The article presents ten science-fiction novels as near-essential reading, arguing that the genre’s strongest works use imagined worlds to explore enduring questions about people and society. It highlights books that have shaped science fiction as well as works praised for taking a compelling idea and developing it with unusual depth.

The supplied excerpt discusses *The Forever War*, where time dilation leaves a returning soldier estranged from the society he fought for; *The Left Hand of Darkness*, which examines gender and cultural assumptions through an envoy’s visit to a world whose inhabitants are not usually male or female; Ian McEwan’s *What We Can Know*, set in the 22nd century and framed as a search for a lost poem; and *Hyperion*, which follows seven pilgrims bound for a world holding mysterious, time-reversing tombs. The article connects these stories to themes including war, identity, politics, historical memory and human relationships.