Books like 'The Memory Police'
Readers who enjoyed The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi mystery horror 20th century action / adventure dystopia magical-realism literary-fiction poc-mc
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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... -
![2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke]()
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 74 ratingsOn the Moon, an enigma is uncovered.So great are the implications of this discovery that for the first time men are sent out deep into our solar system.But long before their destination is reached, things begin to go horribly, inexplicably wrong...One of the greatest-selling science fiction novels of our time, this classic book will grip you to the very end... -
![Blindness by José Saramago]()
Blindness by José Saramago
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 72 ratingsFrom Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago, a magnificent, mesmerizing parable of lossA city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women... -
![The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury]()
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 74 ratingsFrom "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas... -
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![Ubik by Philip K. Dick]()
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsGlen Runciter runs a lucrative business—deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in “half-life,” a dreamlike state of suspended animation...Categorized as:
classics dark drama dystopia literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson]()
The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNausea, then microamnesia, then the laughing jag, then sex. Be patient. The clear light comes next. Then we can discuss Truth. As if we haven't been discussing it all along. -Hagbard Celine, The Golden Apple Illuminatus! Part II, from the original and genuine trilogy of conspiracies, is performed in all its unabridged brilliance by a full ensemble cast... -
![The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons]()
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsThe time of reckoning has arrived. As a final genocidal Crusade threatens to enslave humanity forever, a new messiah has come of age. She is Aenea and she has undergone a strange apprenticeship to those known as the Others. Now her protector, Raul Endymion, one-time shepherd and convicted murderer, must help her deliver her startling message to her growing army of disciples... -
![The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury]()
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 61 ratingsHere are stories of other worlds: of the rain-gutted forests of Venus and the deep canals of Mars; of the empty blackness of space and of planets that have no name. Here are stories, too, of Earth - new and unfamiliar in the glow of a wondrous future. And here- above all - is the story of The Illustrated man - tattooed by a witch with the most fantastic images ever seen on Earth..Categorized as:
classics dark drama dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism social-commentary suspense -
![Replay by Ken Grimwood]()
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAt forty-three Jeff Winston is tired of his low-paid, unrewarding job, tired of the long silences at the breakfast table with his wife, saddened by the thought of no children to comfort his old age. But he hopes for better things, for happiness, maybe tomorrow ...But a sudden, fatal heart attack puts paid to that...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton]()
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsAn astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price. Until something goes wrong. . . -
![I Am Legend by Richard Matheson]()
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsWinner of the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award for best vampire novel of the century: the genre-defining classic of horror sci-fi that inspired three films. The population of the entire world has been obliterated by a pandemic of vampire bacteria. Yet somehow, Robert Neville survived...Categorized as:
classics dark drama dystopia literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky]()
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsRed Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products... -
![Leviathan by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson]()
Leviathan by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe ultimate weapon isn't this plague out in Vegas, or any new super H-bomb. The ultimate weapon has always existed. Every man, every woman, and every child owns it. It's the ability to say No and take the consequences. - Hagbard Celine, LeviathanIlluminatus! Part III cheerfully ushers in the apocalyptic high-camp conclusion of the Illuminatus! Trilogy... -
![The Wall by Marlen Haushofer]()
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFirst published to acclaim in Germany, The Wall chronicles the life of the last surviving human on earth, an ordinary middle-aged woman who awakens one morning to find that everyone else has vanished. Assuming her isolation to be the result of a military experiment gone awry, she begins the terrifying work of survival and self-renewal...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia journey literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure -
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![Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber]()
Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHere is the stunning international bestseller in the tradition of Watership Down but with a dark, original twist. Unique, daring, and unforgettable, it tells the story of an ordinary family who accidentally threaten the security of a hidden civilization as intelligent as our own--a colony of ants determined to survive at any cost... -
![The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell]()
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 55 ratingsIn 2019, humanity finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post picks up exquisite singing from the planet Rakhat. While the U.N. debates possible contact missions, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an 8-person expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be human...Categorized as:
