10 Trippiest Sci-Fi Books Of All Time (2024)

While all science fiction bends the bounds of reality, some sci-fi books stand out against the rest as genuinely trippy. Many of the trippiest sci-fi books hail from the last half of the twentieth century, a psychedelic time in American history. Some writers used mind-altering substances that caused their works to be disorienting. Others were simply writing from within one of the most tumultuous and chaotic times in written history.

Much of this era of science fiction was inspired by the 1960s space race, with various writers exploring what it would look like to project their characters into space. Other trippy science fiction occurs here on Earth, but with mind-bending substances that make the reading experience feel other-worldly. While many writers continue to create provoking science fiction, the combination of elements that made the second half of the twentieth century tumultuous and experimental carried over to its literature and made for some of the most memorable psychedelic science fiction of all time.

10 Ubik (1969)

Phillip K. Dick

Phillip K. Dick's Ubik defines trippy science fiction that is disorienting to follow. Ubik was published in 1969, but it was set in a futuristic vision of 1992 wherein some people possess psychic abilities ("telepaths" and "precogs"), and some have anti-psychic abilities that can block psychics from honing their powers ("inertials"). In Ubik's futuristic setting, they have also developed a type of cryogenic preservation called a "half-life" that allows people to live partially after death. People's consciousness can be activated and communicated when preserved in a half-life.

The combination of psychic communication and the blur between life and death makes for a trippy read. Still, the novel further disorients the reader as it progresses, and characters begin to experience a warp in space and time. A group of inertials and precogs used for corporate espionage sets off for the moon, and the group begins to experience a shift in reality when they experience an explosion. From then on, time begins to deteriorate, but can be saved by a store-bought substance called "Ubik."

9 Neuromancer (1984)

William Gibson

Neuromancer by William Gibson can be hard to follow at times because it contains an abundance of futuristic terminology that can be difficult to grasp. Concepts like "cyberspace" and "the matrix" are now commonplace but were introduced by Gibson in Neuromancer. However, in Neuromancer, cyberspace is the virtual reality that people can enter and traverse rather than the more modern definition of cyberspace, which means the internet. The book follows Case, a hacker or "console cowboy" who hustles to make a living in Chiba City, Japan.

Gibson's Neuromancer influenced one of the most iconic cyberpunk movies of all time: The Matrix. Moreover, Apple TV+ is adapting Neuromancer into a new series for the streaming platform. Any adaptation of the book has big shoes to fill as Neuromancer received critical acclaim. In 1984, Gibson was honored with the Phillip K. Dick Award. Gibson also took home the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1985.

8 Roadside Picnic (1972)

Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky follows humans as they deal with the fallout of aliens visiting Earth and pine over the valuable debris left in six alien "zones." The Zones defy the laws of physics, space, and time, and strange anomalies occur. The story's locations blend, and there are ways that people's genes are affected when they enter The Zone. Brave souls charter the unfamiliar area in pursuit of a room where it's promised that their wildest dreams will come true. The story follows a "stalker" who guides others into the forbidden territory.

The reading experience bends the mind of the reader as the mind of the stalker is altered when they enter The Zone. The Russian novel truly is definitive of trippy science fiction that can be hard to follow, and its authors, the brothers Strugatsky, are synonymous with Russian sci-fi. Andrei Tarkovsky later adapted the book into the film Stalker in 1979. The critically acclaimed adaptation was loosely based on the novel; the Strugatsky brothers wrote the screenplay.

7 Solaris (1961)

Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Lem's Solaris is a trippy read because the story's narrative causes the characters to constantly question what is real and what is a figment of their imagination. The characters hover in a spaceship over a newly discovered planet where the ocean is an intelligent living being. The researchers on the ship are driven mad as they experience illusions of loved ones, lost relatives, nightmares, and secrets they have kept. The book focuses on the experience of one researcher who has delusions of his wife that cause him to question what is real and what is not.

The book has been adapted into several movies. Most notably, Andrei Tarkovsky wrote and directed a celebrated 1972 adaptation. The film was released in the Soviet Union and received critical acclaim, making it one of the best 1970s sci-fi movies. Tarkovsky's aim with the film was to bring more depth of emotion into the world of science fiction film. The novel was also adapted into a sci-fi/romance movie starring George Clooney in 2002. However, Tarkovsky's approach to the adaptation was more tasteful.

