Books like 'We the Living'
Readers who enjoyed We the Living by Ayn Rand & Leonard Peikoff also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi 20th century military, war & conflict europe east-europe russia classics historical-fiction politics
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What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 57 ratingsIn an unforgettable love story, a woman’s impossible journey through the ages could change everything…Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time...Categorized as:
drama europe historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
Dead Eagles by Phil Ward
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn this sequel to Those Who Dare, U.S.Major John Randal, Commander of Strategic Raiding Forces is back, leading a crew of British Commandos, Royal Marines and Royal Navy raiders on bigger and bolder missions to foil Hitler's Third Reich. Off the Gold Coast colony in Africa, the Germans are operating a naval intelligence ring that gathers information about British convoys in the southern sea-lane... -
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsCryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNamed a Top 10 Best Book of 2023 by Publishers Weekly • a national bestseller • a New York Times Editor's Choice pick“A contemporary writer of thrilling originality . . . The MANIAC is a work of dark, eerie and singular beauty.” —The Washington Post“Darkly absorbing . . . A brooding, heady narrative that is addictively interesting...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war fiction philosophy historical technology -
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Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn this gripping tale of turmoil and triumph on the high seas, Horatio Hornblower emerges from his apprenticeship as midshipman to face new responsibilities thrust upon him by the fortunes of war between Napoleon and Spain...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsFoundation and Empire tells the incredible story of a new breed of man who create a new force for galactic government. Thus, the Foundation hurtles into conflict with the decadent, decrepit First Empire. In this struggle for power amid the chaos of the stars, man stands at the threshold of a new, enlightened life which could easily be put aside for the old forces of barbarism...Categorized as:
classics dystopia high-school literary-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure -
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsFor twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future -- to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years...Categorized as:
classics dystopia high-school literary-fiction politics religion spirituality university -
Bílá nemoc by Karel Čapek
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDrama Bílá nemoc napsal Karel Čapek v předvečer druhé světové války. Bylo varováním před nastupujícím nacismem. Stejně jako ostatní jeho romány a hry je neskutečně současné a alarmující... -
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 62 ratingsLibrarian note: Alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction politics university -
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsRobert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, an influence so large that, as Samuel R. Delany notes, "modern critics attempting to wrestle with that influence find themselves dealing with an object rather like the sky or an ocean." He won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, a record that still stands...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction politics revolution war 20th-century action-adventure -
Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke Collection) by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsIn the Retro Hugo Award–nominated novel that inspired the Syfy miniseries, alien invaders bring peace to Earth—at a grave price: “A first-rate tour de force” (The New York Times). In the near future, enormous silver spaceships appear without warning over mankind’s largest cities. They belong to the Overlords, an alien race far superior to humanity in technological development...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia literary-fiction philosophical religion spirituality 20th-century -
The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsOn the world called Hyperion the mysterious Time Tombs are opening and seven pilgrims risk their lives to petition the entity called the Shrike - a creature that may well control the fate of all mankind... -
Winds of Wrath by Taylor Anderson
Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMatt Reddy and the crew of the USS Walker are positioned to push the line of battle to the breaking point on an alternate Earth, in the thrilling return to the New York Times bestselling Destroyermen series.Matt Reddy and his sailors have fought, bled, and died for their Lemurian friends and other allies from across time, but their enemies are still operational... -
Malevil by Robert Merle, Derek Coltman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIf you are a fan of the post apocolypse genre, then you will appreciate this gem of a book. It is difficult to find, but it is well worth perservering with a search. The title of the book refers to an old castle in rural France, and which is owned by our hero, the narrator of the story...Categorized as:
