Love Mal Goes to War? Readers pick 100 books like Mal Goes to War...

Europe in Autumn

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Europe in Autumn as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Europe as we know it is gone.

Devastated by a flu pandemic and crippled by economic collapse, the continent has fractured into countless tiny nations, a fragile web of shifting alliances seething with espionage and strange new technologies.

In a small restaurant in Krakow, chef Rudi is drawn into a new career with Les Coureurs des Bois, a shadowy organisation that will move anything across any state line - for a price.

Soon, Rudi is in a world of high-risk smuggling operations, where kidnappings and double-crosses are as natural as a map that constantly redraws itself.

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The Best of Michael Marshall Smith

By Michael Marshall Smith ,

The Best of Michael Marshall Smith

By Michael Marshall Smith ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Best of Michael Marshall Smith as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"To celebrate his three decades as a writer, The Best of Michael Marshall Smith brings together thirty of his most emotive and powerful stories (including all his award-winning short fiction), along with extensive story notes by the author. Featuring evocative heading illustrations by Les Edwards, this career-spanning collection includes such memorable tales as "Hell Hath Enlarged Itself," "More Tomorrow," "To Receive is Better," "What You Make It," "Later," "The Dark Land," "What Happens When You Wake Up in the Night," "Always," and many others, in their definitive versions"--

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Fantasy

Six Wakes

By Mur Lafferty ,

From Christina's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

By Christina Dickinson Author

Why Christina loves this book

The thing I loved most about this book was I couldn't predict it!
I've been reading adult level books since I was very young, and I've taken a lot of writing classes. Most stories follow very set patterns and even when I turn most of my brain off for a book, if the author has done a decent job of it, I know where things are headed. Which isn't to say I dislike the journey—it's just rare for me to be surprised.

But Mur Lafferty blends timelines and character POVs with such a deft touch into a plotline where the characters themselves don't know what's happening. It's done with such finesse, I was in fifty pages before I even realized I'd been hooked! It's a fantastic ride.

Six Wakes

By Mur Lafferty ,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Six Wakes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this Hugo nominated science fiction thriller by Mur Lafferty, a crew of clones awakens aboard a space ship to find they're being hunted-and any one of them could be the killer.

Maria Arena awakens in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood. She has no memory of how she died. This is new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.

Maria's vat is one of seven, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so…

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The Ophiuchi Hotline

By John Varley , #1 of Eight Worlds series

From my list on science fiction about people who won’t stay dead.

By Edward Ashton Author

Why Edward loves this book

The Ophiuchi Hotline is the first of four novels set in Varley’s Eight Worlds universe, where bodies are malleable things, and appearance, gender, and even your basic form can be changed on a whim. Its protagonist, Lilo, begins by escaping her execution by allowing an illegally produced replicant to die for her. Her situation deteriorates steadily from there, as she is repeatedly killed and resurrected while passing through the belly of the solar system’s underworld.

This book hits all my sweet spots—a morally ambiguous protagonist, an imaginative plot that provides a running commentary on the many ways we’re making a mess of the present world, and, as a bonus, someone getting chucked into a black hole for making a new kind of food called “bananameat” out of human DNA. What more could you ask?

The Ophiuchi Hotline

By John Varley ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ophiuchi Hotline as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Following the effortless capture of Earth by vastly superior aliens, humanity was left to fight for existence on the Moon and other lumps of airless rock. Survival was greatly facilitated by the interception of the Hotline, a constant stream of data from the direction of a star in the constellation Ophiuchus, which enabled the development of amazing new technologies. Four hundred years on, and everything is about to change again because humanity's unknown helpers have just sent what appears to be a bill. It shouldn't matter to Lilo, since she's been caught experimenting with human DNA and sentenced to permanent…

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Kiln People

By David Brin ,

From my list on science fiction about people who won’t stay dead.

By Edward Ashton Author

Why Edward loves this book

Speaking of noir, Kiln People is basically Mickey Spillane with replicants. This book posits a future where the well-off use temporary copies of themselves to do things that are dangerous or difficult or just boring. The copies fall apart after a few days, at which point they ideally merge their memories back into their original. Brin’s protagonists are a private detective and one of his copies who decides he’d rather spend the few hours of life he’s given doing something more interesting than his original’s scutwork. I came to this story for the fun premise, but I stayed for the deeper exploration of the morality of creating an army of sentient beings whose only hope is to live long enough to be re-absorbed into the mind that created them.

Kiln People

By David Brin ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Kiln People as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

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Science fiction

The Echo Wife

By Sarah Gailey ,

From my list on getting mysterious powers.

By Greg Siofer Author

Why Greg loves this book

It's all about the unlikely alliance between a woman and her clone in this gripping revenge thriller.

Evelyn Caldwell learns that her husband Nathan is cheating on her when she discovers that he has stolen her cloning technology and replaced her with a more docile substitute. They work together to conceal Nathan's murder and preserve Evelyn's scientific reputation.

However, Evelyn discovers her clone standing over Nathan's body and crying, "It was self-defense." Its juicy premise raises eerie questions about love, justice, and the nature of identity.

The Echo Wife

By Sarah Gailey ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Echo Wife as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A dark and suspenseful novel of lies, betrayal, and identity - perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror.

It was meant to be an evening to honour and celebrate Evelyn Caldwell's award-winning, career-making scientific research - but Evelyn has things on her mind.

Things like Nathan, her husband, who has left her for a younger, better, newer woman. A woman who is now pregnant - but shouldn't be - and is strikingly familiar. Too familiar to be a coincidence.

A woman who shouldn't exist.

The Echo Wife is a propulsive new novel from an international…

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Good Night, Mr. James

By Clifford D. Simak , #8 of The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak series

From my list on science fiction about people who won’t stay dead.

By Edward Ashton Author

Why Edward loves this book

This one is a deep cut, first published in 1951. It begins as a straightforward adventure, with a protagonist tasked with hunting down a dangerous alien that’s gotten loose on Earth. It becomes increasingly clear that something isn’t right, though, and eventually, our hero realizes that he’s actually a replicant, sent to do this job because his original was too cowardly to do it himself, and that his only hope of survival is to murder his original and take his place. I first read this when I was nine or ten years old, and the growing sense of horror as the truth becomes clear has stuck with me ever since, as has the dark, dark twist of an ending. This might be a tough one to find, but it’s well worth the effort.

Good Night, Mr. James

By Clifford D. Simak ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Good Night, Mr. James as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Strange, poignant tales of life in outer space and on tomorrow's Earth from the multiple Hugo Award-winning Grand Master of Science Fiction.

Virtually every major author from science fiction's fabled golden age-including Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein-agreed that Clifford D. Simak was one of the greatest among them. Named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, the award-winning author created enduring visions of future worlds, perilous space explorations, and weird alien encounters as rich in emotion and humanity as they are in ingenious invention. This is an essential collection of short fiction from the remarkable…

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7 Books Like Mal Goes to War

Europe in Autumn

If you love Mal Goes to War...

The Best of Michael Marshall Smith