The Best Science Fiction Horror Books Of All-Time
“What are the best Science Fiction Horror books of all-time?” We looked at 97 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 31 titles, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Sci-fi Horror” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 50 titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 31 Horror Science Fiction Books
31 .) 1984 by George Orwell
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Goodreads
Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching…
30 .) Annihilation by Jeff vandermeer
Lists It Appears On:
- Book Riot
- The Portalist
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
29 .) At the Mountain of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
Lists It Appears On:
- Huffington Post
- Wikipedia
Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish visions, H. P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, At the Mountains of Madness. The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition’s uncanny discoveries–and their encounter with untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilization–is a milestone of macabre literature.
28 .) Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
“In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.
But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.
Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.”
27 .) Cell by Stephen King
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest, most animalistic destruction.
26 .) Leviathan Wakes
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Wikipedia
Humanity has colonized the planets – interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. But there are tensions – the mineral-rich outer planets resent their dependence on Earth and Mars and the political and military clout they wield over the Belt and beyond. Now, when Captain Jim Holden’s ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the attack, stop a war and find the truth behind a vast conspiracy that threatens the entire human race.
25 .) Seed of Evil: An Ancient Evil Rises by Robert Friedrich
Lists It Appears On:
- Futurism
- Goodreads
THE SAGA OF EVIL BEGINS… From a distant galaxy far beyond our time, the most ancient of all EVIL awoke before descending upon our unsuspecting galaxy. The planet it reached never faced such a threat, but didn’t submit to it, either. In a final attempt to survive, a prison between dimensions was built, the last hope to hold the DARK POWER for an eternity. The planet withered and died, and its people found a new refuge among the stars. That planet is now known as: Mars. But even eternity doesn’t last forever. Ignorance and an infantile arrogance of a nation leads to its release. And once again, it only leaves death in its wake. Read the fast-paced Sci-Fi/Horror, where the elements of OCCULT meet with an advanced MILITARY thriller, wrapped in a colossal battle between good and evil. The first part of a new, long-awaited Saga, from the internationally renowned author of “The Darkness Within” will give you a gulp of a SMASH HIT and will leave you wanting more…
24 .) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Goodreads
When psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds himself confronting a painful memory embodied in the physical likeness of a past lover. Kelvin learns that he is not alone in this and that other crews examining the planet are plagued with their own repressed and newly real memories. Could it be, as Solaris scientists speculate, that the ocean may be a massive neural center creating these memories, for a reason no one can identify?
23 .) The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. CAREY
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Book Riot
”
Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “”our little genius.””Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.
The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.”
22 .) The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Science Fiction Books
- Wikipedia
Many are the hours in which I have pondered upon the story that is set forth in the following pages. I trust that my instincts are not awry when they prompt me to leave the account, in simplicity, as it was handed to me.
21 .) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
“Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don’t live to see the morning?
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before – and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.”
20 .) The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
Light years from Earth, on Tau Ceti Four, two hundred colonists have created a thriving community, not realizing that they have upset a delicate ecological balance and have unleashed an unbelievable nightmare
19 .) The Passage by Justin Cronin
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Book Riot
An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.
18 .) The Sandman by ETA Hoffman
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Science Fiction Books
- Wikipedia
17 .) The Skinner (Spatterjay, #1) by Neal Asher
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
On the planet Spatterjay arrive three travelers: Janer, acting as the eyes of the hornet Hive mind, on a mission not yet revealed to him; Erlin, searching for Ambel — the ancient sea captain who can teach her how to live; and Sable Keech, on a vendetta he cannot abandon, though he himself has been dead for 700 years. This remote world is mostly ocean, and it is a rare visitor who ventures beyond the safety of the island Dome. Outside it, only the native Hoopers dare risk the voracious appetites of the planet’s wildlife. But somewhere out there is Spatterjay Hoop — and Keech will not rest until he brings this legendary renegade to justice for hideous crimes committed centuries ago during the Prador Wars.
16 .) The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Goodreads
“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own.” Thus begins one of the most terrifying and morally prescient science fiction novels ever penned. Beginning with a series of strange flashes in the distant night sky, the Martian attack initially causes little concern on Earth. Then the destruction erupts—ten massive aliens roam England and destroy with heat rays everything in their path. Very soon humankind finds itself on the brink of extinction. H. G. Wells raises questions of mortality, man’s place in nature, and the evil lurking in the technological future—questions that remain urgently relevant in the twenty-first century.
15 .) Under the Dome by Stephen King
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Goodreads
On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away. Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.
14 .) Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Goodreads
“Who Goes There?”: The novella that formed the basis of “The Thing” is the John W. Campbell classic about an antarctic research camp that discovers and thaws the ancient, frozen body of a crash-landed alien. The creature revives with terrifying results, shape-shifting to assume the exact form of animal and man, alike. Paranoia ensues as a band of frightened men work to discern friend from foe, and destroy the menace before it challenges all of humanity! The story, hailed as “one of the finest science fiction novellas ever written” by the SF Writers of America, is best known to fans as THE THING, as it was the basis of Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World in 1951, and John Carpenter’s The Thing in 1982. With a new Introduction by William F. Nolan, author of Logan’s Run, and his never-before-published, suspenseful Screen Treatment written for Universal Studios in 1978, this is a must-have edition for scifi and horror fans!
