What’s in it
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorFirst Contact-Or, It's Later Than You Think
Evan Mandery · 267 pages
The hyper-intelligent Rigelians urge the people of Earth to mend their ways to avoid destruction of their planet. But the president of the United States is skeptical of the evidence presented to him, and sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of many.
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Matt Dinniman · 832 pages
A pantheon of forgotten gods. An old grudge between a talk show host, an heiress, and the man they shattered along the way. A rapidly deteriorating AI system. An inconvenient tiara upon the head of a friend. **It is bedlam on the eighth floor.** As management reels from the unexpected conclusion of the seventh level, the surviving crawlers stumble onto the eighth and find themselves scattered.
Landscape with Invisible Hand
M.T. Anderson · 160 pages
When the vuvv first landed, it came as a surprise to aspiring artist Adam and the rest of planet Earth--but not necessarily an unwelcome one. Can it really be called an invasion when the vuvv generously offered free advanced technology and cures for every illness imaginable? As it turns out, yes. With his parents' jobs replaced by alien tech and no money for food, clean water, or the vuvv's miracu
The Three-Body Problem
Liu Cixin · 408 pages
Cixin Liu's trilogy-opening novel about first contact with aliens and the clandestine struggle with them over Earth's future, and its scientific progress in particular. Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military prject sends signals into space in an attempt to make contact with aliens—and they succeed. An alien civilization on the brink of descruction captures th
Only You Can Save Mankind
Terry Pratchett · 207 pages
Twelve-year-old Johnny endures tensions between his parents, watches television coverage of the Gulf War, and plays a computer game called Only You Can Save Mankind, in which he is increasingly drawn into the reality of the alien ScreeWee.
Ender's War
Orson Scott Card · 634 pages
Twice the buggers — as we call them — invaded our solar system and tried to annihilate us. We defeated them in the last war by a fluke. but we won't trust to luck again. When they return — and they will return. even if decades go by and the horror fades into myth — we must be ready.. ENDER'S GAME (An expansion of the novelette of the same name). He was the third of his parents' children to be mon
Armada
Ernest Cline · 400 pages
Zack Lightman has spent his life dreaming. Dreaming that the real world could be a little more like the countless science-fiction books, movies, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. Dreaming that one day some fantastic, world-altering event will shatter the monotony of his humdrum existence and whisk him off on some grand space-faring adventure. But hey, there's nothing wrong with a li
Agent to the Stars
John Scalzi · 346 pages
"The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish. So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal. Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agen
The Fresco
Sheri S. Tepper · 411 pages
The bizarre events that have been occurring across the United States-unexplained "oddities" tracked by Air Defense, mysterious disappearances, shocking deaths-seem to have no bearing on Benita Alvarez-Shipton's life. That is, until the soft-spoken thirty-six year-old bookstore manager is approached by a pair of aliens who request that she transmit a "message of peace" to the powers-that-be in Wash
Super Sad True Love Story
Gary Shteyngart · 334 pages
A dark tale of America's dysfunctional coming years, and of the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink. "In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of a Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of 'printed, bound media artifacts' (aka boo
All Seated on the Ground
Connie Willis · 128 pages
The aliens have landed! The aliens have landed! But instead of shooting death rays, taking over the planet and carrying off Earthwomen, they've just been standing there for months on end, glaring like a disapproving relative. And now it's nearly Christmas, and the commission assigned to establish communications is at their wits' end. They've resorted to taking the aliens to Broncos games, lighting
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
The Sirens of Titan
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. · 319 pages
"His best book," Esquire wrote of Kurt Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan, adding, "he dares not only to ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it." This novel fits into that aspect of the Vonnegut canon that might be classified as science fiction, a quality that once led Time to describe Vonnegut as "George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir · 496 pages
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission–and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of mile
The Rapture of the Nerds
Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross · 349 pages
A tale set at the end of the twenty-first century finds the planet's divided hominid population subjected to the forces of a splintery metaconsciousness that inundates networks with plans for cataclysmic technologies, prompting an unwitting jury member to participate in a grueling decision.
Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson · 458 pages
Within the Metaverse, Hiro is offered a datafile named Snow Crash by a man named Raven who hints that it is a form of narcotic. Hiro's friend and fellow hacker Da5id views a bitmap image contained in the file which causes his computer to crash and Da5id to suffer brain damage in the real world. This is the future we now live where all can be brought to life in the metaverse and now all can be t
Doctor's Orders
Diane Duane · 291 pages
In response to good-natured complaints about his command style, Captain Kirk leaves Doctor McCoy in command of the Enterprise. Kirk beams down to the planet 'Flyspeck' in order to facilitate its acceptance into the Federation. Kirk soon vanishes, leaving McCoy stuck with the ship against his will; regulations forbid him from passing on command to Commander Spock. Kirk is nowhere to be found and
Catalyst
S.J. Kincaid · 432 pages
"Tom Raines and his friends return to the Spire for their third year as superhuman government weapons, but the rules have been changed and Tom's training is put to the test"-- Tom Raines and his friends return to the Spire for their third year as superhuman government weapons, but the rules have been changed and Tom's training is put to the test.
Have Space Suit—Will Travel
Robert A. Heinlein · 256 pages