Books like 'Return to the Whorl'
Readers who enjoyed Return to the Whorl by Gene Wolfe also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
futuristic sc-fi dark fantasy action / adventure dark literary-fiction far-future technology reincarnation vampires
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The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 1 by Quil Carter
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsI would say that my life changed as soon as those gunshots went off, but in reality everything changed the moment Leo and Greyson loaded that decapitated body into the truck back in Donnely.Now I am in a place I do not recognize, with people I had once seen as enemies. They are telling me that all of this is up to me, and here I am just wishing I was in my basement with a quil between my fingers... -
![God of Monsters by Keri Lake]()
God of Monsters by Keri Lake
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsI've heard stories about the Alphas. Violent soldiers, bred to kill both humans and mutations, whose sole purpose was to balance our survival against the infected. Until they turned on their masters. Held as subjects of the Calico research facility, they were forced to endure the gruesome experiments that transformed them into callous savages with hearts as impenetrable as their defenses... -
![Cottonmouth by Naomi Lucas]()
Cottonmouth by Naomi Lucas
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEver since humans arrived, my world has changed. Tensions are high as we quarrel over territory, reforming our fractured clans.I will have none of it. I did not capture a bride.But then my world goes dark—and she appears.A female so lovely she possesses my mind, a bride who blushes every time she catches my eye.She is sweet.She is young.She is everything I am not.Except nothing is as it seems... -
![Fangs by K.L. Speer]()
Fangs by K.L. Speer
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“Run, lil rabbit, 'fore Wolf tears you apart."Twelve years ago, Ember Cutler obeyed her father and ran, but the girl who disappeared into the desert was not the same girl who came out. When her oldest brother appears in her clinic at the Vault and abducts her at gunpoint, he expects to find his little sister, Ember but instead finds a grief-stricken, broken Bones... -
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![Countdown by Mira Grant]()
Countdown by Mira Grant
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe year is 2014, the year everything changed. We cured cancer. We cured the common cold. We died.This is the story of how we rose.When will you rise?Countdown is a novella set in the world of Feed...Categorized as:
dark politics action-adventure alternate-history anthologies apocalyptic audiobook dark-fantasy -
![Kings of Carrion by Keri Lake]()
Kings of Carrion by Keri Lake
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsDecades have passed since our world was decimated by the Dredge. Some say it was an act of God. Others believe the devil himself breached the gates of hell and turned the masses into the mindless infected with an appetite for carnage... -
![Blackout by Mira Grant]()
Blackout by Mira Grant
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe explosive conclusion to the Newsflesh trilogy from New York Times bestseller Mira Grant — a saga of zombies, geeks, politics, social media, and the virus that runs through them all.The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.The year was 2039... -
![Lies by Michael Grant]()
Lies by Michael Grant
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 55 ratingsIt's been seven months since all the adults disappeared. Gone.It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness—or so they thought... -
![On Blue's Waters by Gene Wolfe]()
On Blue's Waters by Gene Wolfe
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsOn Blue's Waters is the start of a major new work by Gene Wolfe, the first of three volumes that comprise The Book of the Short Sun, which takes place in the years after Wolfe's four-volume Book of the Long Sun. Horn, the narrator of the earlier work, now tells his own story. Though life is hard on the newly settled planet of Blue, Horn and his family have made a decent life for themselves... -
![Shared Omega by Lizzy Bequin]()
Shared Omega by Lizzy Bequin
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThree enemy Alphas, one shared mate...I was sent into the Quarantine Zone on a rescue mission.But when things go sideways and I find myself stranded, who will rescue me from the savage beasts who stalk the Zone?The Alphas.They can tear a man limb from limb. But the things they do to females are unspeakable.Now my body is changing. I’m an omega, and I’m in heat...Categorized as:
dark action-adventure adult apocalyptic book dark-fantasy dystopia enemies-to-lovers -
![Claimed for Their Use by Ivy Barrett]()
Claimed for Their Use by Ivy Barrett
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHeld captive by a brutal drug cartel and facing an uncertain fate, the last thing Jessica Saint Claud expects is to be rescued by two huge, fiercely handsome alien warriors, but the real shock comes when the two Ventori commanders make it clear that she now belongs to them. They will use their beautiful little human as thoroughly as they please, and she will submit or be punished... -
![Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky]()
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsHumanity clings to life on a dying Earth in an epic, far-future science fiction novel from an award-winning author.The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls... -
![The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham]()
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsIn 1951 John Wyndham published his novel The Day of the Triffids to moderate acclaim. Fifty-two years later, this horrifying story is a science fiction classic, touted by The Times (London) as having “all the reality of a vividly realized nightmare.”Bill Masen, bandages over his wounded eyes, misses the most spectacular meteorite shower England has ever seen...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure aliens apocalyptic audiobook book classics -