13 .) Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Science Fiction Books
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
Twenty-five years ago, in their haunted hometown of Derry, Maine, four boys bravely stood together and saved a mentally challenged child from vicious local bullies. It was something that fundamentally changed them, in ways they could never begin to understand. These lifelong friends—now with separate lives and separate problems—make it a point to reunite every year for a hunting trip deep in the snowy Maine woods. This time, though, chaos erupts when a stranger suddenly stumbles into their camp, freezing, deliriously mumbling about lights in the sky. And all too quickly, the four companions are plunged into a horrifying struggle for survival with an otherworldly threat and the forces that oppose it…where their only chance of survival is locked into their shared past—and the extraordinary element that bonds them all…
12 .) World War Z by Max Brooks
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- The Portalist
We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z, a #1 New York Times bestseller and the basis for the blockbuster movie, is the only record of the plague years.
11 .) Blindsight by Peter Watts
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Futurism
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
“Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.
Two months of silence, while a world holds its breath.
Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune’s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.
So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn’t want to meet?”
10 .) Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Futurism
- Wikipedia
Three elderly friends, who possess supernatural powers and who feed off of emotions generated during the murders they orchestrate, meet every year to discuss their game–an ongoing competition of mass murder and vampirism
9 .) I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Futurism
- Wikipedia
The concerns and stylistic evolution of the famed futuristic writer are revealed in seven science fiction tales
8 .) The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Huffington Post
- Wikipedia
“The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere.
Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outerfringes of space to “”collect organisms and dust for study.”” One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona.
Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont,a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town’s inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.”
7 .) The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Science Fiction Books
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
“On a quiet fall evening in the small, peaceful town of Mill Valley, California, Dr. Miles Bennell discovered an insidious, horrifying plot. Silently, subtly, almost imperceptibly, alien life-forms were taking over the bodies and minds of his neighbors, his friends, his family, the woman he loved — the world as he knew it.
First published in 1955, this classic thriller of the ultimate alien invasion and the triumph of the human spirit over an invisible enemy inspired three major motion pictures.”
6 .) The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
“In 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim. Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having “all the reality of a vividly realized nightmare.”
Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen. Removing his bandages the next morning, he finds masses of sightless people wandering the city. He soon meets Josella, another lucky person who has retained her sight, and together they leave the city, aware that the safe, familiar world they knew a mere twenty-four hours before is gone forever.”
5 .) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
2018 marks the bicentennial of Mary Shelley’s seminal novel. For the first time, Penguin Classics will publish the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically-charged aspects of Shelley’s original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also emphasizes Shelley’s relationship with her mother—trailblazing feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, who penned A Vindication of the Rights of Woman—and demonstrates her commitment to carrying forward her mother’s ideals, placing her in the context of a feminist legacy rather than the sole female in the company of male poets, including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron.
4 .) Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Futurism
- Goodreads
- Huffington Post
- Wikipedia
After centuries of wandering through the galaxy in search of other life, the crew of the starship Argonos, the home to generations of humans, is lured by an unidentified transmission to a nearby planet, where they come face to face with a brutal tragedy and a haunting alien mystery.
3 .) Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Book Riot
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
In this harrowing tale of good and evil, the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll develops a potion that unleashes his secret, inner persona—the loathsome, twisted Mr. Hyde.
2 .) I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Best Science Fiction Books
- Futurism
- Goodreads
- Goodreads
- Wikipedia
Robert Neville is the last living man on earth …but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville’s blood. By day he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive like this?
1 .) Infected by Scott Sigler
Lists It Appears On:
- Best Horror Novels
- Best Sci-fi Books
- Best Science Fiction Books
- Futurism
- Goodreads
- Huffington Post
- Wikipedia
“Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim. With only decomposing corpses for clues, CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya races to analyze the science behind this deadly contagion. She discovers that these killers all have one thing in common – they’ve been contaminated by a bioengineered parasite, shaped by a complexity far beyond the limits of known science.
