Skip to content

Farnham's Freehold

Books like Farnham's Freehold

30 science fiction books to read after Farnham's Freehold, by Heinlein, Robert A., the closest match first.

  1. The Stand

    1. The Stand

    by King, Stephen

    • On the same lists

    A popular novel, and possibly King's best, is an end-of-the world story caused by the accidental release of a mutating influenza virus that wipes out 99% of humanity.

    You either love him or hate him (and if you do hate him, it's probably because every second sentence is a ridiculous metaphor), but there's no denying that Stephen King...

  2. Planet Of The Apes

    2. Planet Of The Apes

    by Boulle, Pierre

    • On the same lists

    The book that launched a cinematic saga is a version of Xenofiction taking place on another planet where apes are intelligent and civilized.

    In the year 2500, a French journalist joins an expedition to a planet near Betelgeuse and finds a world ruled by intelligent apes, where humans are mute animals kept in...

  3. Empire Of The East

    3. Empire Of The East

    by Saberhagen, Fred

    • On the same lists

    ARDNEH (Automatic Restoration Director, National Executive Headquarters) was a super computer that averted nuclear war by—temporarily; or that was the plan—dicking with the local laws of physics and preventing nuclear...

  4. The Postman

    4. The Postman

    by Brin, David

    • On the same lists

    Made into a much—wrongly!—maligned movie, Postman is set in a post-apocalyptic world, in which the United States has fallen apart into a lawless patchwork of civil disorder. That's what powerful...

  5. The Furies

    5. The Furies

    by Keith Roberts

    • On the same lists

    Dinosaurs popping up everywhere? How about giant, semi-intelligent wasps? In this novel by the late Keith Roberts we get a different kind of menace, unleashed in apparent consequence of the...

  6. Greenhouse Summer

    6. Greenhouse Summer

    by Norman Spinrad

    • On the same lists

    A century hence. Melted Antarctic ice cap and flooded coastlines, drowned cities and low-lying inland areas. Temperatures have risen to making Paris a tropical destination, and Siberia a super-fertile growing...

  7. The White Plague

    7. The White Plague

    by Herbert, Frank

    • On the same lists

    This story is set in Ireland, which doesn't happen in most post-apocalyptic tales. Doesn't happen in most of SF, if the truth be told. Molecular biologist becomes bi-polar as a...

  8. The Drowned World

    8. The Drowned World

    by J. G. Ballard

    • On the same lists

    Remember the fist apocalypse? You don't? I guess you're not all that old then. It's the one with the flood. Heard of it? Noah and the animals and the ship...

  9. The Quiet Earth

    9. The Quiet Earth

    by Craig Harrison

    • On the same lists

    Here's a very cool novel by a New Zealand author, that was made into a pretty good film as well. Geneticist John Hobson wakes up from a nightmare and finds...

  10. Resurrection Day

    10. Resurrection Day

    by Brendan Dubois

    • On the same lists

    The British Empire v2.0? Hard to believe, I know. What could precipitate such an event? Well, if's a nuclear conflict in 1982 between the US and the USSR, which leaves...

  11. The Door Into Summer

    11. The Door Into Summer

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author

    1970. A.D. Daniel Boone Davis is an inventor of household robots, who's been cheated out of his patents and company by a conniving friend and girlfriend, who stop just short...

  12. The Children Of Men

    12. The Children Of Men

    by P.d. James

    • On the same lists

    The ultimate nightmare of the world's males came true in 1994. (In the novel anyway, though there are some suggestions that things are trending that way.) The sperm count of...

  13. Starship Troopers

    13. Starship Troopers

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author
    Hugo winner 1960

    The world government in this future Earth is run by veterans and citizens must earn the right to vote and hold public office with federal service.

    Book Flap Description  A recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against humankind's most frightening enemy. ...

  14. To The Moon

    14. To The Moon

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author

    An award winning novel about a colony that rebels against the Lunar Authority that controls it.

    Science fiction-roman.

  15. Stranger In A Strange Land

    15. Stranger In A Strange Land

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author
    Hugo winner 1962

    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....

