Books like 'Last and First Men/Star Maker'
Readers who enjoyed Last and First Men/Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi psychological mystery polyamory politics space-opera political-intrigue romantic-love
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The Magnus Archives: Season 4 by NOT A BOOK
Rated: 4.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Magnus Archives is a horror audiobook written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims narrates the stories in-character as the main character, Jonathan Sims, the newly-appointed head archivist of the fictional Magnus Institute; an institution based in London centred on research into the paranormal... -
The Magnus Archives: Season 3 by Jonathan Sims
Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe Magnus Archives is a horror audiobook written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims narrates the stories in-character as the main character, Jonathan Sims, the newly-appointed head archivist of the fictional Magnus Institute; an institution based in London centred on research into the paranormal... -
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...Categorized as:
politics space-opera 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens apocalyptic audiobook -
Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsSo far the Foundation was safe. But there was a hidden Second Foundation to protect the first. The Mule has yet to find it, but he was getting closer all the time. The men of the Foundation sought it, too, to escape from Mule's mind control. Only Arkady, a 14 year-old girl seemed to have the answer, or did she.. -
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I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 76 ratingsThey mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence...but only so long as that doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities - and unforeseen risks...Categorized as:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure ai alternate-history anthologies audiobook children -
Loving Dark Men by J.A. Huss
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA man lures a woman into the woods.Another ruins the life of his best friend.And yet another strings them along like puppets.Dark men.They are intriguing, and charming, and powerful.They are changing the world.They are changing themselves.They are playing with lust, and love, and fear, and loathing.Addicted to each other, to their secret, to the seduction, to the sex.It’s a crash in the making... -
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... -
Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsCivil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by best seller Dennis E. Taylor.More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost... -
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsA classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man's dreams control the fate of humanity. In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr... -
Blindness by José Saramago
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 72 ratingsFrom Nobel Prize–winning author José Saramago, a magnificent, mesmerizing parable of lossA city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and assaulting women... -
Grave Matter by Karina Halle
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHorror Romance meets science fiction in this dark and delicious gothic psychological thriller by NYT bestseller Karina Halle, perfect for fans of Gothikana, Ninth House, and Mexican Gothic. Aspiring mycologist Sydney Denik is getting a second chance... -
Apex by Ramez Naam
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGlobal unrest spreads as mass protests advance throughout the US and China, Nexus-upgraded riot police battle against upgraded protestors, and a once-dead scientist plans to take over the planet's electronic systems. The world has never experienced turmoil of this type, on this scale.They call them the Apex - humanity's replacement. They're smarter, faster, better. And infinitely more dangerous... -
The Horror at Murden Cove by D.D. Black
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA triple homicide. A blind witness. What is the sound of evil?Late one night, two young couples walked to a park in an affluent Bainbridge Island neighborhood to celebrate the sale of their tech startup. The next morning, three mutilated bodies were found.One witness was left alive. Blind from birth, she didn't see anything. But she heard everything... -
Lights Over Cloud Lake by Nathan Hystad
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGone Girl meets The X-Files in this Sci-Fi Thriller Cloud Lake is a hotspot for UFO sightings. Jessica Carver may have encountered one the night she disappeared. This is her story. Reporter Eva Heart is sent to Cloud Lake to write an exposé on flying saucer sightings, a subject she is extremely familiar with...Categorized as:
political-intrigue action-adventure adult aliens audiobook book conspiracies female-mc -
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The Children in the Lake: A Story You Will Never Forget by Mark Edward Hall
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn 1925 three children vanish without a trace in Arrowhead Lake. Nearly a century later there are those who still report seeing the children swimming beneath the surface like elusive dolphins. After losing her husband in a violent car crash, Rachel King and her two young sons venture to Arrowhead Lake to heal... -
The Bound Worlds by Megan E. O'Keefe
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWorlds will collide and fates will be rewritten in the thrilling conclusion to the Devoured Worlds space opera trilogy by award-winning author Megan E. O’Keefe. Naira and Tarquin have found a new home on Seventh Cradle. But the peace they’ve built is short-lived as mysterious assailants ambush the settlement and Naira is haunted by visions of a monstrous future... -
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHumankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future. Rumors begin to spread of a dangerous species of hyperintelligent octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. The marine biologist Dr... -
This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsSheltered all her life in a corporate satellite in Earth's outer orbit, Jamisia must face the truth about her origins and her role in the power struggle between the Guerans who dominate intergalactic transportation and the rest of Earth's far-flung and genetically mutated colonies who are trying to break the Guera Guild's monopoly... -
