Books like 'Firstborn'

Readers who enjoyed Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

futuristic  sc-fi  space  action / adventure  military, war & conflict  space-opera  war  military  family  epic 

  • Morning Star by Pierce Brown

    Morning Star by Pierce Brown

    Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars
    · 74 ratings
    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating conclusion to the Red Rising Trilogy: Morning Star.Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war...
  • Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey

    Tiamat's Wrath by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars
    · 48 ratings
    Thirteen 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...
  • Golden Son by Pierce Brown

    Golden Son by Pierce Brown

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 73 ratings
    As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. But the Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow’s kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds—and their only path to liberation is revolution...
  • Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

    Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 61 ratings
    The fifth novel in Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series--now being produced for television by the SyFy Channel!A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed...
  • Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

    Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 71 ratings
    We are not alone.On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  military  politics  space-opera  suspense  technology  war
  • Age of Deception by T.A. White

    Age of Deception by T.A. White

    Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    War hero and daughter to two Houses, Kira is just beginning to learn how deep the rabbit hole goes. Agreeing to accompany her father’s people back to their homeworld, Kira Forrest prepares for the fight of her life. She’s agreed to undertake the Trial of the Broken, a rite of passage every member of her father’s House must pass...
  • Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey

    Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 53 ratings
    In the thousand-sun network of humanity's expansion, new colony worlds are struggling to find their way. Every new planet lives on a knife edge between collapse and wonder, and the crew of the aging gunship Rocinante have their hands more than full keeping the fragile peace...
  • Dark Age by Pierce Brown

    Dark Age by Pierce Brown

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Morning Star returns to the Red Rising universe with the thrilling sequel to Iron Gold.For a decade Darrow led a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society. Now, outlawed by the very Republic he founded, he wages a rogue war on Mercury in hopes that he can still salvage the dream of Eo...
  • Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Miles Errant by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Contains: The Borders of InfinityBrothers in Arms Mirror DanceMiles Naismith--in the person of his two alter-egos Admiral Naismith and Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan--embarks on a perilous series of adventures, from the liberation of Barrayaran allies from a Cetagandan POW camp to the rescue of clone children scheduled to be murdered for their bodies...
  • Legends Never Die by Joshua Dalzelle

    Legends Never Die by Joshua Dalzelle

    Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    Jason Burke is a broken man. The loss of his friend and crewmate on an ill-fated mission to a Pillar World has left him in a downward spiral of rage and self-destruction...
    Categorized as:
    epic  military  space-opera  war  action-adventure  adult  ai  aliens
  • Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

    Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 79 ratings
    Humanity 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 ratings
    Abaddon'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...
  • Miles, Mutants, and Microbes by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Miles, Mutants, and Microbes by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Content: Falling free Labyrinth Diplomatic immunity Miles Vorkosigan/Naismith : his life and times.Two complete novels and a short novel in one large volume:Falling Free—The Nebula Award-winning novel. Leo Graf was just your typical efficient engineer: mind your own business and do the job...
  • Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey

    Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 57 ratings
    The sixth book in the New York Times bestselling Expanse series. NOW A MAJOR TV SERIES A revolution brewing for generations has begun in fire. It will end in blood.The Free Navy - a violent group of Belters in black-market military ships - has crippled the Earth and begun a campaign of piracy and violence among the outer planets...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  family  military  politics  space-opera  suspense  war
  • Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    The Warrior's Apprentice 1The Mountains of Mourning 373The Vor Game 465Author's Afterword 829IT ISN'T EASY, BEING VOR...Being a Vor lord on the war-torn planet Barrayar wasn't easy. Being an officer in Barrayar's military wasn't easy...
  • Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

    Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 66 ratings
    Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life...
  • Secret of the Phoenix by Joshua Dalzelle

    Secret of the Phoenix by Joshua Dalzelle

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Captain Jason Burke has begun to suspect that the random attacks on his ship and crew over the last couple of years may not be so random after all. Evidence is mounting that there is something on the Phoenix ... something that powerful factions will stop at nothing to get their hands on...
  • Buccaneers by Jamie McFarlane

    Buccaneers by Jamie McFarlane

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    The crew of the Hotspur just happens to be looking for a new home. If Nick James is right, and he usually is, the Tipperary solar system is about to become the busiest trading hub in the galaxy. To sweeten the pot, the cloud-city of Lèger Nuage is offering free warehouse space to qualified traders. It's a deal that seems too good to pass up. Of course, nothing's as simple as it seems...
  • Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton

    Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 46 ratings
    The 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...
  • Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

    Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 72 ratings
    The fourth novel in James S.A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse seriesThe gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity's home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  military  politics  space-opera  suspense  technology  war
  • Madame Guillotine by Jason Anspach, Nick Cole

    Madame Guillotine by Jason Anspach, Nick Cole

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Leave no man behind. On Detron, a simmering protest boils over and turns deadly when militants hiding among the demonstrators deliberately shoot down a group of legionnaires, executing one survivor and taking two for ransom. The only Republic asset the captured leejes can rely on is a lone marine sniper who defies orders in a desperate attempt to save them...
  • Captain's Share by Nathan Lowell

    Captain's Share by Nathan Lowell

    Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    A shuffling of cabins puts Ishmael Horatio Wang in command of the worst ship in the fleet. He learns that being Captain doesn't make you infallible and that life in the Captain's Cabin is filled with new kinds of challenge as he tries to keep the ship moving, the crew out of trouble, and turn a profit to earn his Captain's Share...
  • Red Rising by Pierce Brown

    Red Rising by Pierce Brown

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 84 ratings
    "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.""I live for you," I say sadly.Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future...
  • Memento by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

    Memento by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    From New York Times bestselling authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff comes an Illuminae prequel digital novella that gives readers a hair-raising glimpse into the calamity that befell the invincible AI system known as AIDAN–and the daring young programmer who would risk her life to keep it from crashing.AIDAN is the AI you’ll love to hate...
  • Return of the Archon by Joshua Dalzelle

    Return of the Archon by Joshua Dalzelle

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    Listening length: 9 hoursEach member of Omega Force carries his own baggage. Most of them are running from their pasts or simply trying to forget them. One member of the small mercenary crew is not who he claims to be, however. When his former life collides with his current one, the team is drawn into a conflict that could have profound consequences for the future of an entire species...
  • Voice of Mars by Glynn Stewart

    Voice of Mars by Glynn Stewart

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    YOU CAN NEVER GO HOMEWhen accusations of piracy and mass murder are laid against his homeworld, Damien Montgomery is sent to resolve the crisis.As counter-accusations fly and an old flame re-enters his life, the newest Hand of the Mage-King of Mars finds himself in the midst of a bloody interstellar shadow war...
  • Zero Recall by Sara King

    Zero Recall by Sara King

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    It's been 53 turns after the legendary Commander Zero graduated as a Congie warrior. Joe, now a battle hardened veteran, has spent his life surviving wars he had no right to survive. Yet his real test is coming: New forces are conspiring to start a great war like the universe has never seen, one that would rip apart the very fabric of Congress...
  • Excalibur Lost: a Space Opera Novella by Glynn Stewart

    Excalibur Lost: a Space Opera Novella by Glynn Stewart

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    A broken speciesA broken manA lost legend…Only dreams and stories remain of the worlds humanity once called home, but scattered refugees live in the corners of the empire of their conquerors, the Sacred Council of Races...
  • Old Man's War by John Scalzi

    Old Man's War by John Scalzi

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 50 ratings
    John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate...
    Categorized as:
    drama  epic  military  politics  space-opera  suspense  technology  war
  • Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

    Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 67 ratings
    They call him father, liberator, warlord, Reaper. But he feels a boy as he falls toward the pale blue planet, his armor red, his army vast, his heart heavy. It is the tenth year of war and the thirty-second of his life. A decade ago, Darrow was the hero of the revolution he believed would break the chains of the Society...
  • Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Contains: Cetaganda Ethan of Athos Labyrinth.Diplomat, soldier, spy - Lieutenant Lord Miles Naismith Vorkosigan of the Barrayarayan Empire, a.k.a. Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, is a young man of many parts...
  • Hand of Mars by Glynn Stewart

    Hand of Mars by Glynn Stewart

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    ROGUE MAGE TURNED INTERPLANETARY ENVOYThree years ago, as Ship’s Mage of the starship Blue Jay, Damien Montgomery was pursued to the edge of human space by both the agents and enemies of the Mage-King of Mars — before being brought in from the cold.Now, trained in new skills by the Mage-King himself, Damien has been sent to the planet Ardennes alongside Alaura Stealey, Hand of the King...
  • Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    A rich Komarran merchant fleet has been impounded at Graf Station, in distant Quaddiespace, after a bloody incident on the station docks involving a security officer from the convoy's Barrayaran military escort. Lord Miles Vorkosigan of Barrayar and his wife, Lady Ekaterin, have other things on their minds, such as getting home in time to attend the long-awaited births of their first children...
  • The Enemy Within by Joshua Dalzelle

