72 books like Ageless

From the moment I first began listening to the audiobook, I fell in love with this story. I was all in the moment Ryland Grace stumbled through answering the question “What is 2 plus 2?” The layering of the story, the threat to Earth concept, the educational presentation of very high-level scientific concepts to an audience of all ages, and the way Andy Weir made this reader feel so many emotions over a rock just keep drawing me back to it.

I literally just finished another listen less than a month ago and already want to go back to a story. I still don’t see many people talking about it. And the ending? Every story has its own perfect dismount landing, and this one nailed it.

If you want a blend of fun science fiction serials from the earliest days of television mixed with everything you love about modern Doctor Who set in an entirely new setting that draws you in from the moment you start reading, this book is the one to do it. The author deftly weaves a fantastic story centered around an impossible decision and the only person who can make it, aptly capturing the struggle involved in making the worst choice ever.

I still remember where I was when I read this book so many years later. The only thing disappointing about it was that it ended in such a way that this reader thought it was over. Tom Merritt said, “No, I have one more.” Be glad he wrote Trigor because you will not want to be done when Pilot X ends. 

Do you know who Karel Čapek is? Did you know he invented the word robot? Do you love Norse mythology given to you with a twist? Well, The Life Engineered gives you robots modeled on Karel Čapek’s designs, a faster-than-light travel system you’ve probably never seen or heard of, and a civilization of robots (chapeks) modeled on Norse mythology trying to continue existing while waiting for the expected return of humans.

From the moment I started, I was learning new concepts and ways to imagine science-fiction norms like those described above. And that cover? So much humanity in a single picture of a robot. Read this book, and then go check out the sequel Arch-Android on Inkshares.com. The little science-fiction-loving kid in you will be very happy you did.

As a veteran forced to take part in military action I later regret deeply, this book haunts me. I have not been able to forget it. Nothing in this story is a throw-away moment. Everything matters. It is filled with familiar concepts and science-fiction/horror main-stays you will recognize. But all of that serves as the vehicle to the story of a war hero who didn’t want to be one because he didn’t believe he deserved it and is now running away from it all to hide in a “lighthouse” in space as far from war as he can hope to get.

It’s no surprise at all when the war shows up on his doorstep, and all the painstaking work done by the author up to that point pays off in the best way.

For years, I tinkered with the idea for a novel—a pair of researcher-adventurers hunting for possible cures in the jungles of Congo to sell to a pharmaceutical company trip onto a type of venom that creates long life. I never quite got it off the ground, partially because my agent at the time hated the idea.

Then I discovered James Rollins’ book. A scientific expedition went into the Amazon and never returned. Years later, one of its members stumbles out of the rainforest. A former Special Forces soldier, he had gone on the expedition with a missing arm and came out with two intact arms.

The government sends Nathan Rand into the Amazon to track the expedition—of which his father was a member—and possibly find what scientific mystery could regrow limbs.

Exotic locale—check. Scientific mystery—check. Adventure—check. Technology that could destroy the world—check! I’m there. I wish I’d written this one.

Taking the story from the endgame of the Cold War to the dawn of the War on Terror is this extraordinary book on the rise of Islamist terrorism and the CIA’s efforts to defeat it prior to 9/11. Coll’s research, based on interviews with a vast range of senior officials, is dazzling, yet it never overwhelms a narrative that combines human interest and geopolitical sweep seamlessly. No less impressive is his accomplishment in documenting not just the U.S. and Afghan perspectives but the Saudi and Pakistani as well, all in the same painstaking detail. If this whets the appetite for more of the same, Coll’s Directorate S resumes his account of the intelligence wars in Afghanistan, providing necessary background to understanding the failure of the U.S. occupation there.

The book's subheading reads A Novel of the CIA. I would go further. This is ‘The Novel of the CIA,’ especially of the CIA between its founding and the early 1990s. It is a masterful combination of real and fictitious spies and covert operations.

The portrayal is so precise, the blending so seamless, that I found myself–and yes, I am supposedly an expert on this–double-checking whether certain operations had taken place. Nonfiction books on the CIA are one of my favorite things, but here, you experience the characters from much closer. I felt their desperation when operations collapsed, or agents were betrayed, or their elation after the rarer successes.

I felt the smoke in James Angleton’s room as he hunted for the missing mole; whether he managed to capture the mole or not will be for you to discover, but the book will stay with you both literally (it’s… show more.

This book, about the CIA’s secret funding of art and culture in the Cold War battle for hearts and minds, caused a big stir on its publication in 2000. Written by a young British researcher, it scathingly criticized the Agency’s cultural operations (a source of some pride among intelligence veterans), arguing that they compromised and undermined the very artistic values they were supposed to defend. Several writers on the same subject since, myself included, have argued with aspects of her work, but Saunders’ research and storytelling are second to none. A harsh but hugely informative and entertaining account of one of the most intriguing chapters in the history of the Cold War.

In the fight against the War on Terror, many Americans have long forgotten the war that never stopped raging against an enemy that is better funded than many of our governmental organizations, is not bound by any laws or treaties, has a virtually unlimited supply of money, weapons, and soldiers, and is located just south of our borders. 

Patriot Games is an oldie but goody, a fictional novel that sheds light on the realistic way in which our War on Drugs encompasses Special Operations troops working hand in hand with intelligence agencies and law enforcement. I have friends who have fought directly in these drug wars, and who have told me the enemy had all of their names and personal information before they even landed south of the border for their deployments. The War on Drugs is savage and is still raging very close to home, yet we rarely hear… show more.

This is another book written by an ex-spy, in this case, the CIA. So, you can pick up a few authentic tips on how to run surveillance detection, for example, but I think there’s only so much of the real stuff McCloskey can include without some comeback from his previous employers. This is a fast-paced, action-packed thriller, which delivers.