Books like 'Highwire Moon'
Readers who enjoyed Highwire Moon by Susan Straight 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:
literary-fiction poc-mc 21st-century action-adventure adult ai aliens alternate-history -
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:
literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure ai alternate-history anthologies audiobook children -
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:
literary-fiction poc-mc 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsTwo young people are forced to make a stand in this thought-provoking look at racism and prejudice in an alternate society.Sephy is a Cross -- a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought -- a “colourless” member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood, but that’s as far as it can go...Categorized as:
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Madness by Jillian West
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLyric Sinclair has had a whirlwind couple of months. She got sucked back into the industry she thought she was free of, she's in an exclusive relationship with a rock band, and her ex is back in the picture.A whole new set of challenges arise as Lyric and her guys work through their grief... -
Angels' Flight by Nalini Singh
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn Angel’s Wolf a vampire becomes fascinated with the seductive angel who rules Louisiana. But all is not what it appears to be in her court. In Angels’ Judgment a hunter must track one of her own gone bad, while surviving the deadly tests placed in her way by the archangels themselves. Unexpected backup comes from a stranger who might just be the most lethal threat of all.. -
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Thomas Pynchon
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 82 ratingsThe new novel by George Orwell is the major work towards which all his previous writing has pointed. Critics have hailed it as his "most solid, most brilliant" work. Though the story of Nineteen Eighty-Four takes place thirty-five years hence, it is in every sense timely. The scene is London, where there has been no new housing since 1950 and where the city-wide slums are called Victory Mansions...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century alternate-history audiobook book classics contemporary dark -
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsMore than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order... -
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...Categorized as:
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How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn these stories, Jemisin sharply examines modern society, infusing magic into the mundane, and drawing deft parallels in the fantasy realms of her imagination. Dragons and hateful spirits haunt the flooded city of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes...Categorized as:
poc-mc 21st-century afrofuturism alternate-history anthologies audiobook contemporary dragons -
Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe great city of Alt Coulumb is in crisis. The moon goddess Seril, long thought dead, is back—and the people of Alt Coulumb aren't happy. Protests rock the city, and Kos Everburning's creditors attempt a hostile takeover of the fire god's church...Categorized as:
poc-mc 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book contemporary -
Checkmate by Malorie Blackman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe dramatic conclusion to the award-winning Noughts and Crosses trilogy.Can the future ever erase the past? Rose has a Cross mother and a Nought father in a society where the pale-skinned noughts are treated as inferiors and those with dual heritage face a life-long battle against deep-rooted prejudices...Categorized as:
poc-mc action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children coming-of-age contemporary -
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Valerie Martin
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 94 ratings(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time.Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book classics contemporary -
Saving Runt by S.E. Smith
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAmelia ‘Runt’ Thomas’ life revolves around a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the most ruthless criminals in the world. She follows two codes: the code of hackers and her personal code of honor to bring down anyone who thinks they’re untouchable. She is on target until one fateful night when the touch of a strange man sends an unexpected shock wave through her...Categorized as:
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Left In Ruins by Jillian West
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs the daughter of two of the most recognizable rock stars of all time, Lyric Sinclair has seen it all. After a childhood spent in the limelight... this omega prefers comfy patterned pajamas, quietly donating her time, and nights spent in with her beta boyfriend.When fate and bad luck intervene, Lyric does what she always does. She runs, hoping all her problems magically disappear... -
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 101 ratingsWinston Smith is a low-rung member of the Party, the ruling government of Oceania. He works in the Ministry of Truth, the Party's propoganda arm, where he is in charge of revising history. He is but a small brick in the pyramid that is the Party, at the head of which stands Big Brother. Big Brother the infallible. Big Brother the all-powerful...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century alternate-history audiobook book classics contemporary dark -
Double Cross by Malorie Blackman, Amélie Sarn
