Books like 'Polaris'
Readers who enjoyed Polaris by Jack McDevitt also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi mystery space action / adventure hard sci-fi space-opera space-travel aliens steampunk
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The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsA millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together... -
![The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal]()
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsMary Robinette Kowal continues her award-winning Lady Astronaut series, which began with The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, with The Relentless Moon.The Earth is coming to the boiling point as the climate disaster of the Meteor strike becomes more and more clear, but the political situation is already overheated. Riots and sabotage plague the space program...Categorized as:
space-opera space-travel suspense action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
![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... -
![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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![The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov]()
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA millennium into the future, two advancements have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. On the beautiful Outer World planet of Solaria, a handful of human colonists lead a hermit-like existence, their every need attended to by their faithful robot servants... -
![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... -
![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:
aliens industrial-era space-opera steampunk 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
![Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov]()
Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsLong after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Earthman Elijah Baley, Keldon Amadiro embarked on a plan to destroy planet Earth. But even after his death, Baley's vision continued to guide his robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who had the wisdom of a great man behind him and an indestructable will to win... -
![The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov]()
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA millennium into the future two advances have altered the course of human history: the colonization of the Galaxy and the creation of the positronic brain. Isaac Asimov's Robot novels chronicle the unlikely partnership between a New York City detective and a humanoid robot who must learn to work together... -
![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... -
![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... -
![Excession by Iain M. Banks]()
Excession by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe international sensation Iain M. Banks offers readers a deeply imaginative, wittily satirical tale, proving once again that he is "a talent to be reckoned with" ("Locus"). In Excession, the Culture's espionage and dirty tricks section orders Diplomat Byr Gen-Hofoen to steal the soul of a long-dead starship captain... -
![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...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook -
![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... -
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![The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle]()
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsIn 3016, the 2nd Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to faster-than-light Alderson Drive. Intelligent beings are finally found from the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud. The bottled-up ancient civilization, at least one million years old, are welcoming, kind, yet evasive, with a dark problem they have not solved in over a million years... -
![The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold]()
The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsOn a rescue mission gone wrong, Miles Vorkosigan is captured by the enemy Cetagandans and thrown into a dome-shaped prisoner of war camp that seems a literal Circle of Hell. Against impossible odds, Miles organizes thousands of angry and dispirited prisoners into military formation that may offer the only chance for escape...Categorized as:
space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook classics -
![The Invincible by Stanisław Lem]()
The Invincible by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe Invincible (Polish: Niezwyciężony) is a science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, published in 1964. The Invincible originally appeared as the title story in Lem's collection Niezwyciężony i inne opowiadania ("The Invincible and Other Stories")... -
![A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge]()
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAlternate Cover Edition can be found here. A Fire upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale... -
![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... -
![Gateway by Frederik Pohl]()
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsRich or dead. Those were the choices Gateway offered. Gateway opened on all the wealth of the Universe & on reaches of unimaginable horror. The humans who rode the alien Heechee spacecraft stored on the planetoid couldn't know whether the trip would make them millionaires or corpses... -
![Ringworld by Larry Niven]()
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsThe artefact is a circular ribbon of matter six hundred million miles long and ninety million miles in radius. Pierson's puppeteers, the aliens who discovered it, are understandably wary of encountering the builders of such an immense structure and have assembled a team of two humans, a mad puppeteer and a kzin, a huge cat-like alien, to explore it... -
![The City and The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke]()
The City and The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsMen had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shutout the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rules the stars. But then, as legend had it, The invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook -
![On Basilisk Station by David Weber]()
On Basilisk Station by David Weber
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsHonor Harrington in trouble: Having made him look the fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult alpha-mc animals -
![The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Neil Gaiman]()
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsIn this pulse-quickening novel, Alfred Bester imagines a future in which people "jaunte" a thousand miles with a single thought, where the rich barricade themselves in labyrinths and protect themselves with radioactive hitmen—and where an inarticulate outcast is the most valuable and dangerous man alive...Categorized as:
industrial-era space-opera space-travel steampunk 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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![Protector by Larry Niven]()
Protector by Larry Niven
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 22 ratingsPhssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years before...Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
![The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter]()
The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThere is a secret passage through time...and it leads all the way to the end of Eternity. But the journey has a terrible cost. It alters not only the future but the "present" in which we live.A century after the publication of H. G... -
![Startide Rising by David Brin]()
Startide Rising by David Brin
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsDavid Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War--a New York Times bestseller--together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race... -
![Deathworld 1 by Harry Harrison]()
Deathworld 1 by Harry Harrison
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe planet was called Pyrrus...a strange place where all the beasts, plants and natural elements were designed for one specific purpose: to destroy man.The settlers there were supermen...twice as strong as ordinary men and with milli-second reflexes. They had to be. For their business was murder.. -
![Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds]()
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThree hundred years from now, Earth has been rendered uninhabitable due to the technological catastrophe known as the Nanocaust. Archaeologist Verity Auger specializes in the exploration of its surviving landscape. Now, her expertise is required for a far greater purpose...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic archaeology audiobook book -
![2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke]()
2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWhen 2001: A Space Odyssey first shocked, amazed, and delighted millions in the late 1960s, the novel was quickly recognized as a classic. Since then, its fame has grown steadily among the multitudes who have read the novel or seen the film based on it... -
![Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch]()
Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDavid Feintuch’s acclaimed Seafort Saga begins as Nicholas Seafort sets off on an interstellar naval adventure he will never forget In the year 2194, seventeen-year-old Nicholas Seafort is assigned to the Hibernia as a lowly midshipman. Destination: the thriving colony of Hope Nation...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult book colonization -
![The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov]()
The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsHigh above the planet Florinia, the Squires of Sark live in unimaginable wealth and comfort. Down in the eternal spring of the planet, however, the native Florinians labor ceaselessly to produce the precious kyrt that brings prosperity to their Sarkite masters. Rebellion is unthinkable and impossible... -
![Mindstar Rising by Peter F. Hamilton]()
Mindstar Rising by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsGreg Mandel, late of the Mindstar Battalion, has been many things in his life. Commando. Freedom fighter. Assassin. Now he's a freelance operative with a very special edge: telepathy. In the high-tech, hard-edged world of computer crime, zero-gravity smuggling, and artificial intelligence, Greg Mandel is the man to call when things get rough... -
![The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein]()
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsFirst came the news that a flying saucer had landed in Iowa. Then came the announcement that the whole thing was a hoax. End of story. Case closed.Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the U.S. government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting back. Then four more follow up agents also disappeared... -
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![Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss]()
Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsCuriosity was discouraged in the Greene tribe. Its members lived out their lives in cramped Quarters, hacking away at the encroaching ponics. As to where they were - that was forgotten. Roy Complain decides to find out. With the renegade priest Marapper, he moves into unmapped territory, where they make a series of discoveries which turn their universe upside-down.. -
![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:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book colonization dystopia -
![Eon by Greg Bear]()
Eon by Greg Bear
Rated: 3.82 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe 21st century was on the brink of nuclear confrontation when the 300 kilometer-long stone flashed out of nothingness and into Earth's orbit. NASA, NATO, and the UN sent explorers to the asteroid's surface...and discovered marvels and mysteries to drive researchers mad... -
![The Garden of Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee]()
The Garden of Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn the spellbinding Arthur C. Clarke tradition, here is an exhilarating adventure into the hearts of both the Universe and mankind...By the twenty-third century Earth has already had two encounters with massive, mysterious robotic spacecraft from beyond our solar system--the incontestable proof of an alien technology that far exceeds our own... -
![Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks]()
Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsCount Sessine is about to die for the very last time...Chief Scientist Gadfium is about to receive the mysterious message she has been waiting for from the Plain of Sliding Stones...And Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, is about to enter the chaos of the crypt...And everything is about to change.. -
![Eifelheim by Michael Flynn]()
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. Tom indeed becomes obsessed. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn't and that violates everything Tom knows about history...Categorized as:
aliens 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book christian -
![Ringworld's Children by Larry Niven]()
Ringworld's Children by Larry Niven
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 22 ratingsWelcome to a world like no other.The Ringworld: a landmark engineering achievement, a flat band 3 million times the surface area of Earth, encircling a distant star. Home to trillions of inhabitants, not all of which are human, and host to amazing technological wonders, the Ringworld is unique in all of the universe...Categorized as:
aliens industrial-era space-opera space-travel steampunk action-adventure adult audiobook -
![World's End by Joan D. Vinge]()
World's End by Joan D. Vinge
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsHot on the heels of The Summer Queen, this novel is a must-read for fans of Vinge's Hugo Award-winning series. BZ Gundhalinu, a policeman who became an outcast after saving the future Summer Queen, quits his job to follow his ne'er-do-well brothers into the godforsaken waste, World's End, to prospect. BZ's odyssey will set the stage for The Summer Queen...Categorized as:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics fairy-tale female-author -
![Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany]()
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBabel-17 is all about the power of language. Humanity, which has spread throughout the universe, is involved in a war with the Invaders, who have been covertly assassinating officials and sabotaging spaceships. The only clues humanity has to go on are strange alien messages that have been intercepted in space... -
![Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds]()
Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSpearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different—and rigidly enforced—level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains . .Categorized as:
industrial-era space-opera space-travel steampunk action-adventure adult angels apocalyptic -
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![Rama Revealed by Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee]()
Rama Revealed by Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsRama Revealed (1993) is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. It is the last of three sequels to Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama by these authors. The book picks up the story immediately after the end of The Garden of Rama. The book follows the story of Nicole Wakefield and her escape from imprisonment left at the cliffhanger of the previous book...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult arthurian audiobook -
![David Starr, Space Ranger by Paul French, Isaac Asimov]()
David Starr, Space Ranger by Paul French, Isaac Asimov
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEarth is on the brink of catastrophe. The vital foodstuffs supplied by its Martian colony are being poisoned. Working in secret, the ruling Council of Science sends David Starr, its youngest member, to the Martian farmlands to discover the truth behind the murders..Categorized as:
space-opera space-travel suspense 20th-century action-adventure anthologies children-books classics -
![Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick]()
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
Rated: 3.64 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen a strange magician and renegade scientist steals the secrets that could save a distant planet from being annihilated by its own oceans' tides, a man is sent to Miranda to retrieve those secrets before it is too late. Winner of the Nebula Award. Reprint... -
![Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold]()
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsLeo Graf was an effective engineer...Safety Regs weren't just the rule book he swore by; he'd helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporate exploitation of his bright new students—till that exploitation turned to something much worse...Categorized as:
space-opera space-travel suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook biopunk -
![Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter]()
Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline. Instead, the world becomes a patchwork of eras, from prehistory to 2037, each with its own indigenous inhabitants.Scattered across the planet are floating silver orbs impervious to all weapons and impossible to communicate with... -
![Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee]()
Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke, Gentry Lee
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsYears ago, the enormous, enigmatic alien spacecraft called Rama sailed through our solar system as mind-boggling proof that life existed -- or had existed -- elsewhere in the universe. Now, at the dawn of the twenty-third century, another ship is discovered hurtling toward us. A crew of Earth's best and brightest minds is assembled to rendezvous with the massive vessel...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult arthurian audiobook
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