Books like 'Brain Wave'
Readers who enjoyed Brain Wave by Poul Anderson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi hard sci-fi psychological action / adventure space dystopia classics apocalyptic post-apocalyptic utopia
-
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:
apocalyptic dystopia space-opera 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens audiobook -
![Exhalation by Ted Chiang]()
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsalternate cover for this ISBN can be found hereThe universe began as an enormous breath being held.From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others — the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Arrival — comes a ground-breaking new collection of short fiction: nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories...Categorized as:
dystopia 21st-century action-adventure adult ai aliens alternate-history anthologies -
![Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov]()
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..Categorized as:
classics dystopia space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![I, Robot by Isaac Asimov]()
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:
classics dystopia space-opera 20th-century action-adventure ai alternate-history anthologies -
-
![The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin]()
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsFrom the brilliant and award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin comes a classic tale of two planets torn apart by conflict and mistrust — and the man who risks everything to reunite them.A bleak moon settled by utopian anarchists, Anarres has long been isolated from other worlds, including its mother planet, Urras—a civilization of warring nations, great poverty, and immense wealth... -
![Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang]()
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsTed Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF...Categorized as:
classics dystopia 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
![Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov]()
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...Categorized as:
classics dystopia space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens -
![Foundation by Isaac Asimov]()
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsFor twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future -- to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years...Categorized as:
classics dystopia post-apocalyptic space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor]()
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...Categorized as:
dystopia exploration post-apocalyptic space-opera space-travel action-adventure adult ai -
![Le jardin quantique by Derek Künsken]()
Le jardin quantique by Derek Künsken
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe stunning, critically-acclaimed follow-up to best-selling The Quantum Magician THE ULTIMATE CHASE Days ago, Belisarius pulled off the most audacious con job in history. He’s rich, he’s back with the love of his life, and best of all, he has the Time Gates, arguably the most valuable things in existence... -
![This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman]()
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... -
![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:
dystopia exploration post-apocalyptic space-opera space-travel 21st-century action-adventure adult -
![Gateway by Frederik Pohl]()
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...Categorized as:
classics dystopia exploration space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Solaris by Stanisław Lem]()
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... -
-
![Reckoning by W. Michael Gear]()
Reckoning by W. Michael Gear
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe sixth book in the thrilling Donovan sci-fi series returns to a treacherous alien planet where corporate threats and dangerous creatures imperil the lives of the colonists.Three years after Ashanti spaced for Solar System, Turalon reappears in the Donovanian sky. The Corporation has returned. Donovan's wealth is a lure for the powerful families who control the Board... -
![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... -
![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:
apocalyptic dystopia exploration post-apocalyptic space-travel action-adventure adult ai -
![Blindsight by Peter Watts]()
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsIt's been two months since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since - until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia space-opera space-travel 21st-century action-adventure adult ai -
![Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith]()
Scanners Live in Vain by Cordwainer Smith
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMan has conquered space, but not without costs. To maintain the space lanes, Scanners have to undergo an operation in which their brain is severed from their sensory inputs to block the pain of space. Scanner Martel has made this sacrifice. He must monitor his vital functions via implanted dials and instruments in his chest...Categorized as:
classics dystopia space-opera action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook cyberpunk -
![House of Cards by Peter David]()
House of Cards by Peter David
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSector 221-G: For the whole of Federation history, this large area of space has been controlled by the Thallonians, a cruel, militaristic race of which little is knownexcept that they rule the other races in their sector with vicious iron hand.Now the Thallonian Empire has collapsed and the systems it once ruled are in chaos. Old hatreds are surfacing. Petty tyrants control deadly weapons... -
![Glasshouse by Charles Stross]()
Glasshouse by Charles Stross
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen Robin wakes up in a clinic with most of his memories missing, it doesn’t take him long to discover that someone is trying to kill him. It’s the twenty-seventh century, when interstellar travel is by teleport gate and conflicts are fought by network worms that censor refugees’ personalities and target historians...Categorized as:
dystopia exploration post-apocalyptic space-opera space-travel 21st-century action-adventure adult -
![Spindrift by Allen M. Steele]()
Spindrift by Allen M. Steele
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the year 2344, the shuttle from the long-missing EASS Galileo returns to Earth carrying three crew members who appear not to have aged. They report that they have made contact with an alien race--and have come face to face with the most apocalyptic force in the galaxy...Categorized as:
exploration space-opera space-travel action-adventure adult aliens book contemporary -
![The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt]()
The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTwo hundred years ago, humans made a stunning discovery in the far reaches of the solar system: a huge statue of an alien creature, with an inscription that defied all efforts at translation. Now, as faster-than-light drive opens the stars to exploration, humans are finding other relics of the race they call the Monument-Makers - each different, and each heartbreakingly beautiful...Categorized as:
exploration post-apocalyptic space-opera space-travel action-adventure adult aliens archaeology -
![Chindi by Jack McDevitt]()
Chindi by Jack McDevitt
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn a routine survey mission studying a neutron star, an Academy starship receives a transmission in an unknown language. Before leaving the area, the starship launches a series of satellites to find the signal and perhaps discover its origins...Categorized as:
exploration space-opera space-travel action-adventure adult aliens archaeology audiobook -
-
![Tau Zero by Poul Anderson]()
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine will take her and her fifty-strong crew to a planet some thirty light-years distant. But, because the ship will accelerate to close to the speed of light, for those on board subjective time will slow and the journey will be of only a few years' duration.Then a buffeting by an interstellar dustcloud changes everything...Categorized as:
classics exploration space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Superluminal by Vonda N. McIntyre]()
Superluminal by Vonda N. McIntyre
Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLaenea Trevelyan, a starship pilot, has her heart replaced with a machine so she can survive faster-than-light travel. Orca, a diver, divides her time between starships and the Strait of Georgia, where her relatives include a family of killer whales and a group of other divers, human beings who can exist underwater, and who are, technically, at war with the United States...Categorized as:
exploration space-travel action-adventure adult animals audiobook book female-author -
![Accelerando by Charles Stross]()
Accelerando by Charles Stross
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day... -
![Xenocide by Orson Scott Card]()
Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsThe war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the heart of a child named Gloriously Bright.On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought... -
![Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson]()
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsA major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. Our voyage from Earth began generations ago.Now, we approach our new home.AURORA...Categorized as:
dystopia exploration space-opera space-travel 21st-century action-adventure adult ai -
![Light by M. John Harrison]()
Light by M. John Harrison
Rated: 3.61 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIn M. John Harrison’s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, a universe where you make up the rules as you go along and break them just as fast, where there’s only one thing more mysterious than darkness.In contemporary London, Michael Kearney is a serial killer on the run from the entity that drives him to kill... -
![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...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia exploration post-apocalyptic space-travel action-adventure adult aliens -
![Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys]()
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys
Rated: 3.51 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsRogue Moon is a short sf novel by Algis Budrys, published in 1960. It was a 1961 Hugo Award nominee, losing to Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz. A novella-length version of the story was included in the anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 2, edited by Ben Bova.Before 1969, every science fiction writer wrote his or her own version of the first Moon landing...Categorized as:
classics exploration space-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens audiobook
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.
