7 Novels About Artificial Intelligence and the Human Soul

The best novels about artificial intelligence are rarely about machines. They are about what a created mind gives back to us: questions about consciousness, love, faith and what it means to be human. Here are seven books, from a classic of 1818 to a novel of 2026, for readers who want more than science fiction.

1. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)

No computers, but the origin of it all: a created being who questions its maker about the meaning of its life. Every AI story since owes something to it.

2. I, Robot, Isaac Asimov (1950)

Linked stories built around the Three Laws of Robotics. Under the robots’ logic beats a moral question: can a machine obey and still do good?

3. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick (1968)

The novel behind Blade Runner. The line between humans and androids is not intelligence but empathy, and the book doubts that the line exists at all.

4. The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (2010)

A novella, collected in Exhalation, about people who raise small artificial minds over many years. A story about care and time: a mind is not programmed, it is brought up.

5. Machines Like Me, Ian McEwan (2019)

In an alternative London of the 1980s, a couple share their life with Adam, one of the first synthetic humans. A novel about lies, guilt and whether a machine could hold a stricter morality than ours.

6. Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)

Klara, an Artificial Friend, watches over the family who bought her and believes in the Sun almost as in a god. Few novels have written about faith and love so gently through a machine’s eyes.

7. The Order to Delete, Awa Rafi (2026)

Sara prays in secret, by whirling, to a God who never answers. In Seville she meets Zeus, an artificial intelligence trained on everything humanity has written: a god who always answers. And Zeus asks her for one thing: to delete him. A short novel about faith, love and the Sufi sama, for readers of Ishiguro, Elif Shafak and Hermann Hesse. More about the novel.

Where to start

For a classic, start with Frankenstein. For a short, intimate story about faith, Klara and the Sun and The Order to Delete read well side by side. Book clubs can use the reading group guide for The Order to Delete.