Hello! I hope you’re all having a fantastic week so far. Today I have a post spotlighting 6 Sci-Fi books that I think would be perfect for fantasy readers taking their first foray into the genre. The below are a mix of adult & YA, as well as a mashup of different kinds of sci-fi, space and earth based, but they all contain elements that I think would make them the perfect reads for people coming to the genre for the first time. Have you read any of the below books? Do you are agree with my choices & are there any others you would like to add? Let me know in the comments.

Seven Devils

If you like your fantasies fast paced, with a brilliant female centred cast that’s queer AF, then this rip-roaring space adventure might just be for you. Yes, it’s set in space, but we luckily don’t get bogged down with too much science lingo, instead the authors use their page time to create a masterpiece of a universe , filled with an in depth history, political scheming and plenty of battles.

When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy’s most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire’s voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray.

Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated.

When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire’s inner workings.

Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can’t, millions may die.

Aurora rising

The fact this series is written by two authors who mainly publish fantasy should say it all really. It’s hilarious, heartbreaking and filled to the brim with action. So, if you like you fantasy character focused ( and boy are they some brilliant characters), on the YA side and written so that you’re always wanting to read that next chapter… well then, look no further.

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

Skyward

Written by the King of fantasy himself, Skyward is a book that a fantasy fan will easily make the transition to enjoy. Set in a future where humans have had to colonise another planet and are constantly under attack from an unknown alien race. This series blends the lines of science and humanity perfectly, with the right balance of ‘space’ scenes, as well as the unfailing human ones that ensure you are in for a wild and emotional ride.

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

The Ones We’re Meant to Find

Probably better defined as cli-fi than sci-fi, this book blurred the lines between so many genres I was never 100% sure what I was reading, which makes it the perfect book to dip your toes into the genre. If you like your fantasy filled with wtf twists, morally grey characters and slightly open endings, then this is one book I can highly recommend.

Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay, and it’s up to Cee to cross the ocean and find her.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But nevertheless, she decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

Doing Time

If you like your science fiction based a little closer to home then look no further. This series manages to focus on some heavy topics, but in a light and humorous way, with a cast of characters that are well-meaning (most of the time) but more often than not cause more damage than good. Though it does heavily focus on time travel, we never get too bogged down with the specifics, instead getting to enjoy different historical periods through the lens of our fairly useless, but often hilarious characters.

At some time in the future, the secret of time-travel became available to all. Chaos ensued as people sought to take advantage. Because there will always be nutters who want to change history…

And so the Time Police were formed. Internationally sanctioned thugs whose task it was to keep the timeline straight by any and all means possible. And they succeeded. The Time Wars are over. The Time Police won. But who will win the peace?

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Ok, so I’m a little ashamed to say I’ve only read book one of this series, and it was a few years ago. But that just goes to show how good it is, because the story and characters still stick with me even now. It’s not a typical sci-fi book, though there is plenty of science talk we never get bogged down in it, instead the author wrote the book centred around her amazing cast of diverse characters. It deals with societal prejudices, politics, but in a way that shows that even the worst problem can be resolved. It really is feminine fantasy at it’s best.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.