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTobey wants a better life - for him and his girlfriend Callie Rose. He wants nothing to do with the gangs that rule the world he lives in. But when he's offered the chance to earn some money just for making a few 'deliveries', just this once, would it hurt to say 'yes'?The captivating conclusion/companion Novel of the Noughts and Crosses series...Categorized as:
poc-mc action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children coming-of-age contemporary -
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out, but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book -
Burglary at Barnard by Lynn Morrison
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA dead body buried under a pile of ageing manuscripts. A secret chamber filled with a treasure-trove of books and paintings.Nat returns to Oxford in January, this time based out of the historic halls of Barnard College. When she agrees to meet Mathilde in the college archives after hours, they hope to find information on the magic...Categorized as:
literary-fiction mystery cozy paranormal contemporary fiction audiobook alternate-history -
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAt forty-three Jeff Winston is tired of his low-paid, unrewarding job, tired of the long silences at the breakfast table with his wife, saddened by the thought of no children to comfort his old age. But he hopes for better things, for happiness, maybe tomorrow ...But a sudden, fatal heart attack puts paid to that... -
Ruth and the King of the Giants by S.E. Smith
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe King of the Giants has met his match… When her brother goes missing, Ruth Hallbrook follows the only lead that she has – a story told to her by a strange woman she meets in town. Armed with a ‘magical’ shell that will supposedly guide her, all she has to do is repeat the words she hears when she puts it to her ear...Categorized as:
poc-mc action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book contemporary female-mc -
The Sea King's Lady by S.E. Smith
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNew York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling author of Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance brings another action, adventure, and suspense-filled story to transport readers out of this world.“I captured her. That makes her ours…... -
The Free People's Village by Sim Kern
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsIn an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. For twenty years, Democrats have controlled all three branches of government, enacting carbon-cutting schemes that never made it to a vote in our world. Green infrastructure projects have transformed U.S... -
Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsDetective Thursday Next has had her fill of her responsibilities as the Bellman in Jurisfiction. Packing up her son, Friday, Thursday returns to Swindon accompanied by none other than the dithering Danish prince Hamlet... -
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Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsPublished two weeks after his seventieth birthday, Ada, or Ardor is one of Nabokov's greatest masterpieces, the glorious culmination of his career as a novelist. It tells a love story troubled by incest. But more: it is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue...Categorized as:
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Core’s Attack by S.E. Smith
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThrust into a deadly game…. Avery Lennox has been called many names, but bond mate was never one of them... -
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsShades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color—but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means... -
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, Ken Liu
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsThe Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens...Categorized as:
poc-mc 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
Under the Blue by Oana Aristide
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world?Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction dystopia sci-fi apocalyptic ai post-apocalyptic contemporary -
A Time to Heal by Barbara Cameron
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsChristopher Matlock is a weary and wounded ex-soldier who just wants some peace in his life, but then he meets Hannah Bontrager, a gentle, pacifist Amish woman who turns his world upside down. Born and raised on a Kansas farm, Christopher finally finds peace in this simple community helping with the crops. He expects resistance from the Amish but is appalled when he and Hannah experience threats...Categorized as:
literary-fiction action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book christian contemporary -
The Yellow Arrow by Victor Pelevin
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe main character, Andrei, is a passenger aboard the Yellow Arrow, who begins to despair over the trains ultimate destination and looks for a way out as the chapters count down. Indifferent to their fate, the other passengers carry on as usual — trading in nickel melted down fro the carriage doors, attending the Upper Bunk avant-garde theatre, and leafing through Pasternak’s Early Trains...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century adult alternate-history audiobook book contemporary dark-humor -
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe BookWorld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple... -
Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWHEN TRUTH AND JUSTICE ARE NO LONGER BLACK AND WHITE ISSUES . . .Sephy is a Cross, one of the privileged in a society where the ruling Crosses treat the pale-skinned noughts as inferiors. But her baby daughter has a nought father . . . Jude is a Nought. Eaten up with bitterness, he blames Sephy for the terrible losses his family has suffered . . .Now Jude's life rests on a knife edge...Categorized as:
poc-mc action-adventure alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook book children coming-of-age -
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsIf Thursday thought she could avoid the spotlight after her heroic escapades in the pages of Jane Eyre, she was sorely mistaken. The unforgettable literary detective whom Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times calls "part Bridget Jones, part Nancy Drew and part Dirty Harry" had another think coming. The love of her life has been eradicated by Goliath, everyone's favorite corrupt multinational... -
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The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsProtecting the world's greatest literature—not to mention keeping up wit Miss Havisham—is tiring work for an expectant mother. And Thursday can definitely use a respite... -
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsPeter Knox lives quietly in one of those small country villages that's up for the Village Garden of the Year award... -
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project... -
The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn the second adventure by the bestselling author of the Thursday Next novels, nursery crime characters Jack Spratt and Mary Mary take on their most dangerous case so far, as a murderous cookie (The Gingerbread Man) menaces the streets of Reading... -
First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt's been fourteen years since Thursday pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and Friday is now a difficult sixteen year old. However, Thursday's got bigger problems. Sherlock Holmes is killed at the Reichenbach Falls and his series is stopped in its tracks. And before this can be corrected, Miss Marple dies suddenly in a car accident, bringing her series to a close as well... -
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsWith this groundbreaking novel, Maureen F. McHugh established herself as one of the decade's best science fiction writers. In its pages, we enter a post-revolution America, moving from the hyper-urbanized eastern seaboard to the Arctic bleakness of Baffin Island; from the new Imperial City to an agricultural commune on Mars...Categorized as:
poc-mc 20th-century adult alternate-history book coming-of-age contemporary cyberpunk -
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsImagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not...Categorized as:
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Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsIn infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophecy: a comet will obliterate life on Earth in thirty-six years...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book comedy coming-of-age -
The Sumage Solution by G.L. Carriger, Gail Carriger
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEverything you wanted from a sexy gay werewolf but were afraid to read. Max fails at magic, relationships, and life. So he works as a sumage, cleaning up other mages’ messes. The job sucks and he’s in no mood to cope with redneck biker werewolves. Unfortunately, there’s something irresistible about the sexy muscled Beta visiting his office for processing.Bryan is gay but he’s not out... -
The Belial Stone by R.D. Brady
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsProfessor Delaney McPhearson's life is turned upside down when her best friend, archaeologist Drew Masters, is found dead. Before she can deal with the heartbreaking loss, she is viciously attacked in her home by a man with inhuman fighting abilities... -
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Wisp of a Thing by Alex Bledsoe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWisp of a Thing: a unique contemporary fantasy where magic is hidden in plain sight and age-old rivalries simmer just beneath the surfaceAlex Bledsoe's The Hum and the Shiver was named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews. Now Bledsoe returns to the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains to spin an equally enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills... -
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe newest tour de force from The New York Times bestselling author of Thursday Next and Shades of Grey. Jasper Fforde's exuberant return to the fantastical BookWorld opens during a time of great unrest. All-out Genre war is rumbling, and the BookWorld desperately needs a heroine like Thursday Next... -
The Breach by Patrick Lee
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThirty years ago, in a facility buried beneath a vast Wyoming emptiness, an experiment gone awry accidentally opened a door. It is the world's best-kept secret-and its most terrifying... -
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World, blistering gangster noir meets howling absurdist comedy as the forces of good square off against the forces of evil, and only an unassuming clockwork repairman and an octogenarian former superspy can save the world from total destruction.Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book comedy -
Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes by Gerd Brantenberg
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWelcome to the land of Egalia, where gender roles are topsy-turvy as "wim" wield the power and "menwim" light the home fires...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book classics coming-of-age -
Cillian by Ramani Rose
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMonster. Criminal. Terrifying.Many come to mind, but only one word can illustrate the constant terror associated with the man of my nightmares.Cillian.My testimony put the Irish gangster behind bars—that was—until my ambitious father negotiated my hand in marriage for a sliver of the Irish organized crime scene.We shouldn't even be able to marry, but the laws have changed...Categorized as:
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