Books like 'What the Future Looks Like: Scientists Predict the Next Great Discoveries―and Reveal How Today’s Breakthroughs Are Already Shaping Our World'
Readers who enjoyed What the Future Looks Like: Scientists Predict the Next Great Discoveries―and Reveal How Today’s Breakthroughs Are Already Shaping Our World by Jim Al-Khalili also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
futuristic technology pollution-climate-change
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The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsLibrarian note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here...Categorized as:
technology action-adventure animals anthropomorphism audiobook book children children-books -
![The Fall of Koli by M.R. Carey]()
The Fall of Koli by M.R. Carey
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe Fall of Koli is the third and final novel in the breathtakingly original Rampart trilogy - set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.The world that is lost will come back to haunt us . . .Koli has come a long way since being exiled from his small village of Mythen Rood...Categorized as:
technology action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age dystopia family -
![The Trials of Koli by M.R. Carey]()
The Trials of Koli by M.R. Carey
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Trials of Koli is the second novel in M R. Carey’s breathtakingly original Rampart trilogy, set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.Beyond the walls of Koli’s small village lies a fearsome landscape filled with choker trees, vicious beasts and shunned men. As an exile, Koli’s been forced to journey out into this mysterious, hostile world. But he heard a story, once...Categorized as:
technology action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age dystopia fiction -
![UnBound by Neal Shusterman, Michelle Knowlden]()
UnBound by Neal Shusterman, Michelle Knowlden
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn the New York Times bestselling Unwind Dystology—Unwind, UnWholly, UnSouled, and UnDivided—Neal Shusterman thrilled readers with the story of a society that deals with its out-of-control teens by “unwinding” them—transplanting more than 99% of their bodies into other people... -
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![Return to the Whorl by Gene Wolfe]()
Return to the Whorl by Gene Wolfe
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHorn has travelled from his home on the planet Blue, reached the planet Green and visited the starship, the Whorl and walked on the planet Urth. But Horn's identity has become ambiguous, a question embedded in the story, whose telling is itself complex... -
![Today I Am Carey by Martin L. Shoemaker]()
Today I Am Carey by Martin L. Shoemaker
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsREMARKABLE DEBUT NOVEL FROM CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER. Shoemaker proves why he has consitently been praised as one of the best story writers in SF today with this touching, thoughtful, action-packed debut novel, based on his award-winning short story Today I am Paul.TODAY Mildred has Alzheimer's... -
![The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler]()
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHumankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future. Rumors begin to spread of a dangerous species of hyperintelligent octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. The marine biologist Dr...Categorized as:
pollution-climate-change technology adult ai animals anthropomorphism audiobook book -
![Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams]()
Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsWith Sea of Silver Light, Tad Williams completes his massive Otherland quartet, one of SF's more intriguing explorations of the eroding boundaries of the human and the nonhuman, the living and the dead. Otherland is a sequence that contains many secrets, and Williams plays fair by unpacking all of them in the final book... -
![The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente]()
The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsCatherynne M. Valente, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland returns with The Past is Red, the enchanting, dark, funny, angry story of a girl who made two terrible mistakes: she told the truth and she dared to love the world.The future is blue. Endless blue..Categorized as:
pollution-climate-change 21st-century apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age dark disaster -
![Outliers by Kate L. Mary]()
Outliers by Kate L. Mary
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinner in the 2018 Kindle Books Awards for Sci-Fi/Fantasy FictionB.R.A.G Medallion HonoreeTop 10 Finalist in the 2018 Author Academy Awards for Sci-Fi/FantasyFinalist in the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book AwardsIn the dusty ruins of the world, three groups exist: the Sovereign, the Fortis, and the Outliers...Categorized as:
technology action-adventure anthologies apocalyptic audiobook dystopia fiction futuristic -
![Light Of A Thousand Stars by Siobhan Davis]()
Light Of A Thousand Stars by Siobhan Davis
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAriana Skyee has been the center of Zane Anders’ world for years. They got together as a couple ten months ago, so Zane finally has the girl of his dreams. Life should be peachy. But it isn’t.Haunted by a shared secret that threatens to destroy their relationship and claim their sanity, Zane is on a one-man mission to prevent Ari from falling apart... -
![Blood Brother by Malcolm Rose]()
Blood Brother by Malcolm Rose
