Here are 100 books that Cog fans have personally recommended if you like
Cog.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
I’ve always been a fan of swords and sorcery, but Urban Fantasy brings those elements into a more relatable field, turning real-world locations into sandboxes filled with magic and monsters. I might love Aragorn as a character, but I can’t fully relate to him. Now, give me an “average” guy with real-world problems, running around a modern metropolis, slinging spells, and fighting monsters in dark alleys, and I’m right there with him. Urban Fantasy opens up the imagination to anything you want. Dragons in New York? Sure. Giants using the Eiffel Tower as a baseball bat? Why the hell not? Nothing is off-limits. It’s just pure, unadulterated fun.
An immortal druid and a talking dog. What’s not to love?
Think American Gods, but funnier. In the Iron Druid Chronicles, the gods are real, and Atticus O’Sullivan loves to piss them off. The immediate blending of humor and suspense pulled me in right from the start, and I didn’t stop reading until well beyond this book and only took a breath when I ran out of books.
The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Iron Druid Chronicles—the hilarious, action-packed tales of a two-thousand-year-old Druid pursued by ancient gods in the modern world
“A page-turning and often laugh-out-loud-funny caper through a mix of the modern and the mythic.”—Ari Marmell, author of The Warlord’s Legacy
Atticus O’Sullivan is the last of the ancient druids. He has been on the run for more than two thousand years and he’s tired of it. The Irish gods who want to kill him are after an enchanted sword he stole in a first-century battle, and when they find him managing an…
I’ve never been a fan of polemics or schmaltz. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to learn or see new perspectives or feel deep feelings; I just think humor is the best way to get past people’s defenses. (All the better to sucker punch them in the feels.) I also think the world can be a pretty dark and scary place. I love books that give us hope, enough hope to have the courage to change what we can to make the world a little brighter.
I loved this book because it combines three of my favorite things—humor, fantasy, and baking. What’s not to like about a wizard whose familiar is a sourdough starter?
There’s a small army of hilarious gingerbread men, to boot. T. Kingfisher manages a weird balance between humor, horror, and heart. Her world, like ours, has some really dark stuff in it, but she has such a deft touch that I felt cozy even during murder, political scapegoating, and siege.
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn't like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can't control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt's bakery making gingerbread men dance.
But Mona's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona's city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of…
Growing up, my mother worked for a local vet, which means I got to live with diabetic cats, baby bunnies, parrots, a brain-damaged squirrel, a dog with a mobility device, and much more. As a reader and eventually a writer, I’ve loved stories about the relationships between humans and their nonhuman companions. For me, relationships are the heart of a story. Relationships between people are great, but you can do so much with relationships between, say, a goblin and a magical fire-spider, or a young girl and a sentient telepathic kite, or Cinderella and the glass sword that holds the spirit of her mother…
This is one of my favorite books, period. I love the warmth and heart Kagan puts into her writing.
Hellspark is a far-future science fictional murder mystery set on an alien world. Tocohl Susumo, an expert on languages and cultures, is sent to investigate. The suspects—the planetary survey team—are a powder keg of fascinating, but clashing, cultures and backgrounds.
Helping Tocohl is her ship’s AI, Lord Margaret Lynn, aka “Maggie.” Maggie is, quite simply, the best. She’s childlike in many ways, but also loyal and clever and so much fun. The relationship between Tocohl and Maggie reminds you of a loving parent-child partnership.
Tocohl Susumo finds her plans to attend the festival of St. Veschke interrupted by her rescue of a young woman and her subsequent involvement in a mystery in Lassti
Growing up, my mother worked for a local vet, which means I got to live with diabetic cats, baby bunnies, parrots, a brain-damaged squirrel, a dog with a mobility device, and much more. As a reader and eventually a writer, I’ve loved stories about the relationships between humans and their nonhuman companions. For me, relationships are the heart of a story. Relationships between people are great, but you can do so much with relationships between, say, a goblin and a magical fire-spider, or a young girl and a sentient telepathic kite, or Cinderella and the glass sword that holds the spirit of her mother…
Starbridge is another old favorite. The book is written with heart and warmth. It’s the kind of story that always makes me feel better when I finish reading.
