Books like 'Starmind'
Readers who enjoyed Starmind by Spider Robinson & Jeanne Robinson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi romance space hard sci-fi action / adventure aliens space-travel space-opera
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Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
25 ratingsIn her first trial by fire, Cordelia Naismith captained a throwaway ship of the Betan Expeditionary Force on a mission to destroy an enemy armada...Categorized as:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook disability female-author female-mc -
The Ship Who Searched by Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey
24 ratingsA young woman becomes paralyzed and must become a brainship—and find her Brawn, her human soul mate, so that she can discover a cure for her illness.Tia Cade is a headstrong, smart, and very normal girl until she contracts a terrible illness that leaves her with the bare semblance of life... -
A Liaden Universe Constellation: Volume 4 by Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
6 ratingsBOOK 4 in the multivolume Liaden Universe® short fiction collection. Tales of the Liaden Universe® brought together for the first time. Space opera and romance on a grand scale in a galaxy full of interstellar trading clans... -
The Summer Queen by Joan D. Vinge
16 ratingsSequel To The Hugo Award-Winning Bestseller The Snow QueenThe Summer Queen is the extraordinary sequel to one of science fiction's most celebrated novels, The Snow Queen. Set in a fully realized universe of wonders, this spectacular space epic, itself a finalist for the Hugo Award, is one of the most remarkable novels in the field...Categorized as:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics female-author feminism -
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The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
26 ratingsHelva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved—saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner—male or female—to share her exhilarating escapades in space!Her life was to be rich and rewarding . .Categorized as:
aliens space-opera space-travel 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook classics -
Outsystem by M.D. Cooper
14 ratingsMajor Richards needs to get out of the Sol System Demoted by the military and hung out to dry, the media labels her the Butcher of Toro. Despite her soiled record, Tanis still one of the best military counter-insurgency officers in the Terran Space Force... -
Lightning Strike: Book 1 by Catherine Asaro
6 ratingsTina Pulivok is returning home one night to her tough Los Angeles neighborhood when she is saved from local thugs by a man who seems lost -- an understatement, as he and his advanced Jag ship arrived from a distant galaxy, a different timeline and an alternate universe... -
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
26 ratingsThis reissue of a modern classic of science fiction, the Hugo and Locus Award-winning and Nebula-nominated The Snow Queen, marks the first time the book has been reprinted in fifteen years.The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers... -
Boundary by Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor
14 ratingsWhat is a palaeontologist doing on Mars? A strange shaped fossil could help to explain one of the greatest mysteries of Earth's past. It warranted a big dig, one that could lead to the mother lode, and professional immortality...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera action-adventure archaeology book contemporary fiction hard-sci-fi -
Turbulence by Lyn Gala
12 ratingsCorporal Jacqs Glebov is a simple soldier who wants a bunk, decent food and the company of other battle-hardened men and women who understand the realities of fighting. Instead he's stuck patrolling a remote corner of the border with cadets straight out of boot camp. They don't understand him, and he sure doesn't have an ounce of respect for them... -
The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro, Ron Walotsky
12 ratingsWhen Kelric, a scion of the imperial family of Skolia, crash-lands his fighter on the off-limits planet of Coba, he figures it will be only a short time before he makes his way home. But he fails to account for the powerful matriarchy of Coba, the mistresses of the great estates who do not want the Empire to know about their recent cultural advances.First they take him prisoner...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction galactic-empire hard-sci-fi -
The Radiant Seas by Catherine Asaro
12 ratingsLiving in exile on a deserted planet, Sauscony and Jaibriol, each the heir to an interstellar empire, become entangled in the machinations of the Skolian Empire. Interstellar war erupts and Jaibriol is snatched away to be the unwilling ruler of the Highton Aristos. Sauscony must lead an invading space fleet to rescue him from his own Empire-without revealing that they are married... -
Overload Flux by Carol Van Natta
10 ratingsWhen the cure for a deadly disease is stolen, two misfits are all that stands between greed and intergalactic tragedy.Luka Foxe can’t let anyone know about his secret mental abilities. Debilitated by their influence when faced with violence, the brilliant forensic investigator now only takes assignments involving theft... -
The Final Key: Part Two of Triad by Catherine Asaro
