100 books like The Sunlit Man

It took me two reads to actually like this book, which is probably not the best way to start this, but in Ursula K. Le Guin, we trust. This book is fascinating not just in content but also set up, as its chapters always follow the main character, Shevek, but alternate between two timelines spent on either the lush planet Urras or its desolate moon Anarres.

I loved the juxtaposition of the two and how the book challenged me to see all the similarities hiding beneath the glaring differences between these worlds and their people. Le Guin is unafraid to explore so many different kinds of societies here, and I always recommend this book to friends looking for a “thinker” sci-fi novel.

This was a book club choice, and as soon as I finished it, I bought the other two books in the trilogy. I literally couldn’t put them down! Another post-apocalypse for this list, this time, the story is told through the memories of Jimmy/Snowman. But make no mistake, the novel is about Crake, a brilliant, lonely, and terrifying young man.

As Jimmy tries to recover his past, shadowed by the gentle, green-skinned ‘children of Crake,’ he recalls the events leading up to the end of humanity. This is very much a mystery, so I must be careful what I reveal, but if you are all about misguided genius and hubris, you will adore this novel. Needless to say, with an author like Atwood, the writing is superb. 

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.

This one-of-a-kind comedy turned the sci-fi genre on its head. With outrageous ideas pitched in a fast-paced and verbose style, Douglas stole the hearts of many young readers.

I especially loved the long-winded explanations of ridiculous but compelling things, often written in Thurberesque run-on sentences that lead the reader on a wild goose chase of logic before coming together in tight little conclusions.

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.

No list of character-driven sci-fi novels is complete without something from Timothy Zahn. Take a hardboiled detective, a mysterious and beautiful assistant, and a nefarious and unknown villain. Now add in trains in space!

This one is a page-turner, and not just because the idea of riding relativistic rails is so fascinating. Zahn excels at writing surprisingly complex characters whose motivations change as the story progresses. I read this entire five-book series from front to back and loved every minute.

I’m new to Jenny Schwartz’s writing, but I find her books hard to put down! It’s character-driven sci-fi at its best. In this series, you follow two excellent characters, Nora and Liam. Nora ultimately becomes a bit of a Mary Sue. Still, her journey to power and influence is fascinating, and it’s a lot of fun watching her face down and outmaneuver those who consider themselves her better.

I also love how Schwartz throws you curveballs. Those you think are enemies unexpectedly become friends, and vice versa. It’s one of the best ways I’ve seen an author drive home how wrong our first impressions of people often are.

I toyed with recommending a different book by Adrian Tchaikovsky for this but ultimately went with this one because it is one of the most wildly imaginative books I’ve ever read. Tchaikovsky could have settled for speculating on one or two different evolutionary alternate histories of Earth, but nah. He went for ten.

I was so drawn into the way he developed societies around which species had become the surviving dominant in each timeline, from the trilobites to the rodents and everything in between. This book takes the question “What if?” and chucks it out the window with the strength of an Olympic shot put athlete without sacrificing raw character, emotion, and connections. I loved every page.

It was Spirit Legacy’s cover that drew me in, but it was the ghosts that kept me reading. I love the paranormal and I especially enjoy unique stories with strong characters. Holmes created both with this series. Her pairing of the protagonist, free-spirited Jess Ballard, with Tia, an ultra-organized and grounded roommate, makes for some hilarious situations. I love these two together. As the story progresses, intrigue builds, strange phenomena occur, and motives are questioned. Someone has deadly intentions, but who? No one’s beyond suspicion. Not even Jess’s friends or her family. Holmes kept me guessing right to the end. Thankfully, this is a series, so I have more books to enjoy.

The Mongols only form one part of Nomads in the Middle East which paints on a far broader canvas, looking at the long-term history of relations between nomads and agricultural societies in the Middle East.  Spanning from the seventh century all the way up to the modern era, and discussing peoples as diverse as the Bedouin, the Seljuk Turks, and of course the Mongols, Beatrice Forbes Manz provides an incredible overview of the role played by nomadic societies in shaping this region. For those interested in the Mongols, this book helps us to take a step back and a take panoramic view of their actions within a much longer timeline.