Books like Use Of Weapons
30 science fiction books to read after Use Of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks, the closest match first.
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Culture book 1 Start here
1. Consider Phlebas
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
A sprawling series with a well developed society complete with social norms, language, biology, artificial intelligences, and the list goes on.
Banks himself once described the plot of Consider Phlebas as: "a shipwrecked sailor falls in with a gang of pirates and goes in search of buried treasure." And that's precisely...
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Culture book 2
2. Player Of Games
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
Probably the best of Ian Bank's Culture novels. Strong characters and a light-hearted tone to the novel despite the "seriousness" of the actual plot make this an easy, addicting read....
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Culture book 5
3. Excession
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
This novel features spaceships that are sentient.
The only negative accusation that the Culture Novels series receives is that it's too complicated and detailed, with so many AI characters to remember. Now of course, we don't think...
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Culture book 4
4. The State Of The Art
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
A collection of short fiction set in Iain M. Banks's Culture, including the title novella about a Culture contact officer on Earth in the 1970s.
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Culture book 6
5. Inversions
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
A Culture novel set among a pre-industrial people, where a doctor-spy serves a king and learns that outside forces are watching her world. Iain M. Banks tells it in two...
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Culture book 7
6. Look To Windward
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
A Culture novel in which a composer from the Chelgrian people and a visitor with a secret mission both come to the Culture's Orbital, in a story of memory, loss...
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Culture book 9
7. Surface Detail
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
The story of what happens to Hell in a galaxy where humans live without physical form eternally.
A Culture novel about a virtual Hell, built by a civilisation to punish the digital copies of the dead, and a woman who escapes it to take her revenge in...
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Culture book 10
8. The Hydrogen Sonata
by Iain M. Banks
- Same series
- Same author
The tenth Culture novel, a story of an ancient music, a dying civilisation and a war that touches the Culture, from Iain M. Banks.
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Mars Trilogy book 1 Start here
9. 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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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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11. Rainbows End
by Vernor Vinge
- On the same lists
Rainbows End, for all it sounds like the title of a children's fantasy book, is some incredibly relevant sci fi. Sitting at number eight on our top 25 hard science...
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12. Everyone In Silico
by Jim Munroe
- On the same lists
Sticking with cyberpunk, but moving beyond it, we come to Everyone in Silico. Written in 2002, it rose to fame because it's author invoiced the companies mentioned for product placement...
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13. Synners
by Pat Cadigan
- On the same lists
Synners are jacked-in outlaws, hooked on the astonishing worlds of virtual space as an escape from the grim, depressing industrial reality around them. But, hot-wired in to cyberspace, they have...
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Zones Of Thought book 1 Start here
14. A Fire Upon The Deep
by Vernor Vinge
- On the same lists
The first book in the Zones of Thought series and tells the tale of a galactic war. In the story the mind's potential is determined by its location in space.
Set thousands of years into the future, the universe is inhabited by various races, including super-intelligent entities in the Transcend and the simple creatures and technology of the Unthinking Depths....
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15. 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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The Book Of The New Sun book 1 Start here
16. 1981: The Shadow Of The Torturer
by Wolfe, Gene
- On the same lists
The sun has dimmed, the Earth is cooler and has been transformed in wondrous ways.
'The Shadow of the Torturer' is the first book in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun tetralogy. Narrated by Severian, a member of the Guild of Torturers, the...
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17. Downbelow Station
by Cherryh, C. J.
- On the same lists
A space opera about a rebellion between Earth and its colonies.
Downbelow Station is well known among science fiction readers. It's part of a sprawling set of novels - though each reads as a standalone, it's worth reading a few should...
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The Sprawl book 1 Start here
18. Neuromancer (1985)
by Gibson, William
- On the same lists
Gibson is the father of Cyberpunk and this novel in particular is significant. In this novel the term cyberspace is coined.
Case was the best hacker in the Sprawl until his employers damaged his nervous system, and now he can no longer reach cyberspace. He drifts through the criminal underworld of...
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19. Timescape (1981)
by Benford, Gregory
- On the same lists
A novel about ecological issues and scientific experiments that address current events at the time of writing.
In 1998 an ecological catastrophe is poisoning the oceans and the atmosphere. A group of scientists in Cambridge try to send a message back in time using tachyons, particles that...
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20. The Martian Chronicles
by Bradbury, Ray
- On the same lists
A chronology of the human colonization of Mars, after fleeing an atomically devastated Earth, including the conflicts between humans and the native Martians.
Ray Bradbury's science fiction is unlike anything else being written at the time, and that is particularly true of The Martian Chronicles. A collection of linked stories that tell of...
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21. The Aleutian Trilogy
by Gwyneth Jones
- On the same lists
Gwyneth Jones's first novel for adults, Divine Endurance, set in a richly imagined South East Asia, marked the arrival of a novelist intent on using science fiction to explore the...
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22. The Affirmation
by Priest, Christopher
- On the same lists
In contemporary Britain, a young man called Peter Sinclair loses his job and his girlfriend, and retreats to a remote cottage where he sets out to write his life story....
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The Sparrow book 1 Start here
23. The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
- On the same lists
Few debut novels since Neuromancer have had the impact that Mary Doria Russell achieved with The Sparrow. After this novel and its sequel, Children of God, she turned to writing...
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24. The Time Ships
by Stephen Baxter
- On the same lists
1995 was the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and in celebration Stephen Baxter produced one of the best novels in his long and...
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Fall Revolution book 1 Start here
25. The Star Fraction
by Ken Macleod
- On the same lists
Ken MacLeod was a lifelong friend of Iain Banks, and their interest in science fiction was parallel, though MacLeod's interest in Trotskyist politics gave his work a harder political edge...
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26. The Child Garden
by Geoff Ryman
- On the same lists
Imagine a London that has become semi-tropical, where people photosynthesise, where cancer has been cured but the human lifespan has been cut in half. Imagine a place where viruses are...
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27. Bring The Jubilee
by Ward Moore
- On the same lists
Science fiction likes to play with history. Look how fragile our world is, just one small change there, or there, or there, and things would be ever so much worse....
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28. Diaspora
by Greg Egan
- On the same lists
This philosophical novel deals with the question of reproduction in a posthuman world.
The best way to start is by diving in at the deep end, and when it comes to posthumanity you won’t find deeper. Uploaded personalities, clones, advanced technologies, extraordinary developments...
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29. The Diamond Age
by Stephenson, Neal
- On the same lists
A coming of age story for a young girl in a world where nanotech has become part of all aspects of life.
Unlike the typical steampunk,, Neal Stephenson’s masterpiece does not feature steam and clockwork technology, but futuristic nano-technology that’s pervaded society on every level. This novel is so much more than...
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Sleepless book 1 Start here
30. Beggars In Spain
by Nancy Kress
- On the same lists
How much more could you do if you didn't have to sleep? That's the simple question that starts this superb trilogy.In this near future world, a philosophy that is becoming...
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 Use Of Weapons.
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