100 Books Like The Silent Tower

Another pioneer writer and the writer who started the cyberpunk genre. I loved this book because it is different, and if you are a true sci-fi nut, this one is for you. 

I think Adams must have been on another planet when he wrote this. It is sci-fi comedy, and unlike many others who try and fail with comedy in this genre, this is a giant of a series. It is funny and serious with unforgettable characters. I love it. 

My copies of this series are so worn by reading and re-reading that they are falling apart. There’s no higher praise from me as a reader. 

This is my comfort read, which is odd because it’s about the fall of a civilization—and The Dark, in particular, is terrifying. We never really see them. That’s partly because they aren’t entirely corporeal and can change size and shape at will. It’s also because anyone we know in the story who encounters them is almost certainly fighting for their life.

Are The Dark one character or many? Certainly, what one of them knows, they all know. The key to this conundrum is what motivates them to do as they do, and alien as they are; their motivations are as unexpected as they are profound. 

This is beautifully written classic fantasy in all its glory. If you only read one book of these five,… show more.

Remember A-ha’s video for Take on Me? In it, a man in a comic book pulls a woman into that two-dimensional world, and in a moment of desperation, he sends her back to save her. But true love prevails, and she pulls him into a three-dimensional life. I loved this video far more than the song, and I think I know why.

I have long been fascinated by interdimensional travel, and Donaldson’s book might be the root of the reason. A young woman, dissatisfied and disillusioned with everyday life, is offered an opportunity to escape and she takes it by following a man who crashed through her mirror. She becomes the unlikeliest of heroes as she navigates enemies and intrigue in a world she knows nothing about. The escapist in me relished the thought of finding another world and slipping away. Not knowing if the return was possibly teased out… show more.

Tad Williams has many acclaimed series, but this stand-alone novel is my favorite. The protagonist is pulled into another realm where magic reigns supreme. The protagonist must uncover his past while learning about his place in the magical realm before both worlds are destroyed. The way Williams has connected up the two worlds is unique, and the world-building alone gets this story on my must-read list.

Cyteen won a Hugo Award in 1989 and pushed the envelope on both world building and character development. For me though, it was the author’s exploration of what it means to be human that made this book one of my all-time favourites. 

In Cyteen, there are born humans and made people. Some of the made people are clones of a particularly powerful individual, but most are created to perform a function. These lower-ranked people are taught everything they need to know by ‘tape’, while they sleep. 

The book asks some deep philosophical questions about what makes a person human, and whether any of us have the right to create ‘sub-humans’ for our own benefit. These are powerful questions that still beg for answers.

I am so impressed by Pirateaba’s worldbuilding. While there are some fantasy staples in the series, like dragons and dwarves, there are also plenty of lesser-seen races, like gnolls and djinni, and some that are completely unique creations, like the Antinium and the Gazers.

What’s more, all of these races feel like they have their own identities and shared culture, and then, on top of that, individuals from each race are distinct! Two gnolls won’t necessarily see eye-to-eye just because they’re gnolls.

The character work in this book is so good.

This is one of the very few books that made me yelp out loud in surprise when the twist happened, and I will forever recommend it because of how unique it was. The feel is reflective of The Road with the main part of the story showing a pained journey through a dangerous landscape. It also feels post-apocalyptic as these survivors struggle to cross the abandoned world that’s been overtaken by nature. The author wrote in a unique language that makes Idyll feel otherworldly but familiar too. All this blends together for really great world-building. I don’t want to give anything away, but there is a definite twist where the whole story flips into something different. You go from feeling like this is a Western to suddenly — Oh, yep, there’s the sci-fi!  

The cover drew me in but I loved the worldbuilding in this book, both in the premise of what happened to our world (toxic oceans, anyone?) but also how characters now need to live and survive. And with great rising tension and twists, this was a book that left me reading much later in the night than I should have! 

I was drawn in by the 4 main characters – even when I wanted to slap them, I still wanted to know what was going to happen to them. And the way the society was set up really tore at my sense of ethics – a great thing to have in a dystopian book, I think…how does the new society sit with you?

There’s a story in here about a former hockey player from the moon that had to move to Earth to try to avoid retribution after killing another player, and he gets stashed at an artist’s retreat. A big part of this list has been beautiful, but often very sad stories. Think, then, of Alias Space as a kind of antidote. If you have any familiarity with Robson from her published short fiction, this is a great collection to help you fill in the gaps in your collection. If you’ve never heard of Robson? Then this is a great dive into one of the best writers working in my hometown of Toronto! 

Diana Smythe is a survivor, and she’ll do almost anything to keep her dream of flying to the stars alive. But she won’t betray her friends, or give into bullies, which gets her into ever-deeper trouble. Good thing she’s super smart!

Star Compass is an excellent combination of steampunk and sci-fi. Anthea is a wonderful writer, her characters strong but flawed, and her worldbuilding amazing, combining Victorian mores with modern space flight.