Books like 'The Variable Man'
Readers who enjoyed The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi 20th century hard sci-fi action / adventure military, war & conflict classics time-travel war dystopia
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Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsCryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe... -
![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... -
![Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold]()
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn her first trial by fire, Cordelia Naismith captained a throwaway ship of the Betan Expeditionary Force on a mission to destroy an enemy armada...Categorized as:
military war 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook disability female-author -
![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... -
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![A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge]()
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... -
![The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein]()
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsRobert A. Heinlein was the most influential science fiction writer of his era, an influence so large that, as Samuel R. Delany notes, "modern critics attempting to wrestle with that influence find themselves dealing with an object rather like the sky or an ocean." He won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, a record that still stands... -
![The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson]()
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence... -
![The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons]()
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]()
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]()
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... -
![Excession by Iain M. Banks]()
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]()
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]()
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 Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle]()
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsIn 3016, the 2nd Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to faster-than-light Alderson Drive. Intelligent beings are finally found from the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud. The bottled-up ancient civilization, at least one million years old, are welcoming, kind, yet evasive, with a dark problem they have not solved in over a million years... -
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![The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov]()
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn the twenty-second century Earth obtains limitless, free energy from a source science little understands: an exchange between Earth and a parallel universe, using a process devised by the aliens. But even free energy has a price. The transference process itself will eventually lead to the destruction of the Earth's Sun--and of Earth itself... -
![The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold]()
The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsOn a rescue mission gone wrong, Miles Vorkosigan is captured by the enemy Cetagandans and thrown into a dome-shaped prisoner of war camp that seems a literal Circle of Hell. Against impossible odds, Miles organizes thousands of angry and dispirited prisoners into military formation that may offer the only chance for escape... -
![The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton]()
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... -
![The Uplift War by David Brin]()
The Uplift War by David Brin
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThis is the third book in the Uplift series. Humanity has contacted their Patron Line and uplifted chimpanzees and dolphins to full partnership. But on a distant planet occupied by Earth humans and neo-chimps, it seems the chimps have information concerning the location of the Progenitors... -
![The Short Victorious War by David Weber]()
The Short Victorious War by David Weber
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe proles are revolting.The families who rule the People's Republic of Haven are in trouble. The treasury's empty, the Proles are restless, and civil war is imminent.But the ruling class knows what they need to keep in power; another short, victorious war to unite the people and fill the treasury once more... -
![A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge]()
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... -
![Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein]()
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsIn one of Robert Heinlein's most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe--and into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind's most frightening enemy... -
![Bolo by Keith Laumer]()
Bolo by Keith Laumer
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBolo. Originally developed as far back as the 1980's by the Bolo Division of General Motors, these great artillery machines took on awareness in later designs and gradually began to replace man in that most human of endeavors: War.But let Bolo speak for itself... -
![Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson]()
Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsaka The Genetic GeneralThroughout the Fourteen Worlds of humanity, no race is as feared and respected as the Dorsai. The ultimate warriors, they are known for their deadly rages, unbreakable honor, and fierce independence. No man rules the Dorsai, but their mastery of the art of war has made them the most valuable mercenaries in the known universe... -
![The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton]()
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... -
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![Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle]()
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsTHE LUCKY ONES WENT FIRST…The gigantic comet has slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam... -
![On Basilisk Station by David Weber]()
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 Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Neil Gaiman]()
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsIn this pulse-quickening novel, Alfred Bester imagines a future in which people "jaunte" a thousand miles with a single thought, where the rich barricade themselves in labyrinths and protect themselves with radioactive hitmen—and where an inarticulate outcast is the most valuable and dangerous man alive... -
![Sarek by A.C. Crispin]()
Sarek by A.C. Crispin
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe novel begins after the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country™. Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson, is dying, and Spock returns to the planet Vulcan where he and Sarek enjoy a rare moment of rapprochement. But just as his wife's illness grows worse, duty calls Sarek away—once again sowing seeds of conflict between father and son... -
![The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh]()
The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsNo one at Meetpoint Station had ever seen a creature like the Outsider. Naked-hided, blunt toothed and blunt-fingered, Tully was the sole surviving member of his company -- a communicative, spacefaring species hitherto unknown -- and he was a prisoner of his discoverer/ captors the sadistic, treacherous kif, until his escape onto the hani ship The Pride of Chanur... -
![Paradox Alley by John DeChancie]()
Paradox Alley by John DeChancie
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJake McGraw, independent space trucker, has been shanghaied. He and his crew, fresh off their adventures in STARRIGGER and RED LIMIT FREEWAY, are plucked off the Skyway by a creature of unknown power. Now on an alien planet where most of the rules of the regular universe don’t seem to apply, Jake confronts the builders of the Skyway once and for all... -
![Fisherman's Hope by David Feintuch]()
Fisherman's Hope by David Feintuch