  16. Oryx And Crake

    Maddaddam book 1 Start here

    16. Oryx And Crake

    by Margaret Atwood

    • On the same lists

    It's difficult to summarize what this tale is all 'about.' That's maybe the hardest and most challenging aspect of this novel. It starts after the collapse of civilization and focuses...

  17. Lucifer's Hammer

    17. Lucifer's Hammer

    by Larry Niven And Jerry Pournelle

    • On the same lists

    and Jerry Pournelle. Jerry Pournelle. The villainous asteroid has become a common trope of this sub-genre.

    Its anticipated to zip close past Earth, so they send to a space-mission to visit it, and then end up realizing that the damn thing is going to hit us...

  18. Immortality Inc

    18. Immortality Inc

    by Robert Sheckley

    • On the same lists

    Many of those in the Transhumanist camp believe that sooner or later, in a twisted take on the 'reincarnation' mythos, we'll be able to effectively separate minds from bodies and...

  19. Systemic Shock

    Quantrill book 1 Start here

    19. Systemic Shock

    by Dean Ing

    • On the same lists

    Ted Quantrill is a freak: he fastest gun in the West (and probably the world). After the total collapse of Russia, India and China band together (unlikely, I know, but...

  20. Rocket Ship Galileo

    Heinlein Juveniles book 1 Start here

    20. Rocket Ship Galileo

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author

    Three teenagers and an older scientist develop their own atomic rocket, solve their own space problems and blast off for the moon in spite of mysterious setbacks.

  21. Space Cadet

    Heinlein Juveniles book 2

    21. Space Cadet

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author

    A young man reports for the final tests for appointment as a cadet in the Interplanetary Patrol, survives the tests, studies in the school ship, and goes on a regular...

  22. Red Planet

    Heinlein Juveniles book 3

    22. Red Planet

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author

    Jim Marlow and his strange-looking Martian friend Willis were allowed to travel only so far. But one day Willis unwittingly tuned into a treacherous plot that threatened all the colonists...

  23. Farmer In The Sky

    Heinlein Juveniles book 4

    23. Farmer In The Sky

    by Heinlein, Robert A.

    • Same author

    A father and son leave an overpopulated Earth and become colonists on the third moon of Jupiter, Ganymede.

    Farmer In The Sky is a 1950 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a teenaged boy who emigrates with his family to Jupiter's moon Ganymede, which is in...

  24. Footprints Of Thunder

    24. Footprints Of Thunder

    by James F. David

    • On the same lists

    This book was made into a movie, and a pretty good one at that, though by necessity not as complex and in-depth as the book. Crichton does have a habit...

  25. Modern Classics The Death Of Grass

    25. Modern Classics The Death Of Grass

    by John Christopher

    • On the same lists

    Also known as No Blade of Grass, this was one of John Christopher's classic cosy catastrophes, although there is very little that is cosy in this post-apocalyptic tale.In Asia, a...

  26. The Disappearance

    26. 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...

  27. World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War

    27. World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War

    by Max Brooks

    • On the same lists

    The zombie war told as interviews with the survivors, Max Brooks's chilling oral history.

    The Zombie Apocalypse has become one of the most pervasive themes in sf and horror over the last few years, so much so that it has escaped genre and become...

  28. Earth Abides

    28. Earth Abides

    by George R. Stewart

    • On the same lists

    A classic Sci Fi novel where an unexpected pandemic turns into an extinction level event.

    Earth Abides is something of a rarity among the work of George R. Stewart. He wrote mostly biographies and studies of American history, and when he did write fiction, as...

  29. Stand On Zanzibar

    29. Stand On Zanzibar

    by John Brunner

    • On the same lists
    Hugo winner 1969

    In the 1960s, when overpopulation was a common worry for the future, it was often said that the entire population of the world could stand on the Isle of Wight....

  30. The Time Machine

    30. The Time Machine

    by Wells, H. G.

    • On the same lists

    Follow a time traveller into an alien-like future Earth to witness the consequences of humanity's social and biological choices and evolution.

    A mechanical contraption that lets you travel back in time. Classic steampunk from a classic author.

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 Farnham's Freehold.

The shortlist

Liked Farnham's Freehold? New releases and the lists readers are opening most, by email.