65 books like The Simulacrum

Andy Weir was one of my favorite sci-fi authors the moment I finished reading The Martian, so I had to read his first contact novel as soon as it was published. As a hard science fiction fan, I appreciated that the author “did the math” when describing problems that arose and the solutions that were implemented during a do-or-die mission to save the Earth.

Having said that, math was one of my least favorite subjects in school, but the author made the technical details easy to understand and very interesting. I also appreciated that the extraterrestrial was written to be alien in so many aspects instead of relying on an often-used human-like alien trope.

As a big fan of xenofiction, I appreciated that large parts of the book were written from the perspective of non-humans. I loved the author’s imagination, which, while innovative, never strayed into the implausible.

I was very interested in the timespan of thousands of years and the concept of accelerated evolution, and I found the intelligent, massive spiders to be both creepy and fascinating. For me, Children of Time was a good page-turner and a great read.

I loved this wonderful novel. There was no need for pitched battles in space or even any villains in this story of a scientist marooned on a planet with a hostile environment. I was drawn in by the main character, Juna, and the inhabitants of the planet–the Tendu. To save Juna, the Tendu had to adapt her body while they prepared for the inevitable return of the humans.

I became emotionally invested in the story as Juna faced the poignant decision of whether to return to Earth or remain with her Tendu friends and the young Tendu she adopted. By the end of the story, I felt a whole range of emotions–both sad and uplifting.

I’m including this book in my list since it is the first book I have ever read that tells a story of human-alien interaction from the extraterrestrial’s perspective–A theme that has held my interest to this day. I liked the main character, Ryo, an agricultural engineer of the insectoid thranx species, and I appreciated how the thranx and humans overcame their differences to form an alliance, which became known in later books as the “Humanx Commonwealth”.

Sterling burst onto the SF scene with a crash and clatter when I was in high school, and this book, while perhaps not his very best work, is certainly his most creative.

I loved the fact that the aliens were investors rather than conquerors and also the fact that human beings were diverging along so many different vectors that we were rapidly becoming alien to one another.

“Why should I read this book you ask?”, well it won the Nebula award for best novella in 1979, and the Hugo award in 1980, it was made into a movie in the mid-eighties, at the time I didn’t read much, so I’d seen a pretty good Hollywood movie about a human space fighter pilot, fighting a race call the Drac. Later I read a book of the same name, not realising until a few chapters in that I’d seen the movie years before!

The interesting part was, that because they only fought via space fighter craft, neither race had seen the other. Two pilots crash land on an inhospitable planet during a space battle, one Human the other Drac.

Initially the pair have nothing but hatred for one another, pre-programmed by their respective governments, yet must rely on one another for survival.

While stranded they learn of one another’s… show more.

What I love most about this story is the fresh new take on ‘the aliens among us.’ The author picks a ‘backwoods country boy’ to confront and eventually be chased by powerful creatures from outer space. Lucky for the country boy, he is given some superpowers to help him survive.

I liked how the story moved along with snappy enthusiasm (this is the first of six volumes).

Ammonite starts in space and lands on an alien world but brings plenty of Earth’s history along with it. Human settlers that lost an age ago, transformed by a virus that only women survive but allows them to reproduce, have spread across this world. Anthropologist Marghe Taishan faces down nomadic horse archers and gets lost in pastoral folkways both new and familiar. She deconstructs her future and rebuilds herself out of the past. Ammonite’s new world shows us how our world might have looked if different paths were taken.

This is hefty, recent, authoritative, and well written (the author’s CV includes a Pulitzer Prize nomination).

Over a lengthy historic account, he spins the twin stories of the search by scientists for extraterrestrial life and the – usually – amateur search by ufologists for evidence to support their claims that aliens are already visiting us. Garrett Graff explores the contradictions.

He is clear and concise on the strength and weakness each side’s efforts, and insightful in those moments when both sides have briefly collaborated. For a beginner to the subject who wants the shortest route to becoming truly knowledgeable, this is the perfect primer.

C.S. Lewis is widely known for his children’s book series, The Chronicles of Narnia. His list of publications is, however, much longer. This little volume of essays gives a reader (or a writer) insight into how the form of a story shapes its meaning. For instance, he writes about stories for children and how some authors mistakenly think that children are only interested in childish things. He compares that to people who have the gift of being able to access the child that is still in them and speak with them in a shared experience. 

Of science fiction, he shares the difference between an author who is a creator of worlds, and one who rearranges alien props to make a pedestrian story appear clever. The key is a story that makes contact with the reader.