Books like 'Clay's Ark'
Readers who enjoyed Clay's Ark by Octavia E. Butler also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
futuristic sc-fi horror 20th century action / adventure dystopia apocalyptic post-apocalyptic aliens afrofuturism
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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... -
![Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler]()
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:
afrofuturism apocalyptic classics disaster dystopia female-mc poc-mc post-apocalyptic -
![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... -
![Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler]()
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsForced to flee an America where anarchy and violence have completely taken over, empath Lauren Olamina--who can feel the pain of others and is crippled by it--becomes a prophet carrying the hope of a new world and a new faith christened "Earthseed". A stirring portrait of 21st-century America by the author of "Wild Seed"...Categorized as:
afrofuturism apocalyptic classics dystopia female-mc poc-mc post-apocalyptic survival -
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![Imago by Octavia E. Butler]()
Imago by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe stunning conclusion to a postapocalyptic trilogy about an alien species merging with humans—from “one of science fiction’s finest writers” (TheNew York Times). Human and Oankali have been mating since the aliens first came to Earth to rescue the few survivors of an annihilating nuclear war...Categorized as:
afrofuturism aliens apocalyptic classics dystopia female-mc first-contact paranormal -
![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... -
![Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith]()
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsStark lives in Colour, a neighbourhood whose inhabitants like to be co-ordinated with their surroundings – a neighbourhood where spangly purple trousers are admired by the walls of buildings as you pass them. Close by is Sound, where you mustn’t make any, apart from one designated hour a day when you can scream your lungs raw... -
![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... -
![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...Categorized as:
aliens apocalyptic classics dystopia first-contact post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton]()
The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsNot every fallen angel comes from heaven...The ancient menace has finally escaped from Lalonde, shattering the Confederation's peaceful existence. Those who succumbed to it have acquired godlike powers, but now follow a far from divine gospel as they advance inexorably from world to world... -
![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... -
![First and Only by Dan Abnett]()
First and Only by Dan Abnett
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIn the Chaos-infested Sabbat system, Imperial Commissar Gaunt must lead his men through as much in-fighting amongst rival regiments as against the forces of Chaos. For a thousand years, the Sabbat Worlds have been lost to the Imperium, claimed by the dread powers of Chaos. Now, a mighty crusade seeks to return the sector to Imperial rule... -
![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:
aliens classics dystopia paranormal post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![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...Categorized as:
aliens classics dystopia paranormal post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![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.. -
![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:
afrofuturism aliens apocalyptic classics dystopia female-mc first-contact paranormal -
![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... -
![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...Categorized as:
aliens apocalyptic classics dystopia first-contact paranormal post-apocalyptic 20th-century -
![Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein]()
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... -
![Sherlock Holmes in Orbit by Mike Resnick, Dean Wesley Smith]()
Sherlock Holmes in Orbit by Mike Resnick, Dean Wesley Smith
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAuthorized by Dame Jean Conan Doyle, this brand-new collection of 26 Sherlock Holmes stories takes place in Holmes' own era, in our present time, and in the future. All the tales contain some science fiction or fantasy element, and all remain true to the spirit and personality of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous and enduring creation...Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies crime dark-fantasy -
![Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K. Dick]()
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Inspiration for the Upcoming TV Show Though perhaps most famous as a novelist, over the course of his career Philip K. Dick wrote more than one hundred short stories, each as mind-bending and genre-defining as his longer works. Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams collects ten of the best from across his career...Categorized as:
aliens classics dystopia first-contact 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies -
![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... -
![The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton]()
The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsIn AD 2600 the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures... -
![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... -
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![A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury]()
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn "A Sound of Thunder", Time Safari, Inc. offers the greatest hunting trips ever--any year, any animal. But they don't guarantee you'll come back, or what you'll find if you do. And in "Night Call, Collect", who is harassing Emil Barton, the last man in the universe? After decades of waiting on Mars, these twisted phone calls could kill him! Winner of a Peabody Award... -
![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... -
![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... -
![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... -
