Collider writer Safwan Azeem has put together a personal list of eight science-fiction novels he considers masterpieces, arguing that the best sci-fi uses big concepts like aliens, AI or empire not as spectacle but as a way of forcing characters into difficult moral choices. The selection spans classic and modern works, chosen because each book reshapes how readers think about themes such as progress, loyalty, identity or power long after finishing them.

Among the titles discussed are Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" (2008), which roots its alien-contact plot in the trauma of China's Cultural Revolution and went on to win the Hugo Award after its 2014 English translation; Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (1968), the source material for Blade Runner, which questions what separates human empathy from android artificiality on a post-nuclear Earth; and Dan Simmons's "Hyperion" (1989), which follows seven pilgrims travelling toward a deadly entity called the Shrike, each recounting a personal history that shifts the novel between genres.