Books like Ender's Game (1986)
30 science fiction books to read after Ender's Game (1986), by Card, Orson Scott, the closest match first.
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The Ender Quintet book 2
1. Speaker For The Dead (1987)
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same series
- Same author
Humans, pequinios, and the Hive Queen must find a way to live together.
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card won the 1987 Nebula Award for Best Novel
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The Ender Quintet book 3
2. Xenocide
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same series
- Same author
The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the heart of a child named Gloriously Bright. On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos...
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The Ender Quintet book 4
3. Children Of The Mind
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same series
- Same author
Achieves and delivers more than almost anything else within the science fiction genre, Ender's Game is a contemporary classic - New York Times 'Full of surprises...Intense is the word for...
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4. Ender Series
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same author
- On the same lists
Ever read a book that is good in spite of its author's controversial reputation? Card has landed himself in a lot of hot water for his political commentary, primarily driven...
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5. The Redemption Of Christopher Columbus
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same author
Why is it that fundamentalists Christians who don't believe in things like caffeine and alcohol always have the most fantastic imaginations? Orson Scott Card, everyone's favorite Mormon (and trust me,...
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6. 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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The Commonwealth Saga book 1 Start here
7. Pandora's Star
by Hamilton, Peter F.
- On the same lists
Hummanity can live forever by uploading themselves into new bodies.
The Commonwealth Saga is a vast, sprawling space opera that is spread over several novels and short stories. In a precursor to the main series, Misspent Youth, a rejuvenation procedure...
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Firefall book 1 Start here
8. Blindsight
by Peter Watts
- On the same lists
A group of freaks (who are also astronauts) are sent on a one way mission to investigate a mysterious object that appears at the edge of human space. Atmospheric and creepy.
This novel has been hailed as one of the best hard sf stories written this century. It's an awesome novel, packed with invention and new ideas and challenges to the...
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The Sprawl book 1 Start here
9. 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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10. Keeper Of Dreams
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same author
Keeper of Dreams is a short story collection by Orson Scott Card. It contains twenty-two stories by Card which do not appear in his collection Maps in a Mirror. This...
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11. First Meetings In Ender's Universe
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same author
First Meetings is a collection by Orson Scott Card that includes the original novelette Ender's Game and three stories about the characters' first meetings.
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12. A War Of Gifts
by Card, Orson Scott
- Same author
At the Battle School, there is only one purpose, only one curriculum: the strategy and tactics of war. The children are drawn from all nations, all races, all religions. There...
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13. Synners
by Pat Cadigan
- On the same lists
Synners are jacked-in outlaws, hooked on the astonishing worlds of virtual space as an escape from the grim, depressing industrial reality around them. But, hot-wired in to cyberspace, they have...
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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book 1 Start here
14. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
- On the same lists
It began as a radio series on the BBC. It was quickly adapted for television (with many of the same cast), and much later there came a film version (though...
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Oxford Time Travel book 1 Start here
15. Doomsday Book (1993)
by Willis, Connie
- On the same lists
In 2054, Oxford historians send students back in time to study the past. Kivrin Engle, a young historian, is sent to the English countryside in 1320. But a technician falls...
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Zones Of Thought book 1 Start here
16. A Fire Upon The Deep
by Vernor Vinge
- On the same lists
The first book in the Zones of Thought series and tells the tale of a galactic war. In the story the mind's potential is determined by its location in space.
Set thousands of years into the future, the universe is inhabited by various races, including super-intelligent entities in the Transcend and the simple creatures and technology of the Unthinking Depths....
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17. Red Rising (not Magic, But Hunger Games Survival Meets School Setting With Some Fantasy Elements)
by Brown, Pierce
- On the same lists
Books in this sub-genre focus almost entirely on magic, but Red Rising stands in stark contrast to that. Part dystopia, part sci-fi fantasy, Red Risingfocuses on the story of a...
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18. 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
19. 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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Takeshi Kovacs book 1 Start here
20. Altered Carbon
by Morgan, Richard K.
- On the same lists
Humans can transfer their conciousness into new bodies. This sets up a detective style story about a murder.
After dying in a particularly gruesome death, ex UN-envoy Takeshi Kovacs wakes up to find himself "re-sleeved" into a fresh body with a job offer: find who killed Laurens Bancroft...
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21. Blood Music
by Bear, Greg
- On the same lists
A biotechnologist hides his biological computer creation in his body, but then they multiply and evolve. One of the first Sci Fi stories to treat DNA as a computational system that can be modified.
If Xenogenesis explores the emergence of posthumanity through exogamy, Blood Music explores it through infection. A renegade biotechnologist faces having his research shut down, so he injects himself with the...
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Mars Trilogy book 1 Start here
22. 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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23. 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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24. The Windup Girl (2010)
by Bacigalupi, Paolo
- On the same lists
In a future Bangkok, walled in against rising seas and kept alive by a ruthless seed bank, the world's calories are controlled by a few giant corporations. Anderson Lake poses...
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Revelation Space book 1 Start here
25. Revelation Space
by Alastair Reynolds
- On the same lists
A complex novel that postulates many different lifeforms who struggle against ancient, machine-like intelligences seeking to destroy all new organic life.
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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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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Sleepless book 1 Start here
27. Beggars In Spain
by Nancy Kress
- On the same lists
How much more could you do if you didn't have to sleep? That's the simple question that starts this superb trilogy.In this near future world, a philosophy that is becoming...
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Nanotech book 1 Start here
28. Queen City Jazz
by Kathleen Ann Goonan
- On the same lists
Of course, we like to imagine that we won’t change; but nothing is going to stop the environment around us changing, and that is inevitably going to have an effect...
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29. Lilith's Brood
by Butler, Octavia E.
- On the same lists
Science fiction isnât always meant to be comfortable or easy reading. Quite the opposite, any literature so based on ideas must challenge the reader, make them think differently (if only...
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30. Tales Of The Dying Earth
by Vance, Jack
- On the same lists
A series, and the reason there is a Dying Earth sub-genre.
Tale of the Dying Earth truly stands as one of the greatest works ever penned. Everything that's good and bad about the human condition is eloquently expressed within this tale....
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 Ender's Game (1986).
The shortlist
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