Andy Weir is one of the most celebrated sci-fi authors around today. Although he may only have three novels published to date, each has proven to be a hit with both readers and critics. His debut novel, The Martian, catapulted Weir to the tops of bestseller lists and inspired the Oscar-nominated Matt Damon movie of the same name. A decade later, Weir wrote Project Hail Mary, which likewise inspired a successful film adaptation — the Ryan Gosling vehicle became one of the highest-grossing releases of 2026.
As such, Weir is one of those authors who has amassed a loyal fanbase of readers, thanks to his skill at combining a grounding in real science with bold, innovative concepts and accessible, compelling storytelling. Unfortunately, Weir’s bibliography being so thin on the ground at present — those who liked The Martian and Project Hail Mary should also hunt down his 2017 heist novel Artemis — means his fans may need some more material from other authors to scratch their sci-fi itch. Thankfully, Weir has recommended some of his personal favorites in the genre that should keep readers occupied until his next book arrives.
6
Red Planet (1949)
By Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein arguably isn’t that well-known today, despite being one of the most seminal sci-fi writers of his era, or perhaps any era. Outside of Starship Troopers, his works haven’t been adapted for the screen all that often, which is possibly a reason why he’s no longer a household name. Sci-fi devotees like Andy Weir still hold his books in high regard, however, and Weir’s favorite of Heinlein’s output is his 1949 novel, Red Planet.
Weir even claimed to Reactor Mag that Red Planet was the book that made him want to become a writer in the first place.”That was the first time I read an entire book, start to finish, in a single day,” he recalled. Of course, fans may note that Weir’s own most famous novel is set on Mars, as well, and the author is well aware that his love for Red Planet is what started his interest in Earth’s closest neighbor. As he told GQ:
“You can credit Heinlein for getting me really, really interested in Mars. The Mars as depicted in that book is not remotely like real Mars, but the rules that he set up were really interesting.”
Red Planet follows the students attending a boarding school on Mars as they discover a plot that could endanger the human colonists and the native Martians alike. As Weir notes, Heinlein’s depiction of Mars is far from what we now know to be scientifically accurate about the place, but the author’s imaginative world-building is more than enough to make up for that. Anybody who enjoys this one may also wish to seek out Strangers in a Strange Land, a later Heinlein novel also set on Mars.
5
I, Robot (1950)
By Isaac Asimov
Few works of science fiction can claim to be as influential as I, Robot. Isaac Asimov’s anthology features various stories about what we would now call artificial intelligence that, while standalone, are linked together by a framing narrative and shared characters. The book is most famous for coining Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, which still influence sci-fi fiction and real-life application of AI to this day.
Andy Weir is a huge fan of Asimov, in general, and has cited him as his favorite author. Like many others, Weir cites I, Robot as Asimov’s finest work and has described how it was one of his favorite books as a teenager and a big inspiration for him as a writer. “It was the first time I read a book where I really got a feeling for how a writer can take a single premise and go in every possible direction with it,” Asimov told GQ:
These days, I, Robot is best known for its 2004 adaptation, which translated the short story collection into a popcorn movie blockbuster starring Will Smith. While the film has its fans, it is certainly a far cry from Asimov’s original, with its philosophical, existential themes and emphasis on logic and problem-solving over action. To say I, Robot holds up all these years later would be to undersell it, as its subject matter is only getting more and more pertinent by the day.
4
The Caves of Steel (1954)
By Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was a great believer in the flexibility and versatility of the sci-fi genre, and in one of his books he proved just how much you could stretch it. 1954’s The Caves of Steel blends the trappings of science fiction with a noirish detective story, centering on human cop Elijah Baley and his new android partner, Olivaw, as they investigate a murder. Other than the fact the story is set 3000 years in the future, it’s essentially a classic whodunnit. As Weir put it:
“This may be apocryphal, but the story behind Caves of Steel is that someone bet Asimov that he couldn’t write a noir science fiction story. And so he did, and it was the first book I read that made me realise science fiction is not a genre, it’s a setting . . . In this case, it’s a murder mystery set in a sci-fi world. It’s a mystery series with a central detective no different than reading Poirot. It just takes place in a universe where there are robots.”
