If you tear through reads as quickly as I do, you know that a Kindle Unlimited subscription is worth every penny. The membership gives you access to over five million e-books, thousands of audiobooks, and even a decent magazine selection to peruse. Once you’re registered, you can send available titles straight to your Kindle e-reader or app and instantly read up to 20 titles at a time — and don’t worry, there’s no due date to worry about.
The subscription is about $12 per month, so if you read more than a single e-book each month, it’s well worth your dollars. However, the catalog is always changing, adding new titles, and removing them — just like Netflix or other streaming services. Right now, there’s a fine selection of sci-fi books on the docket, including four I’ve had in my TBR pile for a while.
Check out these highly-rated sci-fi books you can read for free right now on Kindle Unlimited.
- Price
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$12 / month
- Free trial
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Yes
- Ads
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No
- Borrow limit
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20 titles at a time
Kindle Unlimited is a monthly subscription that gives users access to millions of e-books, audiobooks, and magazines. You can borrow up to 20 titles at a time.
The Atlantis Gene
By AG Riddle
The first book in The Origin Mystery series, The Atlantis Gene introduces two parallel discoveries on opposite sides of the world: while researchers in Antarctica find a mysterious structure buried deep beneath the ice, a geneticist in Indonesia discovers a breakthrough treatment. At least, that’s what Dr. Kate Warner thinks she found.
The truth is far more dangerous, and the implications could unravel humanity’s greatest mystery — our origins. Kate must team up with an agent already deep within the conspiracies and travel across the world while their enemies nip at their heels. They have to trust each other if they want to survive — and save humanity itself.
AG Riddle’s debut novel, The Atlantis Gene is a worldwide bestseller and has sold more than three million copies. It’s a staple in sci-fi, and a gateway drug into Riddle’s spectacular storytelling. If you’re a fan of Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code) and how he wove history into his fast-paced adventures, this is your next download.
Ender’s Game
By Orson Scott Card
Years after hostile, insect-like aliens attacked Earth, the human race refuses to be caught off-guard again. Governments pour resources into fostering and finding young geniuses around the world to train them not only to be soldiers, but also generals in the hundred-year war against the Buggers.
Published in 1985, Ender’s Game follows Andrew “Ender” Wiggin as he gets drafted into the elite Battle School orbiting Earth — the same military academy where his two older siblings failed their candidacies. Ender must face grueling psychological trials while balancing peer rivalries and insurmountable pressure from his instructors to pave his way through the academy. But after that, what waits for him on the other side isn’t what you — or Ender — will expect.
Ender’s Game was adapted into a major motion picture in 2013 with a stacked cast (Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, young Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld, and more). While the movie’s visual elements made the reading experience even more vivid (and did the original story justice, in my opinion), it didn’t explore the vital storylines of Ender’s older siblings, Peter and Valentine. For this reason especially, the book is worth reading even if you’ve already seen the movie.
The Fifth Season
By NK Jemisin
A little on the darker side, The Fifth Season is a dystopian science-fiction story that follows a woman named Essun desperately searching for her daughter, who was kidnapped. Taking place on a single supercontinent called the Stillness, Essun has to hide the fact that she is an orogene, a person with the power to manipulate geological elements and forces.
The Stillness is already treacherous — it’s a land where catastrophic climate events called “Seasons” frequently terrorize civilization. Following three different orogene women, The Fifth Season pieces together perspectives to paint a picture of survival in a broken world. It unpacks deeper themes of heavy systemic oppression, the dynamics of power, and what people will do to survive.
The Fifth Season is the first book in the Broken Earth trilogy, which is great news for anyone hooked after the first chapter like I was. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016, and it could win “best novel” on your Kindle if you borrow it today.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
By Matt Dinniman
While the themes are just as dark and unsettling as The Fifth Season, Dungeon Crawler Carl is a wildly weird, dark comedy sc-fi that grows quicker on you than it takes to download it from Kindle Unlimited in the first place. Bear with me here.
When aliens invade, every man-made structure with a roof is atomized — along with everyone inside them. The remnants of humanity are forced into an underground “dungeon to fight for their chance to survive. Ex-Coast Guard veteran Carl is among the survivors that enter the trials with an unlikely ally: his ex-girlfriend’s prize-winning show cat: Princess Donut.
But don’t let looks (Carl has no pants) and names deceive you. The duo takes on the challenge with their tactics, wit, and (of course) showbiz — because they can’t just survive, they have to make it entertaining. The whole galaxy is watching, because the dungeon crawl is one big intergalactic reality TV show.
A LitRPG that reads just like a video game (stats, levels, and all), Dungeon Crawler Carl is an internet sensation that ensnares you hook, line, and sinker. If you don’t have Kindle Unlimited, there are other ways to read it for free, which you can check out here.
