55 books like Moonlighters

By J.S. Frankel,

Here are 55 books that Moonlighters fans have personally recommended if you like Moonlighters. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of New Contact

Gigi Sedlmayer Author Of Come Fly With Me

From my list on fiction about overcoming challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

After being rejected in school, because I had to move with my family again and again, I never had really friends and knew how being left alone and rejected felt. So I put my nose into books and developed a love for writing. Since I didn’t know what to do with them, I left them alone when I married. After being diagnosed with cancer later in my life, I couldn’t go back to work, I remembered my love to write and read so I started to write short stories again. I want to help young people going through similar rejections and bullying, to lift them up, and take the negativity out of their minds. 

Gigi's book list on fiction about overcoming challenges

Gigi Sedlmayer Why did Gigi love this book?

I love reading sci-fi YA books and this book was really talking to me. Peaceful contact or not?

Reading this book by the author – her first  it reminded me of the much-loved movie Avatar, which I also love.

Like in the movie, when Captain Melissa and her crew finally arrived at the new planet, to contact the people living there, they looked peaceful. They find out, that they are telepathic, not only the people, the plants, and animals as well.

After the people of the planet perform a play, they find out, what was really going on there. Not everything you see can be trusted when you look behind the scenes. From the outside, it was all peaceful, but when you touch the plants, they speak to you.

By Lynn Miclea,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

As the crew sets foot on a new world, human aggression meets the peaceful nature of an advanced race.

Captain Melissa Shakeworth leads her crew to a new world to make first contact with a tranquil, nonviolent, advanced race of beings.

As she tries to maintain control over her unpredictable crew in a world that is peaceful, she struggles to stay respectful and honorable as things quickly spin out of control.

One crew member’s volatility and aggressiveness goes too far, endangering his life and the safety of the crew and the entire mission.

The captain must face her greatest fear…


Book cover of Amazing Matilda: A Monarch's Tale

Gigi Sedlmayer Author Of Come Fly With Me

From my list on fiction about overcoming challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

After being rejected in school, because I had to move with my family again and again, I never had really friends and knew how being left alone and rejected felt. So I put my nose into books and developed a love for writing. Since I didn’t know what to do with them, I left them alone when I married. After being diagnosed with cancer later in my life, I couldn’t go back to work, I remembered my love to write and read so I started to write short stories again. I want to help young people going through similar rejections and bullying, to lift them up, and take the negativity out of their minds. 

Gigi's book list on fiction about overcoming challenges

Gigi Sedlmayer Why did Gigi love this book?

This is a brilliant tale about a little egg that becomes a caterpillar and transforms into a beautiful Monarch.

I love animal stories, so I would always recommend this story to anyone.

He is asking his friends eating away on juice leaves, the sparrow, the toat, and the rabbit how he could get wings. He wanted desperately to fly.

The answer was: Just have patience and follow your instincts.

Matilda was doing so until she ate so many leaves that she changed once more and fell asleep. Waking up, she was amazed to see that she had wings. But they wouldn’t work, she had to keep flapping them until, finally, she flew off.

Matilda is not only a little butterfly story, it shows you that whatever you are going to do, have patience, follow your dream or instincts, and never give up.

By Bette A. Stevens,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Inspire the Kids with an Award-winning (Excellence in Children's Literature) Monarch Butterfly Tale.
In this age of instant gratification, there's an award-winning children's picture book out that teaches kids that patience and hard work really do pay off.

'AMAZING MATILDA: A Monarch's Tale' is a timely tale that follows MATILDA, a tiny monarch caterpillar, from the time she hatches from her egg on a giant milkweed leaf until she realizes her dream to fly. The story provides challenges and adventure at every turn.

Grandparents, parents and teachers will find that AMAZING MATILDA is a book that kids will want to…


Book cover of Man, True Man

Gigi Sedlmayer Author Of Come Fly With Me

From my list on fiction about overcoming challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

After being rejected in school, because I had to move with my family again and again, I never had really friends and knew how being left alone and rejected felt. So I put my nose into books and developed a love for writing. Since I didn’t know what to do with them, I left them alone when I married. After being diagnosed with cancer later in my life, I couldn’t go back to work, I remembered my love to write and read so I started to write short stories again. I want to help young people going through similar rejections and bullying, to lift them up, and take the negativity out of their minds. 

