10 books like Perchance to Dream

By Charles Beaumont,

Here are 10 books that authors have personally recommended if you like Perchance to Dream. Shepherd is a community of 7,000+ authors sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Time and Again

By Jack Finney,

Book cover of Time and Again

Being a romantic I loved Time and Again (as well as the movie) for the story’s construction. I appreciate verisimilitude in historical novels and Finney has done his homework. Having briefly visited New York City twice, I do not know it personally. 

Finney makes it breathe in 1882 with fascinating detail that never bores, and by using photographs. I thought the novel was perfect, and it stuck in my head as much for production/construction values as well as the story. When I first researched Treadwell at the Alaska Historical Library in Juneau I came across dozens of photographs, and the form for the novel coalesced in my head.

In retrospect I realize the novels I loved taught me about the architecture of story as well as entertaining me.

Time and Again

By Jack Finney,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Time and Again as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Si Morley is bored with his job as a commercial illustrator and his social life doesn't seem to be going anywhere. So, when he is approached by an affable ex-football star and told that he is just what the government is looking for to take part in a top-secret programme, he doesn't hesitate for too long. And so one day Si steps out of his twentieth-century, New York apartment and finds himself back in January 1882. There are no cars, no planes, no computers, no television and the word 'nuclear' appears in no dictionaries. For Si, it's very like Eden,…


The Ritual of Illusion

By Richard Christian Matheson,

Book cover of The Ritual of Illusion

The Ritual of Illusion is a brilliant short novel by Richard Christian Matheson (Richard Matheson’s son). Written entirely in dialogue from the points of view of numerous different witnesses, it tells the story of Hollywood star Sephanie Vamore’s strange rise and bizarre fall. This is Sunset Boulevard Matheson-style…another generation of Matheson, that is.

The Ritual of Illusion

By Richard Christian Matheson,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A sinister love letter to the movies, acclaimed author Richard Christian Matheson’s The Ritual of Illusion is a novella of modern fear about where stars truly come from. Oscar-winning film siren, Sephanie Vamore, meteors to iconic fame … but like cinema itself, nothing is as it appears. The fifty witnesses to her mythic ascent and bizarre fate are film royalty … many based on Hollywood glitterati; directors, stars, agents, studio heads, screenwriters, lovers, producers.

Widescreen with lies and revelation, Vamore’s story is told Rashomon-style with dialogue alone—each hypnotic character adding poignant or lurid details to the shocking truth of what…


It Only Comes Out at Night & Other Stories

By Dennis Etchison, S.T. Joshi (editor),

Book cover of It Only Comes Out at Night & Other Stories

If someone asked me to name the greatest American horror story writer of the second half of the twentieth century, I would say “Richard Matheson” without hesitation. But if I were allowed two names, the other—equally without hesitation—would be Dennis Etchison, a writer who resembles Matheson in his economy of language, Southern California settings, and intense, twisty plots. His stories are as dark and disturbing as Matheson’s—and that’s really saying something.

It Only Comes Out at Night & Other Stories

By Dennis Etchison, S.T. Joshi (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked It Only Comes Out at Night & Other Stories as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this second printing, Cycatrix Press is proud to bring the highly acclaimed collection Dennis Etchison's It Only Comes Out at Night, previously only available as a limited-edition hardcover (out of print) from Centipede Press to an affordable trade paperback with the addition of previously uncollected fiction, new illustrations, and unpublished appreciations by fellow authors.

More about It Only Comes Out at Night: Few writers of horror fiction are held in such high regard as Dennis Etchison. This career retrospective takes his best fiction, culled from nearly fifty years in the field.

Dennis Etchison (1943-2019) was an American writer and…


Gwendy's Button Box

By Stephen King, Richard Chizmar,

Book cover of Gwendy's Button Box

Richard Matheson’s “Button, Button” is a classic story of a couple given a box with a button on it that, if pressed, will yield them great riches…but will also kill someone unknown to them. Matheson’s most famous acolyte, Stephen King (who has said, “without Richard Matheson, I wouldn’t be around”), joins forces with master storyteller Richard Chizmar to create a short novel that is a fascinating variation and extension of Matheson’s tale.

Gwendy's Button Box

By Stephen King, Richard Chizmar,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Gwendy's Button Box as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A resonant novella set in one of King's signature locales: the small town of Castle Rock, Maine' Washington Post

The small town of CASTLE ROCK, MAINE has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one story that has never been told...until now.

There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs. Every day in the summer of 1974 twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson has taken the stairs, which are held by strong (if time-rusted) iron bolts and zig-zag up the cliffside.

At the…


Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

By Richard Matheson,

Book cover of Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

Richard Matheson is a horror legend for good reason, and most casual viewers of genre films and TV would probably be surprised at how much of his work they’ve encountered in some form or another. The Will Smith movie I Am Legend is adapted from his work. Steven Spielberg’s first film, Duel, as well. The paranoid Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is best known as a classic Twilight Zone episode, referenced and parodied numerous times in the decades since, but Matheson’s original reflects everything that’s great about his work: a fairly practical, everyman sort of protagonist (for the 1960s anyway) undone by an impossible situation.

Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

By Richard Matheson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Nightmare At 20,000 Feet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Personally selected by Richard Matheson, the bestselling author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come, the stories in Nightmare at 20,000 feet more than demonstrate why Matheson's regarded as one of our most influential horror writers.

Featuring the story "Duel," a nail-biting tale of man versus machines that inspired Steven Spielberg's first film.

