3 Great Sci-Fi Books From 2025 That Deserve a Movie or TV Adaptation

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Science fiction is a truly captivating genre. It transports you to distant planets and futures, and often delves into thought-provoking ideas about technology and what it means to be human. While there’s plenty of exciting sci-fi in movies and TV, many of the best stories actually began as books—and there’s a constant stream of new books just waiting to be adapted for the screen.

As 2025 comes to a close, we’ve been reviewing the year’s best new science fiction novels, looking for stories ripe for adaptation. While many excellent books came out, three stand out as particularly promising for film or television. These novels tackle timely issues like the rise of artificial intelligence and explore thought-provoking ideas about life and death, offering unique narratives we believe would make a significant impact on screen.

3) We Lived on the Horizon

Released in 2025, the science fiction novel We Lived on the Horizon by Erika Swyler arrived at a moment when artificial intelligence was rapidly becoming a bigger part of everyday life, and it would make a compelling movie. The story takes place in Bulwark, a city enclosed by walls and governed by AI. Within the city, residents’ lives are measured by “life hours” assigned based on their ancestors’ achievements – a system that creates significant inequality. The novel centers on Enita Malvois, a bio-prosthetic surgeon from the privileged “Sainted” class, and her AI companion, Nix. After the murder of a fellow Sainted and the subsequent cover-up, Enita and Nix become involved in a growing rebellion.

I just finished watching We Lived on the Horizon, and wow, it really stuck with me. It’s a visually stunning, if rather dark, sci-fi story that dives into some seriously interesting questions about artificial intelligence, what’s right and wrong, and the widening gap between the haves and have-nots. Plus, the dynamic between humans and robots is explored in a way that reminded me a lot of Blade Runner. Honestly, I think this would make an amazing live-action movie.

2) The Dream Hotel

Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel presents a chillingly plausible future where an AI system monitors people’s dreams to foresee and stop crimes. The story, which could be even more unsettling than Minority Report if adapted for film, follows Sara Hussein, who is detained at the airport and imprisoned simply for having thoughts flagged as dangerous by the AI. She must then fight for her freedom in a world where even dreaming can be a crime.

Exploring unsettling ideas about technology, privacy, and the increasing power of artificial intelligence, The Dream Hotel is a compelling story that also offers insightful social commentary. While it’s not a fast-paced thriller, it’s a deeply dramatic and thought-provoking read.

1) Murder by Memory

Olivia Waite’s Murder by Memory is the first book in a new series featuring detective Dorothy Gentleman, and it would make a fantastic start to a TV show. The story takes place on the lavish starship the Fairweather, where Dorothy unexpectedly wakes up in someone else’s body—and a murder has just occurred. She quickly discovers that the killer isn’t just destroying lives, but also erasing people’s memories from the ship’s central database, making their deaths truly permanent. Adding to the challenge, the killer has been planning this for centuries.

A spaceship murder mystery has the potential to be a really enjoyable science fiction story – one that’s lighthearted and fun rather than dark and intense. This makes it ideal for a television adaptation, and because it’s the first in a planned series, there’s enough story to support many seasons of a show.

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2026-01-05 18:14