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The 27 Best Books About Space (Fiction & Non-Fiction)

November 30, 2015July 25, 2018 by

“What are the best books about outer space?” We looked at 18 articles and 177 different books in an attempt to answer that very question. Below you will find our results of the 27 top space books (fiction and non-fiction) of all-time. Click here to learn more or buy the books listed, and click here to see the methodology used for ranking the books.

The Type of Intro Paragraph That Can be Found in a Best Space Books Listicle

Outer Space, the universe, the ever expanding nothingness and everythingness, the black cold blanket. We’ve all looked into the night sky at one point of our lives thinking about how it was created and what our place in it is. For some, this thought is as fleeting as a human life in comparison to space-time, for others, these questions need answers. Answers that inevitably will only bring more questions that need answers and so on. For these people it’s not the destination that matters as much as the mind-expanding educational journey. A journey that can only be helped by a listicle.

The type of things you will find when looking at outer space best of lists:

Dark pictures everywhere
Profound statements
Talk about what we do and don’t know about life
The word “Expanding”

The Top Fiction and Non-Fiction Books About Outer Space (in ascending order):

Total lists consulted: 18
Unique books listed: 177 (see bottom of article for full list)

Editors Pick: The Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak

Occasionally we will include a single Editors Pick at the top of the lists. These books are ones that did not appear on any of the other top lists, but that we read and enjoyed enough to include ourselves.

Buy

The 149 other books mentioned in the top outer space articles

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957, The Space Race Begins by Michael D’Antonio
A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
A Deepness is the Sky
A Fire Upon the Sky
A User’s Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty”By Dave Goldberg
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’engle
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Aliens For Breakfast by: Jonathan Etra
Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon by Mike Gray
Apollo: The Race to the Moon by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox
Astronauts Today By: Rosanna Hansen
Astronomy Demystified
Astronomy for Dummies
Astronomy Today (4th Edition)
At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program by Milton O. Thompson
Aurora By Kim Stanley Robinson
Avalon by Mindee Arnett
Bad Astronomy
Barrayar by Miles Vorkosigan Saga & Lois McMaster Bujold
Beyond Earth
Big Silver Space Shuttle By: Ken Wilson-Max
Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill
Blood Music by Greg Bear
Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins
Cassastar by Alex J. Cavanaugh
Chariots for Apollo: The Untold Story behind the Race to the Moon by Charles R. Pellegrino & Joshua Stoff
Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia By Michael Cabbage and William Harwood
Complete Idiots Guide to Astronomy
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
Countdown: A History of Space Flight by T. A. Heppenheimer
Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh
Deathstalker
Decoding the Universe by Charles Seife
Deke! (U.S. Manned Space: From Mercury to the Shuttle) by Donald K. “Deke” Slayton with Michael Cassutt
Don’t Know Much About the Universe
Dread Empire’s Fall: The Praxis by Walter Jon Williams
Elephant Joe is a Spaceman! by David Wojtowycz
Failure Is Not An Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Eugene F. Kranz
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
First Lensman by Edward E. Smith
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen
Floating in Space By: Franklyn Branley
Flying Birthday Cake? By: Louis Sachar, Amy Wummer
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
Great North Road by Peter F Hamilton
Have Space Suit-Will Travel by Robert Heinlein
Hello, Is Anybody There? By: Jostein Gaarder
How Apollo Flew to the Moon by W. David Woods
How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet by Robert Zubrin
How We’ll Live on Mars By Stephen L. Petranek
Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension By Michio Kaku
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Incandescence by Greg Egan
Infinite Worlds By Michael Soluri
Interworld by Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves
Iron Sunrise
Korolev by James J. Harford
Larklight by Philip Reeve
Living Off the Land in Space: Green Roads to the Cosmos by Gregory L. Matloff, Les Johnson & C. Bangs
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos by Dennis Overbye
Look Inside Space By Rob Lloyd Jones, Illustrated by Benedetta Giaufret and Enrica Rusiná
Lost Moon by James Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger
Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century by W. W. Mendell, Lunar and Planetary Institute
Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin
Making Space Happen by Paula Berinstein
Managing Martians by Donna Shirley
Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter
Martian Summer: Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days with the Phoenix Mars Mission by Andrew Kessler
Max Goes to the Space Station By Jeffrey Bennett, Illustrations by Michael Carroll
Moonrush by Dennis Wingo
Neverness by David Zindell
Newton’s Wake by Ken MacLeod
Nightwatch
On Basilisk Station by David Weber
Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton
Pluto’s Secret: An Icy World’s Tale of Discovery By Margaret A. Weitekamp, with David DeVorkin, Illustrated by Diane Kidd
Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro
Project Orion by George Dyson
Raft by Stephen Baxter
Rainbows Endby (Vernor Vinge
Return to the Moon by Harrison H. Schmitt
Return to the Moon by Rick Tumlinson
Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane
Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America’s Pioneering Woman in Space By Tam O’Shaughnessy
Salvage by Alexandra Duncan
Science Explorer: Astronomy
Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir by Tom Jones
Skyship Academy by Nick James
Space Odyssey
Space School: Crash Course by Tony Bradman and Tom Bradman
Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo by Nicholas de Monchaux
Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles by Roger E. Bilstein
Starglass by Phoebe North
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land
The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
The Anabasis
The Best Book of Spaceships By: Ian Graham
The Book Nobody Read by Owen Gingerich
The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must By Robert Zubrin
The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark By Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
The Edge of Physics by Anil Ananthaswamy
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clark
The Genesis Quest and Second Genesis by Donald Moffitt
The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist’s Guide by Neil F. Comins
The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks
The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space by Eugene Cernan with Don Davis
The Lost Fleet by John G. Hemry
The Lunar Base Handbook by Peter Eckart, McGraw-Hill
The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System By: Joanna Cole, Bruce Degen
The Man on the Moon! by Simon Bartram
The Mote In God’s Eye by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
The Night’s Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
The Once and Future Moon by Paul D. Spudis
The Orbital Perspective By Ron Garan, NASA astronaut
The Ordinary Spaceman: From Boyhood Dreams to Astronaut By Clayton C. Anderson
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton
The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld
The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Steinnon and David, M. Hoerr
The Serrano Legacy
The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
The Sky is Full of Stars By: Franklyn Branley, Felicia Bond
The Sleepwalkers by Arthur Koestler
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Star Web by George Zebrowski
The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Vattas
The Very First Light by John C Mather and John Boslough
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman, Meagan Spooner
Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
Titan by Stephen Baxter
To Space and Back By: Sally Ride, Susan Okie
Tourists in Space: A Practical Guide by Erik Seedhouse
Toys in Space by Mini Grey
Trading Danger by Elizabeth Moon
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
Ursula le Guin’s Hainish Series
Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter
Wanda’s Space Party by Sue Hendra
Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet By Buzz Aldrin, with Marianne J. Dyson
Welcome to Moon Base by Ben Bova