![The Last by Michael John Grist]()
The Last by Michael John Grist
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings7 billion zombies. 1 man.When the zombie apocalypse hits America, not a soul is left alive.Except Amo. He's a comic book artist. He's a video game world builder. He's just a regular guy living in New York city, with only his wits, creativity and basic decency to guide him.He's alone against 7 billion zombies...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies apocalyptic audiobook comedy -
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![Calico Descending by Keri Lake]()
Calico Descending by Keri Lake
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSequel to Juniper Unraveling. I was fourteen when I was sold to the men in black uniforms. Too young to understand I served a purpose beyond that of the other girls they’d taken.For the greater good.Now, after four years in Calico, I’ve seen more death and suffering than during my days of surviving out in the Deadlands against the threat of Ragers and famine... -
![The Last Town by Blake Crouch]()
The Last Town by Blake Crouch
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWelcome to Wayward Pines, the last town.Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s creator, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed... -
![The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith]()
The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsPrincess Adele struggles with a life of marriage and obligation as her Equatorian Empire and their American Republic allies stand on the brink of war against the vampire clans of the north. However, the alliance's horrific strategy for total victory drives Adele to abandon her duty and embark on a desperate quest to keep her nation from staining its hands with genocide...Categorized as:
dark vampires action-adventure alpha-mc alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook book -
![The Institute by Kayla Howarth]()
The Institute by Kayla Howarth
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsLiving in constant fear. Always looking over your shoulder. The source of your fear? The Institute.Allira Daniels will do anything to keep her Defective brother safe from the Institute. They claim to protect Defectives, but it’s human nature to fear the unknown. Defectives are dangerous, they possess abilities that no human should be able to... -
![Sanctuary's Warlord by Nikita Slater]()
Sanctuary's Warlord by Nikita Slater
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsA dystopian dark romance by International Bestselling Author Nikita Slater. Only the strongest can survive in a hostile world ravaged by a disease that turns humans into primitives. She is the Desert Wren, a rebel bent on providing safe passage to illegal refugees entering into her Sanctuary city... -
![Maximum Offense by David Gunn]()
Maximum Offense by David Gunn
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWith Death’s Head, David Gunn rocketed onto the scene in the most explosive and entertaining science fiction debut since Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon. Now Gunn is back–and so is Sven Tveskoeg: antisocial, antihero, anti-you-name-it, a one-man killing spree whose best friend is an intelligent handgun with a bad attitude and whose worst enemy is, well, just about everybody else... -
![Xperiment by Dan Skinner]()
Xperiment by Dan Skinner
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMonsters aren't born... they're engineered. For nineteen-year-old, socially awkward Geoff Markham, the promise of a miracle pill to make him into the person he’d always wanted to be was everything he could have hoped for. At first, the experiment delivered on that promise. Geoff began to change, becoming more confident, stronger, even fearless. People began to admire him and find him attractive... -
![The Cogsmith's Daughter by Kate M. Colby]()
The Cogsmith's Daughter by Kate M. Colby
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a desert wasteland, one king rules with absolute power and unquenchable lust, until one woman risks everything for vengeance.When Aya Cogsmith was a teenager, King Archon executed her father for treason. Orphaned and destitute, Aya turns to prostitution to survive and spends years dreaming of vengeance... -
![The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce]()
The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsAeriel is kidnapped by the darkangel, a black-winged vampyre of astounding beauty and youth. In his castle keep, she serves his 13 wives, wraiths whose souls he stole. She must kill him before his next marriage and comes into full power, but is captivated by his magnificent beauty and inner spark of goodness... -
![Ravenous by Erica Stevens]()
Ravenous by Erica Stevens
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe world didn’t end with a bang, it didn’t go out in a ball of fire and fury, nor did it end in ice. But in some strange way, ice was the end; or maybe it was the beginning of something more.Bethany is stunned and horrified when she finds herself suddenly alone in a world that was alive only moments before... -
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![Three by Jay Posey]()
Three by Jay Posey
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe world has collapsed, and there are no heroes any more.But when a lone gunman reluctantly accepts the mantel of protector to a young boy and his dying mother against the forces that pursue them, a hero may yet arise... -
![The Fireman by Joe Hill]()
The Fireman by Joe Hill
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsFrom the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box comes a chilling novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and a band of improbable heroes who battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman.The fireman is coming. Stay cool... -
![Ice Diaries by Lexi Revellian]()
Ice Diaries by Lexi Revellian
