Books like 'Firstborn'
Readers who enjoyed Firstborn by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi space hard sci-fi alternate history action / adventure military, war & conflict time-travel space-opera aliens historical-fiction
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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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction space-opera action-adventure adult ai alternate-history audiobook book -
![Osiris by Ralph Kern, Michael Kramer]()
Osiris by Ralph Kern, Michael Kramer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBeyond the apocalypse, humanity's future is being decided.It's been three months since the cruise ship M/S Atlantica arrived in a hostile new world.The survivors dream of building a home, but just as their hopes rise, they learn the true cost of saving thousands of people from catastrophe.Conrad Wakefield, the architect of the Locus project, killed billions...Categorized as:
time-travel action-adventure adult ai alternate-history assassinations audiobook book -
![The Armageddon Inheritance by David Weber]()
The Armageddon Inheritance by David Weber
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsColin MacIntyre, a NASA astronaut kidnapped by a starship impersonating Earth's moon, has just suppressed a fifty-thousand-year-old mutiny, but now he faces an even bigger challenge. By the author of Mutineers' Moon. Reissue... -
![The Dance of Time by Eric Flint, David Drake]()
The Dance of Time by Eric Flint, David Drake
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Malwa and their evil have been driven back to their Indian heartland, but there they coil to strike again...Categorized as:
historical-fiction time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction hard-sci-fi -
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![Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber]()
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:
aliens historical-fiction space-opera action-adventure adult ai alternate-history apocalyptic -
![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 invasion space-opera 21st-century action-adventure adult ai alternate-history -
![Augmented by James D. Prescott]()
Augmented by James D. Prescott
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBreathable air on Earth is running out and no one knows why. A mysterious discovery nearly thirty million years old may hold the answer.To find it, a glaciologist and the inventor of a cutting-edge brain implant will need to work together...Categorized as:
aliens invasion action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book conspiracies -
![A Mighty Fortress by David Weber]()
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... -
![By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber]()
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:
historical-fiction space-opera action-adventure adult ai alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
![Like a Mighty Army by David Weber]()
Like a Mighty Army by David Weber
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFor centuries, the world of Safehold, last redoubt of the human race, lay under the unchallenged rule of the Church of God Awaiting. The Church permitted nothing new-no new inventions, no new understandings of the world...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book colonization -
![By Heresies Distressed by David Weber]()
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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction space-opera action-adventure adult ai alternate-history audiobook book -
![Heirs of Empire by David Weber]()
Heirs of Empire by David Weber
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsRestoring the empire that had been destroyed 45,000 years earlier, Emperor Colin finds problems in the genocidal Achuultani and in his children Sean and Harriet, who have been marooned on a hostile planet...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies audiobook fiction -
![Midst Toil and Tribulation by David Weber]()
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... -
![First Contact by Dean M. Cole]()
First Contact by Dean M. Cole
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the Bestselling Author of Solitude!As part of the Greatest Generation, Major Anthony Spinelli, a World War II fighter pilot, flew into combat to save his family and keep them free. Two years later, he lost them in the blink of an eye, leaving Tony rudderless and without purpose...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
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![The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, Ken Liu]()
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, Ken Liu
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsThe Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens... -
![Unfathomed by Ralph Kern]()
Unfathomed by Ralph Kern
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe M/S Atlantica, one of the most advanced cruise ships in the world, is lost. Land has disappeared. Fuel, food and hope begin to dwindle. After months recuperating in hospital, US Marine Jack Cohen hoped a Caribbean cruise would help him recover from the horrific injuries he sustained fighting in the Middle East...Categorized as:
time-travel action-adventure adult ai alternate-history assassinations audiobook book -
![Hell's Faire by John Ringo]()
Hell's Faire by John Ringo
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith the defenses of the Southern Appalachians sundered, the only thing standing between the ravening Posleen hordes and the soft interior of the Cumberland Plateau are the veterans of 555th Mobile Infantry. Dropped into Rabun Pass, with a couple of million Posleen behind them and fourteen million to the front, the only question is which will run out first: power, bullets or bodies... -
![When the Devil Dances by John Ringo]()
When the Devil Dances by John Ringo
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter five years of battling invaders, human civilization prepares a strike to drive the aliens from the Earth. But the Clan-Lord of the Sten has learned from the defeats humans have dealt him, and has his own plan. When he squares off against Major O'Neal, the only winner will be Satan himself... -
![The Apocalypse Troll by David Weber]()
The Apocalypse Troll by David Weber
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThere he was in his sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic, all alone and loving it. Well, there was a US Navy carrier group on his southern horizon, but he was US Navy himself, so he didn't mind. Then came the UFOs, hurtling in from the Outer Black to overfly the carriers at Mach 17. Their impossible aeronautics were bad enough - but then they started shooting at each other. And at the Navy...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
![Elusive Salvation (Star Trek: The Original Series) by Dayton Ward]()
Elusive Salvation (Star Trek: The Original Series) by Dayton Ward