Mahree Burroughs is almost seventeen, and on her way to Earth from her colony world when their ship gets caught up in a first contact situation. As is often the case, secrets and misunderstandings abound, and things get messy.
While the alien Simiu is interesting, one of my favorite characters is the sentient fungus Mahree meets and names Doctor Blanket. Doctor Blanket doesn’t come along until later in the book, but he’s great: wise and curious and simultaneously old and youthful.
The students of Starbridge Academy--a training school for Earth's young diplomats, translators, and explorers--meet representatives from sixteen other races and, together, they journey across the universe
I am the author of eleven books for middle-grade readers, including three books from a dog’s point of view. These books have won five state book awards between them, and have been published in other languages. I’ve been writing for young readers for over 20 years. I also live with four furry friends of my own: Cookie (a cockapoo), Myrtle (a pug), Nala (a calico cat), and Daisy (a sweet mutt cat). I miss my big-hearted goldendoodle Lucky every day. And, like my dogs, I can be bribed with cheese.
I might be cheating a bit on this one; half of the story is told by Dog, yes, but the other half is told by Robot. This is a wordless graphic novel, and it is a deeply moving story about the seasons of friendship.
Robot Dreams shows us just how fragile our dearest relationships can be if we don’t lovingly and tenderly take care of them. This story shows the bliss and joy of a new friendship, the pain of a friendship ending, and the growth it takes to move forward.
I love this book with my whole heart, and I believe it is the perfect graphic novel. It is now an Oscar-nominated animated feature, so I’m not alone in my love of this beautiful story.
This affecting, charming graphic novel about a dog and a robot shows us in poignant detail how powerful and fragile relationships are. After a Labor Day jaunt to the beach leaves the robot rusted, immobilized in the sand, the dog must return alone to the life they shared. But the memory of their friendship lingers, and as the seasons pass, the dog tries to fill the emotional void left by the loss of his closest friend, making and losing a series of friends, from a melting snowman to epicurean anteaters. But for the robot, lying rusting on the beach, the…
I’ve been drawn to LGBT+ characters and themes long before I knew that was a thing that a person could be—and longer still before I realized that it was something that might apply to me. Science fiction and fantasy helped me to explore identities and ways of existing within the world that were fundamentally different from my own and that instilled a love of the genre that I’ll always treasure.
Maybe it’s the millennial in me, but I can’t begin to tell you how much I relate to Murderbot. All it wants to do is get through its workday so it can take a break and watch its shows—and yes, maybe my job is slightly less stressful than acting as security for a science expedition that’s pissed off a bloodthirsty super-corporation, but we all have our struggles. Like socializing with our coworkers. Or capitalism. Or man-eating space worms.
Probably my favorite thing about Murderbot is the deadpan humor with which it tells its story, which really comes to life in the audiobook thanks to Kevin R. Free’s narration.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells begins The Murderbot Diaries, a new science fiction action and adventure series that tackles questions of the ethics of sentient robotics. It appeals to fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or lain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans. In a corporate dominated s pa cef a ring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by…
My favorite books—to read and to write—have always been funny Christian romances. But all four of my kids prefer fantasy. They want me to read with them, and they’ve been asking me to read nothing but fantasy for years. Now I can say it’s my second favorite genre. In fact, I learned to like it so much I eventually started writing a children’s fantasy series of my own, in between all the mushy stuff. Beyond Wisherton is the first in that series.
Dragons are cool. The one on this cover is clearly mechanical, and that got my attention. Cove is a rather dark setting so I would only recommend this for older kids. Readers can tell from the beginning that the oppressive society is rooted in fear. What is behind that fear? The main characters, Trenton and Kallista, aren’t all that concerned with the bigger picture. They’re only trying to solve a puzzle left by Kallista’s father. We get to watch them become good friends in the process.
