Books like 'Venus'
Readers who enjoyed Venus by Ben Bova also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
futuristic sc-fi space hard sci-fi action / adventure supernatural space-opera solar-system exploration space-travel
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Odysseus Ascendant by Evan Currie
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsA mysterious entity may be the key to a starship’s survival—or a terrifying new threat—as the Odyssey One series continues… The Empire has set its sights on its next target: human Terrans. As effective allies of the Priminae, the denizens of Earth have proven themselves enemies to the Empire, and now the Imperial forces know more about the Terran home world than ever before... -
Colony Mars Boxset by Gerald M. Kilby
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAll contact is lost with the first privately funded colony on Mars during a long and destructive sandstorm. Satellite imagery of the aftermath shows extensive damage to the facility and the fifty-four colonists who called it home are presumed dead. Three years later, a new mission sets down on the planet surface to investigate what remains of the derelict site...Categorized as:
colonization exploration space-travel action-adventure adult book fiction futuristic -
How Firm a Foundation by David Weber
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Charisian Empire, born in war, has always known it must fight for its very survival. What most of its subjects don't know even now, however, is how much more it's fighting for. Emperor Cayleb, Empress Sharleyan, Merlin Athrawes, and their innermost circle of most trusted advisers do know... -
The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith his infectious love of storytelling in all its forms, his rich characterisation and his unrivalled grasp of thrillingly bizarre cutting-edge science Hannu Rajaniemi has swiftly set a new benchmark for SF in the 21st century. And now with his third novel he completes the tale of his gentleman rogue, the many lives and minds of Jean de Flambeur... -
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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... -
Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsHumanity pushed its way to the stars - and encountered the Gbaba, a ruthless alien race that nearly wiped us out.Earth and her colonies are now smoldering ruins, and the few survivors have fled to distant, Earth-like Safehold, to try to rebuild...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult ai aliens alternate-history apocalyptic -
A Mighty Fortress by David Weber
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsYoung Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult ai aliens alternate-history audiobook -
By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe world has changed. The mercantile kingdom of Charis has prevailed over the alliance designed to exterminate it. Armed with better sailing vessels, better guns and better devices of all sorts, Charis faced the combined navies of the rest of the world at Darcos Sound and Armageddon Reef, and broke them...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult ai alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
By Heresies Distressed by David Weber
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsNow the battle for the soul of the planet Safehold has begun.The Kingdom of Charis and the Kingdom of Chisholm have joined together, pledged to stand against the tyranny of a corrupt Church. The youthful Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has wed King Cayleb of Charis, forging a single dynasty, a single empire, dedicated to the defense of human freedom... -
Pegasus in Space by Anne McCaffrey
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn a triumphant career spanning more than thirty years, Anne McCaffrey has won the devotion of millions of fans. Now she has written the exciting and long-awaited addition to her classic Pegasus series--and the perfect link to her bestselling Rowan saga . . .For an overpopulated Earth whose resources are strained to the breaking point, there is only one place to look for relief: straight up...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera space-travel action-adventure audiobook book contemporary epic -
Midst Toil and Tribulation by David Weber
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsDavid Weber's New York Times bestselling Safehold series of military Science Fiction adventure, which began with Off Armageddon Reef, continues with Midst Toil and TribulationWAR AND FAMINEOnce the Church of God Awaiting dominated all the kingdoms of Safehold...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult ai alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratings“The good thing is, no one will ever die again. The bad thing is, everyone will want to.”A physicist receives a mysterious paper. The ideas in it are far, far ahead of current thinking and quite, quite terrifying. In a city of “fast ones,” shadow players, and jinni, two sisters contemplate a revolution... -
Grail by Elizabeth Bear
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRife with intrigue and betrayal, heroism and sacrifice, Grail brings Elizabeth Bear’s brilliant space opera to a triumphant conclusion. At last the generation ship Jacob’s Ladder has arrived at its destination: the planet they have come to call Grail. But this habitable jewel just happens to be populated already: by humans who call their home Fortune...Categorized as:
colonization space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book far-future female-author -
Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAn alien shuttle craft lands outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Out pops a six-legged, two-armed alien, who says, in perfect English, "Take me to a paleontologist...Categorized as:
space-opera space-travel action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history audiobook book -
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Land Of The Headless by Adam Roberts
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTHE LAND OF THE HEADLESS is set in a far future where mankind has taken his religious dogma and the divsions that result from it out into space. On a planet where society is shaped by a strict adherance to the word of God as laid out in the Old Testament and Quran a poet is accused of the rape of a woman. Found guilty he must face the punishment laid down in the Good Book; beheading... -
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsJean le Flambeur gets up in the morning and has to kill himself before his other self can kill him first. Just another day in the Dilemma Prison. Rescued by the mysterious Mieli and her flirtatious spacecraft, Jean is taken to the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, where time is a currency, memories are treasures, and a moon-turned-singularity lights the night... -
Chill by Elizabeth Bear
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSometimes the greatest sin is survival.The generation ship Jacob’s Ladder has barely survived cataclysms from without and within. Now, riding the shock wave of a nova blast toward an uncertain destiny, the damaged ship—the only world its inhabitants have ever known—remains a war zone... -
The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsA ragtag crew of humans and posthumans discover alien technology that could change the fate of humanity... or awaken an ancient evil and destroy all life in the galaxy.The shady crew of the White Raven run freight and salvage at the fringes of our solar system... -
The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThey thought this was just another salvage job. They thought wrong.An AI overseer and a human crew arrive on a distant planet to salvage an ancient UN starship. The overseer is unhappy. The crew, well, they're certainly no A-team. Not even a C-team on the best of days.And worse? Urmahon Beta, the planet, is at the ass-end of nowhere. Everybody expects this to be a long, ugly, and thankless job... -
Oasis by Dima Zales, Anna Zaires
Rated: 3.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMy name is Theo, and I'm a resident of Oasis, the last habitable area on Earth. It's meant to be a paradise, a place where we are all content. Vulgarity, violence, insanity, and other ills are but a distant memory, and even death no longer plagues us.I was once content too, but now I'm different. Now I hear a voice in my head, and she tells me things no imaginary friend should know...Categorized as:
exploration space-travel action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book cyberpunk dystopia -
Farside by Ben Bova
Rated: 3.18 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSix-time Hugo-Award winner Ben Bova presents Farside.Farside, the side of the Moon that never faces Earth, is the ideal location for an astronomical observatory. It is also the setting for a tangled web of politics, personal ambition, love, jealousy, and murder.Telescopes on Earth have detected an Earth-sized planet circling a star some thirty light-years away...Categorized as:
colonization exploration space-opera space-travel action-adventure adult audiobook book -
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
Rated: 3.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMultiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, Greg Bear is one of science fiction’s most accomplished writers. Bold scientific speculation, riveting plots, and a fierce humanism reflected in characters who dare to dream of better worlds distinguish his work. Now Bear has written a mind-bendingly epic novel that may well be his masterpiece...
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