classics dystopia historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic -
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The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 2: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsMany thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K... -
Endymion by Dan Simmons, Guy Abadia
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe multiple-award-winning SF master returns to the universe that is his greatest success--the world of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion--to tell a story of love and memory, triumph and terror in a novel even more magnificent than its predecessors.Two hundred and seventy-four years after the fall of the WorldWeb in Fall of Hyperion, Raoul Endymion is sent on a quest...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure -
Beyond the Moon by Catherine Taylor
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA strange twist of fate connects a British soldier fighting in the First World War in 1916 with a young woman living in modern-day England a century later, in this haunting literary time travel novel.Two people, two battles: one against the invading Germans on the battlefields of 1916 France, the other against a substandard, uncaring mental health facility in modern-day England...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 2: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMany thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K... -
Dune by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 58 ratingsHere is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family—and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream... -
War with the Newts by Karel Čapek
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsMan discovers a species of giant, intelligent newts and learns to exploit them so successfully that the newts gain skills and arms enough to challenge man's place at the top of the animal kingdom. Along the way, Karel Capek satirizes science, runaway capitalism, fascism, journalism, militarism, even Hollywood... -
There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsFirst published in Collier's, May 6, 1950.The story concerns a household in Allendale, California, in the aftermath of a nuclear war...Categorized as:
classics dystopia high-school literary-fiction philosophical university war 20th-century -
The Methuselah Project by Rick Barry
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNazi scientists started many experiments. One never ended. Roger Greene is a war hero. Raised in an orphanage, the only birthright he knows is the feeling that he was born to fly. Flying against the Axis Powers in World War II is everything he always dreamed--until the day he's shot down and lands in the hands of the enemy...Categorized as:
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A Prophet Without Honor: A Novel of Alternative History by Joseph Wurtenbaugh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings‘A Prophet Without Honor’ is that rare novel that provides a rich, entertaining and fully immersive reading experience, along with a resonant, thought-provoking subtext. Written in epistolary style and populated with interesting, fully-realized characters, the multi-general narrative is a seamless blend of authentic fact and sound speculation...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century adult alternate-history book -
Escape to the Hiding Place by Marianne Hering
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPatrick and Beth arrive in World War II Holland in the farm country. They must smuggle a baby (by bicycle) into the capable hands of Corrie ten Boom at her home in Haarlem. Along the way they hide from Nazi soliders, meet a Russian surgeon forced into service by the Germans, and encourage two Jewish children who haven't been outside in over three years...Categorized as:
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All Clear by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060—the setting for several of her most celebrated works—and sent three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the... -
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsEarth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons, Lord of Light...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure -
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsIn one of Robert Heinlein's most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe--and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind's most frightening enemy...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction politics university war 20th-century action-adventure -
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 94 ratingsSelected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia high-school historical-fiction literary-fiction politics university -
Opening Moves by Colin Gee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe first of a series of books that cover World War Three, from July 1945 through to its close in September 1947... -
Maid of Baikal by Preston Fleming
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat if a Siberian Joan of Arc had rescued the White Armies at a critical point of the Russian Civil War in 1919? MAID OF BAIKAL offers an alternative outcome to that war through the intervention of Zhanna Dorokhina, a young woman from the shores of Siberia’s Lake Baikal...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
Acts of War by James L. Young Jr.
