75 books like Cotton Crossing

Years ago, this book was handed to me as a gift with a knowing look, like a secret was about to be revealed to me. I gobbled it up and was literally walking to the book store while reading the last chapter so I could start reading the next book immediately.

I was surprised to find the series in the middle-grade section of the store because even though the protagonist is 11-year-old Lyra, the story is layered and sophisticated in a way that goes beyond most middle-grade books. Lyra’s world has a wonderful “out of time period” feel before any industrial or technological revolution. 

Lyra is a clever protagonist, fierce and scheming, orphaned in an alternative version of our world where children are disappearing on a regular basis. In this world, every person is energetically tethered to a “daemon,” who is their companion for life. They can’t be too far… show more.

I absolutely love Sharon Shinn’s writing, both her luscious, sophisticated prose and the way she writes relationships between characters. She hits the perfect balance between well-planned, interesting plots, rich fantasy worlds, and the exact right amount of romantic subplot and character development.

This book—which follows a group of magic-wielding mystics and the reluctant, militaristic King’s Riders assigned to protect them as they travel the land, investigating a rise in anti-magic sentiment—is my favorite of her books, not least because it has some of the coziest found family dynamics and campfire friendships to be found outside of classics like The Lord of the Rings!

I first read this book when I was a teenager, and it became my gold standard on how to write engaging, imaginative worlds and the unique histories, languages, and cultures that populate them.

More than the intricate space politics and incredibly innovative anthropology present in this massive series, however, I was most drawn to how the main character, Bren (a human diplomat trying to navigate his way through the court intrigue of an alien government) eventually finds a family unlike any other in his atevi bodyguards, Banichi and Jago. 

Bren also gathers a wide collection of allies and companions on the strange world his space-faring ancestors crash-landed on 150 years ago…all while trying to avoid being assassinated or starting an interplanetary war. 

If we want to talk about weird found families, this wildly original nautical fantasy knocks it out of the park.

Pazel signs up to serve as a tarboy on the Chathrand, a centuries-year-old ship bound to deliver a “treaty bride” to the prince of a foreign nation. The ship shortly falls off the known map, and Pazel is left to survive turbulent seas, strange new lands, and truly bizarre curses and mutinies along with the other passengers of the Chathrand: among these are an intelligent rat, a wizard from another world hiding in the body of a weasel, the treaty bride herself, and her secretive warrior bodyguard.

Along with this motley crew, the book features some of the most captivating, satisfying prose and dazzling twists of the imagination I’ve ever read. 

An interesting and funny take on the zombie apocalypse.

The main character has a morbid sense of humor and a loyal dog and is trying to find his daughter no matter what it takes.

The story is fast-paced and will keep you wondering what will happen next, as well as discovering what the main character will do to survive the zombies and also get some food.

I enjoyed the balance of humor and action, which kept me reading until the last page.

I listened to this whole series while climbing mind-numbing stacks of backlogged legal work as an Assistant Attorney General. My vision was clogged with the vivid scenes of Bourne's books, legal folders, paper clips, and coffee stains. It actually inspired the fourth book of my zombie series.   

Told in the diary format common to many books of the zombie epic subgenre, this journal depicts one man's struggle for survival. The unnamed narrator is a naval officer who was just returning home to Texas from visiting his parents in Arkansas when the zombie apocalypse hits. John, another survivor, and Annabell, John's miniature greyhound, work together with the narrator to survive, hoping to find some last working vestige of the US government. 

There are some cool elements to this zombie epic that I haven't found anywhere else. They shelter in a functional missile silo at one point. The clunk, clunk… show more.

Miranda Tucci is looking for love during a zombie apocalypse but finding love is hard when the majority of available partners are either zombies or psychopaths.

On top of that Miranda has a lead on a cure for the virus, but the government is trying to control it. Can she get the cure and save civilization?

I enjoyed the character development, especially around trying to find love and surviving the zombie apocalypse.

Work smarter, not harder. If you want to survive a zombie apocalypse, you'll need to understand the behavior of the undead. And it all starts with a necrotic brain. If you know why zombies hunt, infect and kill their victims, you can devise effective strategies for avoiding and moving among the undead and, if necessary, killing them. I loved that the neuroscience in this book is very real, even if the zombies are not (yet). It is one of the best applications of nonfictional content to a fictional world available today — a must-read for lovers of brains, both alive and dead.

Sarah Lyons Fleming writes beautiful prose. She also writes characters that you’ll fall in love with (or hate) and want to keep reading about. The main character, Cassie, embarks on an epic journey through the zombie apocalypse for a second chance at love with her ex-fiancee. Along the way, she has to rediscover who she is and grow to overcome everything that the world keeps throwing at her. The action is great, but it’s the relationships between the characters that make this a truly excellent series. I cried my eyes out reading these books and the others set in the same universe, which isn’t something I often do. But however heartbreaking parts of them may be, Sarah Fleming always leaves room for hope for love and a future.

This book offers a different approach to a zombie-style story. Whatever the enemy is in this book, it’s got that zombie vibe to it. But they speak, shoot guns, and even drive. It was a very different but enjoyable read. The author has written many more novels but this was one of the first books I bought after taking up writing.