Audiobooks Like What If? 10th Anniversary Edition

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Wil Wheaton narrates Randall Munroe's thought-experiment essays with an ease that suggests he found them just as entertaining to read as they are to hear — the 7-hour runtime clips along in short punchy chapters, each one demonstrating some catastrophic physical principle through the logic of a ridiculous question. There's no hand-wringing about the science, just a narrator who trusts the material. Nine of these picks are also narrated by Wheaton, most landing in the same compact runtime, so the experience should feel like a natural continuation.

10 audiobooks for fans of What If? 10th Anniversary Edition

  1. 1
    The Consuming Fire cover

    The Consuming Fire

    The Interdependency • Book 2

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    ★ 4.41 ABR Score (50.0K ratings)
    ★ 4.22 Goodreads (37.6K) ★ 4.65 Audible (12.3K)
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    The interdimensional Flow that connects human civilization is collapsing, and Wil Wheaton captures Scalzi's wit amid this empire's death throes.

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  2. 2
    Fuzzy Nation cover

    Fuzzy Nation

    Fuzzy Sapiens • Book 7

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton, John Scalzi - introduction

    ★ 4.35 ABR Score (46.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.15 Goodreads (32.3K) ★ 4.6 Audible (14.1K)
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    Prospector Jack Holloway discovers adorable creatures that might be sentient, threatening corporate mining rights on their planet. Wil Wheaton brings infectious enthusiasm to Scalzi's witty reimagining of H. Beam Piper's classic.

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  3. 3
    The Last Emperox cover

    The Last Emperox

    The Interdependency • Book 3

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    ★ 4.32 ABR Score (42.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.14 Goodreads (33.4K) ★ 4.59 Audible (8.8K)
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    The Flow's collapse accelerates, cutting off entire star systems as Emperox Grayland fights to save civilization from those profiting off the apocalypse. Wil Wheaton captures both cosmic scale and political urgency.

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  4. 4
    The Kaiju Preservation Society cover

    The Kaiju Preservation Society

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    ★ 4.19 ABR Score (86.0K ratings)
    ★ 3.98 Goodreads (72.6K) ★ 4.47 Audible (13.3K)
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    Jamie Gray stumbles from pandemic food delivery into interdimensional monster conservation work. Wheaton brings playful energy to Scalzi's pandemic-era comfort food about giant creatures and found family.

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  5. 5
    Agent to the Stars cover

    Agent to the Stars

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    ★ 4.14 ABR Score (40.4K ratings)
    ★ 3.93 Goodreads (24.1K) ★ 4.45 Audible (16.3K)
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    First contact gets the Hollywood treatment when aliens hire a talent agent to manage their image problem—they smell like rotting fish.

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  6. 6
    Redshirts cover

    Redshirts

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    ★ 4.02 ABR Score (142.6K ratings)
    ★ 3.87 Goodreads (118.6K) ★ 4.26 Audible (24.0K)
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    Ensign Dahl discovers that serving aboard a prestigious starship means certain death for anyone wearing red—and that his life might be controlled by a cheesy TV show. Wil Wheaton's performance perfectly captures both the meta-humor and existential horror of being a disposable background character.

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  7. 7
    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.

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  8. 8
    Head On (Narrated cover

    Head On (Narrated

    Lock In Series • Book 2

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    ★ 4.37 ABR Score (9.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.52 Audible (9.9K)
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  9. 9
    The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century cover

    The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century

    by Martin H. Greenberg, Greg Bear, Terry Bisson, David Brin, John W. Campbell Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Judith Merril, Frederik Pohl, Eric Frank Russell, Terry Farrell, Denise Crosby, Alexander Siddig, Melissa Manchester

    Narrated by David Ackroyd, Wil Wheaton

    ★ 3.44 ABR Score (636 ratings)
    ★ 3.61 Goodreads (165) ★ 3.73 Audible (471)
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    Classic sci-fi anthology featuring Harlan Ellison reading his own "Jeffty Is Five" alongside Star Trek actors tackling Clarke and Pohl.

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  10. 10
    All These Worlds cover

    All These Worlds

    Bobiverse • Book 3

    by Dennis E. Taylor

    Narrated by Ray Porter

    ★ 4.68 ABR Score (134.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.4 Goodreads (65.4K) ★ 4.78 Audible (68.9K)
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    Ray Porter returns as Bob's various clones wage war against ancient aliens while humanity's colonies bicker and Brazilian probes cause interstellar havoc.

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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.

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