    The Enemy Within by Joshua Dalzelle

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    The quadrant is burning. Violent, deadly uprisings are breaking out, seemingly at random, all across the Confederation’s sphere of influence. The response by the powerful Confederation Fleet has been swift and decisive, but for every planet they restore order to, another erupts into chaos...
  • Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 39 ratings
    Cordelia and Arol Vorkosigan's plans for a peaceful married life (after all the bloodshed and trials recounted in SHARDS OF HONOR) are soon shattered by the polital tumult on Barrayar. Resisting enormous pressure, they struggle to keep their family alive while while protecting the child Emperor from enemies who would murder him and assume absolute power over all of Barrayar...
  • The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

    The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    Hugo Award Winner! Miles Vorkosigan graduates from the Academy, joins a mutiny, is placed under house arrest, goes on a secret mission, reconnects with his loyal Dendarii Mercenaries, rescues his Emperor, and thwarts an interstellar war. Situation normal, if you're Miles...
  • Homeworld by Evan Currie

    Homeworld by Evan Currie

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    War comes home to the Sol system when the Drasin track a human ship back to Earth, with devastating consequences. Facing massive force of invading alien ships wielding terrible power, the crew of the NAC spacecraft, their allies, and the people of Earth must mount a desperate effort to stop them...
  • We Few by David Weber, John Ringo

    We Few by David Weber, John Ringo

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Prince 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...
  • Double Share by Nathan Lowell

    Double Share by Nathan Lowell

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    AN INEXPERIENCED OFFICER. A DYSFUNCTIONAL SHIP. LIFE IN THE DEEP DARK JUST GOT A LOT HARDER.In his first assignment as an officer, Ishmael Horatio Wang finds himself fresh out of school, wet behind the ears, and way out of his depth. Aboard the William Tinker the senior officers are derelict and abusive, the crew demoralized and undisciplined, and change unwelcomed and dangerous...
  • Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

    Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 47 ratings
    The 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 Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold

    The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    [A Miles Vorkosigan Story] Twenty year old Ensign Miles Vorkosigan plays detective in a murder case, and tests the balance of power as a member of the Barrayaran nobility. [Publisher's Note: The Mountains of Mourning was originally published as a stand-alone novella in the May 1989 issue of Analog...
  • 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 ratings
    A 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...
  • Auberon by James S.A. Corey

    Auberon by James S.A. Corey

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    A 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...
  • Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

    Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 42 ratings
    Our heroes are back… kind of. From the bestselling co-authors of the Illuminae Files comes the second book in the epic series about a squad of misfits, losers, and discipline cases who just might be the galaxy’s best hope for survival.First, the bad news: an ancient evil—you know, your standard consume-all-life-in-the-galaxy deal—is about to be unleashed...
  • The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

    The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 46 ratings
    The 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...
  • Inversion Point by Jenn Burke, Kelly Jensen

    Inversion Point by Jenn Burke, Kelly Jensen

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Zander and Felix's relationship has been to the brink and back: the Human-Stin War, imprisonment and an actual death/resurrection. Zander's death, to be specific, and the experience has left him…changed. The mysterious race known as the Guardians chose to revive him and appointed him as their emissary...
  • Savage Homecoming by Joshua Dalzelle

    Savage Homecoming by Joshua Dalzelle

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    Ever since he joined Omega Force, Captain Jason Burke has lived with the underlying fear that one day Earth would be discovered. His desire to keep Earth’s existence and location a secret has driven him to extremes, and kept him far away from his homeworld for a long time.But now Jason’s greatest fear is realized, and a fleet of alien ships has attacked his planet...
  • March Upcountry by David Weber, John Ringo

    March Upcountry by David Weber, John Ringo

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Prince 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...
  • Sanctuary by Ivan Kal

    Sanctuary by Ivan Kal

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    -NOTE- This book has been professionally re-edited as of March 23, 2016 A new start, six hundred light-years from Earth. Tomas Klein founder of Olympus had brought his people to a new world, freed them from constraints of Earth and its governments. But a new world brings new dangers. Tomas Klein will need to set aside past regrets and rise up to the challenge...
  • Chains of Duty by Anthony James

    Chains of Duty by Anthony James

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    For Captain John Duggan, it seems like war never ends. Each success brings another mission and more death. Following events at the Helius Blackstar, Duggan is given the Space Corps’ newest warship – a heavy cruiser armed to the teeth with the latest weapons and technology...
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