Why You Were Taken by J.T. Lawrence
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsImagine discovering your murdered parents were really your abductors. Then you find out you're on the hit list, too. In tomorrow's world, a troubled woman approaches Kirsten with a warning and a wafer key and is later found dead...Categorized as:
political-intrigue action-adventure adult audiobook book conspiracies cyberpunk dystopia -
Borderless by Eliot Peper
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsInformation is power, and whoever controls the feed rules the world in this all-too-plausible follow-up to the science fiction thriller Bandwidth.Exiled from Washington after a covert operation gone wrong, Diana is building a new life as a freelance spy, though her obsessive secrecy is driving away the few friends and allies she can count on...Categorized as:
political-intrigue politics action-adventure adult audiobook book cyberpunk dystopia -
Pestilence by Victor Methos
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA race against the clock...The most lethal virus in history has begun its spread to the mainland United States. Fast-spreading and with the ability to take over the host's immune system, the pathogen seems unstoppable.A fight for survival...Dr. Samantha Bower of the Centers for Disease Control has encountered the virus before and it nearly cost her her life... -
Warchild by Karin Lowachee
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe merchant ship Mukudori encompasses the whole of eight-year-old Jos's world, until a notorious pirate destroys the ship, slaughters the adults, and enslaves the children. Thus begins a desperate odyssey of terror and escape that takes Jos beyond known space to the homeworld of the strits, Earth's alien enemies. To survive, the boy must become a living weapon and a master spy...Categorized as:
political-intrigue space-opera 21st-century abuse action-adventure aliens book coming-of-age -
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsDarkness at Noon (from the German: Sonnenfinsternis) is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best-known work tells the tale of Rubashov, a Bolshevik 1917 revolutionary who is cast out, imprisoned and tried for treason by the Soviet government he'd helped create... -
Veracity by Douglas E. Richards
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA breathtaking near-future thriller. From the NY Times bestselling author whose books have sold more than a million copies.What if you developed a technology that made it impossible for anyone to lie? About anything...Categorized as:
political-intrigue action-adventure adult audiobook book conspiracies fiction hard-sci-fi -
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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... -
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsA classic work of science fiction by renowned Polish novelist and satirist Stanislaw Lem.When Kris Kelvin arrives at the planet Solaris to study the ocean that covers its surface, he finds a painful, hitherto unconscious memory embodied in the living physical likeness of a long-dead lover... -
Before Mars by Emma Newman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAfter months of travel, Anna Kubrin finally arrives on Mars for her new job as a geologist and de facto artist-in-residence. Already she feels like she is losing the connection with her husband and baby at home on Earth--and she'll be on Mars for over a year. Throwing herself into her work, she tries her best to fit in with the team... -
Atlas Alone by Emma Newman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHugo Award winner Emma Newman returns to the captivating Planetfall universe with a novel about vengeance, and a woman deciding if she can become a murderer to save the future of humanity.Six months after she left Earth, Dee is struggling to manage her rage toward the people who ordered the nuclear strike that destroyed the world... -
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn a world in which the police have telepathic powers, how do you get away with murder?Ben Reichs heads a huge 24th century business empire, spanning the solar system. He is also an obsessed, driven man determined to murder a rival. To avoid capture, in a society where murderers can be detected even before they commit their crime, is the greatest challenge of his life...Categorized as:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics contemporary -
One Door Away from Heaven by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMichelina Bellsong is on a mission. She is following a missing family to the edge of America...to a place she never knew existed--a place of terror, wonder, and shattering revelation.What awaits her there will change her life and the life of everyone she knows--if she can find the key to survival... -
Nexus by Ramez Naam
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMankind gets an upgradeIn the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link humans together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it...Categorized as:
political-intrigue 21st-century action-adventure ai audiobook biopunk book conspiracies -
Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA breakthrough in human cloning becomes one woman’s waking nightmare in a mind-bending thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Gibson Vaughn series. In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature... -
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsTitanic meets The Shining in S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence, a SF horror novel in which a woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended.A GHOST SHIP.A SALVAGE CREW.UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS.Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal... -
The Hush by Sara Foster
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA multigenerational, female-led thriller, and a terrifying conspiracy that goes right to the heart of the British Government.Six months ago, in an English hospital, a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth. Since then there have been more tragedies, and now the country is in turmoil. The government is clamping down on people’s freedoms... -
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A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsTold by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism...Categorized as:
