79 books like New Contact

By Lynn Miclea,

Here are 79 books that New Contact fans have personally recommended if you like New Contact. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Moonlighters

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?

In this one, we meet two orphans who become crime fighters with the powers that they acquire through some unusual rings they found. 

I connected with this book, because of the orphans. My husband and I have adopted Indian twin girls from Fiji.

But what will they choose? Doing good or evil? Greg and Rhonda try to overcome many problems, and some come from the public they’re trying to help. You get to meet the alien, Narsak, and must put an end to him before he destroys the planet.

By J.S. Frankel,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Being granted power is one thing. Using it for something noble is a totally different story.

Greg Rosanoff and Rhonda Klimpt, seventeen, orphans and lifelong companions who live with their foster mother, stumble upon two rings in their hometown of Camas County, Washington.

The rings aren’t ordinary rings. They have the power to grant flight, form protective shields, and more. Greg and Rhonda decide to use them to right a few wrongs and help the police oust evil in their city. Call it simplistic. That is what they want the most.

However, problems exist insofar as the local law doesn’t…


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 Intervention

J.C. Gemmell Author Of Tionsphere

From my list on future history with a glimpse of what might happen.

Why am I passionate about this?

There were 3.7 billion people on Earth when I was born. By November 2022, there will be 8 billion. I am fascinated and terrified by this growth. I love stories that address this issue head-on, be it colonisation of other planets, compulsory euthanasia, or uploading consciousness into machines. When I started writing, I didn’t realise how I was bringing these themes together—I was writing a book I’d love to read. Now I can see those influences, and I am grateful for the authors who have shaped my thinking and my work.

J.C.'s book list on future history with a glimpse of what might happen

J.C. Gemmell Why did J.C. love this book?

I have given copies of the Galactic Milieu Trilogy as gifts more than any other book. This is the bravest near-future sci-fi series I have ever read. Intervention, published in 1987, follows events from 1945 through to 2013 when the five races of the Galactic Milieu embrace humanity. I love the merger of historical events with future possibilities in a story centred around a dynasty of ‘operant’ human beings.

As a teenager, I was fascinated by stories of telepathy, etc., but I found most books that dealt with ‘higher mind powers’ were in the fantasy or horror market. But this series is perfect sci-fi, technically plausible while politically powerful—and again, with a large, diverse cast.

By Julian May,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Intervention as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

For 60,000 years, the worlds of the Galactic Milieu have observed Earth, waiting for humanity to evolve sufficiently to join them. Now, humanity is almost ready for Intervention. Across the world, children with unusual mental powers are being born, known as operants. One such is Rogi Remillard, humble book dealer. Helped by an entity he labels the family ghost, Rogi will inadvertently steer his family - and so all mankind - into the future.

Rogi's journey starts with his nephew Denis, as he guides his strong metapsychic abilities. The young man's irresponsible father certainly isn't interested, focusing instead on his…


Book cover of The Sense of Being Stared at: And Other Unexplained Powers of Human Minds

Norman Baker Author Of ...And What Do You Do?: What the Royal Family Don't Want You to Know

From my list on how the world works.

Why am I passionate about this?

We all need to understand more about how the world ticks, who is in control, and why they act as they do. And we need to salute those of courage who refuse to go along with the flow in a craven or unthinking way. I was an MP for 18 years and a government minister at the Department for Transport with a portfolio that included rail, bus, active travel, and then at the Home Office as Crime Prevention minister. After leaving Parliament, I became managing director of The Big Lemon, an environmentally friendly bus and coach company in Brighton. I now act as an advisor to the Campaign for Better Transport, am a regular columnist and broadcaster, and undertake consultancy and lecturing work.

Norman's book list on how the world works

Norman Baker Why did Norman love this book?

Have you ever sat on the top deck of a bus and stared hard at someone on the pavement below. It is surprising how often that person will then look up at you. How does this work? Rupert Sheldrake’s book delves deeply into such matters, ones for which there must be scientific explanations but which the traditional conservative scientist in a white coat dismisses without looking into the matter. Too many scientists, it seems, prefer the comfort of the status quo. We haven’t really moved on much from when Galileo was rubbished for suggesting the earth goes around the sun. Rupert Sheldrake reveals more about the human than we knew before.

By Rupert Sheldrake,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sense of Being Stared at as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Explores Rupert Sheldrake’s more than 25 years of research into telepathy, staring and intention, precognition, and animal premonitions

• Shows that unexplained human abilities--such as the sense of being stared at and phone telepathy--are not paranormal but normal, part of our biological nature

• Draws on more than 5,000 case histories, 4,000 questionnaire responses, and the results of experiments carried out with more than 20,000 people

• Reveals that our minds and intentions extend beyond our brains into the world around us and even into the future

Nearly everyone has experienced the feeling of being watched or had their stare…


Book cover of The Forerunner Factor

Kurt D. Springs Author Of Price of Vengeance

From my list on sci-fi that meld military and paranormal themes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am Kurt D. Springs. If you read my back of the book bio, you’ll find I have advanced degrees in anthropology and archaeology and a focus on European prehistory. However, I’ve always been fascinated by military history. I’ve recently studied how modern warfare has changed many old paradigms. I’ve also studied modern and ancient religions, and many of the fiction works I enjoy have ESP or magic elements, especially Andre Norton’s works. I am also a fan of the HALO game universe. I like to tell people my stories are the children of Andre Norton’s Forerunner series and HALO.

Kurt's book list on sci-fi that meld military and paranormal themes

Kurt D. Springs Why did Kurt love this book?

Forerunner is the book that made me a fan of Andre Norton. I enjoyed how she mixed space travel, ESP powers, and remarkable world-building.

