Books like Desolation Road
28 science fiction books to read after Desolation Road, by Ian Mcdonald, the closest match first.
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1. White Mars
by Brian Aldiss
- On the same lists
It was a time of colour-coded Mars Red, Green, Blue Mars, for instance so it is hardly surprising to find one that offers yet another twist on the spectrum. But...
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2. Martian Time-slip
by Dick, Philip K.
- On the same lists
Just as Ray Bradbury's Mars ignores both contemporary scientific knowledge about Mars and the colourful landscape of the planetary romance in order to create a Mars that is peculiarly his...
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3. Moving Mars (1995)
by Bear, Greg
- On the same lists
Casseia Majumdar grows up in a powerful family on a Mars that is settled, self-governing and increasingly at odds with Earth. As a young politician she is drawn into the...
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Revelation Space book 3
4. Redemption Ark
by Alastair Reynolds
- On the same lists
The great wall is a massive construction, large enough to enclose an entire city, and the atmosphere above it. The wall encloses the base of the Conjoiners, a group that...
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5. Sand Of Mars
by Clarke, Arthur C.
- On the same lists
Back to a Mars that draws on contemporary scientific knowledge of the red planet. In this version, Mars is little more than a research establishment, as a very small colony...
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6. Space Machine, The
by Priest, Christopher
- On the same lists
One of the signs of how influential H.G. Wells was in the history of science fiction can be seen in the number of later writers who have produced sequels to...
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7. Red Dust: A Path Through China
by Ma Jian
- On the same lists
The revival of interest by NASA in sending missions to Mars in the early 1990s kickstarted a revival of interest in the planet as a setting for science fiction, with...
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8. Rose For Ecclesiastes
by Zelazny, Roger
- On the same lists
This novelette is one of the best works of fiction that Roger Zelazny wrote. It concerns a poet who visits Mars to learn the language of the Martians. The Martians...
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9. Voyage To The Red Planet
by Terry Bisson
- On the same lists
There aren't that many funny novels about Mars, but this is one of them. A satire on contemporary America and particularly on Hollywood, a spoof of many old fashioned sf...
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10. Aelita
by Alexei Tolstoy
- On the same lists
Written in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution, this is one of the classics of Soviet science fiction. A pair of human adventurers arrive on Mars and discover an...
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Space Trilogy book 1 Start here
11. Out Of The Silent Planet
by Lewis, C. S.
- On the same lists
Dr Ransom is kidnapped by Weston and Devine and spirited away to the planet Malacandra, where they plan to sacrifice him to the alien sorns. When they arrive on Malacandra,...
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12. The Sword Of Rhiannon
by Leigh Brackett
- On the same lists
An unlikely hero is plunged into Mars' past.
Leigh Brackett was the queen of the planetary romance, indeed her vivid and highly coloured work practically defined the form. She set many of her stories on the same Mars,...
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13. Rainbow Mars
by Niven, Larry
- On the same lists
Already in this list we have met H.G. Wellss Martian invaders with their huge heads and tentacles, Ray Bradburys Martians who can appear just like the family you left at...
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14. No Man Friday
by Rex Gordon
- On the same lists
A lone astronaut stranded on Mars isnt original with The Martian (see above), nearly 60 years earlier the plot was played out in this extraordinary novel.A secret British rocket is...
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15. The Martian Race
by Benford, Gregory
- On the same lists
When the rocket about to launch the first manned mission to Mars blows up at take off, NASA abandons the project. Instead, a $30 billion prize is offered for the...
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16. Mars
by Ben Bova
- On the same lists
This was the first in what became Ben Bovas huge and on-going Grand Tour sequence of novels detailing human exploration of the Solar System. In this novel six men and...
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Jean Le Flambeur book 1 Start here
17. By Hannu Rajaniemi:the Quantum Thief [hardcover]
by Hannu Rajaniemi
- On the same lists
If you want a Martian society now that is as flamboyant and as varied as the old planetary romances, then your best bet is the digital extravagance of a post-human...
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Luna book 1 Start here
18. Luna: New Moon
by Ian Mcdonald
- Same author
Ian McDonald's diptych, Luna: New Moon and its forthcoming sequel, Luna: Wolf Moon, is the first full-blooded description of a lunar colony that science fiction has seen for decades. It's...
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19. River Of Gods
by Ian Mcdonald
- Same author
The future is here, William Gibson once said, it's just not evenly distributed. That unevenness of distribution is especially apparent in what we still call the Third World, those countries...
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Luna book 2
20. Wolf Moon
by Ian Mcdonald
- Same author
Wolf Moon is the second Luna novel by Ian McDonald, in which the five families who run the Moon fight for control.
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21. Brasyl
by Ian Mcdonald
- Same author
There are three different story lines and sets of characters that will eventually converge in interesting ways. Spoiler, the multiverse comes into play in a big way with an Amazon frog.
There are three different story lines and sets of characters that will eventually converge in interesting ways. Spoiler, the multiverse comes into play in a big way with an Amazon...
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22. 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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23. A Martian Odyssey
by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum
- On the same lists
A Martian Odyssey was Weinbaums first science fiction story; but within eighteen months he was dead, having written barely enough to make a collection. But with that first story he...
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24. The War Of The Worlds
by Wells, H. G.
- On the same lists
An example of the first contact between humanity and an alien race on the violent end of spectrum and crossing genres with Alien Invasion.
This is the only book on this list that doesn't actually set foot on Mars, so in a sense it's not a Martian novel at all. But it was the...
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25. Stranger In A Strange Land
by Heinlein, Robert A.
- On the same lists
A Martian visits Earth and teaches humanity a few things--some believe it to be a guide to social change.
An expedition to Mars is lost. Twenty five years later, a second expedition finds there is one survivor of the first expedition, Valentine Michael Smith, who was raised by Martians....
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26. The Martian
by Weir, Andy
- On the same lists
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Brilliant . . . a celebration of human ingenuity [and] the purest example of real-science sci-fi for many years . . . utterly compelling.”—The...
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Mars Trilogy book 1 Start here
27. 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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Barsoom book 1 Start here
28. A Princess Of Mars
by Burroughs, Edgar Rice
- On the same lists
In the latter years of the 19th century, astronomers detected lines on the surface of Mars, and before long these were being identified as irrigation canals, suggesting notm only that...
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 Desolation Road.
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