Books like Old Man's War
30 science fiction books to read after Old Man's War, by John Scalzi, the closest match first.
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1. Old Man’s War Series
by John Scalzi
- Same series
- Same author
- On the same lists
Got popularity? I don't know if you can find a more popular science fiction writer right now. He's socially astute, spot on with his commentary and is nearly too cool...
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Old Man's War book 4
2. Zoe S Tale
by John Scalzi
- Same series
- Same author
Zoe's Tale is the fourth novel in Scalzi's Old Man's War series, and although, it's not specifically marketed to young adults, it's the perfect introduction to the genre for young...
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Old Man's War book 6
3. The End Of All Things
by John Scalzi
- Same series
- Same author
Humans expanded into space... only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a...
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Old Man's War book 7
4. The Shattering Peace
by John Scalzi
- Same series
- Same author
A decade after the treaty that ended the wars between the Colonial Union, Earth and the alien Conclave, an asteroid holding the 50,000-person Unity Colony disappears from space. Gretchen Trujillo,...
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Old Man's War book 2
5. The Ghost Brigades
by John Scalzi
- Same series
- Same author
From the back cover: The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect...
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Old Man's War book 5
6. The Human Division
by John Scalzi
- Same series
- Same author
B Team leader Lieutenant Harry Wilson counters hostile alien forces, angry humans and unpredictable elements from the universe in order to protect the interests of the Colonial Union.
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Spin book 1 Start here
7. Spin
by Robert Charles Wilson
- On the same lists
The stars go out—replaced by an alien-made barrier that slows the passage of time on Earth and the danger the sun poses comes ever closer.
One night, when he is 12 years old, Tyler Dupree and two friends witness all the stars in the sky suddenly disappearing. It turns out that a membrane has been...
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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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9. Head On
by John Scalzi
- Same author
Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent's head and carry it through...
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10. When the Moon Hits Your Eye
by John Scalzi
- Same author
One day the Moon turns into a ball of cheese, and every piece of moon rock on Earth with it. John Scalzi follows an ensemble through a single lunar cycle,...
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11. 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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12. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
by Verne, Jules
- On the same lists
The classic example.
When Hugo Gernsback wanted to define "scientifiction" in the very first issue of Amazing, he called it the "Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells type of story". It puts...
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Storyteller book 2
13. Cry Of The Wind
by Sue Harrison
- On the same lists
We all know what happens when aliens invade: there's a big fight and then the aliens are driven off, or humanity is reduced to servitude. Well, no. We've got enough...
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14. Contacting Aliens: An Illustrated Guide To David Brin's Uplift Universe
by Brin, David
- On the same lists
When the black monolith appears in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001, A Space Odyssey, or the demons in Childhood's End, that is Uplift. But what if humanity has reached into space...
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15. The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Chabon, Michael
- On the same lists
What if the State of Israel was destroyed? They would live in Alaska.
In this book, Chabon created a world where Israel had never been founded after World War II. Instead the state of displaced Jews is located in Sitka, Alaska. Chabon used...
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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book 1 Start here
16. 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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17. 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
18. 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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19. Starship Troopers
by Heinlein, Robert A.
- On the same lists
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. ...
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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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The Space Merchants book 1 Start here
21. The Space Merchants
by Pohl, Frederik
- On the same lists
In his pioneering study of science fiction, New Maps of Hell, Kingsley Amis argued that The Space Merchants was possibly the best science fiction novel ever written. In the fifty-odd...
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The Commonwealth Saga book 1 Start here
22. 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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23. Slaughterhouse-five
by Kurt Vonnegut
- On the same lists
Billy Pilgrim was unstuck in time. It sounds like a fairly conventional time travel story. But this is Kurt Vonnegut, and nothing he wrote was ever conventional. In fact, the...
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24. The Rediscovery Of Man
by Cordwainer Smith
- On the same lists
Practically all of Cordwainer Smithâs fiction belongs within a future history that starts just a few years from now and extends for tens of thousands of years into the future....
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26. Dying Inside
by Silverberg, Robert
- On the same lists
Despite his credentials championing hard, rational science fiction, John W. Campbell was a fervent believer in psi powers. Perhaps because of that, whenever telepathy appeared in science fiction, as in...
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The Ender Quintet book 1 Start here
27. Ender's Game (1986)
by Card, Orson Scott
- On the same lists
The first in a famous series that seems to become more literary as its characters age. Follows a child prodigy and in the process makes the reader think about war, the means to war, and even loneliness.
Earth has survived two invasions by an insect-like alien race, and the International Fleet is training the most gifted children to lead the next defence. Six-year-old Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is...
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28. 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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Nanotech book 1 Start here
29. 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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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 Old Man's War.
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