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTeenage forensic investigator Luke Harding is back with a brand-newcase. In Blood Brother, Luke and his robotic sidekick, Malc, are assigned toa hospital with a mysteriously high rate of fatalities. As Luke investigates anumber of suspicious patient deaths, he meets his long-lost father, a doctorwho practices alternative medicine at the hospital... -
![Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax]()
Plum Rains by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings2029: In Japan, a historically mono-cultural nation, childbirth rates are at a critical low and the elderly are living increasingly long lives. This population crisis has precipitated a mass immigration of foreign medical workers from all over Asia—as well as the development of refined artificial intelligence to step in where humans fall short... -
![Borderless by Eliot Peper]()
Borderless by Eliot Peper
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsInformation is power, and whoever controls the feed rules the world in this all-too-plausible follow-up to the science fiction thriller Bandwidth.Exiled from Washington after a covert operation gone wrong, Diana is building a new life as a freelance spy, though her obsessive secrecy is driving away the few friends and allies she can count on... -
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![Delta-v by Daniel Suarez]()
Delta-v by Daniel Suarez
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe bestselling author of Daemon returns with a near-future technological thriller, in which a charismatic billionaire recruits a team of adventurers to launch the first deep space mining operation--a mission that could alter the trajectory of human civilization... -
![The Passengers by John Marrs]()
The Passengers by John Marrs
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsYou're riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then, a mysterious voice tells you, "You are going to die... -
![Radicalized by Cory Doctorow]()
Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHere are four urgent stories from author and activist Cory Doctorow, four social, technological and economic visions of the world today and its near—all too near—future.Unauthorized Bread is a tale of immigration, toxic economic stratification and a young woman's perilously illegal quest to fix a broken toaster...Categorized as:
technology 21st-century action-adventure adult anthologies apocalyptic audiobook contemporary -
![A.I. Apocalypse by William Hertling]()
A.I. Apocalypse by William Hertling
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsLeon Tsarev is a high school student set on getting into a great college program, until his uncle, a member of the Russian mob, coerces him into developing a new computer virus for the mob’s botnet - the slave army of computers they used to commit digital crimes.The evolutionary virus Leon creates, based on biological principles, is successful -- too successful... -
![The Hush by Sara Foster]()
The Hush by Sara Foster
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA multigenerational, female-led thriller, and a terrifying conspiracy that goes right to the heart of the British Government.Six months ago, in an English hospital, a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth. Since then there have been more tragedies, and now the country is in turmoil. The government is clamping down on people’s freedoms... -
![Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow]()
Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCory Doctorow's Attack Surface is a standalone novel set in the world of New York Times bestsellers Little Brother and Homeland.Most days, Masha Maximow was sure she'd chosen the winning side.In her day job as a counterterrorism wizard for an transnational cybersecurity firm, she made the hacks that allowed repressive regimes to spy on dissidents, and manipulate their every move... -
![Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman]()
Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLife is finally worth living for Dr. Francine Burk. A recent surgery has finally provided a cure from years of undiagnosed pain. And her subversive scientific discovery, the “Theory of Bastards,” which has unseated public figures and past presidents, has rewarded her with a generous grant and a prestigious placement at The Foundation... -
![Manna by Marshall Brain]()
Manna by Marshall Brain
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsRobots will soon begin taking human jobs in places like retail stores, fast food restaurants, construction sites and transportation. The key technology that will fuel the transition is inexpensive computer vision systems, and the number of human jobs at risk numbers in the tens of millions. More than half of the jobs in the United States could be eliminated... -
![Ones and Zeroes by Dan Wells]()
Ones and Zeroes by Dan Wells
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom Dan Wells, author of the New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence and the John Cleaver series, comes the second book in a dark, pulse-pounding sci-fi-noir series set in 2050 Los Angeles.Overworld. It’s more than just the world’s most popular e-sport—for thousands of VR teams around the globe, Overworld is life. It means fame and fortune, or maybe it’s a ticket out of obscurity or poverty... -
![Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow by Kirsten Berg, Nnedi Okorafor]()
Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow by Kirsten Berg, Nnedi Okorafor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFuture Tense Fiction is a collection of electrifying original stories from a veritable who’s-who of authors working in speculative literature and science fiction today.Featuring Carmen Maria Machado, Emily St... -
