Fans pick 56 books like Revenant

Honestly, I couldn’t put this book down. I read Rogue Elements during a summer vacation on a lovely North Sea island and I had to force myself to have a break and go out for some bicycling and beach fun.

John Jackson Miller just had me hooked with his tale of dashing (but also sad and often drunken) ex-Starfleet officer Cristóbal Rios – introduced in Star Trek: Picard – living through a hilarious adventure while at the same time trying to find a new purpose in life after being cashiered out of his career because of some fishy diplomatic affair.

Grumpy gangsters, a dangerous woman, strange new crew members, and the hunt for a secret treasure keep Rios on the run throughout the whole novel. 

It’s been years since I read this book, but it still resonates in my mind. I was intrigued by this novel back then because it used Valeris as the main protagonist (Spock, while on the cover, only has some cameos).

Valeris, played by the wonderful Kim Cattrall, was one of the traitors trying to disrupt peace talks between the Klingons and the Federation in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Now it is seven years later, and the peace is still fragile. A new conspiracy is taking place, and Valeris, with the help of DS9 relaunch protagonist Elias Vaughan and Captain Sulu on the Excelsior, has to sort it out.

I still love the setting telling a sequel to one of the best Star Trek movies ever and I love this group of characters that are not of Kirk or Picard fame, but very interesting “supporting actors” that can… show more.

The scope of the multi-book project just blew me away the first time I heard about it. Telling the story of how the Federation came to be struck me as so ambitious that, as an author, I was in awe. I got the job of translating this book series into German, and I really loved the complexity of Bennetts' world(s) building.

The first book is set after the Romulan War and it follows the ex-crew of the NX-01 Enterprise – Archer, T’Pol, Reed, etc. – as they try to forge the future.

The book shows how difficult it is to unite peoples culturally, technologically, and militarily, to get new member worlds, and to deal with galactic neighbors that try to undermine the “new power” out of fear. A book that really made me think about interstate cooperation on Earth as well.

Many Star Trek books are about dangers threatening a starship, a colony, or even a planet. “Hold my beer,” said Mack – and let the Borg, this mechanical hive-mind terror, invade the whole Alpha and Beta Quadrant of our galaxy.

Star Trek Destiny (a trilogy, but you can buy it as an omnibus edition) depicts a catastrophe on a scale that’s hardly imaginable. I can’t tell you how much I was on the edge of my seat when the first armada of Borg cubes arrived – with no intention of assimilating anyone at all!

Although there are world-breaking tragedies to be witnessed, the book is not all about fighting battles. It also delves into the origin of the Borg, and it concludes their overall story arc in a very “trekkie” way. I like that a lot!

Okay, it’s the second book in the tremendously popular series The Expanse (perhaps you’ve heard of this little series turned TV show), but it’s also my favorite. That’s because Corey ramps up the intrigue as Mars, Earth, and the Belt find themselves enmeshed in an open war that has some decidedly murky underpinnings. This volume also introduces two of the series' best and most memorable characters: Martian marine Bobbie Draper and savvy Earth politician Chrisjen Avasarala. The book kicks off with a bang, and doesn’t let up, concluding with perhaps one of the most page-turning action sequences I’ve ever read.

Fergus Ferguson is an ordinary man who just happens to be good at one thing – finding stuff. So he becomes an intergalactic repo man, and when the book starts he’s been tasked with finding a stolen starship, as one does. 

He’s also found himself wrapped up in a civil war and a possible alien invasion.

This book is a little darker than the others on the list, in that Fergus has a lot of personal baggage to deal with, the people behind the civil war aren’t nice, and it’s really hard to figure out what the aliens want. But the darkness is leavened by Fergus’s humor and strong moral code. 

It’s also book one of a (very nicely tied-up) trilogy.

Ender Wiggin is such a fascinating and deep character. Those who read only Ender’s Game miss out on so much! I was floored when I read this second book in the series. The main character, Ender Wiggins, goes from a boy soldier trained to destroy the enemy to a grown man desperate to prevent another genocide.

I also love the idea of using relativistic travel to stay alive for millennia and witness humanity's development. Card does an excellent job of writing a deep set of characters, making us feel like we could step into their shoes if called upon.

Did you ever hear about the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? If you’re a Star Wars fan, this is the book that really humanizes the evil side of the galaxy far, far away. While it has the typical sorcery, lightsaber fights, and sweeping space opera, this book, at its core, is the story of a dark father-son relationship. Even the overarching villain of the Star Wars saga, Palpatine, is given a lot of backstory, depth, and humanity in this story. I read this book in college, and it’s what spurred my writing journey.

We all love second chances, or at least the idea of them, fantasizing about the life we could have lived if we could do it all over again. This book reads like pure wish-fulfillment initially, with senior citizens having their minds transferred to cloned and upgraded young bodies and sent off to fight aliens.

And this book definitely hits me harder as I get older. But a second chance is also no guarantee that you’ll be any wiser (or luckier) this time around. Still, all in all, yeah, I’d be down for a super version of me that gets to fly around the universe.  

Scalzi transports us to his ever-exciting Old Man's War universe for a retelling of the novel The Last Colony from a teen's perspective. Aliens, adventure, and young love abound in Zoe's Tale, a story sure to delight Scalzi fans and is an excellent entry point for young adult readers interested in his brand of witty sci-fi.

With Zoe's Tale, Scalzi demonstrates one key to a compelling story is a fantastic protagonist. Zoe is just that. She is engaging, stubborn, snarky, a true friend, an angsty teen, and brave. Readers who enjoy Scalzi's clever prose will find the fact Zoe's Tale is a retelling of The Last Colony immaterial. That's how captivating a character Zoe is.