6 Naked Lunch (1959)

William S. Burroughs

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs is as disturbing as it is trippy. The horror/sci-fi novel follows a series of loosely connected vignettes in a non-linear narrative that makes the novel disorienting and hard to follow. What's more, the novel follows a heroin user, adding to how reality is blurred in the story. The narrative is a commentary on drug use and sexual politics, reflective of Burroughs' experience as a heroin and opioid user. The book follows William Lee, who at some point has lunch with a strange alien creature at a diner.

Burrough's Naked Lunch was adapted into a 1991 film by master of body horror sci-fi master David Cronenberg. Cronenberg's Naked Lunch adaptation is one of the trippiest sci-fi movies of all time. Staying true to the meta-autobiographical source material, Naked Lunch is a terrifying trip reflective of the novel.

5 A Clockwork Orange (1962)

Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange is a sci-fi novel that is disturbing in more ways than one. It's controversial due to its depictions of graphic violence that take place in the near future within a youth subculture fixated on extreme violence. The novel dabbles with substance use, with the story's main characters ingesting a mind-altering substance called "Moloko Plus," which is milk mixed with amphetamines, synthetic mescaline, or adrenochrome. The story is challenging to follow because of the language used in the first few chapters, a disorienting fictional language used by the dystopian teenagers called "Nadsat."

In 1971, director Stanley Kubrick adapted Burgess' novel into the cult classic crime/sci-fi film of the same name. A Clockwork Orange (1971) saw the return of the sad*stic Alex, portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, and his violent gang of "droogs." The film was nominated for four Academy Awards in 1972, but A Clockwork Orange has been banned and censored due to its controversial nature.

4 Vurt (1993)

Jeff Noon

Jeff Noon's Vurt is a novel that accomplishes the same transcendent element as stories from the 1960s thirty years later. The characters in the novel have a strange way of altering their reality with feathers, which leads to a trippy experience for the reader. In the world Vurt created in his debut novel, people tickle their mouths with feathers, giving the characters dreams that take them to a metaphysical space. The book is a trip because the characters can access their unconscious minds.

As characters navigate the dream world, it can be as fantastical as it is pervasively dark and ominous. The characters can interact with each other in this space as if they're experiencing a shared hallucination. Noon attributed the culture of his hometown of Manchester, England, to his inspiration for the characters' shared psychedelic experiences. The rave culture Noon was inspired by, complete with drugs like ecstasy and the disorienting feelings that come with it, certainly makes for a trippy reading experience.

3 The Lathe Of Heaven (1971)

Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven is another novel that revolves around dreams, facilitating the reader to navigate the psychedelic and unpredictable dream world. The book opens with the main character, George, who is under the influence of substances he obtained with his Pharmacy Card because he doesn't want to dream. George finds out when visiting a psychologist that he's afraid of dreaming because he changes the world when he dreams. George holds the duality of the world before and after he's altered reality in his mind, making for another mind-bending reading experience.

The story explores the unpredictability of the unconscious mind when in a dream state. People in the novel are confined by their mental health, acting as almost prisoners within the novel's mental health system. The Lathe of Heaven was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1971, the Hugo Award in 1972, and took home the Locus Award for Best Novel in 1972.

2 The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch (1964)

Phillip K. Dick

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is another novel by Phillip K. Dick that slips between reality and incoherence. The story takes place in a futuristic world that has colonized Mars and drafts people to go and establish life there as the people back on Earth experience uninhabitable temperatures. The people of the colony take substances called "Can-D" and "Chew-Z" that allow them to alter their consciousness to experience miniature "Perky Pat" layouts. The layouts encourage ritualistic substance use among the colonists, which enables them to escape their reality.

This and other PKD novels are definitive for American sci-fi. The author also penned the 1968 sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The story inspired the action/sci-fi movie Bladerunner (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, and the follow-up, Blade Runner 2049 (2017), directed by Denis Villeneuve. It's also spawned an upcoming series for Amazon Studios, Blade Runner 2099.

1 Brave New World (1932)

Aldous Huxley

Reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is truly a mind-altering experience. The novel throws the entire status of the human condition into question when it presents a dystopian reality in which humans are decanted rather than born. Even today, it's a trippy premise, even more so considering that Huxley penned the novel in the early 1930s. Huxley was into psychedelics, taking large amounts of mescaline and other hallucinogenic substances. His willingness to alter his perception no doubt factored into the thought-provoking realities he crafted.

In Brave New World,the characters take "soma," a drug that cures their discontentment with society. The characters use the drug throughout the novel to maintain a calm and pacified state and consume it before participating in group sex. It had disorienting themes for 1932, and they are mind-bending even today.

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