Fantasy audiobooks set in medieval-inspired worlds are classics and common in the fantasy genre. More recently, authors have created wonderful steampunk fantasy audiobooks as well. But what about audiobooks with worlds that are a combination of science fiction and fantasy?
Well, if you’re curious what stories like that exist, this post has a list for you.
Here are 10 awe-inspiring sci-fi fantasy audiobooks you must hear:
- Ilium by Dan Simmons
- Darkwar by Glen Cook
- Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams
- Moonsinger by Andre Norton
- Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
- The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
- Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist
- Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory
I’ve included book descriptions, readers’ ratings and summaries of positive and negative comments for each one of the books in this list below. However, if you’d prefer a quick summary, here’s a comparison chart.
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Description
The Trojan War rages at the foot of Olympos Mons on Mars — observed and influenced from on high by Zeus and his immortal family — and twenty-first-century professor Thomas Hockenberry is there to play a role in the insidious private wars of vengeful gods and goddesses.
On Earth, a small band of the few remaining humans pursues a lost past and devastating truth — as four sentient machines depart from Jovian space to investigate, perhaps terminate, the potentially catastrophic emissions emanating from a mountaintop miles above the terraformed surface of the Red Planet.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 4.03
Most Common Rating: 4
Positive Comments
Based on the Iliad, Ilium is first on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks. A treat for readers seeking a combination of epic fantasy and science fiction, this novel captivated fans with its combination of Greek mythology and science fiction.
Several mentioned enjoying both Greek mythology and stories revolving around the Trojan War, and thought Ilium was a fresh yet faithful take on both. The well-woven combination Greek heroes, fantasy, and sci-fi was exactly what they were hoping for.
Negative Comments
Critics, on the other hand, had a different take on Ilium. From their perspective, this tale had little sense of forward momentum, with some readers described the plot as dragging, while others said the characters were underdeveloped or that the amount of sexualization was jarring and adolescent.
Darkwar by Glen Cook
Description
The world grows colder with each passing year, the longer winters and ever-deepening snows awaking ancient fears within the Dengan Packstead, fears of invasion by armed and desperate nomads, attack by the witchlike and mysterious Silth, able to kill with their minds alone, and of the Grauken, that desperate time when intellect gives way to buried cannibalistic instinct, when meth feeds upon meth.
For Marika, a young pup of the Packstead, loyal to pack and family, times are dark indeed, for against these foes, the Packstead cannot prevail. But awakening within Marika is a power unmatched in all the world, a legendary power that may not just save her world, but allow her to grasp the stars themselves.
From Glen Cook, author of the Black Company and Dread Empire novels, comes Darkwar, collecting for the first time, the stunning science fantasy epic that originally appeared as Doomstalker, Warlock, and Ceremony.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 3.87
Most Common Rating: 4
Positive Comments
Second on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is Darkwar, a grimdark tale told at an epic-scope. This novel captivated its fans with its awe-inspiring world-building and its antihero protagonist, Marika.
These readers said that while she isn’t a classic, likable protagonist, she won their respect and empathy. As they journeyed with her through her struggles and triumphs, fans said they admired her determination and enjoyed watching her grow.
In addition, these readers praised Darkwar’s enthralling blend of science fiction and fantasy. Describing it as ‘epic’, fans said the story put a refreshing spin on common fantasy tropes. For instance, it introduced them to a traditional Chosen One in a quasi-medieval village, which then evolved into a steampunk and then futuristic world.
Negative Comments
No book is without its critics, so what did these readers say?
In general, they pointed to Marika as their reason for disliking the book, saying that she seemed selfish and unlikable.
However, others said that Marika’s powers eventually grew strong enough that they didn’t feel that Darkwar’s conflicts had suspense.
Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams
Description
In our own near future, a global conspiracy at the highest levels threatens to sacrifice our Earth for the promise of a far more exclusive place – Otherland, a universe where any fantasy can be made real, but which is ruled by Earth’s wealthiest and most ruthless power brokers, the Grail Brotherhood. Otherland, surrounded by secrecy, is home to the wildest dreams and darkest nightmares.
Incredible amounts of money have been lavished on it. The best minds of two generations have laboured to build it. And somehow, bit by bit, it is claiming the Earth’s most valuable resource – its children.
Only a few have become aware of the danger. Fewer still are willing or able to take up the challenge of this perilous and seductive realm. But every age has its heroes; unusual times call for unusual champions, and destiny awaits them in Otherland.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 3.92
Most Common Rating: 4
Positive Comments
Third on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is City of Golden Shadow. This epic-scale novel dazzled fans with its fascinating characters and fantastic world-building.
These readers praised the entire character cast, saying that they were well-fleshed out and intriguing. As they turned the pages, fans discovered new layers to them and became more attached.
In addition, readers enthused over City of Golden Shadow’s blend of fantasy, science fiction and African folklore. They described the story as having a variety of different worlds and locations. Whether they be in the virtual reality world of the ‘real world’, these places captured readers’ imaginations with their complexity and intricate crafting.
