Books like Ringworld (1971)
30 science fiction books to read after Ringworld (1971), by Niven, Larry, the closest match first.
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1. The Ringworld Engineers
by Niven, Larry
- Same series
- Same author
Perhaps the best and most well-known example of the sub-genre, this series is about a ring around a star.
Conversion of hardcopy paperback originally owned bu Boston Public Library. ePub version lacks material that was originally on the first page of many chapters, resulting in numerous discontinuities in the...
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2. The Ringworld Throne
by Niven, Larry
- Same series
- Same author
From back cover Del Rey paperback May 1997: *Come back to the Ringworld... the most astonishing feat of engineering ever encountered. A place of untold technological wonders, home to a...
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3. Ringworld's Children
by Niven, Larry
- Same series
- Same author
"The Ringworld: a landmark engineering achievement, a flat band three million times the surface of the Earth, encircling a distant star. Home to trillions of inhabitants, not all of whom...
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4. Fate Of Worlds: Return From The Ringworld
by Niven, Larry
- Same series
- Same author
Niven's Known Space universe contains a hard science approach to science and the engineering of giant space structures, but does require unobtanium.
Fate of Worlds is a Ringworld novel by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner, in which Louis Wu and the Puppeteers face the end of Known Space.
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5. Mote Series
by Niven, Larry
- Same author
- On the same lists
and Jerry Pournelle. A far future story of first contact after human societies already span hundreds of star systems. This story explores alien biology, society, art and impacts on humanity's economics, politics, and religions.
Starts with A Mote in God's Eye, the award winning first book in the series of 2 with the 3rd book written by one of the authors. Nothing will prepare...
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6. 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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Revelation Space book 1 Start here
7. 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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8. Rainbow Mars
by Niven, Larry
- Same author
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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9. Foundation
by Asimov, Isaac
- On the same lists
Some softer elements, like FTL and antigrav cars, but otherwise a rational series.
Book Flap Description One of the great masterworks of science fiction, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive...
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Firefall book 1 Start here
10. 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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Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book 1 Start here
12. 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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13. 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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The Commonwealth Saga book 1 Start here
14. 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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15. Contact
by Sagan, Carl
- On the same lists
Scientists discover a message from an intelligent source and must travel deep into space to meet it.
In the year 1999 a multinational team of astronauts sets out to discover the secrets of the universe.
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16. To Your Scattered Bodies Go
by Farmer, Philip Jose
- On the same lists
This series can also be considered Science Fiction. Humanity is resurrected (from across all of history) on the banks of a constructed world.
There are some problematic things about this series, but it's an interesting concept and the action scenes are some of the most fun to come out of the 70s. The...
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Spin book 1 Start here
17. 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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18. Stand On Zanzibar
by John Brunner
- On the same lists
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....
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Moties book 2
19. The Gripping Hand
by Niven, Larry
- Same author
The Gripping Hand is the sequel to The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, in which humans must keep the Moties confined without destroying them.
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20. The Long Arm Of Gil Hamilton
by Niven, Larry
- Same author
The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton is a collection of Larry Niven stories about a detective with a psychic arm, set in Known Space.
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Mars Trilogy book 1 Start here
21. 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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22. The Atrocity Exhibition
by J. G. Ballard
- On the same lists
Whenever you put a list of books together, you'll always get disagreements. But this could well be the most controversial choice of all, because J.G. Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition has...
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23. 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....
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Nanotech book 1 Start here
24. 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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Triffids book 1 Start here
25. The Day Of The Triffids
by John Wyndham
- On the same lists
The world changes when a meteor shower leaves most of the world's population blind. The event is augmented by the flesh-eating and mobile plants.
In Billion Year Spree, his epic history of science fiction, Brian Aldiss coined the term "cosy catastrophe" for the sorts of novels that John Wyndham wrote. Well, they are certainly...
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26. Flowers For Algernon (1967)
by Keyes, Daniel
- On the same lists
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes won the 1967 Nebula Award for Best Novel along with Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany. This is the only time since the start of...
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27. 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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28. We Were Liars
by E. Lockhart
- On the same lists
In the early 1920s, the manuscript of Zamiatin's novel, We, was smuggled out of Soviet Russia to be published in the West. One of the people who reviewed that novel...
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Storyteller book 2
29. 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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30. 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...
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 Ringworld (1971).
The shortlist
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