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's 2018 and Tori's managing. Okay, so London is under twenty metres of snow, almost everybody has died in a pandemic or been airlifted south, and the only animals around are rats. Plus her boyfriend never returned from going to find his parents a year ago when the snow began - but she's doing fine. Really...Categorized as:
dark action-adventure alternate-universe apocalyptic book dark-fantasy dystopia fiction -
![The Immortality Game by Ted Cross]()
The Immortality Game by Ted Cross
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMoscow, 2138. With the world only beginning to recover from the complete societal collapse of the late 21st Century, Zoya scrapes by prepping corpses for funerals and dreams of saving enough money to have a child. When her brother forces her to bring him a mysterious package, she witnesses his murder and finds herself on the run from ruthless mobsters... -
![Shifter Alpha Claim 1 by Tamara Rose Blodgett, Marata Eros]()
Shifter Alpha Claim 1 by Tamara Rose Blodgett, Marata Eros
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe second set of Alpha Claims featuring new characters in the same world.... EPISODE 1: Shifter/Vampire Serial Talyn Phisher is a counselor in a world that has been turned on its ear by an unthinkable discovery: vampires roam among humans. If all this upheaval was not enough, Talyn's body is changing. Signs that something is seriously wrong plague her... -
![Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield]()
Rebirth by Sophie Littlefield
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe end of the world was just the beginningCivilization has fallen, leaving California an unforgiving, decimated place. But Cass Dollar beat terrible odds to get her missing daughter back—she and Ruthie will be happy.Yet with the first winter, Cass is reminded that happiness is fleeting in Aftertime. Ruthie retreats into silence.Flesh—eating Beaters still dominate the landscape... -
![Gravity by Marina Simcoe]()
Gravity by Marina Simcoe
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe unpredictable gravity of the mysterious space anomaly knocks me off course. But it's the irresistible pull of its Captain I'm afraid I can't escape.Sucked into the Dark Anomaly's gravitational field, I crash into the solid mass in its center. It's made of thousands upon thousands of vanished spaceships.Inside the wrecked bowels of the Anomaly, existence is dark, vile, and deadly... -
![Dark Eden by Chris Beckett]()
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn the alien, sunless planet they call Eden, the 532 members of the Family shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees. Beyond the Forest lie the mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure aliens audiobook book colonization -
![Branded by Abi Ketner, Missy Kalicicki]()
Branded by Abi Ketner, Missy Kalicicki
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFifty years ago The Commander came into power and murdered all who opposed him. In his warped mind, the seven deadly sins were the downfall of society. To punish the guilty, he created the Hole, a place where sinners are branded according to their sins... -
![Infected by Scott Sigler]()
Infected by Scott Sigler
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAcross America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families. Working under the government’s shroud of secrecy, CIA operative Dew Phillips crisscrosses the country trying in vain to capture a live victim... -
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![The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith]()
The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsRousing pulp action and steampunk come together in a heartbreaking story of high adventure and alternate history.In the year 1870, a horrible plague of vampires swept over the northern regions of the world. It is now 2020 and a bloody reckoning is coming. Princess Adele is heir to the Empire of Equatoria, a remnant of the old tropical British Empire...Categorized as:
dark vampires action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book dark-fantasy dystopia -
![Year 50 by Geoff Bluske]()
Year 50 by Geoff Bluske
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt has been almost 50 years since the planet was nearly rid of humans. Wildlife grows without restraint, erasing the metal and concrete structures left behind. Even where industrialization was most prominent, trees and grassland are aggressively reclaiming their land; Earth is pulling away the scab of human civilization... -
![Earth's Last Citadel by Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore]()
Earth's Last Citadel by Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore
Rated: 3.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFour WWII combatants travel to a distant and dangerous future in this novel by “two of the most revered names from [science fiction’s] Golden Age” (SFReviews.net). During World War II, four bitter enemies are pulled forward a billion years in time by a master being from an alien galaxy... -
![Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin]()
Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
Rated: 3.65 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsEverything is in ruins.A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.So what does Araby Worth have to live for?Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all...Categorized as:
dark action-adventure alternate-history apocalyptic book dark-fantasy death dystopia -
![The Book of Ptath by A.E. van Vogt]()
The Book of Ptath by A.E. van Vogt
Rated: 3.33 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe god Ptath is flung into the far future by a deadly rival and given the mind of a 20th century man. Stranded in this alien world, he must fight to regain his powers before the rival goddess sends the world spinning into chaos and darkness. "Van Vogt's work has a raw power that has never been equalled in science fiction".--Damon Knight... -
![The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan]()
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 64 ratingsIn Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her...
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