Books like 'Queen City Jazz'
Readers who enjoyed Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi 20th century action / adventure apocalyptic post-apocalyptic cyberpunk dystopia technology epidemy
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Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsOctavia Butler tackles the creation of a new religion, the making of a god, and the ultimate fate of humanity in her Earthseed series, which began with Parable of the Sower, and now continues with Parable of the Talents...Categorized as:
apocalyptic disaster dystopia female-mc post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure afrofuturism -
![Foundation by Isaac Asimov]()
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:
cyberpunk dystopia post-apocalyptic technology 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal]()
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThe Fated Sky continued the grand sweep of alternate history begun in The Calculating Stars. It is 1961, and the International Aerospace Coalition has established a colony on the moon. Elma York, the noted Lady Astronaut, is working on rotation, flying shuttles on the moon and returning regularly to Earth.But humanity must get a foothold on Mars... -
![The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem]()
The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsA brilliantly funny collection of stories for the next age, from the celebrated author of Solaris. Ranging from the prophetic to the surreal, these stories demonstrate Stanislaw Lem's vast talent and remarkable ability to blend meaning and magic into a wholly entertaining and captivating work...Categorized as:
cyberpunk technology 20th-century action-adventure ai anthologies audiobook children-books -
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![The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson]()
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence... -
![Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin]()
Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsUrsula K. Le Guin is one of the greatest science fiction writers and many times the winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Her career as a novelist was launched by the three novels contained in Worlds Of Exile And Illusion. These novels, Rocannon's World, Planet Of Exile, and City Of Illusions, are set in the same universe as Le Guin's ground-breaking classic, The Left Hand Of Darkness...Categorized as:
dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens anthologies classics -
![The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons]()
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... -
![Malevil by Robert Merle, Derek Coltman]()
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:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 5: We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick]()
The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume 5: We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsContents:- Introduction (October 1986) by Thomas M...Categorized as:
dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens anthologies audiobook -
![Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.]()
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThese 18 darkly complex short stories and novellas touch upon human nature and perception, metaphysics and epistemology, and gender and sexuality, foreshadowing a world in which biological tendencies bring about the downfall of humankind. Revisions from the author's notes are included, allowing a deeper view into her world and a better understanding of her work...Categorized as:
cyberpunk dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens anthologies -
![Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick]()
Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsPhilip K. Dick was a master of science fiction, but he was also a writer whose work transcended genre to examine the nature of reality and what it means to be human. A writer of great complexity and subtle humor, his work belongs on the shelf of great twentieth-century literature, next to Kafka and Vonnegut...Categorized as:
cyberpunk dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens anthologies -
![Mockingbird by Walter Tevis]()
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMockingbird is a powerful novel of a future world where humans are dying. Those that survive spend their days in a narcotic bliss or choose a quick suicide rather than slow extinction. Humanity's salvation rests with an android who has no desire to live, and a man and a woman who must discover love, hope, and dreams of a world reborn...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult ai audiobook -
![Diaspora by Greg Egan]()
Diaspora by Greg Egan
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBy the end of the 30th century humanity has the capability to travel the universe, to journey beyond earth and beyond the confines of the vulnerable human frame... -
![Dawn by Octavia E. Butler]()
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsLilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia female-mc post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult afrofuturism -
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![Permutation City by Greg Egan]()
Permutation City by Greg Egan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsThe story of a man with a vision - immortality : for those who can afford it is found in cyberspace. Permutation city is the tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how that vision becomes something way beyond his control... -
![City by Clifford D. Simak]()
City by Clifford D. Simak
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSimak's "City" is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens animals -
![Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov]()
Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsRobot Dreams collects 21 of Isaac Asimov's short stories spanning the body of his fiction from the 1940s to the 1980s----exploring not only the future of technology, but the future of humanity's maturity and growth... -
![La Jetée: ciné-roman by Chris Marker]()
La Jetée: ciné-roman by Chris Marker
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLa Jet�e is the book version of the legendary 1964 science fiction film about time and memory after a nuclear apocalypse. Chris Marker, the undisputed master of the filmic essay, composed the film almost entirely of still photographs...Categorized as:
