Here are 83 books that The Interdependency fans have personally recommended once you finish the The Interdependency series.
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I was introduced to the paranormal and unknown by my father. He was open to all possibilities. I loved being shocked, awed, and traumatized by the depths of dystopia and the heights of Utopian Imagination! I think, because we all live somewhere in between, flowing up and down as life experiences us, riding us ever onward!
I love not knowing anything about a book and finding myself turning from page to page, ever more excited to be a part of the adventure.
This alternate end of life leaves me wondering, why not? Though I look forward to a peaceful Galactic future, this one sure is fun (from the reader's perspective)!
Perfect for an entry-level sci-fi reader and the ideal addition to a veteran fan’s collection, John Scalzi's Old Man’s War will take audiences on a heart-stopping adventure into the far corners of the universe.
John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife's grave. Then he joined the army.
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place.
Absurdity gets a bad rap in fiction and storytelling, I think. “It’s too silly,” they say. But for those who can take a step back and appreciate how absurd our own world is—our everyday life—there’s nothing more real than absurdity. (I’m saying “absurd” an absurd amount of times. Let’s just say it’s purposeful.) It might be played for laughs at times, but if it’s done right, it gives you perspective. Sometimes we all need to look through a funhouse mirror to realize that we’re only human. These five books share that spirit and have made me laugh, think, and occasionally reevaluate my entire life in a spiral of existential dread—with a smile on my face.
I love that this book is basically a workplace comedy, except the office is tasked with protecting giant monsters the size of Godzilla.
It takes the tired world of monster movies and flips it on its head, focusing instead on the government workers whose 9-to-5 actually involves dealing with them. The dialogue is razor-sharp, the satire of corporate culture had me cackling, and underneath it all, there’s a hopeful message about cooperation and curiosity.
The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here…
The best stories are the ones that take very silly ideas seriously. This doesn’t mean that they’re not funny; on the contrary, you don’t really hear the truth until it makes you laugh. These books all lean heavily on tropes, specifically B-movie tropes. I used to write detailed reviews of terrible movies, afterschool specials, and creature features. I host a podcast all about the funnier parts of TV criticism. Figuring out how something simple speaks to the core of us is the height of fiction, and all five of these do that and do it with humor.
It’s hard to beat Scalzi for nailing the execution of a high concept.
Redshirts could have so easily been nothing but a gimmick, but Scalzi really gets into the guts of the horror and humor of being a character written for the sole purpose of dying. I picked up the book with a cynical eye, expecting to hate it, but it drew me in.
Scalzi went so much further with the concept, shined a light on every corner of the idea, that he managed to create a deconstruction and reconstruction of the same trope at the same time.
'I can honestly say I can't think of another book that ever made me laugh this much. Ever' Patrick Rothfuss, New York Times bestselling author of The Name of the Wind
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It's a prestige posting, and Andrew is even more delighted when he's assigned to the ship's Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn't be better ... although there are a few strange things going on:
(1) every Away Mission involves a lethal confrontation with alien forces
I love 'Show, Don’t Tell' because it really brings a novel to life for the reader. It’s something so many writers struggle with, but it can turn a so-so novel into one readers can’t put down. Losing yourself in a story is the sign of great writing, and when a writer can show me what’s in their head and do it in a way that makes me forget I’m reading, well, that’s a book that keeps me turning the pages until it’s done. And that’s my favorite part of reading, writing, and teaching writing.
I loved how Scalzi put the reader inside the head of his narrator and showed you his world as he saw it. Scalzi uses very little description, but I never felt that I was missing out or that the setting was weak. It was the opposite, really. I got hints and off-hand comments from the narrator that were great hooks to keep me reading, and I kept learning about this world and these characters all the way til the end.
It wasn’t until my second read that I even realized Scalzi did something absolutely brilliant. The “locked in” people of this world use robot bodies in the real world, but also have an online digital world. Scalzi describes the digital world in more detail, showing that Chris sees it as more real than the “real world.”
