Books like 'Star Light'
Readers who enjoyed Star Light by Hal Clement also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi hard sci-fi 20th century action / adventure aliens hollow-earth
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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... -
![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 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... -
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![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... -
![Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.]()
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThese 18 darkly complex short stories and novellas touch upon human nature and perception, metaphysics and epistemology, and gender and sexuality, foreshadowing a world in which biological tendencies bring about the downfall of humankind. Revisions from the author's notes are included, allowing a deeper view into her world and a better understanding of her work... -
![Callahan's Lady by Spider Robinson]()
Callahan's Lady by Spider Robinson
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA HOUSE OF "HEALTHY" REPUTE...Welcome to Lady Sally's, the House that "is" a home -- the internationally (hell, interplanetarily) notorious bordello. At Lady Sally's House, the customer doesn't necessarily come first: even the staff are genuinely enjoying themselves... -
![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... -
![Diaspora by Greg Egan]()
Diaspora by Greg Egan
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBy the end of the 30th century humanity has the capability to travel the universe, to journey beyond earth and beyond the confines of the vulnerable human frame... -
![The Invincible by Stanisław Lem]()
The Invincible by Stanisław Lem
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe Invincible (Polish: Niezwyciężony) is a science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, published in 1964. The Invincible originally appeared as the title story in Lem's collection Niezwyciężony i inne opowiadania ("The Invincible and Other Stories")... -
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![Permutation City by Greg Egan]()
Permutation City by Greg Egan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsThe story of a man with a vision - immortality : for those who can afford it is found in cyberspace. Permutation city is the tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how that vision becomes something way beyond his control... -
![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... -
![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... -
![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... -
![Ringworld by Larry Niven]()
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsThe artefact is a circular ribbon of matter six hundred million miles long and ninety million miles in radius. Pierson's puppeteers, the aliens who discovered it, are understandably wary of encountering the builders of such an immense structure and have assembled a team of two humans, a mad puppeteer and a kzin, a huge cat-like alien, to explore it... -
![The City and The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke]()
The City and The Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsMen had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shutout the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rules the stars. But then, as legend had it, The invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge... -
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![Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein]()
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe capstone and crowning achievement of the Future History series, from the New York Times bestselling Grand Master of Science Fiction...Time Enough for Love follows Lazarus Long through a vast and magnificent timescape of centuries and worlds... -
![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 Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey]()
The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHelva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved—saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner—male or female—to share her exhilarating escapades in space!Her life was to be rich and rewarding . .Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook classics coming-of-age cyborgs -
![Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper]()
Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe chartered Zarathustra Company had it all their way. Their charter was for a Class III uninhabited planet, which Zarathustra was, and it meant they owned the planet lock stock and barrel. They exploited it, developed it and reaped the huge profits from it without interference from the Colonial Government... -
![The Fifth Element by Terry Bisson]()
The Fifth Element by Terry Bisson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEvery five thousand years, a door opens between the dimensions. In one dimension lies the universe and all of its multitude of varied life forms. In another exists an element made not of earth, air, fire or water, but of an anti-energy, anti-life. This "thing", this darkness, waits patiently at the threshold of the universe for an opportunity to extinguish all life and all light... -
![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...Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction genetic-engineering -
![Protector by Larry Niven]()
Protector by Larry Niven
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 22 ratingsPhssthpok the Pak had been traveling for most of his thirty-two thousand years. His mission: save, develop, and protect the group of Pak breeders sent out into space some two and a half million years before...Brennan was a Belter, the product of a fiercely independent, somewhat anarchic society living in, on, and around an outer asteroid belt... -
![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... -
![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... -
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![Deathworld 1 by Harry Harrison]()
Deathworld 1 by Harry Harrison
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe planet was called Pyrrus...a strange place where all the beasts, plants and natural elements were designed for one specific purpose: to destroy man.The settlers there were supermen...twice as strong as ordinary men and with milli-second reflexes. They had to be. For their business was murder.. -
![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... -
![2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke]()
2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsWhen 2001: A Space Odyssey first shocked, amazed, and delighted millions in the late 1960s, the novel was quickly recognized as a classic. Since then, its fame has grown steadily among the multitudes who have read the novel or seen the film based on it... -
![A Trace of Memory by Keith Laumer]()
A Trace of Memory by Keith Laumer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNightmare at StonehengeWhen Legion meets a strange old millionaire called "Foster,"" he doesn't know that his whole life will never be the same again. For "Foster" has a strange story to tell. Part of his story is contained in his diary, which not only describes things in the very recent past, but goes back for centuries. . .Foster has hired Legion to help him regain his lost memory...Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook fiction hard-sci-fi -
![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... -
![The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke]()
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsVannemar Morgan's dream of linking Earth with the stars requires a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God... -
![The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke]()
The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe lifting of the last snowflake should have been a joyful occasion; now it was merely one of somber satisfaction. Thirty thousand kilometers above Thalassa, the final hexagon of ice was jockeyed into position, and the shield was complete... -
![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:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure anthologies apocalyptic audiobook classics dystopia -
![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... -
![Last Human by Doug Naylor]()
Last Human by Doug Naylor
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLister gazed out of the porthole and catalogue the series of disasters that had led him to this point in space and time: the bad decisions, the poor career choices, the unreliable friendships that had led him here - on a prison ship bound for the most inhospitable penal colony in the outer cosmos... and all he'd ever wanted was to be a soft metal guitar icon... -
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![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...Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books classics -
![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... -
![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...Categorized as:
aliens 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books classics -
![Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein]()
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsThe Hugo Award-winning and controversial science fiction masterpiece from Robert A. Heinlein, the New York Times bestselling author of Starship Troopers. Valentine Michael Smith is a man raised by Martians. Sent to Earth, he must learn what it is to be human... -
![Freeware by Rudy Rucker]()
Freeware by Rudy Rucker
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRudy Rucker has seen the future. . .and it is extreme.The Godfather of cyberpunk--a mad scientist bravely meddling in the outrageous and heretical--Rucker created Bopper Robots, who rebelled against human society in his award-winning classic "Software...
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