Books like 'Heaven'
Readers who enjoyed Heaven by Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi space hard sci-fi action / adventure politics satire religion spirituality
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The Last Question by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIf you’re a fan of the Sci-Fi genre, then chances are that you’ve heard of ‘The Last Question’, a science fiction short story written by Isaac Asimov in 1956. The story deals with the development of computers (artificial intelligence) called Multivacs and their relationships with humanity through the courses of seven historic settings, beginning in 2061... -
![Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey]()
Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsThirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper... -
![Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey]()
Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsThe Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again... -
![Exhalation by Ted Chiang]()
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsalternate cover for this ISBN can be found hereThe universe began as an enormous breath being held.From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others — the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Arrival — comes a ground-breaking new collection of short fiction: nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories...Categorized as:
religion spirituality 21st-century action-adventure adult ai aliens alternate-history -
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![All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor]()
All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsBeing a sentient spaceship really should be more fun. But after spreading out through space for almost a century, Bob and his clones just can't stay out of trouble.They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition... -
![Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov]()
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsSo far the Foundation was safe. But there was a hidden Second Foundation to protect the first. The Mule has yet to find it, but he was getting closer all the time. The men of the Foundation sought it, too, to escape from Mule's mind control. Only Arkady, a 14 year-old girl seemed to have the answer, or did she.. -
![Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey]()
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 79 ratingsHumanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted... -
![Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey]()
Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsAbaddon's Gate is the third book in the New York Times bestselling Expanse series. For generations, the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt - was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artefact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark... -
![The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin]()
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsFrom the brilliant and award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin comes a classic tale of two planets torn apart by conflict and mistrust — and the man who risks everything to reunite them.A bleak moon settled by utopian anarchists, Anarres has long been isolated from other worlds, including its mother planet, Urras—a civilization of warring nations, great poverty, and immense wealth... -
![Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang]()
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsTed Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF...Categorized as:
religion spirituality 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
![Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov]()
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... -
![Hyperion by Dan Simmons]()
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsOn the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all... -
![Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold]()
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn her first trial by fire, Cordelia Naismith captained a throwaway ship of the Betan Expeditionary Force on a mission to destroy an enemy armada...Categorized as:
politics 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook disability female-author female-mc -
![Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov]()
Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAt last, the costly and bitter war between the two Foundations had come to an end. The scientists of the First Foundation had proved victorious; and now they return to Hari Seldon's long-established plan to build a new Empire on the ruins of the old. But rumors persist that the Second Foundation is not destroyed after all—and that its still-defiant survivors are preparing their revenge... -
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![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... -
![Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky]()
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 59 ratingsA race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars... -
![Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks]()
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIt begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.It begins with a murder.And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit... -
![The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks]()
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 55 ratingsThe Culture--a humanoid/machine symbiotic society--has thrown up many great Game Players. One of the best is Jernau Morat Gurgeh, Player of Games, master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel & incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game, a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor... -
![Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton]()
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsThe year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport "tunnels" known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star... vanishes. It does not go supernova... -
![Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor]()
Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsCivil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by best seller Dennis E. Taylor.More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost... -
![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...Categorized as:
politics 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book -
![Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov]()
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThis daring story of humanity’s future introduces one of the great masterworks of science fiction: the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov. Unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, bold ideas, and extensive world-building, they chronicle the struggle of a courageous group of people to save civilization from a relentless tide of darkness and violence—beginning with one exceptional man... -
![Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie]()
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsAncillary Mercy is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy that began with Ancillary Justice, the only novel ever to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.For a moment, things seemed to be under control for Breq, the soldier who used to be a warship... -
![Defiance by Joel Shepherd]()
Defiance by Joel Shepherd
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsThe UFS Phoenix is hunting for the long-lost drysine data-core. Within it lie the secrets to saving humanity from the resurgent deepynine machine-race. To recover it, Captain Erik Debogande must work together with the man who holds his sister hostage — the power-hungry parren leader Aristan. Aristan has sworn he will return Lisbeth Debogande once Phoenix grants him equal access to its prize... -
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![Contact by Carl Sagan]()
Contact by Carl Sagan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsTHE FUTURE IS HERE...IN AN ADVENTURE OF COSMIC DIMENSION. In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who -- or what -- is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In CONTACT, he predicts its future -- and our own... -
![Anathem by Neal Stephenson]()
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsFraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls...Categorized as:
politics religion spirituality 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
![A Line in the Sand by Ryk Brown]()
A Line in the Sand by Ryk Brown
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPart 2: Episode 14An enemy lashing out in desperation…An alliance poised to expand…A new fleet of ships to help them…A covert mission to get answers…The Dusahn Empire has been contained for the moment. But there is much work to be done in order to keep them from reasserting their dominance over the Pentaurus sector... -
