Audiobooks Like What If?

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Wil Wheaton narrates Randall Munroe's absurdist science essays with an enthusiastic geek-friendliness that matches the book's tone exactly — he sounds like someone who genuinely wants to know what would happen if you tried to build a periodic table out of actual elements, and that authentic curiosity is what makes the physics lessons land as comedy. The 7-hour runtime is brisk, the chapters short, and the whole thing plays like an especially clever radio show. Every single pick here is narrated by Wheaton, so if his delivery is part of why this one worked, you're in direct continuation territory.

10 audiobooks for fans of What If?

  1. 1
    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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  2. 2
    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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  3. 3
    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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  4. 4
    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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  5. 5
    More of the Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy cover

    More of the Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy

    by Richard Curtis, Arthur C. Clarke, Siddig El Fadil, Karen Joy Fowler, Joe Haldeman, Roger Zelazny, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Nana Visitor, Orson Scott Card, Robert Silverberg, Robin Curtis, John Varley, Claudia Christian, Lawrence Watt-Evans

    Narrated by Roddy McDowall, Terry Farrell, Wil Wheaton, other stars of

    ★ 3.50 ABR Score (210 ratings)
    ★ 3.7 Goodreads (57) ★ 3.65 Audible (153)
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    Star Trek veterans and other genre luminaries perform ten journeys through imaginative worlds crafted by science fiction and fantasy's finest writers.

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  6. 6
    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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  7. 7
    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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  8. 8
    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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  9. 9
    The Collapsing Empire cover

    The Collapsing Empire

    The Interdependency • Book 1

    by John Scalzi

    Narrated by Wil Wheaton

    ★ 4.26 ABR Score (81.4K ratings)
    ★ 4.13 Goodreads (60.3K) ★ 4.45 Audible (21.0K)
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    When the interdimensional passages connecting humanity's scattered worlds begin failing, political intrigue races against cosmic catastrophe.

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  10. 10
    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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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.

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