Books like 'Helliconia Winter'
Readers who enjoyed Helliconia Winter by Brian W. Aldiss also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi 20th century epic aliens
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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... -
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsAlternative Cover Edition can be found here. After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches... -
Pilgrimage: The Book of the People by Zenna Henderson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThese are the People.Marooned on this planet by the crash of their interstellar vehicle in the distant past, The People are never free of a sense of strangeness in this world and a yearning for the home they have half-forgotten.These are the chronicles of their arrival on this world, their estrangement from it, and their ultimate acceptance of their poignant exile... -
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... -
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Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsUrsula K. Le Guin is one of the greatest science fiction writers and many times the winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Her career as a novelist was launched by the three novels contained in Worlds Of Exile And Illusion. These novels, Rocannon's World, Planet Of Exile, and City Of Illusions, are set in the same universe as Le Guin's ground-breaking classic, The Left Hand Of Darkness... -
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 Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsThe Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand—despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy that they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away... -
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCallahan's Place is the neighborhood tavern to all of time and space, where the regulars are anything but. Pull up a chair, grab a glass of your favorite, and listen to the stories spun by time travelers, cybernetic aliens, telepaths...and a bunch of regular folks on a mission to save the world, one customer at a time... -
The Autumn Posy by Michelle Vernal
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsShe went looking for answers. She discovered a completely different era. In 1963 three-year-old Sabrina is a foundling left on the streets of Liverpool. She’s taken in and raised by Evelyn Flooks the feisty proprietor of Brides of Bold Street. Now a young woman, Sabrina has followed in her Aunt Evie’s footsteps and creates dream wedding dresses for the brides-to-be who cross their threshold... -
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
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, Volume 5: We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsContents:- Introduction (October 1986) by Thomas M... -
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Callahan's Lady by Spider Robinson
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA HOUSE OF "HEALTHY" REPUTE...Welcome to Lady Sally's, the House that "is" a home -- the internationally (hell, interplanetarily) notorious bordello. At Lady Sally's House, the customer doesn't necessarily come first: even the staff are genuinely enjoying themselves... -
Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsPhilip K. Dick was a master of science fiction, but he was also a writer whose work transcended genre to examine the nature of reality and what it means to be human. A writer of great complexity and subtle humor, his work belongs on the shelf of great twentieth-century literature, next to Kafka and Vonnegut... -
The Nonborn King by Julian May
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn Earth, six million B.C., two species of alien ruled, the graceful humanoid Tanu and their twisted brethren, the Firvulag. Then men from twenty-second century Earth arrived through a one-way time tunnel — and soon the aliens were locked in a battle to the death, for the humans had upset the precarious balance of power that existed between them...Categorized as:
aliens epic 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies female-author -
Dune by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 58 ratingsHere is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family—and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream... -
Diaspora by Greg Egan
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBy the end of the 30th century humanity has the capability to travel the universe, to journey beyond earth and beyond the confines of the vulnerable human frame... -
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Primary Phase by Douglas Adams, Simon Jones
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA Special Edition of the original radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978 and recently voted the Nation's Favourite Audiobook in a Guardian poll... -
The Adversary by Julian May
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsPan edition paperback vg++ In stock shipped from our UK...Categorized as:
epic 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies female-author fiction -
Sandkings by George R.R. Martin
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhen Simon Kress returned to his home planet of Baldur from an offworld business trip, he was amused to find that his tank of Earth piranhas had cannibalized themselves into extinction, and of the two exotic animals that roamed his estate, only one remained... -
When Christmas Bells Ring by Katie Flynn, Anne Dover
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLiverpool 1938. It's Christmas in the Courts, and single mother Rosheen Clarke and her mischievous twin daughters April and May have no idea of the cataclysmic events which will soon overtake them. When war is declared, April and May are evacuated to the countryside and Rosheen joins the WAAF where she befriends fellow Liverpudlian Cassie Valentine... -
Storm Surge by Taylor Anderson
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsIn the Pacific, as USS Walker is repaired and updated after a previous battle and Matt Reddy is healing from his wounds, planning begins for a bold raid on the very heart of the Grik Empire...Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook book -
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Doctor Who: Human Nature by Paul Cornell
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings'Who’s going to save us this time?'April, 1914. The inhabitants of the little Norfolk town of Farringham are enjoying an early summer, unaware that war is on the way. Amongst them is Dr John Smith, a short, middle-aged history teacher from Aberdeen. He’s having a hard time with his new post as house master at Hulton Academy for Boys, a school dedicated to producing military officers... -
The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 5: The Eye of The Sibyl by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSince his untimely death in 1982, interest in Philip K. Dick's works has continued to grow, and his reputation has been enhanced by an expanding body of critical appreciation. This fifth and final volume of Dick's collected works includes 25 short stories, some previously unpublished... -
