Books like Red Planet Blues
25 science fiction books to read after Red Planet Blues, by Sawyer, Robert J., the closest match first.
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Oxford Time Travel book 2
1. To Say Nothing Of The Dog
by Willis, Connie
- On the same lists
This is the first of Willisâ time traveling historians. Ned Henry is looking for something called the bishopâs bird stump in the 1940s, despite the fact that he lives in...
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Robot book 1 Start here
2. The Caves Of Steel
by Asimov, Isaac
- On the same lists
Earth is overpopulated a thousand years from now. Planets outside of our solar system have been colonized and development of robots through the âpositronic brain.â In this new society, only...
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Vorkosigan Saga book 5
3. The Mountains Of Mourning
by Bujold, Lois Mcmaster
- On the same lists
Miles Vorkosigan, the scion of the clan, is sent to a society that puts a price on physical perfection. A baby in the society has been murdered, one with physical...
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Retrieval Artist book 1 Start here
4. The Disappeared: A Retrieval Artist Novel
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- On the same lists
Rusch writes about a new world, set in the future, where the humans and alien races try to coexist in a new society. Thereâs a certain level of tolerance being...
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5. Gun, With Occasional Music
by Jonathan Lethem
- On the same lists
A wry and satiric look at the near-future where animals are a part of society, life is monitored with karma cards, and mind-numbing drugs are widely used. The protagonist is a typical noir investigator with a self-deprecating sense of humour and knack for satire.
Set in the future, the humans of the world interact with animals who have developed the ability to speak and interact in society. Inevitably some of them have become bad...
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6. A Philosophical Investigation: A Novel
by Philip Kerr
- On the same lists
What happens when neurologists can test for sociopath tendencies? A list of names and a new serial killer.
Set in the “near future,” scientists have discovered the genetic disposition that makes men more likely to exhibit violent behavior. The breakthrough is in response to an outbreak of serial...
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Jay Omega book 1 Start here
7. Bimbos Of The Death Sun
by Sharyn Mccrumb
- On the same lists
When a scholar, Dr. James Owen Mega, has his book accepted for publication, he never realizes that his academic tome is about to become a best-seller through the unfortunate name...
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Dirk Gently book 1 Start here
8. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams
- On the same lists
A convoluted and twisted book involving murdering ghosts, time travel, and interconnectedness.
Dirk Gently, who was a minor character in one of Adamsâ other works, becomes a private eye in this novel. The character is not the type who checks DNA and...
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9. When Gravity Fails
by George Alec Effinger
- On the same lists
Also a Cyberpunk novel, this one takes place in 22nd century North Africa, where a down-and-out detective must undergo a sophisticated surgery to catch a killer who has been modified with the personality and abilities of every known psychopath.
Marîd Audran is something of a lone wolf in this futuristic book. The current superpowers have foundered and the Middle East is now prospering. The story is set in this...
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Zachary Nixon Johnson book 1 Start here
10. The Plutonium Blonde
by John Zakour
- On the same lists
This novel is set in 2057, though it easily could have been set 100 years before. Itâs a fairly classic private eye novel with science fiction and humor galore. Zachary...
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11. The Elysium Commission
by Modesitt, L. E.
- On the same lists
As this galaxy becomes more crowded, scientists begin to look for other ways to allow population to continue to grow. They create a universe next to our own; however, in...
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Blue Ant book 1 Start here
12. Pattern Recognition
by Gibson, William
- On the same lists
One of the few books on this list that is set in the current day, Cayce Pollard reacts to logos and corporate advertising in an allergic fashion. So itâs no...
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13. Doorways In The Sand
by Zelazny, Roger
- On the same lists
The book reads more like a science fiction caper, where art is stolen and must be retrieved. In this case alien civilizations have swapped their star-stone for some of the...
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Greg Mandel book 1 Start here
14. The Mandel Files, Volume 1: Mindstar Rising & A Quantum Murder
by Hamilton, Peter F.
- On the same lists
Greg Mandel is an ex-Army officer in Britain. He was part of an experimental group that provided members with intuition and psychic powers. Now out of the Army, Great makes...
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15. Hal Clement's Needle
by Hal Clement
- On the same lists
The Hunter is a small gel-type creature that lives inside of its host. Two such creatures have crashed their ship on Earth. They escaped separately and now the Hunter, who...
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16. Hard-boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World: A Novel
by Murakami, Haruki
- On the same lists
Clearly influenced by hard-boiled detective fiction and cyberpunk fiction this novel does not quite fit into the hard-boiled schematic, but it is a detective story combined with science fiction that descends into an underworld to find a man's mind.
This book, originally published in Japanese, tells two distinct narratives. The science fiction narrative is told by a human with data processing capabilities. This merger of man and machine is...
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17. Www: Wake
by Sawyer, Robert J.
- Same author
The delicious irony (or coincidence? I never know which one is appropriate and I blame Alanis Morrisette and that terrible song entirely for this confusion) about this novel is that...
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Artificial Reality Division book 1 Start here
18. Tea From An Empty Cup
by Pat Cadigan
- On the same lists
You'd think that Artificial Reality couldn't kill you, since legally speaking, everything is a lie in AR anyway. But that seems to be just exactly what happened - in a...
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Revelation Space book 2
19. Chasm City
by Alastair Reynolds
- On the same lists
Chasm City is the story of what happens when utopia is hit by an epidemic. The story is told through the eyes of Tanner Mirabel, who decides to travel to...
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20. The Automatic Detective
by A. Lee Martinez
- On the same lists
An indestructible robot gives up world domination in favour of driving a cab—but soon is on an quest to find his kidnapped neighbours.
This novel is one of the most unique robot stories in existence, covering not just robots and science fiction, but stirring in the perfect dosage of detective, noir style. If...
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Alex Benedict book 1 Start here
21. A Talent For War
by Mcdevitt, Jack
- On the same lists
Jack McDevitt’s wonderful science fiction mystery rides the line that defines Military Science Fiction very tight. The story, about Alex Benedict’s search for the nature of his uncle’s secret, takes...
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22. The Demolished Man
by Alfred Bester
- On the same lists
Psychic police chase down criminals.
In a future society, extrasensory perception exists in a fraction of the world’s population. There are 3 levels of ESP (or espers as they are called in the book.) They...
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23. Calculating God
by Sawyer, Robert J.
- Same author
Aliens arrive on Earth looking for proof of god. The novel postulates that most alien species will prefer uploading themselves into virtual reality.
Aliens arrive on Earth looking for proof of god. The novel postulates that most alien species will prefer uploading themselves into virtual reality.
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24. Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
by Dick, Philip K.
- On the same lists
A novel that contains images that are Retro Futuristic, but is also a story about a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Set in a post-Nuclear War society, the future is pretty bleak. People are being encouraged to leave the planet for parts unknown and are being given an incentive, their own...
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Takeshi Kovacs book 1 Start here
25. 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...
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 Red Planet Blues.
The shortlist
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