The amusingly ambiguous title of Stuart Ritchie’s book might briefly suggest to science deniers that it supports their belief that science is just one more ideology, promoted by authoritarian governments and sinister, wealthy elites. An actual reading of the work will disabuse them of this notion. Science Fictions is unequivocal in its regard for the achievements and importance of science and sets out with the primary aim of improving the way it is done. Given the extraordinary benefits society has enjoyed from science over many centuries, no rational person could argue with this goal, and we can only applaud the way in which Ritchie goes about conveying such an important, and often technical, subject in language accessible to the general reader. Along with many examples of the failings of scientists in recent years, Science Fictions offers an explanation for these, and proposes some methods for doing science better. Some of the fixes are aimed at error prevention during experiment design, data collection and peer review; others are aimed at detecting errors in research already published.