Remember that monster on the wing of the airplane? William Shatner saw it on The Twilight Zone, John Lithgow saw it in the movie-even Bart Simpson saw it. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is just one of many classic horror stories by Richard Matheson that have…


Blindsight

By Peter Watts,

Book cover of Blindsight

What is consciousness? I wish more science fiction novels explored this question, so when I found one that combines an alien encounter with big ideas about life and the human condition, I got excited. Very excited. This novel explodes with creativity, from the way it depicts aliens who’ve arrived at the edge of the solar system to observe Earth, to a resurrected vampire (yes, you read that right) who’s been included on the space crew sent to investigate the alien outpost. The novel wrestles with the idea of what it means to be conscious, and whether humans, with their sense of selfhood and empathy, might be a deviation in the universe.

Blindsight

By Peter Watts,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Blindsight as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Two months have past since a myriad of alien objects clenched about the Earth, screaming as they burned. The heavens have been silent since until a derelict space probe hears whispers from a distant comet. Something talks out there: but not to us.Who should we send to meet the alien, when the alien doesn't want to meet?Send a linguist with multiple - personality disorder and a biologist so spliced with machinery that he can't feel his own flesh. Send a pacifist warrior and a vampire recalled from the grave by the voodoo of paleogenetics. Send a man with half his…


The Segonian

By Dianne Duvall,

Book cover of The Segonian

Diane is known for her Immortal Guardians Vampire series, but this spin-off to her fang world includes two things I love, vampires and aliens. I’d be remiss when mentioning alien romance if I didn’t include Ruby Dixon. Both stories expertly combine humor, drama, a heck of spice, and the supernatural excitement that keeps me reading.

The Segonian

By Dianne Duvall,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A USA TODAY Bestseller
One of the Best Audiobooks of 2021—AudioFile Magazine

New York Times bestselling author Dianne Duvall brings readers the second stand-alone novel in a thrilling new sci-fi romance series full of action, humor, and happily-ever-afters.

Eliana's life has never been what one might term ordinary. At least, it hasn't been for a very long time. As a powerful Immortal Guardian, she spends her nights hunting and slaying psychotic vampires that most of humanity doesn't even realize exist. Then an opportunity arises that instantly makes her extraordinary existence seem downright boring. The leader of the Immortal Guardians asks…


A Fire Upon the Deep

By Vernor Vinge,

Book cover of A Fire Upon the Deep

A Fire Upon the Deep is a galaxy-spanning book that’s about as wide in scope as you can hope to find. As difficult as it is to boil down into a paragraph, it remains a character-driven story that we follow episodically as we learn how they all relate. Whether it’s a pair of human siblings integrating with a strange pack of telepathic alien canines, or a human employee of a vast alien communication network working with an ancient universal entity to help save the galaxy, Vinge never shrinks from the most exotic of alien concepts, but—astoundingly—never loses the humanity of the tale.

A Fire Upon the Deep

By Vernor Vinge,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked A Fire Upon the Deep as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fleeing a menace of galactic proportions, a spaceship crashes on an unfamiliar world, leaving the survivors - a pair of children - to the not-so-tender mercies of a medieval, lupine race. Responding to the ship's distress signal, a rescue mission races against time to retrieve the children.


The Dragonriders of Pern

By Anne McCaffrey,

Book cover of The Dragonriders of Pern

I cut my young-adult teeth on the Dragonriders of Pern, and it contributed in large part to my fascination with dragons and subsequent dream of writing about them. McCaffrey’s dragonriders enjoyed such a long-enduring culture that many ancient, efficient ways of surviving were long forgotten to them. But now, while engaged in an unending battle against the thread—small, worm-like creatures invading their planet to prey on its biological matter—the dragonriders learn how severely they have been disadvantaged by the careless lapses in their cultural recordkeeping. This complexly interwoven and expansive cast of characters (which necessitates a glossary) unfolds the mysteries of dragons, dragonriders, and thread in surprising and creatively tangled ways.

The Dragonriders of Pern

By Anne McCaffrey,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Dragonriders of Pern as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Together in one volume—the first three books in the world’s most beloved science-fiction series!

DRAGONFLIGHT

On a beautiful world called Pern, an ancient way of life is about to come under attack. Lessa is an outcast survivor—her parents murdered, her birthright stolen—a strong young woman who has never stopped dreaming of revenge. But when an ancient threat reemerges, Lessa will rise—upon the back of a great dragon with whom she shares a telepathic bond more intimate than any human connection. Together, dragon and rider will fly, and Pern will be changed forever.

DRAGONQUEST

Since Lessa…


The White Dragon

By Anne McCaffrey,

Book cover of The White Dragon

This coming-of-age story centers on Jaxom, a young dragon rider and future lord of a hold, and his bonded dragon Ruth, a rare, small, and often silly white dragon. Jaxom thinks his greatest problem is the bullies who mock him for his status and his dragon’s unusual size, but as he strives to prove his naysayers wrong, he ends up thrown in the middle of political machinations far beyond what he could have dreamed. I love Ruth’s almost childlike nature and his fearless willingness to rise to whatever challenge they faced. Their friendship, and unique relationship with the tiny fire lizards of the land, was charming at every turn. 

The White Dragon

By Anne McCaffrey,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The White Dragon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Never had there been as close a bonding as the one that existed between the young Lord Jaxom and his extraordinary white dragon, Ruth. Pure white and incredibly agile, Ruth possessed remarkable qualities. Not only could he communicate with the iridescent, fluttering fire lizards, but he could fly. Back in time to any WHEN with unfailing accuracy. Nearly everyone else on Pern thought Ruth was a runt who would never amount to anything, but Jaxom knew his dragon was special. In secret they trained to fight against the burning threads from the Red Planet, to fly Back in time as…


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