Meanwhile Perry Dawsey – a hulking former football star now resigned to life as a cubicle-bound desk jockey – awakens one morning to find several mysterious welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices . . . he is infected. “
The 50+ Additional Best Horror Sci-fi Books
| # | Book | Author | Lists |
| (Titles Appear On 1 List Each) | |||
| 32 | Aliens Omnibus, Vol 1. | Mark Verheiden | The Portalist |
| 33 | american war: a novel | omar el akkad | Book Riot |
| 34 | Below | Ryan Lockwood | The Portalist |
| 35 | Blood Music | Wikipedia | |
| 36 | Contagious (Infected, #2) | Scott Sigler | Goodreads |
| 37 | Crescent | Phil Rossi | Goodreads |
| 38 | Dead Batteries | Rey Otis | Goodreads |
| 39 | Dracula Unbound | Brian W. Aldiss | The Portalist |
| 40 | Echopraxia (Firefall) | Peter Watts | Futurism |
| 41 | Eden | Phil Rossi | Goodreads |
| 42 | False Memory | Dean Koontz | Best Horror Novels |
| 43 | Good Night, Mr. James | Clifford D. Simak | The Portalist |
| 44 | Grass | Sheri S. Tepper | Red Train Blog |
| 45 | Hyperion | Dan Simmons | Red Train Blog |
| 46 | I, Robot | Isaac Asimov | Best Horror Novels |
| 47 | John Dies at the End | Best Sci-fi Books | |
| 48 | Jurassic Park | Michael Crichton | Best Horror Novels |
| 49 | Midnight | Dean Koontz | Goodreads |
| 50 | Murder Red Ink | Mord McGhee | Goodreads |
| 51 | Nascent Decay (The Goddess of Decay Book 1) | Charles Hash | Goodreads |
| 52 | Never Let Me Go | kazuo ishigu | Book Riot |
| 53 | NovoPulp 2013/2014 Anthology | Niamh Brown | Goodreads |
| 54 | Plane Walker | Wikipedia | |
| 55 | Poseidon’s Children (The Legacy of the Gods, #1) | Michael West | Goodreads |
| 56 | Prey | Wikipedia | |
| 57 | Red Wet Dirt | Nicholas Grabowsky | Goodreads |
| 58 | Revelation Space | Alastair Reynolds | Futurism |
| 59 | Sandkings | George R. R. Martin | Futurism |
| 60 | Second Variety | Wikipedia | |
| 61 | Soul Tracker | Bill Myers | Best Horror Novels |
| 62 | Sphere | Michael Crichton | Best Horror Novels |
| 63 | Spook House (Harmony, Indiana, #3) | Michael West | Goodreads |
| 64 | Stories of Your Life and Others | ted chiang | Book Riot |
| 65 | Surface Detail | Iain M. Banks | Red Train Blog |
| 66 | Swamp Thing | Alan Moore | The Portalist |
| 67 | The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World | Harlan Ellison | The Portalist |
| 68 | The Blue Blazes | Chuck Wendig | Red Train Blog |
| 69 | The Boneshaker | Cherie Priest | Huffington Post |
| 70 | The Burning Dark | Wikipedia | |
| 71 | The Cold Equations | Tom Godwin | Futurism |
| 72 | The Colour Out of Space | H. P. Lovecraft | Best Horror Novels |
| 73 | The Darkness Within | Robert Friedrich | Goodreads |
| 74 | The Dead War Zombie Collection | George L. Cook III | Goodreads |
| 75 | The Descent | Jeff Long | Futurism |
| 76 | The Drive-in 2 | Joe R | Best Science Fiction Books |
| 77 | The Empire of Fear | Brian M | Best Science Fiction Books |
| 78 | The Everborn | Nicholas Grabowsky | Goodreads |
| 79 | The Father-thing | Wikipedia | |
| 80 | The Fireman | Best Sci-fi Books | |
| 81 | The Handmaid’s Tale | Margaret atwood | Book Riot |
| 82 | The Horror of the Heights | Arthur Conan Doyle | Best Science Fiction Books |
| 83 | The Horus Heresy | Many Authors | Best Horror Novels |
| 84 | The Hunger | Charles Beaumont | Best Science Fiction Books |
| 85 | The Last Legends of Earth | A. A. Attanasio | Red Train Blog |
| 86 | The Library at Mount Char | Wikipedia | |
| 87 | The Lost Cavern | H. F. Heard | The Portalist |
| 88 | The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury | Huffington Post |
| 89 | The Mist | Stephen King | Huffington Post |
| 90 | The Philosopher’s Stone | Wikipedia | |
| 91 | The Space Vampires | Wikipedia | |
| 92 | The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, #1) | Guillermo del Toro | Goodreads |
| 93 | The Tommyknockers | Best Sci-fi Books | |
| 94 | The Unicorn Trade | Poul Anderson and Karen Anderson | The Portalist |
| 95 | Theoretical Fishsticks | Sam Lang | Goodreads |
| 96 | Ubik | Wikipedia | |
| 97 | War of the Worlds | H. G. Wells | Best Horror Novels |
10 Best Horror/Science Fiction Book Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Best Horror Novels | Best Sci-Fi Horror Books |
| Best Sci-fi Books | 19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books |
| Best Science Fiction Books | Sci-Fi Horror |
| Book Riot | 9 Sci-Fi Horror Books to Challenge and Scare You |
| Futurism | Most Terrifying Sci-Fi Books |
| Goodreads | Great Sci Fi-Horror Books |
| Huffington Post | When Books Live At The Thrilling Intersection Of Sci-Fi And Horror |
| Red Train Blog | 5 sci-fi books for horror fans |
| The Portalist | 11 Scary-Good Sci-Fi Horror Books |
| Wikipedia | Science fiction horror novels |