Book Scrolling

The 27 Best Books About Space (Fiction & Non-Fiction)

The Type of Intro Paragraph That Can be Found in a Best Space Books Listicle

The type of things you will find when looking at outer space best of lists:

The Top Fiction and Non-Fiction Books About Outer Space (in ascending order):

Editors Pick: The Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak

28.) A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts By Andrew Chaikin

27.) A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt

26.) Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy by Kip S Thorne

25) Cosmos Carl Sagan

24.) Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir by Bryan Burrough

23.) Dune by Frank Herbert

22.) Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth by Andrew Smith

21.) Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void By Mary Roach

20.) Singularity Sky by Charles Stross

19.) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

18.) Startide Rising by David Brin

17.) The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks

16.) The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson

15.) The Martian Chronicles By Ray Bradbury

14.) A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

13.) Ender’s Game By Orson Scott Card

12) Foundation by Isaac Asimov

11.) Gateway By Frederik Pohl

10) Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

9) Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

8.) Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

7.) Revelation Space by Alastair

6.) Ringworld by Larry Niven

5.) Tau Zero by Poul Anderson

4.) The Gap Cycle by Stephen R. Donaldson

3.) The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

2.) Hyperion by Dan Simmons

1.) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

The 149 other books mentioned in the top outer space articles

The Article Sources Arranged by Publish Date

The 27 Best Books About Space (Fiction & Non-Fiction)

The Type of Intro Paragraph That Can be Found in a Best Space Books Listicle

The type of things you will find when looking at outer space best of lists:

The Top Fiction and Non-Fiction Books About Outer Space (in ascending order):

Editors Pick: The Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak

28.) A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts By Andrew Chaikin

27.) A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt

10) Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

The 149 other books mentioned in the top outer space articles

The Article Sources Arranged by Publish Date

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