Books like A Fire Upon The Deep
30 science fiction books to read after A Fire Upon The Deep, by Vernor Vinge, the closest match first.
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1. Zone Of Thought
by Vernor Vinge
- Same series
- Same author
Ever bought some electronic thing and two days later discovered it was already obsolete? Sucks. This whole idea about broken things is defined by the concept of The Singularity --...
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Zones Of Thought book 3
2. The Children Of The Sky
by Vernor Vinge
- Same series
- Same author
"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...
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The Sprawl book 1 Start here
3. Neuromancer (1985)
by Gibson, William
- On the same lists
Gibson is the father of Cyberpunk and this novel in particular is significant. In this novel the term cyberspace is coined.
Case was the best hacker in the Sprawl until his employers damaged his nervous system, and now he can no longer reach cyberspace. He drifts through the criminal underworld of...
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Culture book 3
4. Use Of Weapons
by Iain M. Banks
- On the same lists
Features a Utopian society (culture) that's post scarcity, controlled by benevolent A. I.'s who act for the good of the society. When Culture encounters less enlightened societies, the fun begins.
Iain Banks burst onto the literary scene with his controversial first novel, The Wasp Factory, the violent story of a girl who had been brought up as an emasculated boy....
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5. Snow Crash
by Stephenson, Neal
- On the same lists
Considered by some as a parody of Cyberpunk. This novel popularized and cemented its use of the term avatar to describe online virtual bodies
Meet Hiro Protagonist: hacker, samurai swinging swordsman and pizza delivery boy. When his best friend dies of a brain fry and his ex girlfriend asks for his help, Hiro switches...
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The Book Of The New Sun book 1 Start here
6. 1981: The Shadow Of The Torturer
by Wolfe, Gene
- On the same lists
The sun has dimmed, the Earth is cooler and has been transformed in wondrous ways.
'The Shadow of the Torturer' is the first book in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun tetralogy. Narrated by Severian, a member of the Guild of Torturers, the...
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7. Rainbows End
by Vernor Vinge
- Same author
Rainbows End, for all it sounds like the title of a children's fantasy book, is some incredibly relevant sci fi. Sitting at number eight on our top 25 hard science...
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Mars Trilogy book 1 Start here
8. Red Mars (1994)
by Robinson, Kim Stanley
- On the same lists
A mission is launched to terraform Mars in this scientific epic.
In 2026, a hundred colonists set off on the first long voyage to Mars. Among them are John Boone, the first man to walk on the planet, and his rival...
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The Ender Quintet book 1 Start here
9. Ender's Game (1986)
by Card, Orson Scott
- On the same lists
The first in a famous series that seems to become more literary as its characters age. Follows a child prodigy and in the process makes the reader think about war, the means to war, and even loneliness.
Earth has survived two invasions by an insect-like alien race, and the International Fleet is training the most gifted children to lead the next defence. Six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is...
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10. The Aleutian Trilogy
by Gwyneth Jones
- On the same lists
Gwyneth Jones's first novel for adults, Divine Endurance, set in a richly imagined South East Asia, marked the arrival of a novelist intent on using science fiction to explore the...
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11. The Affirmation
by Priest, Christopher
- On the same lists
In contemporary Britain, a young man called Peter Sinclair loses his job and his girlfriend, and retreats to a remote cottage where he sets out to write his life story....
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The Sparrow book 1 Start here
12. The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
- On the same lists
Few debut novels since Neuromancer have had the impact that Mary Doria Russell achieved with The Sparrow. After this novel and its sequel, Children of God, she turned to writing...
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13. The Time Ships
by Stephen Baxter
- On the same lists
1995 was the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and in celebration Stephen Baxter produced one of the best novels in his long and...
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Fall Revolution book 1 Start here
14. The Star Fraction
by Ken Macleod
- On the same lists
Ken MacLeod was a lifelong friend of Iain Banks, and their interest in science fiction was parallel, though MacLeod's interest in Trotskyist politics gave his work a harder political edge...
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15. The Child Garden
by Geoff Ryman
- On the same lists
Imagine a London that has become semi-tropical, where people photosynthesise, where cancer has been cured but the human lifespan has been cut in half. Imagine a place where viruses are...
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16. Bring The Jubilee
by Ward Moore
- On the same lists
Science fiction likes to play with history. Look how fragile our world is, just one small change there, or there, or there, and things would be ever so much worse....
