What’s in it
Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.
24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorA 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
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
The Children of the Sky
Vernor Vinge · 444 pages
"Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them. While there is peace among the Tines
Brightness Reef
David Brin · 642 pages
David Brin's Uplift novels--Sundiver, Hugo award winner The Uplift War, and Hugo and Nebula winner Startide Rising--are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction tales ever written. Now David Brin returns to this future universe for a new Uplift trilogy, packed with adventure, passion and wit.The planet Jijo is forbidden to settlers, its ecology protected by guardians of the Five
The 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
The Clockwork Rocket: Orthogonal Book One
Greg Egan · 362 pages
A series of strange meteors enters a planetary system, and a world is in danger. Can space travellers from this world, travel in time and space, and return in time with the technology needed to avert the disaster? This is the first book of the Orthogonal trilogy, following the travellers on their mission.
Embassytown
China Mieville · 359 pages
Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, Humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can spea
Beyond the Red
Ava Jae · 360 pages
"Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She's the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she's determined to protect her people from her br
Kingdoms of the Wall
Robert Silverberg · 307 pages
Each year twenty men and twenty women brave death and insanity in order to reach the Summit, a place where humans have the opportunity to learn directly from the gods. Poliar Crookleg has waited his whole life to go on the Pilgrimage to Kosa Saag. With his childhood friend Traiben, he is determined to be one of the few who return sane and filled with knowledge. But what the gods have to say may sh
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.
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
The Crucible of Time
John Brunner · 373 pages
The epic tale of the development, over millennia, of a species from a culture of planet-bound medieval city-states to a sophisticated, technological civilization.
The Ringworld Throne
Larry Niven · 379 pages
From back cover Del Rey paperback May 1997: *Come back to the Ringworld... the most astonishing feat of engineering ever encountered. A place of untold technological wonders, home to a myriad humanoid races, and world of some of the most beloved science-fiction stories ever written!* The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, so of the Kzin called Chmeee... legendary
Probability Moon
Nancy Kress · 334 pages
When a new race of aliens stumbles upon the ancient star gates that make interstellar travel possible, humankind sends a team of scientists to study a newly discovered planet populated with an alien society in which everyone agrees on the truth. Humanity has expanded into other solar systems using the remnants of an ancient technology of star gates--instant travel devices left in place by a now-va
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.
A Darkling Sea
James L. Cambias · 352 pages
On the planet Ilmatar, under a roof of ice a kilometer thick, a team of deep-sea diving scientists investigates the blind alien race that lives below. The Terran explorers have made an uneasy truce with the Sholen, their first extraterrestrial contact: so long as they don't disturb the Ilmataran habitat, they're free to conduct their missions in peace. But when Henri Kerlerec, media personality an
Spock's World
Diane Duane · 310 pages
'"I am Spock… I hold the rank of commander in the Starfleet of the United Federation of Planets; I serve as first officer of the starship Enterprise. I am the son of two worlds. Of Earth, whose history is an open book… and of Vulcan, whose secrets have lain hidden beneath its burning sands… Until now..." It is the twenty-third century. On the planet Vulcan, a crisis of unprecedented proportions h
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
Enemy Mine
Barry B. Longyear, David Gerrold
On a far distant planet, at the height of the war between the Dracon Empire and Earth, two military pilots crash in the heat of battle. One is human, one is Drac. Each is a repulsive alien to the other. Each is a professional warrior, filled with hatred for his blood enemy... Marooned on a hostile planet, they have a choice. They can complete their missions in a mutual pact of violence and deat