Books like 'Absolution Gap'
Readers who enjoyed Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi space hard sci-fi action / adventure horror military, war & conflict space-opera aliens epic religion
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Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsThe Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again... -
![Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey]()
Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 61 ratingsThe 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... -
![The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, Eisso Post]()
The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, Eisso Post
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsThis is the second novel in "Remembrance of Earth’s Past", the near-future trilogy written by the China's multiple-award-winning science fiction author, Cixin Liu. In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion — four centuries in the future... -
![Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey]()
Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsWe 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... -
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![Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey]()
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsIn 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... -
![Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey]()
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 79 ratingsHumanity 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 ratingsAbaddon'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... -
![Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey]()
Babylon's Ashes by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 57 ratingsThe 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... -
![Hyperion by Dan Simmons]()
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... -
![Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky]()
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 59 ratingsA race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars... -
![Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks]()
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIt begins in the realm of the Real, where matter still matters.It begins with a murder.And it will not end until the Culture has gone to war with death itself.Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated, her marked body bearing witness to a family shame, her life belonging to a man whose lust for power is without limit... -
![Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey]()
Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 72 ratingsThe 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... -
![Shakedown by Scott Sigler]()
Shakedown by Scott Sigler
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"A gritty tale of cosmic dread.”— Pierce Brown, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of RED RISINGFew know the warship’s actual name. Fewer still know what it really is. And almost no one knows of its unique ability, an ability that could tilt the balance of power if not outright win the war.But everyone has heard the rumors. Rumors about the worst place the Planetary Union Fleet can send you... -
![The Technician by Neal Asher]()
The Technician by Neal Asher
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Theocracy has been dead for 20 years, and the Polity rules on Masada. But the Tidy Squad consists of rebels who cannot accept the new order. Their hate for surviving theocrats is undiminished, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hitlist... -
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![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... -
![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... -
![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... -
![War Factory by Neal Asher]()
War Factory by Neal Asher
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThorvald Spear, resurrected from his death over a hundred years earlier, continues to hunt Penny Royal, the rogue AI and dangerous war criminal on the run from Polity forces. Beyond the Graveyard, a lawless and deadly area in deep space, Spear follows the trail of several enemy Prador, the crab-like alien species with a violent history of conflict with humanity...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion military post-apocalyptic space-opera war action-adventure -
![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... -
![Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds]()
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLate in the twenty-sixth century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors - alien killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons -and a renegade named Clavain who is determined to find them...Categorized as:
aliens colonization epic exploration first-contact invasion military post-apocalyptic -
![Abandoned by W. Michael Gear]()
Abandoned by W. Michael Gear
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNow in mass market, the second book in a thrilling sci-fi action adventure, set on a treacherous alien planet where corporate threats and dangerous creatures imperil the lives of the planet's colonists.New York Times bestselling author W. Michael Gear returns us to the world he laid out with such sure purpose in Outpost... -
![The Aleph Extraction by Dan Moren]()
The Aleph Extraction by Dan Moren
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAboard a notorious gangster's luxurious starliner, Simon Kovalic and his crew race to steal a mysterious artifact that could shift the balance of the war...Categorized as:
exploration military post-apocalyptic space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![Alien by Alan Dean Foster]()
Alien by Alan Dean Foster
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBased on the screenplay by Dan O'Bannon. The crew of the spaceship Nostromo wake from cryogenic sleep to distress signals from an unknown planet. One is attacked when they investigate a derelict alien craft. Safely on their way back to Sol, none foresee the real horror about to begin...Categorized as:
aliens invasion military post-apocalyptic space-opera action-adventure adult anthologies -
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![The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton]()
The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe Confederation is starting to collapse politically and economically, allowing the 'possessed' to infiltrate more worlds. Quinn Dexter is loose on Earth, destroying the giant arcologies one at a time. As Louise Kavanagh tries to track him down, she manages to acquire some strange and powerful allies whose goal doesn't quite match her own... -
![Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky]()
Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life - but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth...Categorized as:
aliens epic exploration first-contact invasion post-apocalyptic space-opera 21st-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...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion military space-opera war 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Orion Plague by David VanDyke]()
The Orion Plague by David VanDyke
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMilitary science fiction post-apocaplyptic thriller / alien invasion. BOOK 7 OF THE SERIES.Guns blazing, Master Sergeant Jill Repeth and her team search the nuclear wasteland for her kidnapped fiancé, while Spooky Nguyen prepares Earth's first-ever Space Marines for duty aboard the experimental battleship Orion...Categorized as:
aliens invasion military post-apocalyptic space-opera action-adventure adult apocalyptic -
![Jupiter War by Neal Asher]()
Jupiter War by Neal Asher
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe third book of the Owner trilogy delivers an explosive conclusion to Neal Asher’s action-packed series chronicling the struggles for political dominance in a resource-scarce future. Power vacuums and new despots spring up across the solar system, in the wake of the events of The Departure and Zero Point...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion military post-apocalyptic space-opera war action-adventure -
![Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher]()
Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Dark Intelligence is the first novel in the Transformation series, a no-holds-barred adventure set in Neal Asher's popular Polity universe.One man will transcend death to seek vengeance. One woman will transform herself to gain power. And no one will emerge unscathed . . .Thorvald Spear wakes in hospital, where he finds he's been brought back from the dead. What's more, he died in a human vs...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion military post-apocalyptic space-opera war action-adventure -
![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... -
![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...Categorized as:
drama post-apocalyptic religion space-opera spirituality war 20th-century action-adventure -
![Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton]()
Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsDeploying invulnerable twenty-fifth-century soldiers called Skins, Zantiu-Braun's corporate starships loot entire planets. But as the Skins invade bucolic Thallspring, Z-B's strategy is about to go awry, all because of: Sgt... -
![Dreadnought by B.V. Larson]()
Dreadnought by B.V. Larson
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsCaptain William Sparhawk flies Earth’s single starship on a voyage of exploration. His crew of veteran spacers begins the mission with high hopes and the best of intentions, but the universe has other plans. Instead of space merchants and potential allies, they discover Earth’s impending doom... -
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![False Gods by Graham McNeill]()
False Gods by Graham McNeill
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe human Imperium stands at its height of glory - thousands of worlds have been brought to heel by the conquering armies of mankind... -
![Armor by John Steakley]()
Armor by John Steakley
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe military sci-fi classic in a striking new packageFelix is an Earth soldier, encased in special body armor designed to withstand Earth's most implacable enemy-a bioengineered, insectoid alien horde. But Felix is also equipped with internal mechanisms that enable him, and his fellow soldiers, to survive battle situations that would destroy a man's mind... -
![The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S.A. Corey]()
The Butcher of Anderson Station by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA new story set in the world of The Expanse. One day, Colonel Fred Johnson will be hailed as a hero to the system. One day, he will meet a desperate man in possession of a stolen spaceship and a deadly secret and extend a hand of friendship. But long before he became the leader of the Outer Planets Alliance, Fred Johnson had a very different name. The Butcher of Anderson Station... -
![Rapture by Kameron Hurley]()
Rapture by Kameron Hurley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsAfter years in exile, Nyxnissa so Dasheem is back in service to the bel dames, a sisterhood of elite government assassins tasked with eliminating deserters and traitors.The end of a centuries-long holy war has flooded the streets of Nasheen with unemployed - and unemployable - soldiers whose frustrations have brought the nation to the brink of civil war... -
![Ilium by Dan Simmons]()
Ilium by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsThe Trojan War rages at the foot of Olympos Mons on Mars—observed and influenced from on high by Zeus and his immortal family—and twenty-first-century professor Thomas Hockenberry is there to play a role in the insidious private wars of vengeful gods and goddesses... -
![Drive by James S.A. Corey]()
Drive by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsRead "Drive", a Prequel to The Expanse series.The Expanse, premiering in December 2015 on Syfy, is based on The New York Times best selling book series by James S.A. Corey... -
![Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey]()
Strange Dogs by James S.A. Corey
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLike many before them, Cara and her family ventured through the gates as scientists and researchers, driven to carve out a new life and uncover the endless possibilities of the unexplored alien worlds now within reach.But soon the soldiers followed and under this new order Cara makes a discovery that will change everything...Categorized as:
aliens colonization exploration invasion space-opera war 21st-century action-adventure -
![The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes]()
The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Steven Barnes
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe colonists from Earth have spent a century in cold sleep to make the first journey, one way, to settle a planet in another solar system. Avalon seems perfect, a verdant, livable world still in its prehistoric age...Categorized as:
aliens colonization exploration first-contact invasion space-opera action-adventure adult -
![Starfish by Peter Watts]()
Starfish by Peter Watts
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA huge international corporation has developed a facility along the Juan de Fuca Ridge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to exploit geothermal power. They send a bio-engineered crew--people who have been altered to withstand the pressure and breathe the seawater--down to live and work in this weird, fertile undersea darkness...Categorized as:
exploration military post-apocalyptic action-adventure adult ai apocalyptic audiobook -
![War Bodies by Neal Asher]()
War Bodies by Neal Asher
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRebellion could be their salvation—or their doom.Long ago, the Cyberat left Earth to co-evolve with machines. Now, led by the powerful dictator Castron, their Old Guard believe that machines should replace the physical body. But these beliefs are upended with the arrival of the human Polity—and their presence ignites rebellion... -
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![Outpassage by Janet E. Morris, Chris Morris]()
Outpassage by Janet E. Morris, Chris Morris
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWAR AND MYSTERY BEYOND THE STARS Sgt. “Det” Cox has just spent three years under psych observation on Earth; now that he’s out-system, he isn’t about to tell anyone he’s seeing aliens again. Paige Barnett has lost everything, even her name, because she knows too much about the rebellion spreading through the Earth-Space mining colonies...Categorized as:
first-contact military space-opera spirituality action-adventure adult afterlife book -
![Outpost by W. Michael Gear]()
Outpost by W. Michael Gear
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the bestselling co-author of the People novels comes a riveting science fiction adventure on a planet with danger around every cornerDonovan: A world of remarkable wealth, habitable, with a breathable atmosphere, water, and a salubrious climate. Call it a dream come true. A dream? Or a nightmare? Donovan's wealth comes at a price... -
![Eden by Stanisław Lem]()
Eden by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsA six-man crew crash-lands on Eden, fourth planet from another sun. The men find a strange world that grows ever stranger, and everywhere there are images of death. The crew's attempt to communicate with this civilization leads to violence and to a cruel truth-cruel precisely because it is so human. Translated by Marc E. Heine...Categorized as:
aliens colonization exploration first-contact invasion 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Olympos by Dan Simmons]()
Olympos by Dan Simmons
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsLibrarian's Note: Alternate Edition with same isbn & isbn 13: January 2011THE EXTRAORDINARY AND MAGNIFICENT EPIC CONCLUSION TO THE HUGO AWARD-NOMINATED ILIUMBeneath the gaze of the gods, the mighty armies of Greece and Troy met in fierce and glorious combat, scrupulously following the text set forth in Homer's timeless narrative, but that was before twenty-first century scholar Thomas... -
![Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds]()
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsNine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity... -
![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...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact invasion space-opera war 20th-century action-adventure audiobook
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