Negative Comments
What did critics say? Overall, these readers had two reasons they didn’t enjoy the novel.
The first was that they found it difficult to connect to the characters, typically because there were many.
On the other hand, some readers described the plot as disjointed or meandering, saying that it had multiple story-lines that didn’t seem to connect.
Moonsinger by Andre Norton
Description
Moon of Three Rings: It is the time of the Moon of the Three Rings when the Free Trader ship Lydis lands on the primitive world of Yiktor, a world the Combine was seeking to control for the power the Three Rings would bring them.
The life of a Free Trader was all junior crew member Krip Vorlund knew. That life ended at a beast show on Yiktor when Vorlund was strangely attracted to the owner of the show animals, a delicate and mysterious woman named Maelen.
Too soon Vorlund learned the nature of Maelen’s sorcery, too soon he is caught up in the struggle over the fate of a world….But his soul would remain his own.
Exiles of the Stars: The galactic trade ship Lydis is making a run to the planet Thoth when a civil war lands her in a battle of ancient powers and nameless evil, with a Forerunner treasure at its heart.
The crew seems normal-until you look closely at two of its members: Krip Vorlund, a man who walks in a body not his own, and his pet, a four-legged beast hiding the mind of Maelen the Moon Singer, a woman whose esper powers can save them all-or bring them to eternal destruction.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 3.97
Most Common Rating: 4
Positive Comments
Fourth on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is Moonsinger. This novel captured fans’ imaginations with its intriguing blend of fantasy and science fiction elements, rich world-building, and unpredictable plot.
A fast-paced adventure, Moonsinger impressed readers with its refreshing portrayal of fantasy, political intrigue, space opera, aliens and telepathic powers. Fans said that the overall world-building was filled with detail, but that the sense of history to both human and alien civilizations was a highlight.
On top of that, fans were delighted by Moonsinger’s plot, which they described as keeping them guessing and glued to the book’s pages.
Negative Comments
What did critics say? In general, if readers didn’t enjoy Moonsinger, they typically said that its focus on details and descriptions made it difficult for them to get absorbed into the story.
Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones
Description
Rupert Venables is a Magid.
It’s a Magid’s job to oversee what goes on in the vast Multiverse. Actually, Rupert is really only a junior Magid. But he’s got a king-sized problem.
Rupert’s territory includes Earth and the Empire of Korfyros. When his mentor dies Rupert must find a replacement. But there are hundreds of candidates. How is he supposed to choose? And interviewing each one could take forever.
Unless…
What if he could round them all up in one place?
Simple!
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 4.10
Most Common Rating: 5
Positive Comments
Next on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is Deep Secret. This humorous, lighthearted novel delighted fans with its wit and quirky characters.
In terms of the latter, these readers agreed that the characters’ dramatic personalities perfectly suited this playful romp of a story.
In addition, several mentioned how fun the story was, especially because of its affectionate jokes related to conventions. These readers often recognized jokes around their own favorite books – such as The Lord of the Rings and The Princess Bride – and were delighted.
Overall, they found themselves grinning throughout the book, describing the humor as brilliant.
Negative Comments
What did critics say? In general, if readers didn’t enjoy Deep Secret, they tended to cite the characters as reasons. While fans found the characters’ over-the-top personalities hilarious, critics said they came across as either complaining too much or having a bad attitude.
The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly
Description
A wizard and a computer programmer from opposite sides of an interdimensional portal must work together to save their worlds from destruction.
In a world where wizards are relegated to ghettos, it is no surprise to see one murdered in the street. But for Stonne Caris, a young warrior monk who sees the killing and gives chase to the culprit, there is nothing ordinary about seeing a murderer disappear into a black, inky portal.
The Archmage sends him in search of Antryg Windrose — a half-mad mage who understands the nature of these passages between dimensions.
On the other side of the Void is Joanna, a programmer as mild as Caris is deadly. She has spent her life in cubicles, staring into computer terminals, as far from heroism as she can get.
But when the power that is crossing between dimensions draws her through the Void, she finds herself battling to save a world she never even knew existed.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 3.94
Most Common Rating: 4
Positive Comments
Another story on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is The Silent Tower, giving us two intelligent characters in the form of Joanna and Antryg. Fans praised this story for its characters and world, which is a refreshing meld of magic and technology.
The two leads impressed them with how multidimensional they were, as well as how enjoyable they were to read about. Aside from brilliant, Antryg struck these readers as a unique fantasy character: eccentric, middle-aged, near-sighted and more. Likewise, the less quirky Joanna pairs her own brilliance with pro-activeness and competence.
Negative Comments
Critics, on the other hand, tended to have two comments. The first was that they thought the book’s pace was slow, particularly in the beginning.
The second was that the story’s writing style included the frequent use of adverbs, which bothered them after a while.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
Description
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”
A tesseract is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book.