A blazingly inventive near-future thriller from the best-selling, Hugo Award-winning John Scalzi.
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
One of the reasons I love my job as a Space History Curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is that I am fascinated to learn how people think about space, the cosmos, and their human connection with the universe. I am always eager to get beyond questions of what we know and how we know it and ask: Why do we ask the questions we ask in the first place? The books I’ve listed here all explore our relationship with space and how we engage personally or collectively with space exploration.
This science fiction novel, written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the pen name James S. A. Corey, was the beginning of the Expanse series (now totaling 9 novels and additional stories). It is one of the best space science fiction novels of the 21st century and became the basis for one of my favorite TV/streaming series, The Expanse.
The books dive deep into the political, social, and cultural complexities of sending humans to live on the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid belt, and it’s a nuanced reflection of our current ideas and ambitions when it comes to spaceflight. I am particularly drawn to the depiction of humans who, after multiple generations off Earth, consider their primary identity to be Martian.
Humanity has colonized the planets - interstellar travel is still beyond our reach, but the solar system has become a dense network of colonies. But there are tensions - the mineral-rich outer planets resent their dependence on Earth and Mars and the political and military clout they wield over the Belt and beyond. Now, when Captain Jim Holden's ice miner stumbles across a derelict, abandoned ship, he uncovers a secret that threatens to throw the entire system into war. Attacked by a stealth ship belonging to the Mars fleet, Holden must find a way to uncover the motives behind the…
Growing up I devoured science-fiction and spy stories by the boatload—the only person I wanted to be more than James Bond was probably Han Solo. Of course, I couldn’t really become either of them, but I always knew the next best thing would be telling stories about those kinds of characters. Ultimately, I couldn’t decide whether to focus on space adventures or spies, so the only real answer was to smash those two genres together. Five years and four novels later, the world of the Galactic Cold War is humming along quite nicely. But I’m still always on the lookout for the next great sci-fi spy novel.
Combining a murder mystery with a colorful sci-fi universe that’s full of magic? Yes, please. Odd couple Lieutenant Iari and Ambassador Gaer (who, don’t let the title fool you, is actually an alien spy) have to team up to discover why a retired battle-mecha killed someone—an occurrence that should be impossible. The rapport between Iari and Gaer is a delight, and the plot quickly unfolds from a mere murder to something far more sinister. I absolutely love the world that Eason creates—it has the scale of a video game-like Mass Effect while simultaneously creating compelling characters.
Set in the universe of Rory Thorne, this new sci-fi mystery follows an unlikely duo who must discover the motive behind an unusual murder.
THE TEMPLAR: When Lieutenant Iari hears screams in the night, she expects to interrupt a robbery or break up a fight. Instead she discovers a murder with an impossible suspect: a riev, one of the battle-mecha decommissioned after the end of the last conflict, repurposed for manual labor. Riev don't kill people. And yet, clearly, one has. Iari sets out to find it.
THE SPY: Officially, Gaer is an ambassador from the vakari. Unofficially, he's also…
Growing up I devoured science-fiction and spy stories by the boatload—the only person I wanted to be more than James Bond was probably Han Solo. Of course, I couldn’t really become either of them, but I always knew the next best thing would be telling stories about those kinds of characters. Ultimately, I couldn’t decide whether to focus on space adventures or spies, so the only real answer was to smash those two genres together. Five years and four novels later, the world of the Galactic Cold War is humming along quite nicely. But I’m still always on the lookout for the next great sci-fi spy novel.
This is probably my favorite book of all time, from my favorite series of all time, The Vorkosigan Saga. Miles Vorkosigan, spy and accidental leader of a mercenary fleet, comes face to face with his mortality when he’s injured during a mission. As he recovers, he has to rebuild his life and his identity and find a new purpose in an empire that prizes warriors—a long-running challenge for this diminutive disabled hero. Meanwhile, one of his mentors, spymaster Simon Illyan, is dealing with a threat that could not only unravel his own life but decades’ worth of the Empire’s secrets. It’s funny, tense, and touching all at turns; I can’t think of that many sci-fi adventures that will have you laughing and crying.