classics dark dystopia friendship literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Solaris by Stanisław Lem]()
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsA classic work of science fiction by renowned Polish novelist and satirist Stanislaw Lem.When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the living physical likeness of a long-dead lover...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, Jorge Luis Borges]()
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, Jorge Luis Borges
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsJorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of The Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious... -
![The Long Walk by Richard Bachman, Stephen King]()
The Long Walk by Richard Bachman, Stephen King
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsOn the first day of May, 100 teenage boys meet for an event known throughout the country as The Long Walk. If you break the rules, you get three warnings. If you exceed your limit, what happens is absolutely terrifying. Reissue... -
![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:
classics dystopia literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure aliens apocalyptic -
![Second Variety: Short Story by Philip K. Dick]()
Second Variety: Short Story by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war between the United Nations and the Soviet Union, sophisticated robots nicknamed “claws” are created to destroy what remains of human life. Left to their own devices, however, the claws develop robots of their own. II-V, the second variety, remains unknown to the few humans left on Earth. Or does it?Philip K...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult ai anthologies -
![Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden]()
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsWhen Ellie and her friends return from a camping trip in the Australian bush, they find things hideously wrong — their families are gone. Gradually they begin to comprehend that their country has been invaded and everyone in their town has been taken prisoner...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia friendship suspense 20th-century action-adventure apocalyptic -
![V. by Thomas Pynchon]()
V. by Thomas Pynchon
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men—one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose—and "V.," the unknown woman of the title...Categorized as:
classics crime drama literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
![The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton]()
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsThe United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to collect organisms and dust for study... -
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![Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.]()
Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr.
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Who Goes There?" The novella that formed the basis of "The Thing" is the John W. Campbell classic about an antarctic research camp that discovers and thaws the ancient, frozen body of a crash-landed alien. The creature revives with terrifying results, shape-shifting to assume the exact form of animal and man, alike... -
![One Past Midnight: The Langoliers by Stephen King, Willem Dafoe]()
One Past Midnight: The Langoliers by Stephen King, Willem Dafoe
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe first of a four-part audio series from Stephen King's best-selling book, Four Past Midnight. On a redeye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, only 11 passengers survive—but landing in a dead world makes them wish they hadn't... -
![Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury]()
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 101 ratingsRay Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out... -
![The Invasion by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate]()
The Invasion by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night he and his friends saw the strange light in the sky. He may even tell you about what happened when they realized the "light" was only a plane -- from another planet. Here's where Jake's story gets a little weird. It's where they're told that the human race is under attack -- and given the chance to fight back... -
![The Lost World by Michael Crichton]()
The Lost World by Michael Crichton
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsIt is now six years since the secret disaster at Jurassic Park, six years since the extraordinary dream of science and imagination came to a crashing end – the dinosaurs destroyed, the park dismantled, the island indefinitely closed to the public.There are rumors that something has survived... -
![The Running Man by Richard Bachman, Stephen King]()
The Running Man by Richard Bachman, Stephen King
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 69 ratingsThe Running Man is set within a dystopian future in which the poor are seen more by the government as worrisome rodents than actual human beings. The protagonist of The Running Man, Ben Richards, is quick to realize this as he watches his daughter, Cathy, grow more sick by the day and tread closer and closer to death... -
![One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence]()
One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn January 1986, fifteen-year-old boy-genius Nick Hayes discovers he’s dying. And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations...Categorized as:
crime drama dystopia friendship magical-realism suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs]()
Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs
Rated: 3.76 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhile young men wage war against an evil empire of zealous mutants, the population of this modern inferno is afflicted with the epidemic of a radioactive virus. An opium-infused apocalyptic vision from the legendary author of Naked Lunch; the first of the trilogy with The Place of the Dead Roads and his final novel The Western Lands...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism politics 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![My Teacher Is an Alien by Bruce Coville]()