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17. The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
- On the same lists
An award winning, Canadian novel that explores themes of women in subjugation and agency in a futuristic theocracy.
Throughout its history, one of the strongest and most interesting aspects of science fiction has been its use in satire. And this is just about the most stunning of contemporary...
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Hyperion Cantos book 1 Start here
18. Hyperion
by Simmons, Dan
- On the same lists
So most of this series is in fact, not Dying Earth but it is a pinnacle of science fiction. The Poet's Tale: Hyperion Cantos in the first novel of Hyperion is a part of the Dying Earth sub-genre and it is the connection the readers have from Earth to the strange new universe of Hyperion.
A grand intelligent space opera tale that also tells a series of very personal tales. This juxtaposition between epic and the personal gives real life to the story. The whole...
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The Forever War book 1 Start here
19. The Forever War (1976)
by Haldeman, Joe
- On the same lists
In this novel, time travel is a kind of side effect of space travel at near light speeds.
William Mandella is a physics student drafted into an elite force to fight an alien enemy on the far side of the galaxy. Travel between the front lines takes a...
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Hainish Cycle book 4
20. The Left Hand Of Darkness (1970)
by Guin, Ursula K. Le
- On the same lists
Pacifism and a anarchy—both have merits.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin won the 1970 Nebula Award for Best Novel.One of the best examples of science fiction in the genre.
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Imperial Radch book 1 Start here
21. Ancillary Justice (2014)
by Leckie, Ann
- On the same lists
Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie (Book 1 in the Imperial Radch trilogy) won the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
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22. The Stars My Destination
by Alfred Bester
- On the same lists
A mechanic is the sole survivor on a ship that is just a wreck.
He was one hundred and seventy days dying and not yet dead. Gully Foyle is a shipwrecked sailor abandoned out in space, and when ships pass him by without stopping...
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23. Timescape (1981)
by Benford, Gregory
- On the same lists
A novel about ecological issues and scientific experiments that address current events at the time of writing.
In 1998 an ecological catastrophe is poisoning the oceans and the atmosphere. A group of scientists in Cambridge try to send a message back in time using tachyons, particles that...
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24. The Martian Chronicles
by Bradbury, Ray
- On the same lists
A chronology of the human colonization of Mars, after fleeing an atomically devastated Earth, including the conflicts between humans and the native Martians.
Ray Bradbury's science fiction is unlike anything else being written at the time, and that is particularly true of The Martian Chronicles. A collection of linked stories that tell of...
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Ready Player One book 1 Start here
25. Ready Player One: A Novel
by Cline, Ernest
- On the same lists
Not 'strictly' a LitRPG novel, but Ready Player One has a lot of elements that make up an LITRPG book, those being the in-game sequences. This is not only a...
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Space Odyssey book 1 Start here
26. 2001 A Space Odyssey
by Clarke, Arthur C.
- On the same lists
This novel is an epic story, a story in which two astronauts must fight for their lives, against an extraordinary computer named HAL.
The classic science fiction novel that captures and expands on the vision of Stanley Kubrick’s immortal film—and changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas...
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27. 2010: The City & The City
by Miéville, China
- On the same lists
Imagine two cities that share the exact same geographic space, but do not interact with one another under any circumstances. Unless the government authorities grant permission, that is. If citizens...
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28. The Man In The High Castle
by Dick, Philip K.
- On the same lists
A novel where Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan win WWII.
Philip K. Dick was one of the most idiosyncratic and successful writers in science fiction. Okay, he's probably better known these days for all the films that have been based...
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29. Solaris
by Lem, Stanislaw
- On the same lists
A trek across an alien planet is also a coming of age story.
Psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives at a research station hovering over the ocean-covered planet Solaris and finds it nearly deserted: his mentor is dead, and the two surviving scientists seem to...
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30. Falling Free (1989)
by Bujold, Lois Mcmaster
- On the same lists
A long running and award winning series that mixes politics, romance, medical ethics, personal identity, and hierarchies.
The quaddies are a generation of people engineered by the corporation GalacTech to work in zero gravity, with four arms and no legs, and they are treated as company property....
Matches come from series and authors, from the lists the books share, and from the books readers open together. They are rebuilt every night. Back to A Fire Upon The Deep.
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