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn all-new Star Trek adventure across time—the latest of the acclaimed Original Series novels!The Arctic Circle, 1845: Escaping the tyranny under which their people have lived for generations, aliens from a distant planet crash land on Earth’s inhospitable frozen wastes...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
![Dawn for a Distant Earth by L.E. Modesitt Jr.]()
Dawn for a Distant Earth by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsL. E. Modesitt, Jr's first major work was The Forever Hero trilogy of SF adventure novels published as paperback originals in the 1980s, of which Dawn for a Distant Earth was the first title in the series. Thousands of years in the future, Earth is a desolate ruin...Categorized as:
space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction -
![Extinction Code by James D. Prescott]()
Extinction Code by James D. Prescott
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWe were wrong about the origins of our species. For eons, the truth has remained hidden. Until now... Geophysicist Jack Greer believes he may finally have found the resting place of the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago...Categorized as:
aliens invasion 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
![The Excalibur Alternative by David Weber]()
The Excalibur Alternative by David Weber
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis novel is expanded from a shorter version published in David Drake's Foreign Legions. Captured by a technologically advanced alien race, a group of medieval English knights gains power and experience as savage interstellar mercenaries, all the while planning for the day when they will rise up and reclaim the freedom that is their destiny...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history book fiction hard-sci-fi -
![Encounter with Tiber by Buzz Aldrin, John Barnes]()
Encounter with Tiber by Buzz Aldrin, John Barnes
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFree tracking...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies contemporary -
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![Alien Secrets (Solar Warden #1) by Ian Douglas]()
Alien Secrets (Solar Warden #1) by Ian Douglas
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the first novel in New York Times bestselling author Ian Douglas’ Solar Warden series, government conspiracy theories, UFO history, and thrilling space combat come together in an unforgettable interstellar military science fiction adventure. THE TRUTH HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE In the final days of World War II, the Allies ransacked Berlin...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe book -
![The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson by Kim Stanley Robinson, Jonathan Strahan]()
The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson by Kim Stanley Robinson, Jonathan Strahan
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAdventurers, scientists, artists, workers, and visionaries — these are the men and women you will encounter in the short fiction of Kim Stanley Robinson...Categorized as:
aliens historical-fiction invasion action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies audiobook -
![Exultant by Stephen Baxter]()
Exultant by Stephen Baxter
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen it comes to cutting-edge science fiction, Stephen Baxter is in a league of his own. His mastery of hard science, his fearlessly speculative imagination, and his ability to combine grand philosophical questions with tales of rousing adventure make him essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of humankind...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
![Luna Marine by Ian Douglas]()
Luna Marine by Ian Douglas
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe revelations on Mars -- a half-million year-old legacy of the vanished star-traveling Builders -- have fed the flames of catastrophic war. A beleaguered United States and its Russian and Japanese allies struggle to hold their own against the indomitable forces of the enemy United Nations...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book exploration -
![The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox]()
The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"The most critical period in Earth's history." —Gary Seven, Supervisor 194 Even centuries later, the final decades of the twentieth century are still regarded—by those who know the truth of what really happened—as one of the darkest and most perilous chapters in the history of humanity. Now, as an ancient and forbidden technology tempts mankind once more, Captain James T...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera time-travel 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
![Fifty Degrees South: A first contact military science fiction adventure thriller by M.M. Holt]()
Fifty Degrees South: A first contact military science fiction adventure thriller by M.M. Holt
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAt the ends of the earth, we fought an enemy from beyond the stars. 1803. The Napoleonic War. A Royal Navy warship is ordered to pursue an enemy frigate to the frozen waters of the Southern Seas.There it must capture the enemy ship and retrieve a mysterious sea-chest, contents unknown.Failure is not permitted...Categorized as:
historical-fiction aliens invasion sci-fi action-adventure fiction hard-sci-fi first-contact -
![The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter]()
The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIt is the middle of the twenty-first century.After the cataclysmic upheavals of Step Day and the Yellowstone eruption, humanity is spreading farther into the Long Earth. Society, on a battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve.And new challenges emerge.Now an elderly and cantankerous AI, Lobsang is living with Agnes in an exotic, far-distant world... -
![Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer]()
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... -
![The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century by Harry Turtledove, George R.R. Martin]()
The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century by Harry Turtledove, George R.R. Martin
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsExplosive and provocative battles fought across the boundaries of time and space--and on the frontiers of the human mind.Science fiction's finest have yielded this definitive collection featuring stories of warfare, victory, conquest, heroism, and overwhelming odds. These are scenarios few have ever dared to contemplate, and they include: ¸ "Superiority": Arthur C...Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies drama dystopia fiction -
![Ambush by Dean M. Cole]()
Ambush by Dean M. Cole
