit entity known as Isus, another voice suddenly interrupts. And this one is so unexpected and so real, even the hardened skeptic finds he can’t help but believe.

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13 ) Blackout (2010)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 10
• Amazon: 20
• LibraryThing: 7

In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds?great and small?of ordinary people who shape history. In the hands of this acclaimed storyteller, the past and future collide?and the result is at once intriguing, elusive, and frightening.Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place. Scores of time-traveling historians are being sent into the past, to destinations including the American Civil War and the attack on the World Trade Center. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser, Mr. Dunworthy, into letting her go to VE Day. Polly Churchill?s next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London?s Blitz. And seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who has a major crush on Polly, is determined to go to the Crusades so that he can ?catch up? to her in age.

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12 ) Passage (2001)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 11
• Amazon: 14
• LibraryThing: 9

A tunnel, a light, a door. And beyond it … the unimaginable.\n\nDr. Joanna Lander is a psychologist specializing in near-death experiences. She is about to get help from a new doctor with the power to give her the chance to get as close to death as anyone can.\n\nA brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Joanna’s first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined – so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why that place is so hauntingly familiar.\n\nBut each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid.\n\nYet just when Joanna thinks she understands, she’s in for the biggest surprise of all – ashattering scenario that will keep you feverishly reading until the final climactic page.

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10 ) Fire Watch (1984)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 7
• Amazon: 18
• LibraryThing: 8

Winner of six Nebula and five Hugo awards, Connie Willis is one of the most acclaimed and imaginative authors of our time. Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction. Here in one volume are twelve of her greatest stories, including double award-winner “Fire Watch,” set in the universe of Doomsday Bookand To Say Nothing of the Dog, in which a time-traveling student learns one of history’s hardest lessons. In “A Letter from the Clearys,” a routine message from distant friends shatters the fragile world of a beleaguered family. In “The Sidon in the Mirror,” a mutant with the unconscious urge to become other people finds himself becoming both killer and victim. Disturbing, revealing, and provocative, this remarkable collection of short fiction brings together some of the best work of an incomparable writer whose ability to amaze, confound, and enlighten never fails.

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10 ) Crosstalk (2016)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 16
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 9

“Part romantic comedy and part social satire, here one of science fiction’s most lauded authors examines the consequences of having too much connectivity, and what happens in a world where, suddenly, nothing is private. One of science fiction’s premiere humorists turns her eagle eye to the crushing societal implications of telepathy.

In a not-too-distant future, a simple outpatient procedure that has been promised to increase empathy between romantic partners has become all the rage. So when Briddey Flannigan’s fiancé proposes that he and Briddey undergo the procedure, she is delighted! Only, the results aren’t quite as expected. Instead of gaining an increased empathetic link with her fiancé, Briddey finds herself hearing the actual thoughts of one of the nerdiest techs in her office. And that’s the least of her problems.”

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9 ) All About Emily (2011)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 12
• Amazon: 2
• LibraryThing: 13

Theater legend Claire Havilland fears she might be entering the Sunset Boulevard phase of her career. That is, until her manager arranges a media appearance with her biggest fan–a famous artificial intelligence pioneer’s teenage niece. After precocious Emily’s backstage visit, Claire decides she’s in a different classic film altogether. While unnaturally charming Emily swears she harbors no desire for the spotlight, Claire wonders if she hasn’t met her very own Eve Harrington from All About Eve. But the story becomes more complex as dreams of fame give way to concerns about choice, free will, and identity.

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8 ) Even the Queen: And Other Short Stories (1998)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 9
• Amazon: 4
• LibraryThing: 13

From the hilarious post-PMS future in “Even the Queen” to love and quantum physics exposed in “At the Rialto” or the eerie experience of “Death on the Nile”, author Connie Willis–winner of a record six Nebula and six Hugo Awards–weaves her magic in five of her best short stories.

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7 ) All Seated on the Ground (2007)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 7
• Amazon: 3
• LibraryThing: 11

The aliens have landed! The aliens have landed! But instead of shooting death rays, taking over the planet and carrying off Earthwomen, they’ve just been standing there for months on end, glaring like a disapproving relative. And now it’s nearly Christmas, and the commission assigned to establish communications is at their wits’ end. They’ve resorted to taking the aliens to Broncos games, lighting displays, and shopping malls, in the hope they’ll respond to something!

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6 ) Impossible Things (1993)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 5
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 4

“The end of the world comes not with a bang but a series of whimpers over many years in “”The Last of the Winnebagos.””

The terror of pain and dying gives birth to a startling truth about the nature of the stars, a principle known as the “”Schwarzschild Radius.””

In “”Spice Pogrom,”” an outrageous colony in outer space becomes the setting for a screwball comedy of bizarre complications, mistaken identities, far-too-friendly aliens–and even true love. “

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5 ) Bellwether (1996)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 6
• Amazon: 4
• LibraryThing: 4

“Pop culture, chaos theory and matters of the heart collide in this unique novella from the Hugo and Nebula winning author of Doomsday Book.
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O’Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same
company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions. “

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3 ) Doomsday Book (1992)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 3
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 2

For Kivrin preparing an on site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity s history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone For her instructors in the twenty first century it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her In a time of superstition and fear Kivrin barely of age herself finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history s darkest hours Five years in the writing by one of science fiction s most honored authors Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit

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3 ) All Clear (2010)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 2
• Amazon: 8
• LibraryThing: 3

Traveling back in time, from Oxford circa 2060 into the thick of World War II, was a routine excursion for three British historians eager to study firsthand the heroism and horrors of the Dunkirk evacuation and the London Blitz. But getting marooned in war-torn 1940 England has turned Michael Davies, Merope Ward, and Polly Churchill from temporal tourists into besieged citizens struggling to survive Hitler’s devastating onslaught. And now there’s more to worry about than just getting back home: The impossibility of altering past events has always been a core belief of time-travel theory—but it may be tragically wrong. When discrepancies in the historical record begin cropping up, it suggests that one or all of the future visitors have somehow changed the past—and, ultimately, the outcome of the war. Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the stranded historians’ supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, frantically confronts the seemingly impossible task of rescuing his students—three missing needles in the haystack of history. The thrilling time-tripping adventure that began with Blackout now hurtles to its stunning resolution in All Clear.

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2 ) The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories: A Connie Willis Compendium (2007)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 4
• Amazon: 1
• LibraryThing: 6

“Variety is the soul of pleasure,” And variety is what this comprehensive new collection of Connie Willis is all about. The stories cover the entire spectrum, from sad to sparkling to terrifying, from classics to hard-to-find treasures with everything in between—orangutans, Egypt, earthworms, roast goose, college professors, mothers-in-law, aliens, secret codes, Secret Santas, tube stations, choir practice, the post office, the green light on Daisy’s dock, weddings, divorces, death, and assorted plagues, from scarlet fever to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” And a dog.

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1 ) To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998)

Review Website Ranks:

• Goodreads: 1
• Amazon: 6
• LibraryThing: 1

Ned Henry shuttles between the 1940s and the twenty-first century while researching Coventry Cathedral for a patron interested in rebuilding it until the time continuum is disrupted.

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Connie Willis’s Best Books

Connie Willis Review Website Bibliography Rankings