100 books like Ready Player One

Like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Frank Herbert’s book tells the story of a man who could be the villain or the hero, depending on who you ask. I love watching how an intelligent yet malleable person can be swept up in feelings of duty, responsibility, and leadership only to make highly questionable decisions.

Paul Atreides’ moral ambiguity is undeniably engineered by the shifting and slimy political landscape of the Dune universe, driving home the idea in my mind that good worldbuilding can set the stage for truly complicated characters.

Philip K. Dick’s seminal work basically jumpstarted the cyberpunk genre. It gives the genre form and breathes life into its android shell. The scope of Dick’s impact on science fiction and pop culture cannot be overstated.

I love this book because it delves into deep philosophical questions about consciousness, empathy, and what it means to be human. As a cop myself, I love Deckard’s character development, especially as he struggles with the morality of his actions in a world where humans and replicants are virtually indistinguishable.

The premise of a fussy angel and a fast-living demon positions the book with humor, which I absolutely loved. As the plot unfolds, we discover that these two figures have been living on Earth for thousands of years and enjoying it. So when the demon receives word that the Apocalypse is upon them, they conspire together to subvert the ancient prophecy that predicts the world's end. LOL

The ingenuity and cleverness of these authors are top-notch, starting with the character names: The demon character is Crawley. If you recall, Satan was made a snake in the Garden of Eden after tempting Adam and Eve. But it doesn’t stop there. Crawley creates a motorway that emanates evil, with all of the issues associated with that. LOL.

This book is the story of Diana and Matthew, who share a love throughout the ages. I love how, after years of shunning her craft, Diana begins to embrace her identity as a witch and how she evolves with that acceptance.

Matthew also must come to terms with his own dark origins, and together, with the power of their love, I love how they seek to change the rules of the supernatural world they are a part of for the acceptance of those who are different from them.

I fell in love with Katniss from the very beginning. I was the oldest daughter in a single-parent family and had to take over and care for my younger sisters a lot of times because my father was dysfunctional. So I get it. The whole concept is horrifying to me—children forced to kill each other—but following along as Katniss manages to defeat the fate waiting for her inspired me.

I related to how she did most of it on her own, seeing as she had been let down by her mother, her country, and, later, those she thought were friends. Trust is so important and valuable for young people to have, and so easy to destroy.

I first read this book back in 2004 when I was spending way too much time with MMO games. This YA novel is certainly a product of a time where the tech of today was within sight but social media and smartphones didn't exist as we know them now. But the story more than makes up for this unfortunate timing with its witty characters, a structure reminiscent of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books and a fantasy game setting that leads this book to cross genres. I’m a big fan of sci-fi stories that follow the “Groundhog Day” structure like Returnal and Edge of Tomorrow. Do-overs are a crucial part of gaming and this novel builds that idea into its core premise while adding a unique twist.

At a whopping 1,152 pages, Stephen King’s The Stand was just too much to capture in a single movie.

That’s why, in 1994, CBS adapted it across four, ninety-minute episodes of a limited run “mini-series” (a fancy way of saying “a really long movie”). In all fairness, it had a great cast and was better than it had any right to be, and was far more enjoyable than CBS’s 2020 attempt at a do-over.

But even with a total six-hour runtime, it couldn’t capture all the story, heart, and nuance that made the book so incredible. It’s a feat to read, one I did to pass the time when bored in school, and one I will surely do again in the future.

If Reamde is an international adventure, this book is an interstellar one. I don’t want to spoil anything about it, other than to say it is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. It’s a brilliant page-turner with the highest of possible stakes.

Andy Weir also wrote The Martian to give you an idea of the genre and feel of PHM. It’s everything a sci-fi book should be, and it definitely makes me wish we could reach for the stars. Don’t read anything about what this book is about. If you like sci-fi, just go in blind. It’s worth it.

I really like this book because it shows the downsides of being too optimistic about technology. It makes you think about the moral issues and social effects of artificial intelligence.

The story is interesting because it looks at how much privacy we have and what we should know in this age of digital spying. It's a warning about these things, and I found it thought-provoking.

This book seems a bit strange at first, when the story begins with Moon-Watcher, the leader of a tribe of early ape-man, who struggles for survival during the brutal Pleistocene ice age. After an alien monolith appears, it seems to advance the way he thinks, leading him to develop crude weapons. When the same monolith is discovered in the future, we seem fated to find the answers behind the eerie structure. Skipping to a team of astronauts who travel aboard a ship to further investigate, things take an unexpected turn when the ship’s A.I. called HAL-9000, gets very confused about keeping secrets. Something about the way it remains so polite while it deceives the crew, is enough to give anyone a nightmare.