Andre Norton’s Forerunner influenced the paranormal part of my own world-building. The alien girl, Simsa, was a compelling character. Starting off as a streetwise orphan on the planet Kuxortal, the human spaceman Thom takes her on a journey of self-discovery.

They must stop space pirates from plundering ancient warships. To do so, she must discover her true heritage of power and nobility.

By Andre Norton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Forerunner Factor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

On ancient port world planet Kuxortal, young Simsa grows up among garbage pickers who live upon the ancient ruins of a fallen galactic civilization - the Forerunners. But Simsa has always been different. Her skin is iridescent blue-black and she shares a telepathic bond with an alien pet, a bat-like zorsal, like no other. When Simsa's mentor dies, she must scrape a poor existence from an unyielding planet. But then Thom, a star ranger, arrives from the heavens, leading Simsa on a path to the discovery of her origins that takes both through danger to the ultimate revelation. The truth…


Book cover of Gnomon

Patrick Edwards Author Of Echo Cycle

From my list on changing your mind about science fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m still in love with good sci-fi and fantasy after 30 years, but folk can get most terribly sniffy about it: ‘Lack of character’, ‘leaden exposition’, the list of accusations rolls on (sadly, a chunk of today’s SFF earns it). But. Every so often a work pops up that looks to the unwary book clubber like a ‘proper novel’; beneath its sexy but abstract cover and pared-back blurb lies a world of adventure that’s like LSD in an innocent mug of tea. Some writers just refuse to accept that speculation (about time and/ or space) needs to sacrifice truth. I’ve picked a few books that stand out to me for this reason – debate their merits with gusto, preferably over a good Martini at 2am.

Patrick's book list on changing your mind about science fiction

Patrick Edwards Why did Patrick love this book?

Harkaway has serious literary pedigree but is determined to put exactly what he damn well likes in his books. Gnomon is labyrinthine, its characters sizzle with personality and it is set in researched, vibrant worlds that reek of authenticity, from antiquity to modern-day Greece. It’s also, partly, set in a dystopian, ultra-surveillance future (an arch glance at the political developments of recent years) and shamelessly combines mysticism, time-bending, and no shortage of sharks. Its rejection of convention but adherence to good, thoughtful writing is one hell of a ride.

By Nick Harkaway,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Gnomon is an extraordinary novel, and one I can't stop thinking about some weeks after I read it. It is deeply troubling, magnificently strange, and an exhilarating read.' Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven

'The best thing he's ever written ... It is an astonishing piece of construction, complex and witty ... It is a magnificent achievement ... He's never written a bad book, but this is the one that'll see him mentioned in the same breath as William Gibson and David Mitchell ... This book seriously just destroyed me with joy.'…


Book cover of A Song for Lya

C. S. Friedman Author Of This Alien Shore

From my list on aliens in science fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been fascinated by the workings of the human mind. What instincts and influences make us who we are? This Alien Shore grew out of research I was doing into atypical neurological conditions. It depicts a society that has abandoned the concept of “neurotypical”, embracing every variant of human perspective as valid and valuable. One of my main characters, Kio Masada, is autistic, and that gives him a unique perspective on computer security that others cannot provide. What might such a man accomplish, in a world where his condition is embraced and celebrated? Good science fiction challenges our definition of “Other,” and asks what it really means to be human, all in the context of an exciting story.

C. S.'s book list on aliens in science fiction

C. S. Friedman Why did C. S. love this book?

Years before Game of Thrones became a household name, Martin was best known for this hauntingly beautiful and deeply disturbing novella. Two telepaths, Robb and Lya, are sent to an alien planet to investigate a disturbing religious movement. The planet is home to a race called the Shkeen, and to a gelatinous parasite called the Greeshka. In middle age the Shkeen allow the Greeshka to infect them, and ten years later they visit a cave where they allow a massive specimen to consume them. Some humans living on the planet have even joined the native religion, and have allowed themselves to be infected and devoured. The administrators are desperate to know why.

Robb and Lya have an unusually close relationship, but she suffers from a sense of isolation that telepathy cannot banish. While they watch some Shkeen being devoured by the Greeshka, she can sense how isolated the Shkeen feel…

By George R. R. Martin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Song for Lya as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Two telepaths investigate the newly discovered world of Shkea, where every native inhabitant, and an increasing number of human colonists, worships a mysterious and deadly parasite. Winner of the 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novella.


Book cover of The Exile Waiting

Stephanie A. Smith Author Of Asteroidea

From my list on science fiction and fantasy about or by women.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a professor of English at the University of Florida, and an author of SF/F myself; I teach it both as a creative writer, and as a scholar of both American Literature and feminist thought. This is my subject and I am passionate about it, and I’ve been teaching SF/F, American literature of the 19th and 20th centuries for thirty years, so I know my topic well.

Stephanie's book list on science fiction and fantasy about or by women

Stephanie A. Smith Why did Stephanie love this book?

Vonda N. McIntyre is an often over-looked science fiction and alternate history author whose prose is lush, whose imagination is daunting, and who was unfailingly generous to the fan community, and to the community of writers she knew and supported; she was also my teacher, my mentor and my friend of thirty years, and she knew how to make you laugh! Exile is back in print after being out of print, and it is a terrifyingly beautiful, thought-provoking read.

By Vonda N. McIntyre,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The Exile Waiting was the first novel by the Hugo and Nebula award-winning novelist Vonda N McIntyre, published in 1975. It introduces the world that McIntyre later made famous with her multi-award-winning Dreamsnake: a post-apocalyptic world in which Center, an enclosed domed city, is run by slave-owning families who control the planet's resources, and exile the dissidents.

It is an ordinary day. A transport arrives from off-world, piloted by two pseudosibs, a powerfully intelligent threat to Center's dominant families. A girl is punished for being in the wrong room under the gaze of the wrong person. A visiting stranger defends…


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