Trenton Colman is a creative thirteen-year-old boy with a knack for all things mechanical. But his talents are viewed with suspicion in Cove, a steam-powered city built inside a mountain. In Cove, creativity is a crime and “invention” is a curse word. Kallista Babbage is a repair technician and daughter of the notorious Leo Babbage, whose father died in an explosion—an event the leaders of Cove point to as an example of the danger of creativity.
Working together, Trenton and Kallista learn that Leo Babbage was developing a secret project before he perished. Following clues he left behind, they begin…
As a child, I was inspired by the feats of the first astronauts and cosmonauts, culminating with the Apollo expeditions to the Moon. As I grew up, I found that I was more of a historian than an engineer or a physicist. So, I began writing the stories of some of the people who were involved in the 1960s space race. I have since written about topics ranging from the strategic missiles that kicked off the space race to the Hubble Space Telescope, and today, I am the editor of Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly.
While many people expect that the future of space exploration will look like Star Trek, the reality is that robots will be blazing the trail around the solar system and beyond for some time.
This is an important and well-argued book that explains the realities of distance and danger that dictate the use of robots rather than humans for space exploration. It also explores the reasons why human-led space exploration is so popular in spite of its great expense.
Given the near incomprehensible enormity of the universe, it appears almost inevitable that humankind will one day find a planet that appears to be much like the Earth. This discovery will no doubt reignite the lure of interplanetary travel. Will we be up to the task? And, given our limited resources, biological constraints, and the general hostility of space, what shape should we expect such expeditions to take? In Robots in Space, Roger Launius and Howard McCurdy tackle these seemingly fanciful questions with rigorous scholarship and disciplined imagination, jumping comfortably among the worlds of rocketry, engineering, public policy, and science…
I am a spy aiming to uncover hidden documents, private journals, and secret messages penned in the distant past. I am a detective racing to reveal the world’s most dastardly deeds and daring escapades. I am an adventurer zooming around the planet along with history’s bravest heroes and most despicable villains. I am an artist whose illustrations transform ancient stone-cold statues by turning them into living, breathing human beings that laugh and cry, win and lose, love and hate, and spring vividly to life. And I am a storyteller striving to lure readers of all ages, whether they are children or adults.
Don’t worry; this gripping 534-page tale of mystery can sweep you through its pages in a single day, especially since its gritty-but-stunning brown and white artwork acts like a movie as it speeds you and a young orphaned boy through an underground train station and across the streets of Paris and up a clock tower in 1931. Why was the boy’s dead father obsessed with repairing a broken clock? And who is the mysterious angry old man anyway?
Orphan, clock keeper, thief: Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. Combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Caldecott Honor artist Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience in this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.
I love encouraging kids to explore engineering, design, and technology! I am a former Google product designer for kids and families. I started writing to address a growing need for coding education, particularly for girls and kids of color. Stories are a wonderful way to demonstrate concepts and to invite kids to approach STEM with creativity and imagination. I picked a range of books for this post, from non-fiction to fantastic, because different kids will respond to different kinds of stories. Through these books, I hope that kids will find inspiration and tools for creative problem-solving, for STEM and beyond.
Josh Funk and illustrator Sara Palacios bring fun into coding with this cute picture book. Pearl and her robot figure out how to build a sandcastle using basic coding concepts such as commands, loops, and functions. It’s a wonderful introduction to code with a fun story that kids will enjoy. You can also check out another adventure with Pearl and her robot in How to Code a Rollercoaster.
Pearl and her trusty rust-proof robot, Pascal, need to build a sandcastle before summer vacation is over, and they're going to do it using code. Pearl breaks the big we-need-a-sandcastle problem into smaller steps, then uses sequences, loops, and other basic coding concepts to tell Pascal exactly what to do. There are a lot of humorous mishaps along the way, but just when it looks like the sandcastle might never get built, Pearl uses her coding skills to save the day and create something even better: a gorgeous sandcastle kingdom!
