Books like 'The Saliva Tree'
Readers who enjoyed The Saliva Tree by Brian W. Aldiss also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi horror mystery military, war & conflict crime first-contact aliens steampunk industrial-era
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Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke Collection) by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsIn the Retro Hugo Award–nominated novel that inspired the Syfy miniseries, alien invaders bring peace to Earth—at a grave price: “A first-rate tour de force” (The New York Times). In the near future, enormous silver spaceships appear without warning over mankind’s largest cities. They belong to the Overlords, an alien race far superior to humanity in technological development... -
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
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 Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 2: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsMany thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K... -
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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
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... -
The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 2: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMany thousands of readers consider Philip K. Dick the greatest science fiction mind on any planet. Since his untimely death in 1982, interest in Dick's works has continued to mount and his reputation has been further enhanced by a growing body of critical attention. The Philip K. Dick Award is now given annually to a distinguished work of science fiction, and the Philip K... -
Project 731 by Jeremy Robinson
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWASHINGTON D.C. HAS BEEN DESTROYED In the wake of a Kaiju assault that left the nation’s capital in ruins, Jon Hudson, director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Fusion Center – Paranormal, is preparing his team for an uncertain future... -
Colter's Journey by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTHE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY In this thrilling epic of the American West, bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone capture the human side of the frontier experience in all its glory, grit, and grandeur—through the eyes of one remarkable teenage boy .. -
The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories by Connie Willis
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis new collection of stories from the multi-award-winning author of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog contains:A Letter from the ClearysAt the RialtoDeath on the NileThe Soul Selects Her own SocietyFire WatchInside JobEven the QueenThe Winds of Marble ArchAll Seated on the GroundLast of the WinnebagosTen stories - which have all won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award or both - are... -
Thin Air by Richard K. Morgan
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRichard Morgan has always been one of our most successful SF authors with his fast-moving and brutal storylines, blistering plots and a powerful social conscience behind his work.And now he's back, with his first SF novel for eight years . . . and it promises to be a publication to remember... -
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... -
Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsGenerations ago, humans fled to the cosmic anomaly known as Grass. But before humanity arrived, another species had already claimed Grass for its own. It too had developed a culture...... Now a deadly plague is spreading across the stars, leaving no planet untouched, save for Grass. But the secret of the planet's immunity hides a truth so shattering it could mean the end of life itself...Categorized as:
aliens dystopia first-contact invasion 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic -
Bitter Waters by Wen Spencer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsUkiah and his senior partner, Max Bennett, are just returning to Pittsburgh after the events of Tainted Trail. Before they even land, they have a new tracking job — to find a boy missing from his backyard... -
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Under Darkness by Jasper T. Scott, Ben Jaeger-Thomas
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the USA Today best-selling author of Dark Space... a series of unrelated stand-alone sci-fi novels; no sequels and no cliffhangers The sun vanished and darkness fell in the middle of the day, and then the meteors began to fall.... Bill Steele is in the trenches, trying to survive in the competitive world of luxury vacation resorts on the island of Kauai...Categorized as:
aliens dystopia first-contact industrial-era invasion steampunk action-adventure adult -
What Doctor Gottlieb Saw by Ian Tregillis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGretel has wires in her head. Gretel likes to pick wildflowers. Gretel is one of the subjects on the farm, and she is Doctor Gottlieb's responsibility, but she knows something she isn't telling -- and if Doctor Gottlieb doesn't figure it out, it may be his body in a ditch next. This story is set in the world of Ian Tregillis's Milkweed series, which began with Bitter Seeds... -
Doctor Who: Plague City by Jonathan Morris
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"We should leave. We definitely should leave. But... chatty ghosts!"The year is 1645, and Edinburgh is in the grip of the worst plague in its history. Nobody knows who will be the next to succumb - nobody except the Night Doctor, a masked figure that stalks the streets, seeking out those who will not live to see another day.But death is not the end... -
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is 1862, though not the 1862 it should be. . . . Time has been altered, and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the king’s agent, is one of the few people who know that the world is now careening along a very different course from that which Destiny intended...Categorized as:
crime humor industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies -
The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsPrincess Adele struggles with a life of marriage and obligation as her Equatorian Empire and their American Republic allies stand on the brink of war against the vampire clans of the north. However, the alliance's horrific strategy for total victory drives Adele to abandon her duty and embark on a desperate quest to keep her nation from staining its hands with genocide... -
The Goblin Reservation by Clifford D. Simak
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFirst-class entertainment (The Sunday Times) from a classic SF author. En route to an interplanetary research mission, a scientist is abducted by a strange, shadowy race of aliens and taken to a previously uncharted planet, a storehouse of information that would be invaluable--even to an Earth so advanced that time travel allows goblins, dinosaurs, even Shakespeare to coexist...Categorized as:
aliens first-contact humor invasion 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA genre-defining tale of first contact by one of the twentieth century's most brilliant--and neglected--science fiction and horror writers, whom Stephen King called "the best writer of science fiction that England has ever produced.""In my opinion, [John] Wyndham's chef d'oeuvre . . . a graphic metaphor for the fear of unwanted pregnancies . .Categorized as:
aliens dystopia first-contact invasion 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic -
The Alien by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhat would you do if you were the only alien trapped on a strange planet? Probably freak out, right? But as an Andalite warrior-cadet, Ax has to be pretty cool about stuff like that. He's been hanging with the Animorphs ever since the Dome ship was destroyed by the Yeerks and his brother, Prince Elfangor, was destroyed by Visser Three.Life on Earth is pretty different for Ax... -
The Change by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTobias has pretty much gotten used to his life. He's a red-tailed hawk with the mind of a kid. It was weird when he first got trapped in morph. But now it's almost okay. After all, how many kids actually get the chance to fly?Now Tobias is about to make a very special choice. A choice that the other Animorphs and Ax know nothing about. And it could mean the difference between being a hawk. . -
Tale of the Thunderbolt by E.E. Knight
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs the Resistance attempts to overthrow their vampiric alien masters, elite Cat force member David Valentine embarks on a terrifying journey in search of a long-lost weapon that will guarantee their victory-and the end of the Kurian Order's domination of Earth...Categorized as:
dystopia industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
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The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAt five o'clock Ed Loyce washed up, tossed on his hat and coat, got his car out and headed across town toward his TV sales store. He was tired. His back and shoulders ached from digging dirt out of the basement and wheeling it into the back yard. But for a forty-year-old man he had done okay... -
Shade's Children by Garth Nix
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Key to Survival Rests in the Hands of Shade's ChildrenIf you’re lucky, you live to fight another day.In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machine like creature whose sole purpose is to kill...Categorized as:
aliens dystopia 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book -
Fall with Honor by E.E. Knight
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsIt's 2075 and the fight to liberate Earth from the mysterious Kurians continues in the grim seventh 'Vampire Earth' episode (after 'Valentine's Resolve'). Freedom fighter David Stuart Valentine is determined to overthrow the Kurian Occupation with the help of Sergeant Major Patel...Categorized as:
aliens dystopia industrial-era invasion steampunk action-adventure adult apocalyptic -
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... -
Deus Ex: Black Light by James Swallow
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsILLUMINATE THE SHADOWS The year is 2029, and the shining promise of a new age of human augmentation is in ruins in the wake of the devastating ‘Aug Incident’ – a horrific catastrophe triggered by a cabal of shadowy power brokers, where millions of cybernetically-enhanced people suffered a forced psychotic break... -
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMercy Lynch is working at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when she learns that her husband has died in a POW camp and her estranged father is gravely injured and wishes to see her. With no good reason to stay in Virginia, Mercy sets out to see her father in Seattle... -
Ganymede by Cherie Priest
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money’s good, he doesn’t think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly’s first legal gig—a supply run for the Seattle Underground—will be paid for by sap money...Categorized as:
dystopia industrial-era steampunk action-adventure alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book -
Fire Watch by Connie Willis
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWinner of six Nebula and five Hugo awards, Connie Willis is one of the most acclaimed and imaginative authors of our time. Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction...Categorized as:
dystopia humor 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies female-author fiction -
War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches by Kevin J. Anderson, Mike Resnick
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWar of the Worlds: Global Dispatches features stories by the brightest stars in the science fiction firmament. One of the most startlingly original and entertaining SF anthology concepts in years, perfectly preserving the spirit of H. G. Wells's classic. H. G... -
The Martian in the Wood by Stephen Baxter
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStephen Baxter's The Martian in the Wood, a Tor.com Original In the aftermath of the First Martian War, in the interim between it and what was to come later, England seemed to once again become a green and peaceful place, if one haunted by the terrible events in Surrey that had happened in those early years of the century. Although people hoped and prayed peace had come, they were wrong... -