A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 4.01
Most Common Rating: 5
Positive Comments
Next on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is A Wrinkle in Time. This story delighted readers, whether kids or adults. Recently, it has also surged in popularity thanks to a recent movie (2018) and a slew of graphic novels.
Fans cited its atmospheric prose and authentic characterization as major pluses. The main character, Meg, struck them as particularly well-developed when compared to other childrens’ or Young Adult novels. Readers often said she came across as brave, but also reacted realistically to what felt like encounters with true evil.
Negative Comments
Some adults readers, however, weren’t so enthusiastic. They mentioned that while A Wrinkle in Time was a great coming-of-age story, particularly for young girls, it felt too simple for them.
These readers often also mentioned that while Meg is initially sympathetic, she’s later prone to too many overreactions.
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Description
To survive in a ruined world, she must embrace the darkness…
Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a walled-in city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them — the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.
Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend — a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for again.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 4.09
Most Common Rating: 5
Positive Comments
Another story on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is The Immortal Rules. Readers who enjoyed this novel praised it for its new, dystopian spin on vampires and a post-apocalyptic world.
Kagawa commits to portraying vampires as predators while not making Allison’s struggle to adapt either melodramatic, on one hand, or sanitized, on the other. They also mentioned that there were great action scenes and Kanin, Allison’s vampire mentor, intrigued them.
Negative Comments
Readers who didn’t rate The Immortal Rules highly mentioned that the story starts off fast-paced, but slows down in the middle before picking up speed again. Other readers said that they didn’t find the romantic sub-plot – a light presence in the story – particularly compelling.
Magician: Apprentice by Raymond E. Feist
Description
To the forest on the shore of the Kingdom of the Isles, the orphan Pug came to study with the master magician Kulgan. But though his courage won him a place at court and the heart of a lovely Princess, he was ill at ease with the normal ways of wizardry.
Yet Pug’s strange sort of magic would one day change forever the fates of two worlds. For dark beings from another world had opened a rift in the fabric of spacetime to being again the age-old battle between the forces of Order and Chaos.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Rating: 4.17
Most Common Rating: 5
Positive Comments
Next on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is Magician: Apprentice. Like several of the prior stories, this novel includes classic fantasy creatures, settings and quests.
Fans mentioned that this book had everything they loved about traditional fantasy while exploring those elements more deeply. However, it also had enough twists to the overall tale that the book didn’t feel over-familiar.
In addition, fans praised the book for its excellent characters and the different fantasy cultures. They immediately connected to all the characters in the cast, whether they be elves, dwarves, or dragons. Experiencing the characters’ coming-of-age stories was a treat, as was walking with them as they explored their world and weathered its turbulent politics.
Overall, fans said that Magician: Apprentice was an highly enjoyable classic fantasy, with many feel- good moments. A few commented that, given how many grimdark fantasy books there are, it was refreshing to immerse themselves in this uplifting story and spend time with its upstanding characters.
Negative Comments
What did critics dislike about Magician: Apprentice? Mostly, these readers’ remarks focused on the book’s The Lord of the Rings influence or overall use of standard fantasy tropes. Whether it was the characterization of the main characters, the personalities of the fantasy creatures, or the locations in the story, the similarities came across too strongly to them.
Other critics focused on the characters themselves. Several of them mentioned that they either didn’t seem developed or that they were developed by narration rather than through character-defining actions or dialogue.
Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory
Description
From award-winning author Daryl Gregory, whom Library Journal called “[a] bright new voice of the twenty-first century,”comes a new breed of zombie novel — a surprisingly funny, vividly frightening, and ultimately deeply moving story of self-discovery and family love.
In 1968, after the first zombie outbreak, Wanda Mayhall and her three young daughters discover the body of a teenage mother during a snowstorm. Wrapped in the woman’s arms is a baby, stone-cold, not breathing, and without a pulse. But then his eyes open and look up at Wanda — and he begins to move.
The family hides the child — whom they name Stony — rather than turn him over to authorities that would destroy him. Against all scientific reason, the undead boy begins to grow. For years his adoptive mother and sisters manage to keep his existence a secret — until one terrifying night when Stony is forced to run and he learns that he is not the only living dead boy left in the world.
What Do Readers Say?
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.84
Most Common Rating: 4
And last on our list of sci-fi fantasy audiobooks is Raising Stony Mayhall. What did fans say about this zombie tale?
Well, many praised Raising Stony Mayhall as not your typical action-packed blood, guts and brains zombie story. Instead, it features very un-undead, human elements that readers that made it starkly refreshing.
As such, who weren’t necessarily die-hard fans of zombie stories or fantasy found themselves drawn to the story. In fact, several of these readers described the story as sweet, funny and moving. Others said it impressed them by how tastefully and intelligently written it was.
10 Awe-Inspiring Sci-Fi Fantasy Audiobooks to Hear
How Do These Fantasy Audiobooks Compare?