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNewly appointed Naval Commandant Nicholas Seafort's past unexpectedly catches up with him when an evil politician blackmails him into giving up his commission. But then an alien attack revives Nick's career, and soon he will lead Earth's defenses against annihilation. Alone at the center of a cosmic apocalypses, Nick will face his most challenging battle... -
![Startide Rising by David Brin]()
Startide Rising by David Brin
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsDavid Brin's Uplift novels are among the most thrilling and extraordinary science fiction ever written. Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War--a New York Times bestseller--together make up one of the most beloved sagas of all time. Brin's tales are set in a future universe in which no species can reach sentience without being "uplifted" by a patron race... -
![The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer]()
The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOn the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb, Hugo and Nebula-winning author Robert J. Sawyer takes us back in time to revisit history…with a twist.While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the A-bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a bomb based on nuclear fusion—the mechanism that powers the sun...Categorized as:
time-travel war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
![Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson]()
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe red planet is red no longer, as Mars has become a perfectly inhabitable world. But while Mars flourishes, Earth is threatened by overpopulation and ecological disaster. Soon people look to Mars as a refuge, initiating a possible interplanetary conflict, as well as political strife between the Reds, who wish to preserve the planet in its desert state, and the Green "terraformers"... -
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![The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith]()
The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDenver detective Win Bear, on the trail of a murderer, discovers much more than a killer. He accidentally stumbles upon the probability broach, a portal to a myriad of worlds--some wildly different from, others disconcertingly similar to our own...Categorized as:
dystopia military time-travel 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
![Eden by Stanisław Lem]()
Eden by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsA six-man crew crash-lands on Eden, fourth planet from another sun. The men find a strange world that grows ever stranger, and everywhere there are images of death. The crew's attempt to communicate with this civilization leads to violence and to a cruel truth-cruel precisely because it is so human. Translated by Marc E. Heine... -
![Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch]()
Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDavid Feintuch’s acclaimed Seafort Saga begins as Nicholas Seafort sets off on an interstellar naval adventure he will never forget In the year 2194, seventeen-year-old Nicholas Seafort is assigned to the Hibernia as a lowly midshipman. Destination: the thriving colony of Hope Nation... -
![Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson]()
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsIn the Nebula Award winning Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson began his critically acclaimed epic saga of the colonization of Mars, Now the Hugo Award winning Green Mars continues the thrilling and timeless tale of humanity's struggle to survive at its farthest frontier... -
![Prisoner's Hope by David Feintuch]()
Prisoner's Hope by David Feintuch
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRecovering from injuries at Hope Nation, Captain Nicholas Seafort is appointed liaison to the wealthy planters of the verdant colony planet and finds himself called upon to halt a revolution and rally his people against alien invaders... -
![American Front by Harry Turtledove]()
American Front by Harry Turtledove
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhen the Great War engulfed Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America, bitter enemies for five decades, entered the fray on opposite sides: the United States aligned with the newly strong Germany, while the Confederacy joined forces with their longtime allies, Britain and France... -
![A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber]()
A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsReprint of 1964 paperback...Categorized as:
classics dystopia military 20th-century action-adventure aliens anthologies apocalyptic -
![The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein]()
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... -
![Moving Mars by Greg Bear]()
Moving Mars by Greg Bear
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMoving Mars is a story of human courage and love set within the greater saga of a planetary liberation movement. Mars is a colonial world, governed by corporate interests on Earth. The citizens of Mars are hardworking, but held back by their lack of access to the best education, and the desire of the Earthly powers to keep the best new inventions for themselves... -
![Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein]()
Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsKip from midwest Centerville USA works the summer before college as a pharmacy soda jerk, and wins an authentic stripped-down spacesuit in a soap contest. He answers a distress radio call from Peewee, scrawny rag doll-clutching genius aged 11. With the comforting cop Mother Thing, three-eyed tripod Wormfaces kidnap them to the Moon and Pluto... -
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![Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh]()
Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsA legend among sci-fi readers, C. J. Cherryh's Union-Alliance novels, while separate and complete in themselves, are part of a much larger tapestry—a future history spanning 5,000 years of human civilization. A blockbuster space opera of the rebellion between Earth and its far-flung colonies, it is a classic science fiction masterwork... -
![Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson]()
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsIn his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research & cutting-edge science in the 1st of a trilogy chronicling the colonization of Mars:For eons, sandstorms have swept the desolate landscape. For centuries, Mars has beckoned humans to conquer its hostile climate. Now, in 2026, a group of 100 colonists is about to fulfill that destiny... -
![The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle]()
The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFor the safety of mankind, the aliens called Moties have been quarantined for 25 years (see THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE) and are now poised to break out of their solar system and spread rapidly into humanity's space... -
![Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein]()
Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsSpace Cadet is the seminal novel of a young man's education as a member of an elite, paternalistic non-military organization of leaders dedicated to preserving human civilization, the Solar Patrol, from the science fiction grandmaster. Only the best and brightest—the strongest and the most courageous—ever manage to become Space Cadets, at the Space Academy... -
![The Postman by David Brin]()
The Postman by David Brin
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThis is the story of a lie that became the most powerful kind of truth. A timeless novel as urgently compelling as War Day or Alas, Babylon, David Brin's The Postman is the dramatically moving saga of a man who rekindled the spirit of America through the power of a dream, from a modern master of science fiction...Categorized as:
classics dystopia military war 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
![Young Rissa by F.M. Busby]()
Young Rissa by F.M. Busby
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsRissa breathes a sigh of relief as the ship lifts off. It seems she's escaped danger, and no one has recognized the scientifically altered being as the beautiful young heir to the Hilzein Establishment-or so it seems...
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