Books like The Iron Heel
30 science fiction books to read after The Iron Heel, by Jack London, the closest match first.
-
1. We
by Yevgeny Zamyatin
- On the same lists
We was written in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and though Zamyatin was himself a Bolshevik, the novel expressed his disquiet at the structuring of society that the...
-
2. The Skylark Series
by E. E. Smith
- On the same lists
The great innovation in American science fiction during the 1920s was the invention of the space opera, and that was largely down to E.E. "Doc" Smith. Sometime around 1916 he...
-
The Herland book 1 Start here
3. Herland
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- On the same lists
Towards the end of the 19th century a big movement for women's suffrage started up on both sides of the Atlantic. Accompanying the political campaign, there were many stories that...
-
4. A Voyage To Arcturus
by David Lindsay
- On the same lists
Science fiction has produced some pretty weird novels in its time, but there aren't many that can match A Voyage to Arcturus. It has had a major influence on writers...
-
5. Metropolis
by Thea Von Harbou
- On the same lists
This is the novelisation of the film that Thea von Harbou wrote with her husband, Fritz Lang. It was the first feature-length science fiction film, the most expensive film made...
-
6. Deluge
by S. Fowler Wright
- On the same lists
The idea of a drowned England had been a commonplace in British scientific romances since at least After London by Richard Jeffries, but it received its finest expression in Fowler...
-
7. The Color Out Of Space
by Lovecraft, H. P.
- On the same lists
Throughout the 1920s and 30s, the science fiction and weird fiction that appeared in American genre magazines was often hard to tell apart. Weird fiction writers often used science fiction...
-
When Worlds Collide book 1 Start here
8. When Worlds Collide
by Philip Wylie
- On the same lists
Not many science fiction writers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but Kipling was the first member of this exclusive club. His finest science fiction is a pair of...
-
9. With The Night Mail
by Rudyard Kipling
- On the same lists
Not many science fiction writers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but Kipling was the first member of this exclusive club. His finest science fiction is a pair of...
-
10. It Can’t Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis
- On the same lists
And here we have another Nobel Prize winning author of science fiction, though in this case Lewis flirted with genre in only one novel. But that novel is a classic....
-
11. The Purple Cloud
by M. P. Shiel
- On the same lists
A so called last-man novel. A single man has survived and most of the novel are his meditations on humanity and the universe.
M.P. Shiel was a prolific author of excitable stories for the popular magazines of the day: he was, among other things, the person who gave us The Yellow Peril. But...
-
12. The Hampdenshire Wonder
by J D Beresford
- On the same lists
This was the first novel to fully explore the consequences of the birth of homo superior. Victor Stott is born weak and awkward, with an enlarged head, and at first,...
-
13. A Martian Odyssey
by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum
- On the same lists
A Martian Odyssey was Weinbaums first science fiction story; but within eighteen months he was dead, having written barely enough to make a collection. But with that first story he...
-
The Age Of Discovery book 2
14. The New World
by Stackpole, Micheal A.
- On the same lists
A startling look at the role of government, including eugenics.
The three grandchildren of the royal cartographer Qiro Anturasi, a mapmaker whose magic can reshape reality, must save their world from destruction. Nalenyr is besieged on all sides by those...
-
15. The War Of The Worlds
by Wells, H. G.
- On the same lists
An example of the first contact between humanity and an alien race on the violent end of spectrum and crossing genres with Alien Invasion.
This is the only book on this list that doesn't actually set foot on Mars, so in a sense it's not a Martian novel at all. But it was the...
-
16. Fahrenheit 451
by Bradbury, Ray
- On the same lists
A classic "What if?" story about book banning, happiness, and knowledge.
Everyone loves the idea of the thinking man's fireman (particularly middle aged women who read Fifty Shades of Grey), but that's not why Fahrenheit 451 made it to second on...
-
17. Swastika Night
by Katharine Burdekin
- On the same lists
If there is one overused cliché in science fiction, it is the alternate history novel in which Hitler won the Second World War. But this is a novel about the...
-
Barsoom book 1 Start here
18. A Princess Of Mars
by Burroughs, Edgar Rice
- On the same lists
In the latter years of the 19th century, astronomers detected lines on the surface of Mars, and before long these were being identified as irrigation canals, suggesting notm only that...
-
19. The Machine Stops
- On the same lists
This is a story about dependence on technology. Most humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth and below grand, life is governed by an omnipotent machine.
This short story is the only science fiction that the renowned novelist E.M. Forster ever wrote, but it continues to be read and applauded today. The story was written in...
-
20. The Angel Of The Revolution
by George Griffith
- On the same lists
With the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Europe faced the prospect of a united Germany and a major shift in the delicate balance of power. As a result stories started to...
-
21. The Running Man
by Richard Bachman/stephen King
- On the same lists
Believe it or not, Stephen King didn't only write hokey horror novels that weren't particularly scary, with completely convoluted "why the fuck did the clown turn into an alien-spider" plots....
-
22. The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham
- On the same lists
A Post-Apocalyptic tale where the apocalyptic event is now seen as God's punishment. The society practices a form of fundamentalist Christianity and genetic variance and mutations are considered impure and caused by the Devil.
Another childhood favorite; I felt slightly ripped off that I didn't have any telepathic abilities, despite how hard I tried to communicate to my sister solely using our minds. The...
-
23. Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut
- On the same lists
Cat's Cradle is written in a style that makes me feel like Vonnegut's sitting back with a joint, having a laugh, in on the joke that is life. It reminds...
-
Across The Universe book 1 Start here
24. Across The Universe
by Beth Revis
- On the same lists
Stand up; hold one hand to your chest and the other raised. Repeat after me: "I acknowledge it is not a crime to categorize young adult fiction as dystopian science-fiction,...
-
25. R.u.r.
by Karel Capek
- On the same lists
Czech is hardly a widely spoken language, and in the years immediately after the First World War Czechoslovakia had barely gained its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire which had largely...
-
26. A Canticle For Leibowitz
by Jr., Walter M. Miller
- On the same lists
After a nuclear war monks preserve civilization.
A Canticle for Leibowitz follows the rejuvenation of "civilization" after a devastating nuclear holocaust. It has three distinctive chapters, each one disconnected by centuries, focusing on life at a desert...
-
27. 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...
-
28. 1984
by George Orwell
- On the same lists
A classic novel that is definitively a dystopia.
The words have become so commonplace we hardly realise we are using them: Big Brother is watching you, the Ministry of Truth, Room 101, Newspeak, thoughtcrime. George Orwell gave us...
-
Witch World book 1 Start here
29. Witch World
by Lackey, Andre Norton And Mercedes
- On the same lists
Simon Tregarth is a man on the run from various shadowy ruffians, people he associated with because he was wrongly convicted of working the black market while in the military....
-
30. The Robot Stories
by Asimov, Isaac
- On the same lists
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings,...
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 The Iron Heel.
The shortlist
Liked The Iron Heel? New releases and the lists readers are opening most, by email.