Books like Avatar
30 science fiction books to read after Avatar, by James Cameron, the closest match first.
-
1. Terminator 2
by James Cameron
- Same author
- On the same lists
Iconic. It's a word that gets tossed around a lot, but the images found in Terminator 2 are 100% iconic. Arnold Schwartzenegger's return as the Terminator on the side of...
-
2. A Scanner Darkly
by Richard Linklater
- On the same lists
Philip K. Dick. He's a trip, man. He's probably most heady of all the science fiction authors of the 1960s, and adaptations of his work tend to give a thoughtful...
-
3. Interstellar
by Nolan, Christopher
- On the same lists
Christopher Nolan knows what he's doing. In Interstellar, he's taken his love of complex storytelling, and brought it to the vast arena of space-time. The Earth has suffered terrible from...
-
4. Guardians Of The Galaxy
by James Gunn
- On the same lists
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a lot of fun, but none of the other films are nearly as science fictional, or as much fun, as Guardians of the Galaxy. Based...
-
5. Wall-e
by Andrew Stanton
- On the same lists
The first decade of the 21st Century could be called the decade when Computer Animation finally broke all the way through. WALL*E is one of the most adorable, most thought-provoking,...
-
6. The Substitute
by Ole Bornedal
- On the same lists
Why is it Danish films are so dark? Even the comedies. Even the hot summer blockbuster science fiction films. That's what The Substitute is, and it's also one of the...
-
7. Ghostbusters (2016)
by Paul Feig
- On the same lists
All the fury of the all-female remake of the 1985 classic Ghostbusters melted away the second the team shows up on-screen. Not actually a remake, Kirsten Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie...
-
8. Moon
by Duncan Jones
- On the same lists
Sam Rockwell. That's basically the entire movie. Sam Rockwell, an actor who may be the best genre performer in the world today. He's so funny, so active, so able to...
-
9. Serenity
by Joss Whedon
- On the same lists
Many claim that Joss Whedon's Firefly is the greatest science fiction television show of all-time. Cancelled even before a full season aired, a massive fanbase was clamoring for a feature...
-
10. The Avengers
by Joss Whedon
- On the same lists
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has changed the way movies are enjoyed, and The Avengers is a masterpiece of a comic movie. Featuring the team-up for all the previous MCU faces,...
-
11. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
by Michel Gondry
- On the same lists
Are we our memories? If you go messing with those memories, are you still the same person? If you're lost to the memory of the one you love, did they...
-
12. Arrival
by Denis Villeneuve
- On the same lists
Adapting short fiction has yielded some of the finest science fiction films of all-time, like They Live! and Charly. Arrivial is based on a short story by the amazing Ted...
-
13. Iron Man
by Jon Favreau
- On the same lists
The Marvel Cinematic Universe started with a bang named Robert Downey, Jr.. When he was cast as Tony Stark in Iron Man, a lot of folks wondered what the plan...
-
14. Mad Max: Fury Road
by George Miller
- On the same lists
Action! That is what the Mad Max franchise has always been about. Sometimes described as what would happen if James Bond had survived the fall of humanity, the Mad Max...
-
15. Her
by Spike Jonze
- On the same lists
The idea of a digital assistant coming to life isn't new. In fact, the legendary anime series Chobits is just that story, but Spike Jonze's Her takes the idea and...
-
16. The 5th Element
- On the same lists
Sometimes you need a stylish, fun, over-the-top sci-fi action flick like The 5th Element. The 5th Element is full of bizarre characters and an even more bizarre world. It's great...
-
17. Gattaca
- On the same lists
In a world increasingly becoming influenced by genetic research, Gattaca has some terrifying relevance: what if you could be distinguished, not on the bases of race or color, but by...
-
18. Inception
by Nolan, Christopher
- On the same lists
A man, highly skilled in entering people's dreams to extract secret information, is offered a chance to implant an idea in another man's head, a practice known as inception.
-
19. Akira
by Otomo, Katsuhiro
- On the same lists
Welcome to Neo-Tokyo, built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated by a blast of unknown origin that triggered World War III. The lives of two streetwise teenage friends, Tetsuo...
-
20. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
by Spielberg, Steven
- On the same lists
Humans make contact with aliens after witnessing the arrival of flying saucers from another world.
-
21. The Martian
by Ridley Scott
- On the same lists
Mark Watney is an astronaut. Oh yeah, he also got left behind on Mars. That's the basic premise for The Martian starring Matt Damon, but really, it's about space-farming, as...
-
22. Treasure Planet
by Ron Clements And John Musker
- On the same lists
Some films are unjustly ignored, and Disney's Treasure Island might be the chief among them. One of the most thrilling animated features Disney has ever produced, it's absolutely beautiful, and...
-
23. V For Vendetta
by James Mcteigue
- On the same lists
Alan Moore hates this movie. The Dark Wizard's comic was a masterpiece, but the film version, which is less about Thatcher's Britain than it is about Bush's America, is a...
-
24. Super 8
by J. J. Abrams
- On the same lists
Super 8 is the best Steven Spielberg movie JJ Abrams ever made. It feels so much like the kind of film Spielberg would have created in the 80s that I...
-
25. Battle Royale
by Kinji Fukasaku
- On the same lists
Japan has been making wonderful science fiction films since before the Second World War. Sadly, those early films were pretty much destroyed in the War, but through the 50s with...
-
26. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
by Rupert Wyatt
- On the same lists
If any one kind of film can be used to define movies since 2000, it's the re-boot. The countless franchises that have been re-imagined, re-considered, re-packaged, and re-launched is starting...
-
27. Eight Legged Freaks
by Ellory Elkayem
- On the same lists
If Fun can be displayed on the screen, Eight-Legged Freaks has to be what it would look like. The story of a town attacked by giant spiders is just about...
-
28. Steamboy
by Otomo, Katsuhiro
- On the same lists
Ah, Steampunk. The anime Steamboy is one of the finest examples of the genre ever put to film. The second film from the director of the legendary anime Akira, Steamboy...
-
29. Iron Sky
by Timo Vuorensola
- On the same lists
There are Nazis on the Moon. Literal surviving Nazis on the Moon. That's the basic premise of Iron Sky, a science fiction comedy satire that skewered every political aspect of...
-
30. Ex Machina
by Alex Garland
- On the same lists
The rise of robot sentience has long been the fodder of sci-fi cinema, but none so chillingly portrayed as in Alex Garland's brilliant psychological thriller, EX MACHINA.Ex Machina is a...
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 Avatar.
The shortlist
Liked Avatar? New releases and the lists readers are opening most, by email.