S Is For Space by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsS is for science fiction, spine-tingling, supernatural and sublime! S is for stories from a "Star Wilderness that stretched as far as eye and mind could see and imagine"... -
Four Ways to Forgiveness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAt the far end of our universe, on the twin planets of Werel and Yeowe, all humankind is divided into "assets" and "owners," tradition and liberation are at war, and freedom takes many forms. Here is a society as complex and troubled as any on our world, peopled with unforgettable characters struggling to become fully human... -
The Golden Torc by Julian May
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBy A.D. 2110 nearly 100,000 humans had fled the civilized strictures of the Galactic Milieu for the freedom they thought existed at the end of the one-way time tunnel to Earth, six million B.C.But all of them had fallen into the hands of the Tanu, a humanoid race who'd fled their own galaxy to avoid punishment for their barbarous ways... -
Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars by Daniel M. Pinkwater
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLeonard's life at his new junior high is just barely tolerable until he becomes friends with the unusual Alan and with him shares an extraordinary adventure... -
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind by Steven Spielberg
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsClose Encounter of the First Kind: Sighting of a UFOClose Encounter of the Second Kind: Physical evidenceClose Encounter of the Third Kind: ContactEarth's greatest adventure had begun. The world was being readied for...Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It meant the beginning of the most dramatic event in the history of the world... -
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... -
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... -
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsEarth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons, Lord of Light... -
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Labyrinth of Reflections by Sergei Lukyanenko, Сергей Лукьяненко
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe story is set in the near future, where a chance invention allows people to experience virtual reality without the need for costly hardware — a seconds long movie drives a person into a sort of psychosis, forcing one's subconsciousness to perceive a simple 3D game as real world... -
On Blue's Waters by Gene Wolfe
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsOn Blue's Waters is the start of a major new work by Gene Wolfe, the first of three volumes that comprise The Book of the Short Sun, which takes place in the years after Wolfe's four-volume Book of the Long Sun. Horn, the narrator of the earlier work, now tells his own story. Though life is hard on the newly settled planet of Blue, Horn and his family have made a decent life for themselves... -
A Band of Brothers by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the ten years since his regiment was transported to an alien world, Commander Andrew Keane has bravely fought time and time again for humanity's freedom. But after the is injured in battle, his confidence is shaken, and his ability to lead is damaged. Seeing their leader struck down also takes its toll on Keane's men, who have followed him to hell and back...Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book -
His Master's Voice by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwenty-five hundred scientists have been herded into an isolated site in the Nevada desert. A neutrino message of extraterrestrial origin has been received and the scientists, under the surveillance of the Pentagon, labor on His Master's Voice, the secret program set up to decipher the transmission. Among them is Peter Hogarth, an eminent mathematician... -
They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsNebula Nomination for Best Short Story 1991... -
Return of the Jedi by James Kahn, George Lucas
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIt was a dark time for the Rebel Alliance...Han Solo, frozen in carbonite, has been delivered into the hands of the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt. Determined to rescue him, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Lando Calrissian launch a hazardous mission against Jabba's Tatooine stronghold... -
The Many-Colored Land by Julian May
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen a one-way time tunnel to Earth's distant past, specifically six million B.C., was discovered by folks on the Galactic Milieu, every misfit for light-years around hurried to pass through it. Each sought his own brand of happiness. But none could have guessed what awaited them. Not even in a million years...Categorized as:
aliens epic 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies audiobook -
Star Wars: A New Hope by George Lucas, Alan Dean Foster
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLuke Skywalker challenged the stormtroopers of a distant galaxy on a daring mission - where a force of life became the power of death! Luke Skywalker was a twenty-year-old who lived and worked on his uncle's farm on the remote planet of Tatooine ... and he was bored beyond belief... -
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
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... -
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Lake of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWhen the gods of the Whorl speak to him about the future, clergyman Patera Silk begins a quest to save his church and his people, the citizens of a giant spaceship on a generations-old voyage to a forgotten destiny. Reprint. NYT... -
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... -
Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member. Aral and Cordelia survive countless mishaps while their mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge... -
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... -
The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsARTHUR C. CLARKE'S FAVORITE STORIESTHE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD -- A short-term course for computer the way to God.TROUBLE WITH TIME -- Martian time proves that crimes doesn't pay!NO MORNING AFTER -- Drink, drink and be merry, for tomorrow there will be no morning after...THE POSSESSED -- Or, why the lemmings drowned.ENCOUNTER AT DAWN -- The day the gods came to Earth... -
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsStar Maker is a science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1937. The book describes a history of life in the universe, dwarfing in scale Stapledon's previous book, Last and First Men (1930), a history of the human species over two billion years...
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