cyberpunk dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction -
![The City of Gold and Lead by John Christopher]()
The City of Gold and Lead by John Christopher
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWill, Beanpole, and Henry have managed to escape the Tripods. But instead of living in safety, in the small community of free people, they have chosen to embark upon a mission that may cost them their lives...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure aliens audiobook book -
![The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper]()
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... -
![Doomsday Book by Connie Willis]()
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsFor Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received...Categorized as:
apocalyptic disaster dystopia epidemy female-mc post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Plague by Albert Camus]()
The Plague by Albert Camus
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsA gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people... -
![Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle]()
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...Categorized as:
apocalyptic disaster dystopia post-apocalyptic technology 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The City and The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke]()
The City and The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsMen had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shutout the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rules the stars. But then, as legend had it, The invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia far-future post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens -
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![Grass by Sheri S. Tepper]()
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:
apocalyptic disaster dystopia epidemy female-mc post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure -
![Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank]()
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... -
![Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke]()
Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsONE BILLION YEARS FROM NOW . . .Mankind has reached the heights of civilization. Men live thousands of years in perfect freedom and leisure—their wants are attended to by ingenious machines—peace and culture flourish in ways undreamed of in our time. And yet ... mankind is dying...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia far-future post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
![The Pool of Fire by John Christopher]()
The Pool of Fire by John Christopher
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAlternate cover edition can be found here. Will Parker has managed to escape from the City of Gold and Lead, where he served as a slave to one of the Masters who rule the modern world. And He has not only discovered what lies behind the Tripods' power, but also how the Masters heartlessly plan to destroy the earth...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure aliens audiobook book -
![Rimrunners by C.J. Cherryh]()
Rimrunners by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMeet Elizabeth Yeager, "Spacer, machinist, temp." A refugee waiting for a ship to call home, Bet Yeager was once a marine. Now she's on the run. In the action-packed tradition of Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, David A. Drake's Hammer's Slammers, and her own bestselling Chanur series, C.J...Categorized as:
dystopia female-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook female-author -
![Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence]()
Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter a nuclear war devastates the earth, a small band of people struggles for survival in a new world where children are born with strange mutations.Everyone thought, when the alarm bell rang, that it was just another fire practice. But the first bombs had fallen on Hamburg and Leningrad, the headmaster said, and a full-scale nuclear attack was imminent.It's a real-life nightmare...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure book children children-books -
![Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr.]()
Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr.
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe astronauts had the "right stuff" to deal with almost anything...A ship of male astronauts, who may be off course for their return trip home, are intercepted by a space vessel controlled by only women...Categorized as:
apocalyptic post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics female-author -
![This Year's Class Picture by Dan Simmons]()
This Year's Class Picture by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMs. Geiss is the most dedicated fourth-grade teacher imaginable...Categorized as:
apocalyptic post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction -
![The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Neil Gaiman]()
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsIn this pulse-quickening novel, Alfred Bester imagines a future in which people "jaunte" a thousand miles with a single thought, where the rich barricade themselves in labyrinths and protect themselves with radioactive hitmen—and where an inarticulate outcast is the most valuable and dangerous man alive... -
![The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster]()
The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThe Machine Stops is a science fiction short story (12,300 words) by E. M. Forster. After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories...Categorized as:
apocalyptic cyberpunk dystopia female-mc post-apocalyptic technology 20th-century action-adventure -
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![Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler]()
Patternmaster by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe combined mind-force of a telepathic race, Patternist thoughts can destroy, heal, rule. For the strongest mind commands the entire pattern and all within. Now the son of the Patternmaster craves this ultimate power, He has murdered or enslaved every threat to his ambition--except one... -
![Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle]()