My Teacher Is an Alien by Bruce Coville
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsSixth grade is just out of this world!Susan Simmons can tell that her new substitute teacher is really weird. But she doesn't know how weird until she catches him peeling off his face -- and realizes that "Mr. Smith" is really an alien! At first no one will believe her except Peter Thompson, the class brain. When Peter and Susan discover Mr...Categorized as:
classics 20th-century action-adventure aliens audiobook book children children-books -
![Zodiac by Neal Stephenson]()
Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 3.73 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSangamon Taylor's a New Age Sam Spade who sports a wet suit instead of a trench coat and prefers Jolt from the can to Scotch on the rocks. He knows about chemical sludge the way he knows about evil -- all too intimately. And the toxic trail he follows leads to some high and foul places...Categorized as:
crime dystopia literary-fiction politics suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![Sphere by Michael Crichton]()
Sphere by Michael Crichton
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsA group of American scientists are rushed to a huge vessel that has been discovered resting on the ocean floor in the middle of the South Pacific. What they find defies their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions, apparently, undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old... -
![The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein]()
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 31 ratings"In the beginning was The Bird. Wise and cruel was The Bird, and wise and cruel were The Sons of the Bird..."Robert A. Heinlein, the celebrated author of Stranger in a Strange Land, interrupts the lives of two ordinary people for a terrifying night-ride along the interface between reality and . . . our world...Categorized as:
classics 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction -
![Ice by Anna Kavan]()
Ice by Anna Kavan
Rated: 3.68 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIn this haunting and surreal novel, the narrator and a man known as the warden search for an elusive girl in a frozen, seemingly post-nuclear, apocalyptic landscape. The country has been invaded and is being governed by a secret organization. There is destruction everywhere; great walls of ice overrun the world...Categorized as:
classics dark dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism season-winter 20th-century action-adventure -
![Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany, William Gibson]()
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany, William Gibson
Rated: 3.64 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsA mysterious disaster has stricken the midwestern American city of Bellona, and its aftereffects are disturbing: a city block burns down and is intact a week later; clouds cover the sky for weeks, then part to reveal two moons; a week passes for one person when only a day passes for another. The catastrophe is confined to Bellona, and most of the inhabitants have fled...Categorized as:
classics dystopia literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Children of Men by P.D. James]()
The Children of Men by P.D. James
Rated: 3.68 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsTold with P. D. James's trademark suspense, insightful characterization, and riveting storytelling, The Children of Men is a story of a world with no children and no future. The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace... -
![High-Rise by J.G. Ballard]()
High-Rise by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 3.56 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsFrom the author of ‘Crash’ and ‘Cocaine Nights’ comes an unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control.Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction... -
![The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard]()
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 3.52 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFirst published in 1962, J.G. Ballard's mesmerizing and ferociously prescient novel imagines a terrifying future in which solar radiation and global warming have melted the polar ice caps and Triassic-era jungles have overrun a submerged and tropical London. Set during the year 2145, the novel follows biologist Dr...Categorized as:
classics dark drama dystopia literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Congo by Michael Crichton]()
Congo by Michael Crichton
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsDeep in the African rain forest, near the legendary ruins of the Lost City of Zinj, an expedition of eight American geologists is mysteriously and brutally killed in a matter of minutes... -
![The Gemini Effect by Chuck Grossart]()
The Gemini Effect by Chuck Grossart
Rated: 3.39 of 5 stars · 33 ratings2014 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror A single raindrop opens a Pandora’s box when the spawn of perverse genetic research performed during World War II is unleashed on an unsuspecting modern world... -
![The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton]()
The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton
Rated: 3.38 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsHarry Benson is prone to violent, uncontrollable seizures and is under police guard after attacking two people.Dr. Roger McPherson, head of the prestigious Neuropsychiatric Research Unit at University Hospital in Los Angeles, is convinced he can cure Benson through a procedure called Stage Three... -
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![Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs]()
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Rated: 3.45 of 5 stars · 61 ratings"Naked Lunch" is the unnerving tale of a monumental descent into the hellish world of a narcotics addict as he travels from New York to Tangiers, then into Interzone, a nightmarish modern urban wasteland in which the forces of good and evil vie for control of the individual and all of humanity...
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