Gigi's book list on fiction about overcoming challenges

Gigi Sedlmayer Why did Gigi love this book?

I like sci-fi books as well, so I tried this one and it spoke to me. How strange creatures from a different planet and galaxy help a helpless man, not knowing who he was and where he was. 

I didn’t expect but it was an amazing story 

On a planet far, far away, a man awakes. Not knowing who he is and where he was, his existence was attacked by strange creatures.
The people, if you can call them people, strange looking themselves, helped him to escape and call him Loren. Loren then found out, that these people are in trouble and he likes to help them.
Love, life, hardship.

By Mari Collier,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

After a spaceship crashes into the planet of Tonath, the lone occupant survives and fights his way to sunlit part of the planet. When a passing freighter finds him, he's taken to the Western Starshift Institute of the Way, where the Teacher rules the sunlit part of the planet.

Tonath is a planet being torn apart by the forces of nature, and only the Teacher knows how to predict the movement of the stars and interpret the prophecies. Finding love and betrayal on the planet, the survivor also learns of the disputes arising from the teachings of the Greens and…


Book cover of Hunting Mariah

Gigi Sedlmayer Author Of Come Fly With Me

From my list on fiction about overcoming challenges.

Why am I passionate about this?

After being rejected in school, because I had to move with my family again and again, I never had really friends and knew how being left alone and rejected felt. So I put my nose into books and developed a love for writing. Since I didn’t know what to do with them, I left them alone when I married. After being diagnosed with cancer later in my life, I couldn’t go back to work, I remembered my love to write and read so I started to write short stories again. I want to help young people going through similar rejections and bullying, to lift them up, and take the negativity out of their minds. 

Gigi's book list on fiction about overcoming challenges

Gigi Sedlmayer Why did Gigi love this book?

I normally I don’t read mystery thrillers, but somehow this book got to me. I couldn’t stop reading, it held me captive till the end, even though I thought, right from the beginning, who the awful blood-thirsty killer might be. But still, I was pushed back again, could it really be him? There were so many different turns and twists, that you really couldn’t be sure of anything.

Mariah, the innocent schoolgirl was put into a dangerous twist; she nearly couldn’t get out again, shutting herself up to cope with the unexpected. And then you were transported into the mind of the schoolgirl killer. What a blood-thirsty individual, killing schoolgirls for practice then killing Mariah’s friend, only to get to her. Everyone longed for justice. But will justice come?

Very cleverly done, J.E. Spina. She put family values and support into the foreground.

By J.E. Spina,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

AUTHORSDB FIRST LINES CONTEST - FINALIST!
 
An insane killer, obsessed with blood and death, seeks revenge with those he perceives wronged him. He is now on the loose. His next victim may be Mariah.

Mariah has lost her memory. Will she remember what has transpired in her past? Can Mariah escape this deadly killer's grasp. Will she finally be safe? Will the killer be apprehended?


Book cover of Of Time and Stars: The Worlds of Arthur C. Clarke

R.E. Palmer Author Of Song of Echoes

From my list on sci-fi you’ll have to prise from my dead hands.

Why am I passionate about this?

From as early as I can remember, I've been fascinated by science and the supernatural. I guess it was the bookcases of my parents and relatives that stoked my imagination as a child. From books about mysteries of the universe, to stories of fairies, nymphs and banshees, all asked questions that I longed to know the answers to. It’s a habit I've maintained throughout my life, always investigating, always challenging my beliefs. I like to think this has given me the skills to write a good, fantasy story. While I create worlds, characters, and rules of magic based on a logic that’s believable, as the world my characters live in is very real to them.

R.E.'s book list on sci-fi you’ll have to prise from my dead hands

R.E. Palmer Why did R.E. love this book?

Clarke is the master of the sci-fi short stories in my view, and this collection is a great example of his genius. My dog-eared paperback is over forty years old, and I pick it up often for both nostalgic and professional reasons. With evocative titles such as "The Nine Billion Names of God," "No Morning After," and "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth," these stories were just what my young, curious mind needed. In just a few pages, Clarke had an amazing ability to pull you into the world of the character and make you care. Both my children have read and enjoyed this book. Brilliant collection.