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSomehow I doubt that this is quite how anyone expected Adolf Hitler's death to turn out...--Squadron Leader Adam Haynes, No. 303 (Polish) SquadronAugust 1942. London is in flames. Heinrich Himmler's Germany stands triumphant in the West, its "Most Dangerous Enemy" forced to the peace table by a hailstorm of nerve gas and incendiaries...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction 20th-century adult alternate-history book fiction historical -
The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis new collection of stories from the multi-award-winning author of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog contains:A Letter from the ClearysAt the RialtoDeath on the NileThe Soul Selects Her own SocietyFire WatchInside JobEven the QueenThe Winds of Marble ArchAll Seated on the GroundLast of the WinnebagosTen stories - which have all won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award or both - are...Categorized as:
classics dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens -
In at the Death by Harry Turtledove
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFranklin Roosevelt is the assistant secretary of defense. Thomas Dewey is running for president with a blunt-speaking Missourian named Harry Truman at his side. Britain holds onto its desperate alliance with the USA’s worst enemy, while a holocaust unfolds in Texas...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
Front Lines by Michael Grant
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings1942. World War II. The most terrible war in human history. Millions are dead; millions more are still to die. The Nazis rampage across Europe and eye far-off America.The green, untested American army is going up against the greatest fighting force ever assembled—the armed forces of Nazi Germany.But something has changed...Categorized as:
drama dystopia high-school historical-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure alpha-mc -
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Return of the Jedi by James Kahn, George Lucas
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIt was a dark time for the Rebel Alliance...Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, has been delivered into the hands of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. Determined to rescue him, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Lando Calrissian launch a hazardous mission against Jabba's Tatooine stronghold... -
The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsT.J. Newton is an extraterrestrial who goes to Earth on a desperate mission of mercy. But instead of aid, Newton discovers loneliness and despair that ultimately ends in tragedy... -
The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust feminist dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country...Categorized as:
classics dystopia historical-fiction politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Time and Time Again by Ben Elton
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt’s the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be.Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come...Categorized as:
drama dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century 21st-century -
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsDarkness at Noon (from the German: Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best-known work tells the tale of Rubashov, a Bolshevik 1917 revolutionary who is cast out, imprisoned and tried for treason by the Soviet government he'd helped create...Categorized as:
classics communism drama dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction politics revolution -
Lake of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen the gods of the Whorl speak to him about the future, clergyman Patera Silk begins a quest to save his church and his people, the citizens of a giant spaceship on a generations-old voyage to a forgotten destiny. Reprint. NYT... -
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsTHE LUCKY ONES WENT FIRST…The gigantic comet has slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam... -
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsHannah thinks tonight Passover Seder will be the same as always. But this year she will be mysteriously transported into the past. Only she knows the horrors that await...Categorized as:
classics high-school historical-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure -
Soul by Andrei Platonov, Robert Chandler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsA New York Review Books OriginalThe Soviet writer Andrey Platonov saw much of his work suppressed or censored in his lifetime. In recent decades, however, these lost works have reemerged, and the eerie poetry and poignant humanity of Platonov’s vision have become ever more clear...Categorized as:
classics communism dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century -
Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsGenerations ago, humans fled to the cosmic anomaly known as Grass. But before humanity arrived, another species had already claimed Grass for its own. It too had developed a culture...... Now a deadly plague is spreading across the stars, leaving no planet untouched, save for Grass. But the secret of the planet's immunity hides a truth so shattering it could mean the end of life itself...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe classic, award-winning novel, made famous by Steven Spielberg's film, tells of a young boy's struggle to survive World War II in China.Jim is separated from his parents in a world at war. To survive, he must find a deep strength greater than all the events that surround him.Shanghai, 1941 — a city aflame from the fateful torch of Pearl Harbor...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSet in Italy during the dramatic finale of World War II, this new novel is the first in seven years by the bestselling author of The Sparrow and Children of God.It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum is learning Italian with a suitcase in her hand...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality war 20th-century 21st-century -
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 46 ratings“An extraordinary real picture of human beings numbed by catastrophe but still driven by the unconquerable determination of living creatures to keep on being alive.” —The New Yorker“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end...Categorized as:
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The Children's Story by James Clavell, George Selden
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsIt was a simple incident in the life of James Clavell—a talk with his young daughter just home from school—that inspired this chilling tale of what could happen in twenty-five quietly devastating minutes. He writes, "The Children's Story came into being that day. It was then that I really realized how vulnerable my child's mind was —any mind, for that matter—under controlled circumstances...Categorized as:
classics dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war 20th-century anthologies -
Caldé of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGene Wolfe's Nightside the Long Sun launched the magisterial four-volume The Book of the Long Sun. Now the great tale continues in Caldé of the Long Sun. The young, god-inspired Silk, caught in a bloody web of politics and revolution, must fight against the machinations of the shadowy group that rules the city of Viron. The forces of other cities of the great spaceship, The Whorl, become involved... -
Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsThe desert planet of Arrakis has begun to grow green and lush. The life-giving spice is abundant. The nine-year-old royal twins, possesing their father's supernatural powers, are being groomed as Messiahs.But there are those who think the Imperium does not need messiahs..
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