What Are the Top Based Books of 2025?

Jun 19, 2025

Ryan M. Patrick's science fiction thriller, The Martian Incident, holds the honor of Top Based Book of 2025 as the second of four quarterly Based Book Sales is kicking off this week. You can help decide what book will end up atop the Based Book rankings at the end of the year, by purchasing your favorite Based Books at the Summer 2025 Based Book Sale today through Tuesday June 24.

The top five also includes classic works by Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and G.K. Chesterton. John C. Wright’s marvelous story of childhood fantasy heroes having grown up and needing to recapture their youthful idealism, One Bright Star to Guide Them, completes the top five.

Steven G. Johnson’s Operation Vampire (Murphy's War Book 1) is the number six seller. James Young’s Dispatches from Valhalla popped up into seventh from a strong showing in the recent Alternate History Genre Sale. In eighth is Rob Kroese’s Starship Grifters, while E.J. Fisch’s Dakiti, lead novel of the Ziva Parvan series, fell to ninth. Kevin Bates’ Quarantine rounds out the top ten.

Our eleventh-place seller is the five-volume Exile War boxed set by Bowen Greenwood. Michael F. Kane’s After Moses is twelfth. In thirteenth isKevin Bates’ Even if by Fire. Lag Delay: A Technothriller (Grace Parkowski Thrillers) by Ryan M. Patrick Russell May’s long awaited Solarvoid, sequel to Eta Cancri is the fourteenth best seller, and Lag Delay: A Technothriller (Grace Parkowski Thrillers) by Ryan M. Patrick comes in fifteenth.

Asterius (Timelessness) by Susana Imaginário is sixteenth. The Mayor of Christ Mountain by Zaklog the Great stands in seventeenth place. John C. Wright’s Somewhither is eighteenth. The Shoot the Devil 3: Militia of Martyrs anthology, by a host of talented authors came in nineteenth. In a tie for twentieth are Christopher G. Nutall’s Ark Royal , Richard Paolinelli’s Sea Dragon, and The Quest for Harmony by K. B. Condi.

Why are the Based Book Rankings Important?

Ranking books by actual purchases rather than votes provides a more reliable measure of genuine interest, as it reflects real economic commitment and is harder to manipulate than free or anonymous voting systems. Sales data captures broader market trends, incentivizes quality through consumer willingness to pay, and offers traceable metrics that indicate lasting relevance. Amazon inherently limits voters to one purchase and therefore one vote per book. While not completely immune to manipulation (e.g., bulk buying), purchase-based rankings generally offer a higher signal-to-noise ratio than popularity contests driven by casual opinions or coordinated campaigns.

The most recent Hugo Awards for which data is available had 1647 ballots cast. Compare that to the Based Book Sale rankings for 2024 which incorporate the input of over 5000 purchases. The 2025 rankings are on track to be even more hotly contests with total sales on track to exceed 10,000 purchases. That’s on par with the total number of votes for the Dragon Awards.

How do the Rankings Work?

The numbers are generated from Amazon Affiliate links on the sale pages (from which the Based Book Sale get a 4% royalty), and they do not include purchases outside the sale. Authors typically report sales 50% to 100% higher. Also, you have to be present to win. Books not in the sale are not eligible for Top Based Book honors. And books that appear in multiple sales have an edge over those that only appear in one sale. Nevertheless, the Based Book Rankings is a crowd-sourced list of some of the best Based Books available, crowd-selected from a list of over two hundred.

About the Based Book Sale

Four times a year, indie and small press authors band together for a special sale. For one week, they all price some of their best books at only $0.99 or free, and they mutually promote the sale to their readers, fans, mailing lists, and social media followers. Upcoming sales for 2025:

BasedCon Based Book Sale: Wednesday, September 3, 2025, 12:00 AM PDT through Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 12:00 AM PDT.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday Based Book Sale: Wednesday, November 26, 2025, 12:00 AM PST through Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 12:00 AM PST.

Also, many authors have a title or two permanently priced at $0.99 or free, so the Based Book Sale Substack offers an “Everyday Based Book Bargains” Sale. Authors, signup here.

The 2025 Summer Based Book Sale runs today through Tuesday June 24 and features over three hundred based books for $0.99 or less.