By Arthur C. Clarke,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Of Time and Stars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A varied selection of the author's science-fiction stories, including "The Sentinel", on which the film "2001" was based.


Book cover of The Color of Light

David R. George III Author Of Crucible: McCoy - Provenance of Shadows

From my list on opening readers to new worlds without leaving Earth.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a frequent writer of science fiction, I focus not on real or imagined science, on aliens or other worlds, but on the impacts those things have on individuals, groups, and societies. Similarly, as a reader, I enjoy visiting places, cultures, and ideas with which I am unfamiliar, particularly when unveiled with elevated artistic expression. In my writing, often in the Star Trek universe, I attempt to avoid feeding the perception that media-tie-in writing is less-than, instead working to weave complex tales exploring the human condition. I don’t know if my reading tastes follow from my writing, or if the converse is true, but the two go hand in hand.

David's book list on opening readers to new worlds without leaving Earth

David R. George III Why did David love this book?

I generally don’t enjoy works of fiction that feature writers as their main characters. The process of writing, while influenced by life, is nevertheless a solitary process, difficult to capture in an interesting and meaningful way. William Goldman manages to do that, mostly by focusing on the backstory of story, on the flow and emotions of existence that contribute not only to the tales a writer tells, but their need to do so. The Color of Light feels both fantastical and real, steeped in preposterous events and genuine emotion, in a way that traces both the artistic process and the vagaries of life.

By William Goldman,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A young writer obsessed by the past finds himself involved in an odyssey of violence, tragedy, and a search for a murderer


Book cover of Star King

Greta van der Rol Author Of Conspiracy

From my list on sci-fi romance with action and adventure in stars.

Why am I passionate about this?

For me, writing space opera was obvious because it's what I like to read. There's so much scope for human and non-human societies out there, complete with the history of how they were created, and the inevitable cut-and-thrust of politics. If the book also has a love story– where do I pay my money? I do like the science in my science fiction to be convincing, though. My background as a computer programmer helps with that and I'm often grateful for my history degree when coming up with convincing empires and events. 

Greta's book list on sci-fi romance with action and adventure in stars

Greta van der Rol Why did Greta love this book?

The Star King is one of the first science fiction romances I read. It has everything I want in a space opera – politics, fast-paced action, danger, drama, angst, all mixed up with a great love story. I fell in love with the characters, especially the dishy alien alpha male. And I particularly like that the romance is between two mature people with life experience. 

By Susan Grant,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

An alien king, an Earth woman. Fated mates—Or is fate stacked against them?


Rom B’Kah is fighting for the survival of his people when a beautiful and mysterious warrior from Earth saves his life. When she vanishes without a trace, he vows to find her again.

Years after battlefield trauma sends her life into a tailspin, Jas Hamilton has given up on love. When a galactic empire makes first contact with Earth, she sets out to reclaim her lost sense of adventure—and finds it in the arms of the golden-eyed alien warrior she’s spent a lifetime trying to forget.

When…


Book cover of Renegade Star

Matthew O. Duncan Author Of The Warrior's Stone

From my list on old-school sci-fi from 21st century authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up a fan of all things sci-fi, Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and so on. But the older I got, the pickier I got, wanting more depth in character, creative stories and fun, but believable action. I read classic sci-fi like iRobot, Starship Troopers, and Enders Game, to name a few. I did find some contemporary authors I liked like Marco Kloos, Detmare Wehr, and Rebecca Branch, but they were needles in a haystack. So, instead of complaining that there were not enough good books out there, I started writing my own. A decade later I have 8 published titles and more on the way.  

Matthew's book list on old-school sci-fi from 21st century authors

Matthew O. Duncan Why did Matthew love this book?

This book is a little more Space Opera than Sci-fi as it focuses more on the adventure than the impossibility of the technology. It takes place thousands of years in the future when man kinds had spread out across the galaxy and forgotten about Earth, for the most part. The characters are not deep, and the story relies more on action than complexity, but it’s fun. It moves from one event to another, the main character is a bit of a rogue that you can’t help but like and his female counterpart is smarter, faster, and deadlier than he will every be, so it's good she is on his side. One of the reasons I like these books (10 book series with some spin-offs) is because it is very different from my style. If my books were Angus Steaks, these would be an Ice-cream Sunday.   

