Best Contemporary Sci-Fi Books of the 00s

This is like adventuring into an infinite library, peering down passages that never end, bookcases packed full of multi-colored spines, each with their own intricate details. Here are the very best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, bringing you more personal connotations of the soul, heart, and mind shared between each and every one of us. What does it mean to be human in this modern, juxtaposing world? That's what seems to be the main theme hidden amongst all of these various titles.

Read on to see just how fortunate we might be in the near future, or to uncover the locked secrets that still seem to dampen our hearts. In these worlds there is very little happiness, and what does bring happiness is nothing but the presence of hope. Hope for return, either to a place or time, and with that being said I won't waste any more of yours. The following best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s will show you how the turn of the century wrought a catalyst of technological advancement and unheard of human disunity.

The City and The City is a different kind of science fiction detective story. It portrays Tyador Brolu and Qussim Dhatt as they follow one murder after another, seemingly tumbling down a vortex of conspiracy and political tyranny.

China Mieville's novel reads like something Phillip K. Dick or Ursula K. Le Guin would write. It's spellbinding and keeps you wanting more even after you finish it, making it one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s.

This is like a 00s sci-fi cult classic movie, except it's a book. It's actually one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, and what bothers me most is how no one has yet tried to make this into a movie.

Geoff Ryman's Air portrays Chung Mae and her life on a farm far from the wide world beyond. A new form of technology is being put into effect all around the world, a communications network strung to nothing. They call it Air. When their first test goes horribly wrong, killing people with an electrical shock, Mae realizes she might be the key to solving its malfunctions, but will anyone listen to her?

Neal Stephenson published this beauty originally in 1998, but it didn't really become a smashing success until 2002. Cryptonomicon is an interesting tale that spends half its time discussing WWII and the other half in the present, both of which are not pretty periods to live in.

Splicing generations, pitting bad guys from the war with present day individuals and surfacing a number of different imaginative conspiracies on top of one another, Neal Stephenson delivers a masterpiece, one that can be added to the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s. The story expertly makes you feel as if you are time traveling between each of the characters.

This story is very similar to Benjamin Button, where a young Max is actually older in appearance, and must grow backwards while his mind expands like any other child's. This may seem heartbreaking, but for Max it's more of a blessing, because now he can try at winning the heart of the girl of his dreams three separate times, because in each event she doesn't recognize him.

Packed with a multitude of ingenuity, symbolism on love, and the daring nature of human connection, The Confessions of Max Tivoli brings about one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s by showcasing in brilliant detail the nature of our modern relationships.

Among one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, Mind Machines portrays artificial intelligence with the beautiful intersection of human capacity. First in a series of amazing books, Mind Machines will capture your imagination and make you wonder about how close we are to the near future of technologically advanced medicine.

Dima Zales brings alive her Mike Cohen, a billionaire venture capitalist, who only recently survives a car crash, which leaves his mother's memory impaired. Her only savior may be in a new technology, called brainocytes, but Mike Cohen isn't the only one trying to utilize it, nor does he yet know its true potential.

Margaret Atwood is another well-known name associated with the science fiction community. It's not surprising to find her most thought-provoking storyline among the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, since it adds a level of feminist critique with the theological questions raised all throughout the story.

In a world where genetic engineering has caused the fall of great cities, wrought by multi-million dollar corporations, Snowman hunts for a purpose after the loss of his two friends, Oryx and Crake. Along this journey, he unlocks various secrets once unknown to him, most of which challenge his humanity and reason, yet all of which seem to strike at the very heart of his emotional identity.

A psychologist specializing in near death experiences learns of a more useful way that can bring her even closer to death than ever before: a psychoactive drug. After using it for the first time, Dr. Joanna Lander wants nothing more than to go back, not only because of the powerful effects that passage had caused, but of how strangely familiar that place on the other side truly was to her.

Passage is an untimely and unique story that brings Connie Willis the repertoire of an exceptional writer. As one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, Passage will not only make you think long and hard about death, but make you wonder in great detail what really waits on the opposite side.

After some weird, yet thought provoking videos begin popping up all over the internet, market-research consultant Cayce Pollard is tasked at discovering just what these video images mean, and why they are causing so much of a stir. It could be a gold mine for her newly acquired client in London.

Except, after she finds her apartment in ruins and her computer hacked, Pollard soon realizes she may have stumbled upon something far more sinister than a gold mine. Pattern Recognition is one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, because it blends a beautiful mix of thrilling science fiction with impeccable realism.

Kathleen Ann Goonan writes about Sam Dance, a young soldier in 1941, who vows to end the war after the death of his brother in the attacks at Pearl Harbor. It's one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, because it makes readers question the disheartening qualities behind war and the effects it can have on the future.

Amid his training, Dance is taken out of laboring physical work and set to studying codes, science, and other wonders behind the military. One of his physicist professors, who is incidentally working on a machine capable of ending war altogether, seduces him into joining her creation team. Their initial testing finds the machine incapable of working, but after leaving for Europe in the heat of war, Dance begins to wonder if the machine may have worked.

Iain M. Banks is well known in the science fiction community as one of the most prolific of writers, in that his stories seem to capture the essence of artificial intelligence, cosmic adventures, and time travel, all in one epic storyline. Look to Windward is no different, classified by many as one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s for allowing many new readers to easily latch onto Banks' incredible storytelling.

This book is the seventh in Banks' Culture series and tells of Major Quilan's embarkment to Masaq in the 800 year aftermath of a massive war among solar systems that caused the explosion of two suns and wrought an insurmountable death toll to the cosmos. Major Quilan expects to find a composer named Ziller on the planet, but his true mission remains a dark secret.

One of the more interesting in the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, The Windup Girl tells the story of a world wherein calories have been lost to human history. Bacigalupi draws up a world devastated by bio-engineered plagues, a monopolization of these scarce calories, and huge mega corporations that use these effects to rule over the weak.

Anderson Lake works as an undercover manager while he searches for the caloric foods considered extinct. During his searches he stumbles upon Emiko, known by most as the Windup Girl. She isn't human, but is an engineered New People, a sort of plaything for the rich. Unfortunately for Lake, they want their favorite toy back.

When it published in 1998, then titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J. K. Rowling had no idea the true worth or potential this immense of a story would create. It stirred up the community in such a way that we now have our very own, Disney-made Harry Potter theme park.

While rating the films in order of least to greatest seems to be everyone's favorite task, Harry Potter's adventures at Hogwarts in the novels still seem to strike at the heart of every child, no matter what age or time you read the books. That's something quite unheard of in a long time, and the Potter franchise still brings wonder to our eyes today, making it one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s.

First in his Zones of Thought series, A Fire Upon The Deep brings readers into a Star Wars like space battle, occurring on a galactic scale. It's one of the best contemporary sci-fi books of the 00s, because the space opera challenges our view of space travel and the repercussions that can come from future colonization.

A family of scientists and innocent crewmen are taken captive by the Tines as they escape a massive war zone. A rescue mission is hence planned, in order to not only save the people on the ship, but to also save the entirety of the human race.