The Caves of Steel is perfect for fans of both the genres it combines, as it both features incredibly textured world-building and a colorful hero. Just like the best literary detectives, Baley — who was Asimov’s favorite of all his protagonists — has various character quirks, most notably his intense agoraphobia. For those who read The Caves of Steel and want more of where that came from, Baley and Olivaw returned for two sequel novels — 1955’s The Naked Sun and 1983’s The Robots of Dawn.
3
Tunnel in the Sky (1955)
By Robert A. Heinlein
Another of Weir’s favorite Heinlein novels is Tunnel in the Sky. Following a group of kids taking part in a survival contest on an uninhabited planet, the story is in many ways not all that far from the kind of young adult-oriented sci-fi that might be written today. It also can be called a kind of high-concept version of Lord of the Flies, which was actually only published a year prior to Tunnel in the Sky‘s debut. For Weir, what really makes the novel stand the test of time is Heinlein’s groundbreaking decision to make his protagonist a person of color. Weir told GQ:
“Fun fact: Heinlein was very subversive. In Tunnel in the Sky, the main character is Black at a time when you couldn’t just say, “Oh, my main character is Black.” If you did, they’d say, “That’s fine, then this book is for Black readers and we’ll market it only toward Black people,” etc. But he didn’t want to do that, so he very cleverly made his main character Black without ever telling them. You have to put together clues in the book to figure that out.”
Heinlein is well-known for his progressive views on race, which is something that has helped his earlier work — written while the Civil Rights movement was still in its infancy — age better than many of his contemporaries. In addition, Tunnel in the Sky is also unusual for a ’50s sci-fi novel in that it features multiple female characters who are depicted as highly competent. It’s no wonder Weir has highlighted Tunnel as one of the three sci-fi books he would recommend that everyone read, along with I, Robot and the following entry on this list.
2
Rendezvous With Rama (1973)
By Arthur C. Clarke
Along with Asimov and Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke was once dubbed one of “The Big Three,” the finest sci-fi writers of the mid-20th century. In contemporary times, Clarke is probably best known for his famous Third Law — that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic — and for co-writing the screenplay to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on his book of the same name. Out of the prolific author’s many offerings, Weir’s personal favorite is his 1973 novel, Rendezvous with Rama.
Rama centers around a gigantic cylindrical spaceship that enters the Solar System and the efforts of the human explorers who discover it to uncover its mysterious purpose and the intentions of whoever — or whatever — dwells inside. Weir praised the book to GQ as a “very exciting first contact story” which sports a “great unfolding mystery.” The twist ending, which won’t be spoiled here, blew Weir’s mind as he rates it as an ingenious attempt by Clarke to subvert the reader’s expectations.
Weir isn’t the only contemporary creative who’s a fan of the novel. Dune director Denis Villeneuve has been working on getting a movie adaptation of Rendezvous with Rama off the ground since 2021, with the filmmaker confirmed to still be working on the script as of 2024. Hopefully the movie comes to fruition soon so that it can turn more people towards an exceptional yet often overlooked example of slow-burn sci-fi.
1
Recursion (2019)
By Blake Crouch
Classics are all well and good, but for those looking for some contemporary sci-fi that Weir would recommend, then look no further than Recursion by Blake Crouch. Like Weir, Crouch is one of the best American science fiction novelists of the day and is most celebrated for his multiversal mystery Dark Matter (adapted into an Apple TV series starring Joel Edgerton). For Weir’s money, though, Crouch’s best work is his 2019 novel Recursion.
Crouch has a knack for combining heady sci-fi concepts and themes with the addictive readability of thrillers and police procedurals, and that talent is on full display in Recursion. The novel follows NYPD detective Barry Sutton, whose investigation into the suicide of a woman who suffered from memories of a life she never lived leads him to partner with brilliant neuroscientist Helena Smith. But Barry and Helena discover more than they bargained for when the world, and their own lives, begin to change around them.
Just like Dark Matter, Recursion explores themes of alternate realities and identity, but in this case it’s told through the medium of time travel rather than the multiverse. Weir has name-checked Recursion in various interviews as one that he recommends his own readers should check out. With its mix of big ideas and a compelling human story, Recursion is guaranteed to hit the spot for fans of Weir’s work.
