10 Biotech Sci-fi Novels
Columbus, the VOC, and contemporary adventurers got to map Earth’s geography. That leaves space and biology as the remaining ultimate frontiers. Even though space gets most of the attention in sci-fi, I’d argue that the 10³¹ living cells on Earth contain far more mind-blowing story ideas than the 10²⁰ lifeless rocks in the observable universe that we can’t even reach yet.
To back that up, here’s my list of biotech-themed science fiction, ordered by increasing scale, from gene-edited individuals to viral pandemics to cellular computers to terraforming an ecosystem of new species:
- Axiomatic by Greg Egan - A short story collection that includes "Eugene," featuring one special genetically engineered designer baby and a mind-blowing Buddhist conclusion. The plot twist is so good I won’t spoil it for you. [1]
- The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle - A geneticist in Jakarta believes she has discovered a cure for autism gets caught up in a conspiracy to alter the human genome at a population scale, thereby forcing an evolutionary leap to boost human intelligence.
- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi - Genetically engineered foods, diseases, elephants, and of course humans.
- Nexus Trilogy by Ramez Naam - Brain-machine interfaces to communicate between minds directly. Turns out it’s great for EDM dance and meditating buddhist mind-melding parties.
- Rifters Trilogy by Peter Watts - Augmented humans surviving (and getting some work done) in the deep sea.
- The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton - A deadly microorganism from outer space hitches a ride on one of our spaceships killing almost everyone in Piedmont, Arizona.
- The Stand by Stephen King - A superflu breaks out of a lab killing almost everyone in the world.
- Blood Music by Greg Bear - A scientist injects himself with intelligent microbes that are cellular-level computers. They eventually spread and we all get turned into one conscious gray goo.
- Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Genetically modified spiders guided by AI to terraform a planet for humans to live in.
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson - Humans using genetics and terraforming to prevent their own extinction.
What titles did I miss? What biological concept is not yet written about but is so mind-blowing it deserves its own sci-fi novel? Drop your recommendations in the comments on LinkedIn.
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[1] There are several other biotech short stories in this book. “Moat” features rewriting DNA in alternative basepairs from our standard ACTG to circumvent fears about recombinant DNA techniques. “The Caress” is about chimeras. And many more!