By J.N. Chaney,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

They say the Earth is just a myth. Something to tell your children when you put them to sleep, the lost homeworld of humanity. Everyone knows it isn't real, though. It can't be.

But when Captain Jace Hughes encounters a nun with a mysterious piece of cargo and a bold secret, he soon discovers that everything he thought he knew about Earth is wrong. So very, very wrong.

Climb aboard The Renegade Star and assemble a crew, follow the clues, uncover the truth, and most importantly, try to stay alive.

Experience the beginning of a sprawling galactic tale in this…


Book cover of Chocky

R.E. Palmer Author Of Song of Echoes

From my list on sci-fi you’ll have to prise from my dead hands.

Why am I passionate about this?

From as early as I can remember, I've been fascinated by science and the supernatural. I guess it was the bookcases of my parents and relatives that stoked my imagination as a child. From books about mysteries of the universe, to stories of fairies, nymphs and banshees, all asked questions that I longed to know the answers to. It’s a habit I've maintained throughout my life, always investigating, always challenging my beliefs. I like to think this has given me the skills to write a good, fantasy story. While I create worlds, characters, and rules of magic based on a logic that’s believable, as the world my characters live in is very real to them.

R.E.'s book list on sci-fi you’ll have to prise from my dead hands

R.E. Palmer Why did R.E. love this book?

I first read Wyndham when staying at my grandmothers aged eleven during a long summer holiday. I devoured the books left there by my uncle, and Chocky was the one that ‘blew my mind’. The main character was a similar age to me at the time, and the thought that an alien could inhabit his mind was both scary and fascinating. I imagined what I would do if an alien had chosen me, and what I would do with the superpowers it might bring. I was halfway through writing my first book in 2010 when I suddenly realised it was this book that provided the inspiration—now that’s a sign of a good book. I re-read Chocky for the first time last year and found it evoked the memories of my late grandmother and my summers back in the 70s. 

By John Wyndham,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Matthew, they thought, was just going through a phase of talking to himself. And, like many parents, they waited for him to get over it, but it started to get worse. Mathew's conversations with himself grew more and more intense - it was like listening to one end of a telephone conversation while someone argued, cajoled and reasoned with another person you couldn't hear. Then Matthew started doing things he couldn't do before, like counting in binary-code mathematics. So he told them about Chocky - the person who lived in his head.


Book cover of Restoree: A Novel

Sally Odgers Author Of Elysian Dawn

From my list on set on distant worlds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m Tasmanian. I’ve loved books set in other worlds since I encountered Robert Heinlein’s juveniles in my teens. I often find books set in the mundane world of here-and-now implausible or dull, because the adventures seem contrived or else result from characters doing something stupid or bad. If characters venture to other worlds, or other planets though—that’s a different ballgame! I read a great deal of fantasy and sci-fi, and when I was fourteen, I started writing my own. I enjoy a wide variety of genres, but my favourite stories are those where I can follow relatable characters through wild adventures and believe every line.  

Sally's book list on set on distant worlds

Sally Odgers Why did Sally love this book?

Restoree is a stand-alone novel by Anne McCaffrey of the Dragon Riders of Pern fame. The protagonist, Sara, is swept up in a mass kidnapping and carried away to a planet where she ends up in a new body. She is given the job of caring for a man who seems largely unresponsive. Sara and the reader slowly come to understand what’s happening and she makes a bold move to rescue herself, her charge, and the other restorees. Like all the best science fiction, Restoree is less about the trappings and more about the human story. 

By Anne McCaffrey,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

There was a sudden stench of a dead sea creature. There was the sudden horror of a huge black shape closing over her. There was nothing...

Then there were pieces of memory, isolated fragments that were so horrible her mind refused to accept them. Intense heat and shivering cold; excruciating pain; dismembered pieces of the human body. Sawn bones and searing screams.

And when she awoke she found she was in a world that was not earth, and with a face and body that were not her own. She had become a Restoree...


Book cover of New Contact
Book cover of Amazing Matilda: A Monarch's Tale
Book cover of Man, True Man

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