Books like Babel-17 (1967)
30 science fiction books to read after Babel-17 (1967), by Delany, Samuel R., the closest match first.
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1. Dhalgren
by Delany, Samuel R.
- Same author
NOTE: THIS IS #26 on the TOP 100 LIST. The first 1-25 entries are found on THE TOP 25 BEST SCIENCE FICTION LIST. Dhalgren is one of the peculiarities of...
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2. The Disappearance
by Philip Wylie
- On the same lists
The apocalypse here is kind of personal. The world's just fine to start with, but... From one moment to the next all the women disappear from the world of men—and...
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3. Transit
by Edmund Cooper
- On the same lists
First published published in 1964, this novel it hasn't lost anything of its appeal 40+ years later, mainly because its themes are timeless. Two men and two women are abducted...
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The Magicians book 1 Start here
4. The Magicians
by Grossman, Lev
- On the same lists
A prequel novel about a high school senior who is admitted to a school for gifted children, for a magical education in upstate New York. A typical quest story that turns dark. Things are not black and white in this world and the characters are psychologically rich.
School fantasy is often aimed at children, and it's very successful at hitting that market. It's much harder to appeal exclusively to adults, and that's where The Magicians shines. Rather...
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Big Planet book 1 Start here
5. Big Planet
by Vance, Jack
- On the same lists
A craft crash lands on the Big Planet and the survivors face a 40,000 mile trek across a dangerous landscape.
Big Planet is BIG. Really big, but with a surface gravity about equal to that of Earth. It was colonized by a whole bunch of colorful characters, ranging from rebels,...
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Null-a book 1 Start here
6. World Of Null-a
by A. E. Van Vogt
- On the same lists
Protagonist lives in one body and then dies, and awakens in another.
Aristotelian logic for dummies 101: "X results of necessity from Y and Z if it would be impossible for X to be false when Y and Z are true." Clear...
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7. The Deep Range
by Clarke, Arthur C.
- On the same lists
Most of the population is now fed from the sea--whale and plankton farms. Plausible adventures about the mysteries of the sea.
While we associate Clarke with stories about, or set in, space, this one's set underwater in the 21st century. Oceans are fenced off like fields and whales are cattle. Wardens...
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8. The Jupiter Legacy
by Harry Harrison
- On the same lists
A.K.A. The Plague From Space or The Jupiter Plague. The explorer ship Pericles returns from Jupiter. The single surviving crewman is infected with a deadly plague that has the potential...
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9. Seahorse In The Sky
by Edmund Cooper
- On the same lists
Like his later novel, Transit, this here is a story of—what looks like—an abduction of a bunch of humans by aliens (in this instance from the interior of a transatlantic...
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10. Macroscope
by Anthony, Piers
- On the same lists
Probably the most significant of Piers Anthony's SF (he did mostly fantasy). The Macroscope floats in orbit; it's like a super Hubble Space Telescope, only that it doesn't use light,...
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11. The Dragon Masters
by Vance, Jack
- On the same lists
On the rocky planet Aerlith, humans have managed to gain a spotty foothold. They live in the valleys with fertile soil and fight occasional battles for territory and general dominance....
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Lord Valentine book 1 Start here
12. Lord Valentine's Castle
by Silverberg, Robert
- On the same lists
First novel in the 'Majipoor' series, comprising a total of 11 novels and novellas. Majipoor is, one might argue, direct offspring of Vance's Big Planet (#3 in this list); a...
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13. The Men In The Jungle
by Norman Spinrad
- On the same lists
On the planet Sangre (Spanish for 'blood') there exists a divided society so brutal that it makes your average Earth-bound slavery society look like a humanitarian enterprise. The sub-class is...
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14. Anthem
by Ayn Rand
- On the same lists
When people hear 'Ayn Rand', they tend to think of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Anthem is a David to her other Goliaths. It may originally have been conceived as...
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15. Mission To Universe
by Gordon R. Dickson
- On the same lists
This is a classic 'first interstellar journey' story by the amazing Gordon Dickson. Impatient with the bureaucracy who is delaying the launch of the new-technology 'phase ship', (very cool technology!)...
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16. Rewind
by Terry England
- On the same lists
What would it be like if your mind, memories, feelings, identify suddenly ended up in the body of a prepubescent child (no sex change involved)? Well, for 17 people that's...
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A Requiem For Homo Sapiens book 1 Start here
17. Neverness
by David Zindell
- On the same lists
Usually when you think of the 80s you think of bouffant hair, jeans tight enough to threaten a man-s ability to father, and high pitched singers wearing neon colors. Fortunately,...
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Francis Sandow book 1 Start here
18. Isle Of The Dead
by Zelazny, Roger
- On the same lists
The protagonist of this story studies to become a telepath and worldscaper--someone who can create and terraform worlds. In this novel, terraforming is an artform.
Zelazny wrote a few stories about immortals, and Francis Sandow is one of them. He was born in the 20th century and ended up in suspended animation on a spaceship....
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19. The Hercules Text
by Mcdevitt, Jack
- On the same lists
The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been underway for over five decades now. (For real, that is!) Somewhere out there, we thinkhope? fear?there may be life forms, alien but...
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20. Immune Response
by Steve Perry
- On the same lists
Suppose someone financed a project to create a drug-and-virus cocktail that could make people essentially immortal. Pop a capsule of the mix and Bob's your uncle. No more illness, quick...
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21. The Blue World
by Vance, Jack
- On the same lists
A spaceship with a bunch of delinquents crashes on a water-covered planet. The survivors manage to adapt to the circumstances and rebuild a kind of civilization, living on the giant...
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Nifft The Lean book 1 Start here
22. Nifft The Lean
by Shea, Michael
- On the same lists
Nifft was a thief and a rogue. Nifft is dead. This is kind of an epitaph in four short tales. You decide whether you'd ever let Nifft get close to...
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23. Blind Waves
by Steven Gould
- On the same lists
Nifft was a thief and a rogue. Nifft is dead. This is kind of an epitaph in four short tales. You decide whether you'd ever let Nifft get close to...
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24. Neanderthal
by John Darnton
- On the same lists
Neanderthal is John Darnton's thriller in which a team of scientists searches for a surviving Neanderthal people in a hidden valley in Central Asia.
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26. The Jewel-hinged Jaw: Notes On The Language Of Science Fiction
by Delany, Samuel R.
- Same author
Curiously, science fiction writers aren't always the best people to write about science fiction, they're too close to have the perspective that's needed. The result is often rather pedestrian, like...
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27. Nova
by Delany, Samuel R.
- Same author
We've already included one example of what might be called new wave space opera, and in a sense this is another, but it is a very different novel. The novel...
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28. Triton
by Delany, Samuel R.
- Same author
Also published as Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia, the novel was conceived as a response to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Ambiguous Utopia, The Dispossessed. But at the core of...
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29. The Ballad of Beta-2
by Delany, Samuel R.
- Same author
The Star Folk left Earth centuries ago, but two of the twelve generation starships didn't make it. A galactic anthropology student is tasked with figuring out what happened to the two ships, now that faster-than-light travel is possible.
The Star Folk left Earth centuries ago, but two of the twelve generation starships didn't make it. A galactic anthropology student is tasked with figuring out what happened to the...
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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 Babel-17 (1967).
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