Picked by Warpworld fans

Here are 4 books that Warpworld fans have personally recommended once you finish the Warpworld series. Book DNA is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Book cover of Lagoon

Carl Abbott Author Of Imagining Urban Futures: Cities in Science Fiction and What We Might Learn from Them

From my list on science fiction with really cool cities.

Why am I passionate about this?

I discovered science fiction at age nine with Rocketship Galileo and Red Planet and have never lost my love for speculative worlds, even after growing up to follow a career teaching and writing about the history of cities and city planning. In recent years, I’ve also begun to write about the field of SF. So it is one-hundred-percent natural for me to combine the two interests and explore science fiction cities. I try to look beyond the geez-whiz technology of some imagined cities to the ideas of human-scale planning and community that might make them fun places to visit or live in if we could somehow manage to get there.  

Carl's book list on science fiction with really cool cities

Carl Abbott Why Carl loves this book

I get bored when aliens always seem to land on the National Mall in Washington or hover over Los Angeles, so I was delighted to discover that at least one alien ship prefers to land in the lagoon off Lagos, Nigeria.

It’s a city as big or bigger than New York, after all. There is the challenge of dealing with very enigmatic visitors, but the time is the present and readers get a whirlwind tour of one of the world’s megacities. It’s like having the most highspeed guide you can imagine… who happens to be one of the most compelling SF writers today.

By Nnedi Okorafor ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Lagoon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three strangers, each isolated by his or her own problems: Adaora, the marine biologist. Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa. Agu, the troubled soldier. Wandering Bar Beach in Lagos, Nigeria's legendary mega-city, they're more alone than they've ever been before.

But when something like a meteorite plunges into the ocean and a tidal wave overcomes them, these three people will find themselves bound together in ways they could never imagine. Together with Ayodele, a visitor from beyond the stars, they must race through Lagos and against time itself in order to save the city, the world... and themselves.

'There was…


Book cover of Struggling With the Current

Paul L. Arvidson Author Of Dark

From my list on character driven science fiction you can't put down.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always read Sci-Fi and Fantasy. It’s my comfort place and haven’t we all needed that in the roaring '20s? It took a long while to clock that the books that stuck with me longest were all in that odd space where fantasy and sci-fi collide, (like Helliconia or Fire Upon the Deep or Dune) When I started writing, the ideas just poured out of me but after I realised I’d written a book like those I loved to read.

Paul's book list on character driven science fiction you can't put down

Paul L. Arvidson Why Paul loves this book

This book is straight-up Fantasy, so it’s notable in my list because I read so little trad fantasy these days. But don’t be fooled, this book is not what you expect. Every trope of fantasy gets turned on its head, kicked over, rearranged, and then the characters just straight up do something other than what you expected. There are no hunky but boring heroes. There are no damsels in distress. Even the Gods in this world are… well that would be spoilers. Super well told gripping fantasy trilogy that you won’t regret picking up. Except you won’t be able to put it down.

By A.R.K. Horton ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Struggling With the Current as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ancient Relics. Vengeful Gods. Shipwrecks. Strange Creatures. Secret Libraries and Kingdoms At Odds.

Sheltered and groomed for a future as a noble’s wife, Princess Eya envies the limitless opportunities men have—until they leave to defend their country and never return.

This damsel won’t sit around waiting for a knight in shining armor. Instead, she rescues herself by sailing away from the only life she’s ever known. When her escape plan shipwrecks on enemy shores, she must hide her identity and temper her impulses. This proves difficult as she discovers new powers she cannot control and winds up hopping from one…


Book cover of The Fairy's Tale

Paul L. Arvidson Author Of Dark

From my list on character driven science fiction you can't put down.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always read Sci-Fi and Fantasy. It’s my comfort place and haven’t we all needed that in the roaring '20s? It took a long while to clock that the books that stuck with me longest were all in that odd space where fantasy and sci-fi collide, (like Helliconia or Fire Upon the Deep or Dune) When I started writing, the ideas just poured out of me but after I realised I’d written a book like those I loved to read.

Paul's book list on character driven science fiction you can't put down

Paul L. Arvidson Why Paul loves this book

I love, love, love this book, for so many reasons. My top two are: 1) It sits squarely in that odd ‘fantasy in a technological world’ niche (Imagine 1984’s world filled with fairies!) 2) It has an odd, dark humour feel to a book that I like (think Gaiman or Pratchett) And oh! The characters? Funny, clever, nuanced. Bum that was three wasn’t it? I’ll come in again.

By F. D. Lee ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Fairy's Tale as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"What would happen if Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Emma Newman and K.E. Mills (in her Accidental Sorcerer mode) got together and had a fairy tale themed writathon? This, my friend, is probably what would happen."


Bea is a lowly cabbage fairy, but she dreams of being an official fairy godmother. Of course, no one thinks a cabbage fairy could run a story, least of all the other fairy godmothers. Until, one day, someone offers Bea a chance to prove herself. One heroine, one week, one marriage at the end of it. Easy, right?

Apparently not. Bea's heroine doesn't want to…


Book cover of Rosewater

Colin Brush Author Of Exo

From my list on science fiction murder mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

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.

Colin's book list on science fiction murder mysteries

Colin Brush Why Colin loves this book

A brilliant science fictional idea changes everything about the world, and in Tade Thompson’s Arthur C Clarke Award-winning Rosewater, where an alien dome has appeared in Nigeria and opens once a year to heal the sick, the world has been thrown dangerously off-kilter.

The murder-mystery is not a conventional one as our hero Kaaro, a human sensitive created by this alien intrusion and now government agent, is trying to figure out why those like him are suddenly dying. There are many strange science-fictional ideas driving this book, but it is Kaaro – a former thief trying his best to do good in difficult circumstances – that gives this book its wonderful heart.

I believed in and rooted for him even though he doesn’t ever seem to believe in himself.

By Tade Thompson ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Rosewater as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rosewater is the start of an award-winning trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging voices.

*Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, winner
*Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel, winner

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry, and the helpless -- people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers.

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care…