![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... -
![Phule's Company by Robert Lynn Asprin]()
Phule's Company by Robert Lynn Asprin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn the novel that started all the phulishness, meet the soldiers of Captain Willard Phule's Company--a handful of military rejects able to do more damage before 9 a.m. than most people do all day. Threatened by an alien enemy, Earth's military sends Phule and his soldiers to a distant planet. But now, the aliens have chosen a new target of war . . . Phule's Company...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book colonization -
![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... -
![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 classics drama dystopia paranormal post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure -
![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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![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... -
![A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr., Mary Doria Russell]()
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr., Mary Doria Russell
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsIn a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz...Categorized as:
apocalyptic classics dystopia post-apocalyptic survival 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin]()
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsIn 2198, one hundred and fifty years after the desperate wars that destroyed an overpopulated Earth, Man lives precariously on a hundred hastily-established colony worlds and in the seven giant Ships that once ferried men to the stars. Mia Havero's Ship is a small closed society. It tests its children by casting them out to live or die in a month of Trial in the hostile wilds of a colony world...Categorized as:
classics dystopia female-mc post-apocalyptic survival 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
![The Chrysalids by John Wyndham]()
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsThe Chyrsalids is set in the future after a devastating global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel, lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, always on the alert for any deviation from the norm of God’s creation. Abnormal plants are publicly burned, with much singing of hymns...Categorized as:
apocalyptic classics dystopia paranormal post-apocalyptic survival 20th-century action-adventure -
![Earth Abides by George R. Stewart]()
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsThe cabin had always been a special retreat for Isherwood Williams, a haven from the demands of society. But one day while hiking, Ish was bitten by a rattlesnake, and the solitude he had so desired took on dire new significance. He was sick for days - although, somehow, he never doubted that he'd live through the ordeal... -
![Shade's Children by Garth Nix]()
Shade's Children by Garth Nix
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Key to Survival Rests in the Hands of Shade's ChildrenIf you’re lucky, you live to fight another day.In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machine like creature whose sole purpose is to kill...Categorized as:
aliens apocalyptic dystopia paranormal post-apocalyptic survival suspense 20th-century -
![When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger]()
When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hard way. Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he’s available…for a price.For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan... -
![Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick]()
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsJason Tavener woke up one morning to find himself completely unknown. The night before he had been the top-rated television star with millions of devoted watchers. The next day he was just an unidentified walking object, whose face nobody recognised, of whom no one had heard, and without the I.D. papers required in that near future... -
![Fire Watch by Connie Willis]()
Fire Watch by Connie Willis
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWinner of six Nebula and five Hugo awards, Connie Willis is one of the most acclaimed and imaginative authors of our time. Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction...Categorized as:
dystopia paranormal post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies female-author -
![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...Categorized as:
apocalyptic drama dystopia paranormal post-apocalyptic survival suspense 20th-century -
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![The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick]()
The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIn the world of The Minority Report, Commissioner John Anderton is the one to thank for the lack of crime. He is the originator of the Precrime System, which uses precogs—people with the power to see into the future—to identify criminals before they can do any harm. Unfortunately for Anderton, his precogs perceive him as the next criminal... -
![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...Categorized as:
apocalyptic classics drama dystopia post-apocalyptic suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![We by Yevgeny Zamyatin]()
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 62 ratingsThe exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet RussiaYevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand...Categorized as:
classics drama dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Moonrise by Ben Bova]()
Moonrise by Ben Bova
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThere is a dream called Moonbase, nurtured by ex-astronaut Paul Stavenger and his wife, Joanna Masterson Stavenger, head of the powerful Masterson Corporation...Categorized as:
dystopia post-apocalyptic 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book colonization -
![Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks]()
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 64 ratings"Dazzlingly original." -- Daily Mail"Gripping, touching and funny." -- TLSThe war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender... -
![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...
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