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![The Future Is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin: A Library of America Special Publication by Lisa Yaszek]()
The Future Is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin: A Library of America Special Publication by Lisa Yaszek
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSpace-opera heroines, gender-bending aliens, post-apocalyptic pregnancies, changeling children, interplanetary battles of the sexes, and much more: a groundbreaking new collection of classic American science fiction by women from the 1920s to the 1960sWarning: the visionary women writers in this landmark anthology may permanently alter perceptions of American science fiction, challenging the... -
![Breach by Eliot Peper]()
Breach by Eliot Peper
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA hacker is drawn out of hiding and into an epic geopolitical showdown in the frighteningly plausible conclusion to Eliot Peper’s critically acclaimed Analog Series. When you’ve betrayed your revolutionary cadre, an off-grid fight club on a remote tropical island is a good place to hide—or die.For notorious ex-hacker Emily Kim, the outcome of each fight makes little difference... -
![The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins]()
The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFor fans of Station Eleven and The Ministry for the Future, this richly imaginative, immersive, and electrifyingly relevant climate utopia novel follows a family navigating a crisis both personal and political, illuminating humanity’s capacity for change...Categorized as:
pollution-climate-change sci-fi fiction dystopia audiobook near-future literary-fiction family -
![River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams]()
River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsOtherland. In many ways it is humankind's most stunning achievement: a private, multidimensional universe built over two generations by the greatest minds of the twenty-first century... -
![Overclocked: More Stories of the Future Present by Cory Doctorow]()
Overclocked: More Stories of the Future Present by Cory Doctorow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow has been hailed as one of the freshest voices in science fiction, and this collection of intriguing novellas is yet another reason why... -
![Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell]()
Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA professor in pandemic isolation rescues books from the flooded and collapsing McPherson Library. A man plants fireweed on the hillside of his depopulated Vancouver Island suburb. An aspiring luthier poaches the last ancient Sitka spruce to make a violin for a child prodigy... -
![All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall]()
All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water...Categorized as:
pollution-climate-change sci-fi fiction dystopia audiobook literary-fiction post-apocalyptic family -
![All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson]()
All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAlthough Colin Laney (from Gibson's earlier novel Idoru) lives in a cardboard box, he has the power to change the world. Thanks to an experimental drug that he received during his youth, Colin can see "nodal points" in the vast streams of data that make up the worldwide computer network... -
![The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey]()
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBeyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don't venture beyond the walls...Categorized as:
technology 21st-century action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book cannibalism coming-of-age -
![The Game by Terry Schott]()
The Game by Terry Schott
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Game...A virtual reality simulation played by over a billion children around the world. The best players are celebrities, adored and worshiped by countless fans. Zack is a superstar among players.His final play may change the world, forever.. -
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![The Peace War by Vernor Vinge]()
The Peace War by Vernor Vinge
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Peace War is quintessential hard-science adventure. The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon--the "bobble," a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent... -
![Ordnance by Andrew Vaillencourt]()
Ordnance by Andrew Vaillencourt
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsRoland Tankowicz wasn’t even legally a person anymore. The aging cyborg had never really recovered from being betrayed and enslaved by his superiors in the Army, and the final insult of being permanently classified as “defunct military ordnance” had been a bitter pill to swallow. Now, he spent most of his time drinking beer and working as a fixer for the crime families in 25th-century Boston... -
![Star's Reach: A Novel Of The Deindustrial Future by John Michael Greer]()
Star's Reach: A Novel Of The Deindustrial Future by John Michael Greer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMore than four centuries have passed since industrial civilization stumbled to its ruin under the self-inflicted blows of climate change and resource depletion. Now, in the ruins of a deserted city, a young man mining metal risks his life to win a priceless clue...Categorized as:
pollution-climate-change adult aliens alternate-history apocalyptic book disaster dystopia -