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 15 ratings**Written by a Combat Pilot—Award-Winning Apocalyptic Thriller** Sandra just discovered she's pregnant, but with humanity on the brink of extinction, this fighter pilot might be the world's only hope. If you like action-packed, page-turning novels, then you'll love the electrifying action in this apocalyptic thriller...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
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![Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter]()
Sunstorm by Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsReturned to the Earth of 2037 by the mysterious and powerful Firstborn, Bisesa Dutt is haunted by memories of her five years spent on the strange alternate Earth called Mir, a jigsaw-puzzle world made up of lands and people cut out of different eras of Earth’s history...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic -
![With the Lightnings by David Drake]()
With the Lightnings by David Drake
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDaniel Leary is a lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy with no money and no prospects since he quarreled with his ruthless, politically powerful father. Adele Mundy is a scholar with no money and no prospects since her family was massacred for conspiring against the Government of Cinnabar...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history assassins audiobook book conspiracies -
![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... -
![Semper Mars by Ian Douglas]()
Semper Mars by Ian Douglas
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe Year is 2040.The Marines have landed on Mars to guard the unearthed secrets of an ancient and dangerous alien race: Ourselves.Scientists have discovered something astonishing in the subterranean ruins of a sprawling Martian city: startling evidence of an alternative history that threatens to split humanity into opposing factions and plunge the Earth into chaos and war...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction hard-sci-fi -
![Footfall by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle]()
Footfall by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThey first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star.The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
![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... -
![Catch the Lightning by Catherine Asaro]()
Catch the Lightning by Catherine Asaro
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the distant future, the Skolian empire rules one third of the human galaxy, and is the most powerful of all. For the ruling family has the power of telepathy, and through it, the ability to communicate faster than light across the interstellar space. but their most determined enemy, the traders, who thrive on human pain, need to interbreed with a Skolian to gain their powers...Categorized as:
space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction -
![Redshirts by John Scalzi]()
Redshirts by John Scalzi
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsEnsign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory... -
![Ultima by Stephen Baxter]()
Ultima by Stephen Baxter
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFresh from his latest collaboration with Terry Pratchett on the Long Earth sequence Stephen Baxter now returns to the mysteries and challenges first hinted at in his acclaimed novel PROXIMA.In PROXIMA we discovered ancient alien artifacts on the planet of Per Ardua - hatches that allowed us to step across light years of space as if we were stepping into another room. The universe opened up to us...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
![Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt]()
Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt
Rated: 3.64 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt turned up in a North Dakota wheat field: a triangle, like a shark's fin, sticking up from the black loam. Tom Lasker did what any farmer would have done. He dug it up. And discovered a boat, made of a fiberglass-like material with an utterly impossible atomic number. What it was doing buried under a dozen feet of prairie soil two thousand miles from any ocean, no one knew... -
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![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...Categorized as:
aliens historical-fiction invasion space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history -
![Vessel by Andrew J. Morgan]()
Vessel by Andrew J. Morgan
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsExcitement is high when the crew of the International Space Station discovers a mysterious object in orbit around Earth. But something goes wrong, and contact with the station is lost. When journalist Sean Jacob gets wind of the situation, he embarks on a journey to reveal the truth, winding his way into the biggest conspiracy to ever face mankind... -
![Arkwright by Allen M. Steele]()
Arkwright by Allen M. Steele
Rated: 3.68 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWritten by a highly regarded expert on space travel and exploration, Allen Steele's Arkwright features the precision of hard science fiction with a compelling cast of characters. In the vein of classic authors such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright is a seminal author of the twentieth century...Categorized as:
historical-fiction space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book colonization -
![Earthbound by Joe Haldeman]()
Earthbound by Joe Haldeman
Rated: 3.38 of 5 stars · 15 ratings"One of science fiction's most reliable practitioners" (San Francisco Chronicle) continues his saga of space exploration. The mysterious alien Others have prohibited humans from space travel-destroying Earth's fleet of starships in a display of unimaginable power... -
![Axis by Robert Charles Wilson]()
Axis by Robert Charles Wilson
Rated: 3.52 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsWildly praised by readers and critics alike, Robert Charles Wilson's Spin won science fiction's highest honor, the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Now, in Spin's direct sequel, Wilson takes us to the "world next door"--the planet engineered by the mysterious Hypotheticals to support human life, and connected to Earth by way of the Arch that towers hundreds of miles over the Indian Ocean...Categorized as:
aliens invasion space-opera time-travel action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic -
![Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein]()
Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.54 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsHugh Farnham was a practical, self-made man and when he saw the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he built a bomb shelter under his house. What he hadn't expected was that when the apocalypse came, a thermonuclear blast would tear apart the fabric of time and hurl his shelter into a world with no sign of other human beings...Categorized as:
space-opera time-travel 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book
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