Top sci-fi horror reads to haunt your Halloween

A dirty hand sits on the sandy surface with a bright full moon in the background. Three sci-fi book covers are placed over the top with a faint blue glow.

(Image credit: Pixabay (aescdtle_art), Vintage, Picador, & Harper Voyager)

Science fiction has a bit of something for everyone, from cutting-edge futuristic technology to doomed romances and strange aliens. The genre also crosses over very nicely into horror, because once humans start poking the unknown, it's only a matter of time before the unknown pokes back.

This Halloween, step into stories where science meets terror, where contagions kill, landscapes devour explorers, and technology crushes the human soul. All of these books fit nicely into the sci-fi horror mold, and while some of them never make it into the depths of space, they're all well worth your time.

Bonus Entry!

Author: Ray Bradbury
Publication date: October 24, 2017
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

While Bradbury's spookiest novel, 'Something Wicked This Way Comes,' isn't science fiction per se, it brings classic Halloween vibes that are perfect for anyone wanting to get into the spooky spirit.

When a sinister carnival drifts into a small Midwestern town, two boys find themselves pitted against temptation and mortality. It's less science fiction and more dark fantasy, but its dread of human frailty and loss of control earns it a place here.

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Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the Content Manager at Space.com. Formerly, she was the Science Communicator at JILA, a physics research institute. Kenna is also a freelance science journalist. Her beats include quantum technology, AI, animal intelligence, corvids, and cephalopods.

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