![The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner]()
The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of the Maze Runner series comes The Rule of Thoughts, the exciting sequel to The Eye of Minds. Fans of the Divergent series by Veronica Roth and The Hunger Games will love the new Mortality Doctrine series. Michael completed the Path. What he found at the end turned everything he’d ever known about his life—and the world—completely upside down...Categorized as:
technology action-adventure audiobook book children children-books cyberpunk dystopia -
![Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson]()
Firstborn by Brandon Sanderson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsOf the son of a High Duke of the interstellar Empire, much glory is expected. And expected. And still expected, despite endless proof that young Dennison Crestmar has no talent whatsoever for war. But the life Dennison is forced to live will have its surprising lessons to impart... -
![Hard Wired by Len Vlahos]()
Hard Wired by Len Vlahos
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Morris finalist Len Vlahos comes a contemporary sci-fi story about a boy who might not be human—for fans of Westworld and Black Mirror.Quinn thinks he’s a normal boy with an average life. That is, until he finds a trail of clues the father he barely knew left behind.After Quinn unravels his father’s puzzles, he “wakes up” ... and realizes his world was nothing more than a virtual construct... -
![Marionettes, Inc. by Ray Bradbury]()
Marionettes, Inc. by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn Marionettes, Inc., Ray Bradbury offers his devoted readers something both special and unexpected: a unified view of one small corner of a varied fictional universe. In five stories (one of them original to this collection, plus a rare, previously unpublished screen treatment), Bradbury explores the concept of Robotics and examines its impact on the day-to-day lives of ordinary people... -
![The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu]()
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsoriginal cover of ISBN 9781982134037From award-winning author Ken Liu comes his much anticipated second volume of short stories.Ken Liu is one of the most lauded short story writers of our time. This collection includes a selection of his science fiction and fantasy stories from the last five years — sixteen of his best — plus a new novelette... -
![The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang]()
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhat's the best way to create artificial intelligence? In 1950, Alan Turing wrote, "Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English. This process could follow the normal teaching of a child... -
![The Last Firewall by William Hertling]()
The Last Firewall by William Hertling
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsIn the year 2035, robots, artificial intelligences, and neural implants have become commonplace. The Institute for Ethics keeps the peace, using social reputation to ensure that robots and humans don't harm society or each other. But a powerful AI named Adam has found a way around the restrictions... -
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![Borne by Jeff VanderMeer]()
Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsIn a ruined, nameless city of the future, a woman named Rachel, who makes her living as a scavenger, finds a creature she names “Borne” entangled in the fur of Mord, a gigantic, despotic bear. Mord once prowled the corridors of the biotech organization known as the Company, which lies at the outskirts of the city, until he was experimented on, grew large, learned to fly and broke free... -
![Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present by Cory Doctorow]()
Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present by Cory Doctorow
Rated: 3.87 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsHave you ever wondered what it's like to get bitten by a zombie? To live through a bioweapon attack? To have every aspect of your life governed by invisible ants? In Cory Doctorow's collection of novellas, he wields his formidable experience in technology and computing to give us mindbending sci-fi tales that explore the possibilities of information technology — and its various uses — run amok... -
![The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove]()
The Middle Kingdom by David Wingrove
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Year is 2190. China has once again become a world unto itself and this time its only boundary is space . . . The world is City Earth, ruled by the Seven, China's new kings... -
![Moonwar by Ben Bova]()
Moonwar by Ben Bova
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBen Bova's extraordinary Moonbase Saga continues with a breathtaking near-future adventure rich in character and incident... -
![The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn]()
The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsWhat would you give to live forever?Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints... -
![Going Dark by Linda Nagata]()
Going Dark by Linda Nagata
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJames Shelley has left his lover, Delphi, and his companion-in-arms, Jayne Vasquez, with a fortune acquired from a fallen oligarch. They believe him to be dead, and he doesn’t try to set the record straight. His long-running question has been answered: There are other soldiers like him who have served the purposes of the Red—and he has accepted his place among them...
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