What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Mote in God's Eye
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle · 560 pages
Science fiction classic about the rise, fall and subsequent rise of a civilization where the peak catastrophe is known as the "crazy eddy point". Introduces the concept of frictionless toilets that don't have any water in them but I suspect the authors didn't think it all the way through - I don't recall a negative air pressure that would keep odours in their rightfull place. Nevertheless a fascin
Xenocide
Orson Scott Card · 562 pages
On Lusitania, Ender finds a world where humans and pequeninos and the Hive Queen could all live together. However, Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequeninos require in order to become adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entir
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin · 304 pages
[Comment by Kim Stanley Robinson, on The Guardian's website][1]: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin (1969) > One of my favorite novels is The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K Le Guin. For more than 40 years I've been recommending this book to people who want to try science fiction for the first time, and it still serves very well for that. One of the things I like about it is how
Pretender
C.J. Cherryh · 416 pages
The epic tale of the human survivors of a lost spacecraft, marooned on a planet inhabited by a hostile alien race, follows the civilization's rise from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space.
Out of the Silent Planet
C.S. Lewis · 174 pages
The first book in Lewis's Space Trilogy, *Out of the Silent Planet* tells the story of Dr. Elwin Ransom, a philologist who likes to explore the English countryside on foot. Seeking out a place to stay the night, he ends up at the estate of a colleague who is away in London. However, the house is not empty. Ransom stumbles upon the plot of a megalomaniacal scientist and his collaborator, who jus
A Case of Conscience
James Blish · 192 pages
The citizens of the planet Lithia are some of the most ethical sentient beings Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez has ever encountered. True, they have no literature, no fine arts, and don't understand the concept of recreation, but neither do they understand the concepts of greed, envy, lust, or any of the sins and vices that plague humankind. Their world seems darned near perfect. And that is just what d
Solaris
Stanislaw Lem · 223 pages
The cult-classic by Stanislaw Lem that spawned the movie is now available for your Kindle! Until now the only English edition was a 1970 version, which was translated from French and which Lem himself described as a "poor translation." This wonderful new English translation (by Bill Johnston) of Lem's classic Solaris is a must-have for fans of Lem's classic novel. Telling of humanity's encounte
A Deepness in the Sky
Vernor Vinge · 699 pages
The story of the Spiders, inhabitants of a planet where the sun regularly stops shining for periods of 200 years, during which they are frozen in ice. The novel picks them up emerging from their most recent hibernation in a frenzy of activity and innovation to make up for lost time. By the author of A Fire upon the Deep.
Grass
Sheri S. Tepper · 476 pages
Generations ago, humans fled to the cosmic anomaly known as Grass. But before humanity arrived, another species had already claimed Grass for its own. It too had developed a culture...... Now a deadly plague is spreading across the stars, leaving no planet untouched, save for Grass. But the secret of the planet's immunity hides a truth so shattering it could mean the end of life itself.
Heaven's Reach
David Brin · 557 pages
Winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards, David Brin brings his bestselling Uplift series to a magnificent conclusion with his most imaginative and powerful novel to date--the shattering epic of a universe poised on the brink of revelation...or annihilation.The brutal enemy that has relentlessly pursued them for centuries has arrived. Now the fugitive settlers of Jijo--both human and alien--brace for
Remnant Population
Elizabeth Moon · 339 pages
For forty years, Colony 3245.12 has been Ofelia's home. On this planet far away in space and time from the world of her youth, she has lived and loved, weathered the death of her husband, raised her one surviving child, lovingly tended her garden, and grown placidly old. And it is here that she fully expects to finish out her days--until the shifting corporate fortunes of the Sims Bancorp Company
Acorna's People
Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough · 384 pages
Filled with adventure and wonder, Acorna's Peoplecontinues the enthralling saga of Acorna, the beautiful, brave, and kindhearted creature known as the Unicorn Girl."Welcome Home, Linyaari Child!"With the help of her "uncles" and the thousands of humans who love and admire her, Acorna has found her true people, the peaceful, telepathic Linyaari. But Acorna still has much to do before she can enjoy
Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie · 401 pages
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the *Justice of Toren*--a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, a
Dragon's Egg
Robert L. Forward · 309 pages
In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms--the cheela--living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers . . .
Children of God
Mary Doria Russell · 451 pages
The only member of the original mission to the planet Rakhat to return to Earth, Father Emilio Sandoz has barely begun to recover from his ordeal when the Society of Jesus calls upon him for help in preparing for another mission to Alpha Centauri. Despite his objections and fear, he cannot escape his past or the future. Old friends, new discoveries and difficult questions await Emilio as he strug
Damocles
S.G. Redling · 324 pages
LoulPell is a middle-class, midlevel government functionary, stranded in a dead-end job and resigned to the loss of his ambitious dreams. Meg Dupris is a traveler from a distant galaxy, haunted by tragedy and committed to a lifelong journey of dicovery. Literally worlds apart, they are two unexpectedly kindred spirits, whose chance meeting will be the first step toward life-changing history: conta
The Great Dune Trilogy
Frank Herbert · 918 pages
**Three of the greatest SF novels in the world in one bumper omnibus** Herbert's evocative, epic tales are set on the desert planet Arrakis, the focus for a complex political and military struggle with galaxy-wide repercussions. Arrakis is the source of spice, a mind-enhancing drug which makes interstellar travel possible; it is the most valuable substance in the galaxy. When Duke Atreides a
Ringworld
Larry Niven · 288 pages
The ' (1970–2004), by science fiction author Larry Niven, is a part of his Known Space set of stories. Its backdrop is the Ringworld, a giant artifact 600 million miles in circumference around a sun. The series is composed of four standalone science fiction novels, the original award-winning book and its three subsequent sequels: 1970: Ringworld 1980: The Ringworld Engineers 1996: The Ringworld
City of Pearl
Karen Traviss · 392 pages
Three separate alien societies have claims on Cavanagh's Star. But the new arrivals -- the gethes from Earth -- now threaten the tenuous balance of a coveted world. Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home. But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marine
The Hork-Bajir Chronicles
Katherine Applegate · 206 pages
Aldrea, a young member of the outpost the Andalite race has placed on the planet of the Hork-Bajir, must help her native friend Dak when the ruthless, parasitic Yeerks try to enslave his people.
Old Man's War
John Scalzi · 319 pages
John Scalzi channels Robert Heinlein (including a wry sense of humor) in a novel about a future Earth engaged in an interstellar war against more advanced species. Citizens volunteer for the Colonial Defense Forces after retirement, in exchange for which they have their consciousness transferred into a young body, cloned from their DNA but enhanced. If, against the odds, they survive two years o