politics 20th-century audiobook book british-isles classics coming-of-age contemporary -
Obscura by Joe Hart
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsShe's felt it before … the fear of losing control. And it's happening again. In the near future, an aggressive and terrifying new form of dementia is affecting victims of all ages. The cause is unknown, and the symptoms are disturbing. Dr. Gillian Ryan is on the cutting edge of research and desperately determined to find a cure...Categorized as:
political-intrigue space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book conspiracies crime -
Forsaken by Michael McBride
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIT HAS SURVIVED At a research station in Antarctica, scientists discovered a strange and ancient organism. They thought they could study it, classify it, control it. They couldn't.IT HAS THRIVED Six months ago, a secret paramilitary team called Unit 51 was sent to the station. They thought the creature was dead, the nightmare was over. It wasn't... -
Mad Powers by Mark Wayne McGinnis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRob Chandler, regaining consciousness, realizes he's somehow been involved in a horrendous car accident. In pain and unable to move, he has no memory of his identity, or how the hell he'd gotten on that deserted desert road in the middle of nowhere. He has little time to contemplate his situation when he sees an 18-wheeler barreling down on him... -
Writings 1997–2003 by Ccru
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom before the beginning (which was also, according to them, already the end), the adepts of the Architectonic Order of the Eschaton have worked tirelessly to secure the past, present, and future against the incursions of Neolemurian time-sorcery, eliminating all polytemporal activity, stitching up the future, sealing every breach and covering every track... -
Society of the Mind by Eric L. Harry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA chilling cyberthriller about a brilliant--and beautiful-- psychologist trapped in a web of futuristic terror.When Dr. Laura Aldridge, a young Harvard psychology professor, is offered one million dollars by billionaire computer-genius and inventor Joseph Gray to assist on a mysterious project, she leaves her comfortable existence to live on his beautiful island in the South Pacific... -
Precisely Terminated by Amanda L. Davis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWith microchips implanted in their skulls at birth, the slaves of Cantral and Cillineese have labored under the tyrannical rule of the Nobles and their computers for decades. Monica, a Noble who avoided the implanting and escaped a death sentence at the age of four, is now sixteen and is in hiding... -
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIn the overcrowded world and cramped space colonies of the late 21st century, tedium can be endured through the drug Can-D, which enables users to inhabit a shared illusory world. When industrialist Palmer Eldritch returns from an interstellar trip, he brings with him a new drug, Chew-Z... -
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAstrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos, invents planets every night for a bedtime story. He raises Robin, 9, after a car crash took their Aly. The family is strict vegetarians, Theo tells us each dish.Robin is bright, but full of anger that explodes in a flash. He suffers over animals tortured, killed to feed humans... -
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsWritten in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information... -
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The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsAn exceptional debut thriller and “exciting journey” into the dark heart of the Cold War and the space race from New York Times bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield (Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary). 1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny spaceship, a quarter million miles from home. A quarter million miles from help...Categorized as:
political-intrigue politics action-adventure adult alternate-history amateur-sleuth audiobook book -
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsBefore you see the movie, read the original novel! First published more than thirty-five years ago, Pierre Boulle's chilling novel launched one of the greatest science fiction sagas in motion picture history, from the classic 1968 movie starring Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell, through four sequels and two television series . . . and now the newest film adaptation directed by Tim Burton...Categorized as:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure animals apocalyptic audiobook book classics -
Masks of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsWHAT BEGAN AS A SIMPLESCHOLARLY PURSUIT ENDS IN AWAKING NIGHTMARE...Sir John Babcock, endowed with wealth and a healthy dose of curiosity, has stumbled on to an ancient order. With what he now knows, there will be no turning back. Even if he wants to. Not after he is trained as an initiate and knows of their perverted lusts—and their murders...Categorized as:
political-intrigue action-adventure adult book conspiracies cosmic-horror crime cults -
Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsLeto Atreides, the God Emperor of Dune, is dead. In the fifteen hundred years since his passing, the Empire has fallen into ruin. The great Scattering saw millions abandon the crumbling civilization and spread out beyond the reaches of known space. The planet Arrakis-now called Rakis-has reverted to its desert climate, and its great sandworms are dying... -
Murder at the Capitol by C.M. Gleason
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn July 1861, just months after the Battle of Fort Sumter plunges the young nation into civil war, President Lincoln's top priority is to unite the country, while Adam Quinn finds himself on the trail of a murderer . . . On Independence Day, the citizens of Washington, DC, are celebrating as if there isn't a war on...Categorized as:
romantic-love mystery historical-fiction fiction audiobook historical civil-war murder -
The Trial by Franz Kafka, Arthur H. Samuelson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsWritten in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka's death, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information...
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