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The Body Snatchers (Stephen King Horror Library) by Jack Finney, Stephen King
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsThis edition of Finney's horror classic contains an introduction by Stephen King as well as a modernized text... -
The Visitor by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIf someone told you Earth was under a silent attack, there's a good chance you'd think they were pretty strange. If that same person said Earth's only means of defense depends on the actions and powers of five kids, you'd probably start to look for a quick exit. Guess what? It's all true.Rachel and her friends knew they were in for some pretty strange stuff from the very beginning... -
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsOne hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.What if the football hadn't gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn't want anyone to know...Categorized as:
dystopia action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book bullying children children-books -
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 first-contact invasion 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
The Android by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhen Marco runs into his old friend Erek he doesn't think too much of it. He's got a couple of more important things to do. Like helping to save the world. But then Marco finds out Erek's been hanging with some of the kids at The Sharing. And he starts to think that something just a little weird is going on.So Marco, Jake, and Ax decide to morph and check old Erek out... -
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
Rated: 3.82 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsA young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service in exchange for his freedom. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four...Categorized as:
crime dystopia 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook -
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, Mark Salwowski
Rated: 3.74 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsShips are sinking for no apparent reason, carrying hundreds to a dark underwater grave. Strange fireballs race through the sky above the deepest trenches of the oceans. Something is about to show itself, something terrible and alien, a force capable of causing global catastrophe...Categorized as:
aliens dystopia first-contact invasion 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic -
The Secret by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThere's something pretty weird going on in the woods behind Cassie's house. The place where Ax and Tobias call home. It seems the Yeerks have figured out one very important thing: Andalites cannot survive without a feeding ground. Visser Three knows the "Andalite bandits" don't feed where he does, so there can only be one other place... -
The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
Rated: 3.66 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsMars is supposed to be dead.…Bizarre quakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason...Categorized as:
aliens industrial-era invasion steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
Ghosts of War by George Mann
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGhosts of War picks up the story a month after the end of Ghosts of Manhattan. New York City is being plagued by a pack of ferocious brass raptors – strange, skeleton-like creations with bat-like wings that swoop out of the sky, attacking people and carrying them away into the night...Categorized as:
industrial-era steampunk action-adventure adult alternate-history book conspiracies cosmic-horror -
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Clementine by Cherie Priest
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMaria Isabella Boyd’s success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty…she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago.Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army... -
Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis
Rated: 3.74 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsTruth is a human right.It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father...Categorized as:
aliens dystopia first-contact invasion 21st-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
Pure by Julianna Baggott
Rated: 3.73 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsWe know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . . Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . .Categorized as:
dystopia industrial-era steampunk action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age -
The Unknown by K.A. Applegate, Katherine Applegate
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThere's a new rumor in town. Someone has discovered an item that proves life on other planets exists. And they've been hiding it on a base called Zone 91. The Most Secret Place On Earth.Cassie, the other Animorphs, and Ax already know about life on other planets. Too well. They also realize the Yeerks will try to access Zone 91. To find out if what's there will threaten their mission... -
The Ultimate Weapon by John W. Campbell Jr.
Rated: 3.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe star Mira was unpredictably variable. Sometimes it was blazing, brilliant and hot. Other times it was oddly dim, cool, shedding little warmth on its many planets. Gresth Gkae, leader of the Mirans, was seeking a better star, one to which his "people" could migrate. That star had to be steady, reliable, with a good planetary system. And in his astronomical searching, he found Sol... -
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIs anyone out there? Ann Burden is sixteen years old and completely alone. The world as she once knew it is gone, ravaged by a nuclear war that has taken everyone from her. For the past year, she has lived in a remote valley with no evidence of any other survivors. But the smoke from a distant campfire shatters Ann's solitude. Someone else is still alive and making his way toward the valley...Categorized as:
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