1
author picked
Memory
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
16, and
17.
What is this book about?
Dying is easy. Coming back to life is hard. At least that's what Miles
Vorkosigan thinks, and he should know, having died once already. That was when
he last visited Jackson's Whole, rescuing his brother. Thanks to quick thinking
on the part of h
Growing up I devoured science-fiction and spy stories by the boatload—the only person I wanted to be more than James Bond was probably Han Solo. Of course, I couldn’t really become either of them, but I always knew the next best thing would be telling stories about those kinds of characters. Ultimately, I couldn’t decide whether to focus on space adventures or spies, so the only real answer was to smash those two genres together. Five years and four novels later, the world of the Galactic Cold War is humming along quite nicely. But I’m still always on the lookout for the next great sci-fi spy novel.
Okay, it’s the second book in the tremendously popular series The Expanse (perhaps you’ve heard of this little series turned TV show), but it’s also my favorite. That’s because Corey ramps up the intrigue as Mars, Earth, and the Belt find themselves enmeshed in an open war that has some decidedly murky underpinnings. This volume also introduces two of the series' best and most memorable characters: Martian marine Bobbie Draper and savvy Earth politician Chrisjen Avasarala. The book kicks off with a bang, and doesn’t let up, concluding with perhaps one of the most page-turning action sequences I’ve ever read.
The second book in the NYT bestselling Expanse series, Caliban's War shows a solar system on the brink of war, and the only hope of peace rests on James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante's shoulders. Now a Prime Original series.
HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SERIES
We are not alone.
On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening…
I think there are two great mysteries in our lives: the mystery of the world and the mystery of how we live in it. The branches of literature that explore these conundrums magnificently are science fiction for the world and murder mysteries for how we live. So, it is no wonder that the subgenre that most excites me has to be the science fiction murder mystery, in which, as a reader, I get to explore a strange new world and find out how people live (and die!) in it. This is why I read and, it turns out, what I write.
I love the hooky concept at this book’s heart: Mahit Dzmare is the new Lsel ambassador sent to the heart of the enormous Teixcalaanli galactic empire to maintain her tiny space station’s independence; but on arrival, she discovers her predecessor was murdered.
Now, she must not only act the diplomat, but she must also solve the murder without offending the very empire that at any moment could swallow her people whole.
The intricate-but-lightly-done world-building further helps bring this book to stunning life as Mahit walks a wobbly tightrope between asking difficult questions and preventing her very dangerous hosts from taking offence even as the politics take a dark turn, which threatens her life and everything she holds dear.
This incredible opening to the duology recalls the best of John le Carre, Iain M. Banks's Culture novels and Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy.
In a war of lies she seeks the truth . . .
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare travels to the Teixcalaanli Empire's interstellar capital, eager to take up her new post. Yet when she arrives, she discovers her predecessor was murdered. But no one will admit his death wasn't accidental - and she might be next.
Now Mahit must navigate the capital's enticing yet deadly halls of power, to discover dangerous truths. And while she hunts for the…
I am interested in social justice issues, and the books in my list deal with these issues. My background is in finance, but I’ve tried to use this knowledge to help others. I serve on the board of two not-for-profit organizations, one a dance company that works with at-risk teens in various countries, and the other is an animal sanctuary that takes in farm animals that have been abused. I consider myself very fortunate and privileged, and it's important to remember not everyone has had the opportunities I have had. I feel it’s crucial to connect with others, understand where they’re coming from, and help if you can.
I liked this book because it examines the role loyalty and social customs play in our lives. As soldiers are transported from location to location, the laws of relativity step in to move the characters decades into the future.
In that time, social customs have changed, and things that we thought were important no longer are. It shows how vulnerable we are to custom and tradition. In the end, it is the personal that is important, not the bigger cause.
The monumental Hugo and Nebula award winning SF classic-- Featuring a new introduction by John Scalzi
The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand--despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time…
