Audiobooks Like The Handmaid's Tale

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Claire Danes narrates The Handmaid's Tale across eleven hours with a flat, dissociated quality that makes Offred feel like someone performing compliance while watching herself from a distance — the performance is unsettling precisely because it sounds controlled. The recommendations here are drawn from the same sci-fi and speculative register, most award-winning, and they share that same sense of a future arrived at through a logic that's uncomfortably coherent.

10 audiobooks for fans of The Handmaid's Tale

  1. 1
    Ender's Game cover

    Ender's Game

    The Ender Saga • Book 1

    by Orson Scott Card

    Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir

    4.59 ABR Score (1.5M ratings)
    ★ 4.31 Goodreads (1.5M) ★ 4.63 Audible (44.6K)
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    Child genius Ender Wiggin's military training at Battle School prepares him for humanity's war against alien "buggers" in this complex moral examination.

  2. 2
    For We Are Many cover

    For We Are Many

    Bobiverse • Book 2

    by Dennis E. Taylor

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    4.67 ABR Score (149.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.37 Goodreads (75.2K) ★ 4.77 Audible (74.0K)
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    Ray Porter continues voicing Bob's expanding consciousness as the AI copies spread across space, facing system-wide war and an alien threat to humanity.

  3. 3
    Network Effect cover

    Network Effect

    Murderbot Diaries • Book 5

    by Martha Wells

    Narrated by Kevin R. Free

    4.61 ABR Score (139.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.46 Goodreads (129.2K) ★ 4.74 Audible (9.9K)
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    Kevin R. Free's deadpan delivery transforms Murderbot from a sardonic loner into someone genuinely worth rooting for—the audiobook does what the best narration does, making you hear the heart beneath the snark.

  4. 4
    World War Z cover

    World War Z

    World War Z

    by Max Brooks, Alan Alda, John Turturro, Rob Reiner

    Narrated by Various

    4.43 ABR Score (596.4K ratings)
    ★ 4.02 Goodreads (570.4K) ★ 4.65 Audible (26.0K)
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    Told as oral history interviews with zombie war survivors, this explores how different countries and cultures responded to the undead apocalypse. The all-star cast including Alan Alda and John Turturro creates a documentary feel.

  5. 5
    Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? cover

    Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

    Blade Runner

    by Philip K. Dick

    Narrated by Scott Brick

    4.18 ABR Score (528.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.09 Goodreads (517.9K) ★ 4.33 Audible (11.0K)
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    Bounty hunter Rick Deckard hunts escaped androids in post-apocalyptic San Francisco while questioning what makes someone human. Scott Brick's steady delivery suits the philosophical noir atmosphere.

  6. 6
    Artemis cover

    Artemis

    by Andy Weir

    Narrated by Rosario Dawson

    4.09 ABR Score (431.1K ratings)
    ★ 3.68 Goodreads (332.8K) ★ 4.35 Audible (98.3K)
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    Jazz Bashara smuggles contraband on humanity's first lunar city until she attempts the perfect crime that could destroy everything. The moon's criminal underworld comes alive through this fast-paced heist story set in a richly imagined off-world society.

  7. 7
    Shadow Show: New Short Stories and Fantasy from Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, and 24 Writers – A Ray Bradbury Tribute cover

    Shadow Show: New Short Stories and Fantasy from Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, and 24 Writers – A Ray Bradbury Tribute

    by Sam Weller, Mort Castle, Margaret Atwood, Dave Eggers, Harlan Ellison, Joe Hill, Alice Hoffman, Kelly Link, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Audrey Niffenegger, Ray Bradbury, Jay Bonansinga, David Morrell, Thomas F. Monteleone, Lee Martin, Dan Chaon, John McNally, Joe Meno, Robert McCammon, Ramsey Campbell, John Maclay, Gary A. Braunbeck, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Charles Yu, Julia Keller, Bayo Ojikutu

    Narrated by George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, F. Murray Abraham, Neil Gaiman, Robert Petkoff, Dion Graham, Simon Van Booy, Edoardo Ballerini

    3.80 ABR Score (2.1K ratings)
    ★ 3.91 Goodreads (1.9K) ★ 4.31 Audible (182)
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    Celebrating Bradbury's legacy, this collection features stories by Gaiman, Hill, and others, with an impressive cast including George Takei and Neil Gaiman himself reading these homages.

  8. 8
    Golden Son cover

    Golden Son

    Red Rising • Book 2

    by Pierce Brown

    Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds

    4.79 ABR Score (560.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.5 Goodreads (505.3K) ★ 4.81 Audible (55.5K)
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    Darrow continues his infiltration of Gold society while planning revolution from within the ruling class. Tim Gerard Reynolds captures the escalating political intrigue and brutal space battles with commanding intensity.

  9. 9
    Catching Fire cover

    Catching Fire

    The Hunger Games • Book 2

    by Suzanne Collins

    Narrated by Tatiana Maslany

    4.79 ABR Score (4.2M ratings)
    ★ 4.36 Goodreads (4.2M) ★ 4.89 Audible (16.7K)
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    Tatiana Maslany captures Katniss's unraveling with such raw intensity that you feel the rebellion igniting in real time—her performance transforms the sequel into something darker and more dangerous than the first.

  10. 10
    The Martian cover

    The Martian

    The Martian • Book 1

    by Andy Weir

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    4.76 ABR Score (1.3M ratings)
    ★ 4.42 Goodreads (1.3M) ★ 4.8 Audible (42.3K)
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    Stranded astronaut Mark Watney's fight for survival on Mars combines technical ingenuity with dark humor, perfectly matched by Wil Wheaton's engaging delivery.

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

Read our full ranking methodology →