The 25 best Nebula Award winners
The 25 highest-ranked Nebula Award winners in our ranking of 3,056, scored on how much readers love them, their prize, best-list and bestseller record, and current buzz. We rank 45 Nebula Award winners in all. How we rank
- 1
Ender's Game94.5Must-Read ScoreEnder's Game
To survive the next attack by a hostile alien race, Earth's government breeds child geniuses and trains them as soldiers.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1986)Nebula Award winner (1985)Hugo Award winner (1987, for Speaker for the Dead)33 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2013 - 2
The Dispossessed86.3Must-Read ScoreThe Dispossessed
Shevek is a brilliant physicist from Anarres, a barren moon settled two centuries earlier by revolutionaries who built a society with no government, no property and no money.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1975)Nebula Award winner (1974) - 3
All Systems Red84.4Must-Read ScoreAll Systems Red
In a future run by corporations, survey teams on distant planets come with a Company-supplied security android.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2021, for Network Effect)Nebula Award winner (2020, for Network Effect)Goodreads Choice (science fiction) finalist (2023, for System Collapse)Goodreads Choice (science fiction) finalist (2021, for Fugitive Telemetry) - 4
Flowers for Algernon83.8Must-Read ScoreFlowers for Algernon
Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two-year-old man with an intellectual disability who works sweeping floors at a bakery and wants more than anything to be smart.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (1966)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 5
The Forever War83.5Must-Read ScoreThe Forever War
William Mandella, a physics student, is drafted into an elite force to fight the Taurans, an alien race humanity has barely encountered.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1976)Nebula Award winner (1975)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 6
American Gods83.2Must-Read ScoreAmerican Gods
Shadow Moon is released from prison days early, after his wife dies in a car accident.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2002)Nebula Award winner (2002)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 7
Paladin of Souls82.7Must-Read ScorePaladin of Souls
Three years after being freed from a curse of madness, Ista, the widowed dowager queen of Chalion, is still haunted by memories, regrets and guilty secrets.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2004)Nebula Award winner (2004) - 8
Parable of the Sower82.4Must-Read ScoreParable of the Sower
In 2024 California has fallen apart: climate change, poverty and violence have turned cities into ruins, and families hide behind walls.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (1999, for Parable of the Talents)Nebula Award finalist (1994) - 9
Rendezvous with Rama81.8Must-Read ScoreRendezvous with Rama
In 2131, astronomers detect a huge object entering the solar system.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1974)Nebula Award winner (1973) - 10
The Left Hand of Darkness81.7Must-Read ScoreThe Left Hand of Darkness
Genly Ai is an envoy from the Ekumen, a league of worlds, sent alone to the icy planet Gethen to invite its people to join.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1970)Nebula Award winner (1969)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 11
Gateway79.5Must-Read ScoreGateway
Long ago an alien race called the Heechee left behind an asteroid full of working spaceships.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1978)Nebula Award winner (1977)Hugo Award finalist (1981, for Beyond the Blue Event Horizon)Nebula Award finalist (1980, for Beyond the Blue Event Horizon) - 12
The Gods Themselves79.2Must-Read ScoreThe Gods Themselves
In the twenty-second century, a scientist discovers that a sample of tungsten has turned into a substance that can't exist in our universe.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1973)Nebula Award winner (1972) - 13
Babel78.3Must-Read ScoreBabel
In 1828, Robin Swift is taken from Canton as an orphan to England and trained to study at Babel, Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (2022)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2022) - 14
Startide Rising76.8Must-Read ScoreStartide Rising
Startide Rising is a novel of David Brin's Uplift universe, in which older races raise younger species to intelligence.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1984)Nebula Award winner (1983) - 15
A Song for a New Day76.3Must-Read ScoreA Song for a New Day
In the Before, Luce Cannon was a rising rock star.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (2019) - 16
Doomsday Book75.8Must-Read ScoreDoomsday Book
In 2054 historians at Oxford University study the past by traveling to it.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1993)Nebula Award winner (1992) - 17
Ancillary Justice74.6Must-Read ScoreAncillary Justice
Breq was once a starship, an artificial intelligence that controlled a huge warship and thousands of 'ancillary' soldiers, human bodies linked to its mind.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2014)Nebula Award winner (2013) - 18
Neuromancer74.3Must-Read ScoreNeuromancer
Case was once the best hacker in the world, until he stole from his employers and they damaged his nervous system so he could never jack into cyberspace again.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1985)Nebula Award winner (1984)Hugo Award finalist (1989, for Mona Lisa Overdrive)Hugo Award finalist (1987, for Count Zero) - 19
The Calculating Stars74.2Must-Read ScoreThe Calculating Stars
In 1952 a huge meteorite strikes the Atlantic off Washington, D.C., destroying much of the East Coast.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (2019)Nebula Award winner (2018)Hugo Award finalist (2021, for The Relentless Moon) - 20
Ringworld74.2Must-Read ScoreRingworld
Louis Wu is two hundred years old and bored when he's recruited by an alien for a mysterious expedition.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1971)Nebula Award winner (1970)Hugo Award finalist (1981, for The Ringworld Engineers)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 21
A Wizard of Earthsea74.1Must-Read ScoreA Wizard of Earthsea
In the archipelago of Earthsea, a gifted boy named Ged goes to a school for wizards.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (1990, for Tehanu)Nebula Award finalist (2002, for The Other Wind) - 22
Uprooted72.5Must-Read ScoreUprooted
Agnieszka's village lies next to the Wood, a corrupted forest that swallows anyone who goes in.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (2015)Hugo Award finalist (2016) - 23
The Shadow of the Torturer71.2Must-Read ScoreThe Shadow of the Torturer
Severian is an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers on Urth, a world so far in the future that the sun is dying.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (1981, for The Claw of the Conciliator)Nebula Award finalist (1980)Hugo Award finalist (1988, for The Urth of the New Sun)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 24
Powers71.2Must-Read ScorePowers
Young Gav can remember any page after seeing it once, and sometimes he 'remembers' things that haven't happened yet.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (2008) - 25
Red Mars71.1Must-Read ScoreRed Mars
In 2026, the First Hundred, carefully chosen scientists and engineers, set off to colonize Mars.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (1993)Hugo Award winner (1997, for Blue Mars)Hugo Award winner (1994, for Green Mars)Hugo Award finalist (1993)