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsBefore you see the movie, read the original novel! First published more than thirty-five years ago, Pierre Boulle's chilling novel launched one of the greatest science fiction sagas in motion picture history, from the classic 1968 movie starring Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell, through four sequels and two television series . . . and now the newest film adaptation directed by Tim Burton...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure animals audiobook book -
![Iron to Iron by Ryan Graudin]()
Iron to Iron by Ryan Graudin
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn original e-novella tied to Ryan Graudin's acclaimed novel, Wolf by Wolf...Categorized as:
dystopia female-mc romance historical-fiction young-adult historical fantasy alternate-history -
![Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling]()
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSchismatrix Plus, is Bruce Sterling's new trade paperback. For the first time in one volume: every word Bruce Sterling has ever written on the Shapers-Mechanists Universe.In the last decade, Sterling has emerged a pioneer of crucial, cutting-edge science fiction... -
![Earth by David Brin]()
Earth by David Brin
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTIME IS RUNNING OUT Decades from now, an artificial black hole has fallen into the Earth's core. As scientists frantically work to prevent the ultimate disaster, they discover that the entire planet could be destroyed within a year...Categorized as:
apocalyptic cyberpunk dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Pollen by Jeff Noon]()
Pollen by Jeff Noon
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsThe sweet death of Coyote, master taxi driver, was only the first. Soon people are sneezing and dying all over Manchester. Telekinetic cop Sybil Jones knows that, like Coyote, they died happy - but even a happy death can be a murder. As exotic blooms begin to flower all over the city, the pollen count is racing towards 2000 and Sybil is running out of time... -
![The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner]()
The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOne man has made it his mission to liberate the mental prisoners. to restore their freedom in a world run mad...Categorized as:
cyberpunk dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies classics -
![The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei]()
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt is the late twenty-first century, and Momo is the most celebrated dermal care technician in all of T City. Humanity has migrated to domes at the bottom of the sea to escape devastating climate change. The world is dominated by powerful media conglomerates and runs on exploited cyborg labor... -
![When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie, Edwin Balmer]()
When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie, Edwin Balmer
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA runaway planet hurtles toward the earth. As it draws near, massive tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions wrack our planet, devastating continents, drowning cities, and wiping out millions. In central North America, a team of scientists race to build a spacecraft powerful enough to escape the doomed earth...Categorized as:
apocalyptic disaster dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Babel-17/Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany]()
Babel-17/Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingswinner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinating tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to the enemy’s deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly improbable crew to the site of the next attack... -
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![The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal]()
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsOn a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs... -
![On the Beach by Nevil Shute]()
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAfter the war is over, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards on the winds, gradually poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable. Despite his memories of his wife, he becomes close to a young woman struggling to accept the harsh realities of their situation... -
![The Stars are Ours by Andre Norton, James J. Campanella]()
The Stars are Ours by Andre Norton, James J. Campanella
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEarth in 2500AD is no place for a young man with a dream of freedom. And Dard Nordis is worse off than most. His brother was killed for covert activities as a Free Scientist in a world where science is outlawed and blamed for all evils. Now Dard and his niece are hunted and trying to find his brother's friends before their enemies find them and execute them as well...Categorized as:
dystopia far-future post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book fiction -
![Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham]()
Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe six hundred passengers and crew members aboard a jumbo jetliner are left without a destination and a country when nuclear war breaks out and spreads devastation around the world.A collapsed economy and an increasingly savage society were causing thousands to abandon America. Captain Jonah Scott was a pilot, hired to fly some lucky refugees to London...Categorized as:
apocalyptic disaster dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![The White Mountains by John Christopher]()
The White Mountains by John Christopher
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsLong ago, the Tripods—huge, three-legged machines—descended upon Earth and took control. Now people unquestioningly accept the Tripods' power. They have no control over their thoughts or their lives.But for a brief time in each person's life—in childhood—he is not a slave...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure aliens audiobook book -
![Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner]()
Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNorman Niblock House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of a few all-powerful corporations. His work is leading General Technics to the forefront of global domination, both in the marketplace and politically—it's about to take over a country in Africa. Donald Hogan is his roommate, a seemingly sheepish bookworm...Categorized as:
apocalyptic cyberpunk disaster dystopia post-apocalyptic technology 20th-century action-adventure
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