What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorStartide Rising
David Brin · 462 pages
The exploration vessel Streaker (the first starship designed and crewed by dolphins) discovers evidence on the planet Kithrup of the fate of the Progenitors. Above them dozens of galactic races vie to seize the information for their own advancement.
Horizon Storms
Kevin J. Anderson · 640 pages
Caught in the middle of a titanic struggle between two alien superpowers, the factions of humanity and their allies, the Ildirans, are under siege. Can they resolve their differences to fight a common threat? For the leader of the Roamers, survival means extending a helping hand to others, while the chairman of the Terran Hansa plans to use a new, untested alien weapon regardless of the consequenc
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
Deliverer
C.J. Cherryh · 357 pages
From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey. The ninth book in the epic series, and the third book in the third Foreigner trilogy, Deliverer is a worthy contribution to Cherryh's magnum opus that is destined to be a classic.
Footfall
Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle · 551 pages
The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to the Solar System from Alpha Centauri in a large spacecraft driven by a Bussard ramjet. Their intent is conquest of the planet Earth.
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
Trees, Vol. 1: In Shadow
Warren Ellis
Ten years after they landed. All over the world. And they did nothing, standing on the surface of the Earth like trees, exerting their silent pressure on the world, as if there were no-one here and nothing under foot. Ten years since we learned that there is intelligent life in the universe, but that they did not recognize us as intelligent or alive.
Up the Walls of the World
James Tiptree Jr. · 315 pages
Human telepaths receive calls for help from an endangered world. However, the interstellar being threatening them, may be trying to help.
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
Learning the World: A Scientific Romance
Ken MacLeod · 368 pages
A great sunliner is nearing the end of a four-hundred-year journey. A ship-born generation is tense with expectation for the new system that is to be their home. Expecting to find nothing more complex than bacteria and algae, the detection of electronic signals from one of the planets comes as a shock.
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 . . .
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
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
Homeward Bound
Harry Turtledove · 648 pages
For the aliens known as the Race, the conflict has yielded dire consequences. Mankind has developed nuclear technology years ahead of schedule, forcing the invaders to accept an uneasy truce with nations that possess the technology to defend themselves. But it is the Americans, with their primitive inventiveness, who discover a way to launch themselves through distant space-and reach the Race's ho
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
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
Eden
Stanislaw Lem · 274 pages
A six-man crew crash-lands on Eden, fourth planet from another sun. The men find a strange world that grows ever stranger, and everywhere there are images of death. The crew's attempt to communicate with this civilization leads to violence and to a cruel truth-cruel precisely because it is so human.
The Gods Themselves
Isaac Asimov · 288 pages
The year is 2100 A.D.… And Man no longer stands alone in the universe. Now there are other worlds, other living beings. Alien beings who mate in threes and live on pure energy. New breeds of humans who have created their own environment and freed themselves from every social and sexual taboo. Yes, it is the future of new worlds, ever-changing worlds. And yet among them there is still Eart
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
The Human Division
John Scalzi · 431 pages
B Team leader Lieutenant Harry Wilson counters hostile alien forces, angry humans and unpredictable elements from the universe in order to protect the interests of the Colonial Union.