Books like 'Silently and Very Fast'
Readers who enjoyed Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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...Categorized as:
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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...Categorized as:
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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:
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Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsStark lives in Colour, a neighbourhood whose inhabitants like to be co-ordinated with their surroundings – a neighbourhood where spangly purple trousers are admired by the walls of buildings as you pass them. Close by is Sound, where you mustn’t make any, apart from one designated hour a day when you can scream your lungs raw...Categorized as:
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Battleship Leviathan by Craig Martelle
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA derelict warship, ancient but still alive. A small team of humans fighting for all humanity.Built for a time when the races were just finding their way to the stars, finding that they could dominate others. The galactic conquests created the arms race and the ancients, the Progenitors had to protect their own. They built a ship to drive the others away.It worked. And it didn’t...Categorized as:
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All Tomorrows: The Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man by C.M. Kosemen, Beware the Qu
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe story begins in the near future, as burgeoning population pressures force humanity to terraform and colonize Mars. After a brief but violent civil war between the two planets, the genetically engineered survivors begin a new wave of colonization, spreading across the galaxy. Everything is looking up for the human race.. -
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... -
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...Categorized as:
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Earth Awakens by Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe story of The First Formic War continues in Earth Awakens.Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card's bestselling novel Ender's Game, humans were just beginning to step off Earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna...Categorized as:
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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... -
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...Categorized as:
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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... -
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...Categorized as:
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Alien Captive by Lee Savino, Golden Angel
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsWho knew reading sexy alien abduction stories could get a girl into trouble? Or that an e-reader could also be the gateway to another galaxy? I definitely didn't... but here I am anyway, mated to the Tsenturion High Commander just like the unwilling human heroines in my favorite sci-fi romances. The Commander demands obedience... -
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... -
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:
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Babel-17/Empire Star by Samuel R. Delany
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingswinner of the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, is a fascinating tale of a famous poet bent on deciphering a secret language that is the key to the enemy’s deadly force, a task that requires she travel with a splendidly improbable crew to the site of the next attack... -
Tripoint by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsMerchanter Cargo Chief Marie Hawkins has never forgiven the crime, nor sought justice. Only vengeance. And, for 23 years, the Hawkins's clan ship, Sprite, has lived with her vendetta - and with her son, Tom, the boy sired in the violent assault.Marie's attacker, Austin Bowe, is captain of the Corinthian. When both ships dock at Mariner Station, Marie vanishes and Tom searches for his mother.. -
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:
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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... -
The Admiral's Choice by Bob Blanton, Aybiline I. Dahlson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA fatal mistake. A diabolical plot. And a young woman caught in the middle, forced to fight a fierce battle for survival. Welcome to the world of the gods!Alisia, a young historian, plans to live a normal life: fall in love, marry her prince, maybe have kids someday. But the gods have other plans... -
The Traitor's Bride by Alix Nichols
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsDisgraced war hero Areg Sebi is on the scaffold, laying his head on the block. A priestess chants a prayer for the major's soul.In the crowd below, laundress Etana Tidryn stares into his eyes. Last night his lips were hot against hers. He worshipped her with the desperation of the damned.. -
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:
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Calypso's Guest by Andrew Sean Greer
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA bargain with the gods throws two men together in a timeless short story of adventure and unrequited love inspired by The Odyssey by Andrew Sean Greer, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less . A man in exile, banished to a planet far from home and cursed with immortality, discovers that a ship has crash-landed near his settlement. After two hundred years, his heart’s desire has come true... -
Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsDune Messiah continues the story of the man Muad'dib, heir to a power unimaginable, bringing to completion the centuries-old scheme to create a super-being."Brilliant...It is all that Dune was, and maybe a little bit more...Categorized as:
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Start by Odette C. Bell
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHave you ever thought “just my luck!” after dropping your communication device for the third time in a week?Cadet Nida Harper, a recruit to the United Galactic Coalition Academy, has – and worse. So imagine her surprise when she is detailed for a mission to the dark and mysterious planet Remus 12...Categorized as:
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Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 27 ratings2043 A.D.: The Ngumi War rages. A burned-out soldier and his scientist lover discover a secret that could put the universe back to square one. And it is not terrifying. It is tempting..Categorized as:
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A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsFourteen strangers come to Delmak-O. Thirteen of them were transferred by the usual authorities. One got there by praying. But once they arrived on that treacherous planet, whose very atmosphere seemed to induce paranoia and psychosis, the newcomers tound that even prayer was useless. For on Delmak-O, God is either absent or intent on destroying His creations...Categorized as:
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Alone by Skye MacKinnon
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt all started with a headache.Next came the cramps.Then, the pain. Cries and wails filled the station.The bloody cough killed most of them.The others succumbed to the fever.And then, silence.I’m the only one left.My name is Louise and I’m the only human on Mars. A sci-fi reverse harem based on the Six Swans fairy tale. First published in the Once Upon A Twist anthology... -
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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...Categorized as:
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The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James
Rated: 3.76 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsCan you fall in love with someone you’ve never met, never even spoken to – someone who is light years away?Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship travelling to a new planet, on a mission to establish a second home for humanity amongst the stars...Categorized as:
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Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOn the arid colony of Mars the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. For although the UN has slated "anomalous" children for deportation and destruction, other people—especially Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Worker's union—suspect that Manfred's disorder may be a window into the future. In Martian Time-Slip Philip K...Categorized as:
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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... -
Planetfall by Emma Newman
Rated: 3.73 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFrom the award-nominated author Emma Newman, comes a novel of how one secret withheld to protect humanity’s future might be its undoing…Renata Ghali believed in Lee Suh-Mi’s vision of a world far beyond Earth, calling to humanity. A planet promising to reveal the truth about our place in the cosmos, untainted by overpopulation, pollution, and war... -
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:
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Foe by Iain Reid
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA taut, psychological mind-bender from the bestselling author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things.We don’t get visitors. Not out here. We never have. In Iain Reid’s second haunting, philosophical puzzle of a novel, set in the near-future, Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable, solitary life on their farm, far from the city lights, but in close quarters with each other... -
A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsOrson Scott Card offers a Christmas gift to his millions of fans with A War of Gifts, a short novel set during Ender Wiggin's first years at the Battle School where it is forbidden to celebrate religious holidays. The children come from many nations, many religions; while they are being trained for war, religious conflict between them is not on the curriculum...Categorized as:
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The Space Between the Stars by Anne Corlett
Rated: 3.38 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn a breathtakingly vivid and emotionally gripping debut novel, one woman must confront the emptiness in the universe—and in her own heart—when a devastating virus reduces most of humanity to dust and memories.All Jamie Allenby ever wanted was space. Even though she wasn’t forced to emigrate from Earth, she willingly left the overpopulated, claustrophobic planet...Categorized as:
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