![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... -
![We Few by David Weber, John Ringo]()
We Few by David Weber, John Ringo
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPrince Roger MacClintock was an heir to the galaxy's Throne of Man-and a self-obsessed spoiled young brat . . . until he and the Royal Marines sent to protect him were stranded on Marduk with only their feet to get them half way around the entire planet. So far, they've traversed a continent, crossed a sea full of ship-eating monsters, taken over an enemy spaceport, and hijacked a starship... -
![How Firm a Foundation by David Weber]()
How Firm a Foundation by David Weber
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for its very survival. What most of its subjects don't know even now, however, is how much more it's fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted advisers do know...Categorized as:
politics religion spirituality action-adventure adult ai alternate-history audiobook -
![The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton]()
The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe Intersolar Commonwealth is in turmoil as the Living Dream's deadline for launching its Pilgrimage into the Void draws closer. Not only is the Ocisen Empire fleet fast approaching on a mission of genocide, but also an internecine war has broken out between the post-human factions over the destiny of humanity... -
![Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks]()
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsThe man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks and military action.The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought... -
![March to the Sea by David Weber, John Ringo]()
March to the Sea by David Weber, John Ringo
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA Bad Neighborhood "Always Faithful." That was the IMC motto, and the Marines of Bravo Company, Bronze Battalion, of the Empress' Own Regiment, lived by it...even if they did occasionally wonder why they bothered. After all, Prince Roger MacClintock, Tertiary Heir to the Throne of Man, was a real piece of work... -
![Explorer by C.J. Cherryh]()
Explorer by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIt has been nearly ten years since the starship Phoenix returned to Alpha, the station orbiting the world of the atevi, which had been abandoned following a rift between a faction of the station's inhabitants and the spacers' Pilot's Guild... -
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![Auberon by James S.A. Corey]()
Auberon by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA novella set in the universe of James S. A. Corey’s NYT-bestselling Expanse series, Auberon explores a new and alien world and the age-old dangers that humanity has carried with it to the stars. Now a Prime Original series.Auberon is one of the first and most important colony worlds in humanity’s reach, and the new conquering faction has come to claim it... -
![The Forever War by Joe Haldeman]()
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsThe Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand—despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy that they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away... -
![March Upcountry by David Weber, John Ringo]()
March Upcountry by David Weber, John Ringo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPrince Roger MacClintock is a spoiled young princeling hardly worth the space he takes up. Now he must become a man, or the entire galaxy will suffer arrested adolescence... -
![Divergence by C.J. Cherryh]()
Divergence by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe twenty-first book in the beloved Foreigner saga continues the adventures of diplomat Bren Cameron, advisor to the atevi head of state... -
![Honor Among Enemies by David Weber]()
Honor Among Enemies by David Weber
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsKNOW THY ENEMYFor Captain Honor Harrington, it's sometimes hard to know who the enemy really is. Despite political foes, professional jealousies, and the scandal which drove her into exile, she's been offered a chance to reclaim her career as an officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy. But there's a catch... -
![Endymion by Dan Simmons, Guy Abadia]()
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... -
![Betrayer by C.J. Cherryh]()
Betrayer by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsBetrayer (Foreigner, Book 12)The twelfth novel in Cherryh’s Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences…In the wake of civil war, Bren Cameron, the brilliant human diplomat of the alien atevi civilization, has left the capital and sought refuge at his country estate, Najida... -
![Spinward Fringe Broadcast 1: Resurrection by Randolph Lalonde]()
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 1: Resurrection by Randolph Lalonde
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCaptain Jacob Valance has no memory of his past. Left on a strange ship in an unfamiliar sector of the galaxy, he's forced to begin a new life. Possessing a skill set that leads to bounty hunting and object repossession, he gathers a crew from the rough fringe of the galaxy... -
![Field of Dishonor by David Weber]()
Field of Dishonor by David Weber
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsHONOR BETRAYEDThe People's Republic of Haven's sneak attack on the Kingdom of Manticore has failed. The Peeps are in disarray, their leaders fighting for power in bloody revolution, and the Royal Manticoran Navy stands victorious.But Manticore has domestic problems of its own, and success can be more treacherous than defeat for Honor Harrington... -
![Into the Stars by James Rosone]()
Into the Stars by James Rosone
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe stars are within mankind’s reach……But what awaits in the void may end humanity…Mars and the Moon have been colonized, piracy runs rampant in the asteroid belts, and a thriving society grows in the depths of space. Humanity prepares to embark upon its greatest journey—the colonization of Alpha Centauri... -
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![Echoes of Honor by David Weber]()
Echoes of Honor by David Weber
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsFor eight bloody years, the Star Kingdom of Manticore and its allies have taken the war to the vastly more powerful People's Republic of Haven, and Commodore Honor Harrington has been in the forefront of that war.But now Honor has fallen, captured by the Peep Navy, turned over to the forces of State Security ... and executed on the interstellar network's nightly news... -
![Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov]()
Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFOUNDATIONS'S END?Centuries after the fall of the First Galactic Empire, Mankind's destiny lay in the hands of Golan Trevize, former Councilman of the First Foundation. Reluctantly he chose the mental unity of Galaxia as the only alternative to a future of unending chaos.But Mankind as massmind was not an idea Trevize was comfortable with... -
![In Enemy Hands by David Weber]()
In Enemy Hands by David Weber
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsHonor Harrington's career has its ups and its downs. She's survived ship-to-ship battles, assassins, political vendettas, and duels. She's been shot at, shot down, and just plain shot, had starships blown out from under her, and made personal enemies who will stop at nothing to ruin her, and somehow she's survived it all.But this time she's really in trouble... -
![Deceiver by C.J. Cherryh]()
Deceiver by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 23 ratings"One of the best long-running SF series in existence" (Publishers Weekly) continues with the second novel in a brand-new Foreigner sequence. The civil war among the alien Atevi has ended. Tabini-aiji, powerful ruler of the Western Association, along with Cajeiri, his son and heir, has returned to the Bujavid, his seat of power... -
![March to the Stars by David Weber, John Ringo]()
March to the Stars by David Weber, John Ringo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsStranded on Marduk with his Royal Marine protectors, spoiled prince Roger MacClintock experiences a change in attitude during a long journey back to civilization across a sea filled with dangerous monsters and well-armed enemies... -
![Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee]()
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMachineries Of Empire, the most exciting science fiction trilogy of the decade, reaches its astonishing conclusion!When Shuos Jedao wakes up for the first time, several things go wrong. His few memories tell him that he's a seventeen-year-old cadet--but his body belongs to a man decades older...
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