10 ratingsCatherine Asaro has won numerous awards for her Saga of the Skolian Empire novels, including the Nebula Award and two Romantic Times awards for Best SF Novel. Combining cutting edge scientific theory with grand romantic adventure, this series represents space opera at its finest.The Final Key is the second half of the story arc known as Triad, which began in Schism...Categorized as:
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The Moon's Shadow by Catherine Asaro
10 ratingsAt the age of seventeen the young nobleman named Jaibriol Qox became ruler of a vast galactic empire-- and lost everything he had ever valued.Born of a clandestine liaison between a renegade daughter of the Skolian Imperialate and a scion of the genetically engineered Eubian Traders, Jai Qox grew up in exile, unaware of the powers that coursed through his noble blood...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure audiobook book espionage family fiction galactic-empire -
Dream Called Time by S.L. Viehl
8 ratingsFrom the national bestselling author of the Crystal Healer The newest book in the thrilling Stardoc series Dispatched to investigate an unidentified ship that has emerged from a mysterious rift in space, Cherijo discovers technology far more advanced than anything she's ever seen... -
Death's Head by Mel Keegan
6 ratingsIn the 23rd Century, two NARC captains are sent to discover and eliminate the source of lethal designer drug Angel: only their love for each other helps them survive when one is captured and forced into addiction... -
Aurora: Darwin by Amanda Bridgeman
6 ratingsA distress signal on the edge of inhabited space. A mission that is far outside normal parameters. Two very different people with one common goal - survival.When a distress signal is received from a black-ops space station on the edge of inhabited space, Captain Saul Harris of the UNF Aurora is called in from leave to respond. But the mission is not what it seems... -
Ascendant Sun by Catherine Asaro
12 ratingsAscendant Sun is the direct sequel to The Last Hawk, in which Kelric, heir to the Skolian Empire, crash-landed his fighter on the Restricted planet of Coba. He was imprisoned by the powerful mistresses of the great estates—women who, over time, fell in love with him. After 18 years of living in their gilded cage, Kelric finally made his escape...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction futuristic galactic-empire -
Spherical Harmonic by Catherine Asaro
10 ratingsSeparated for decades by circumstance and political machinations, the Ruby Dynasty, hereditary rulers of Skolia, struggle to bring together the tattered remnants of their family in the shadow of a disastrous interstellar war. Too many have died, others are presumed lost, yet Dyhianna, the Ruby Pharaoh, must move quickly if they are reassume their rightful place as rulers of the Skolian Empire...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction galactic-empire hard-sci-fi -
Schism by Catherine Asaro
10 ratingsIn 2002, Catherine Asaro won the Nebula Award for The Quantum Rose, the sixth novel in her Saga of the Skolian Empire. This very same novel was also named Best SF Novel by the Romantic Times. Schism: Part One of Triad is the tenth novel in this multiple award-winning series, and represents an excellent entry point into the series...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book coming-of-age dystopia female-author -
World's End by Joan D. Vinge
12 ratingsHot on the heels of The Summer Queen, this novel is a must-read for fans of Vinge's Hugo Award-winning series. BZ Gundhalinu, a policeman who became an outcast after saving the future Summer Queen, quits his job to follow his ne'er-do-well brothers into the godforsaken waste, World's End, to prospect. BZ's odyssey will set the stage for The Summer Queen...Categorized as:
space-opera 20th-century action-adventure adult book classics fairy-tale female-author -
Caretaker by Josi Russell
12 ratingsFifty years in space—alone.Ethan Bryant was supposed to fall asleep on a ship leaving Earth and wake up fifty years later with his family on the planet Minea. Instead, after the ship’s caretaker—the lone human in charge of monitoring the ship’s vital systems—suddenly died, the ship’s computer locked Ethan out of his stasis chamber and gave him the job. That was five years ago...Categorized as:
aliens space-opera action-adventure audiobook book colonization fiction first-contact -
Skyfall by Catherine Asaro
12 ratingsThe Birth of an EmpireSkyfall goes back to the very roots of Skolia, showing how a chance meeting on a backwater planet forges a vast interstellar empire. Eldrinson, a provincial ruler on a primitive planet, is plagued by inner demons...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction galactic-empire hard-sci-fi -
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Steel Beneath the Skin by Niall Teasdale
14 ratingsThe idea was simple enough for the alien race who took Aneka Jansen from Earth in 2011. Take a human, make her into a perfect tool to observe humanity from the inside, and so determine how best to advance this young race into their future. Unfortunately for them, and her, their plans went awry, and Aneka became the only survivor on a dead ship marooned in deep space... -
Catch the Lightning by Catherine Asaro
14 ratingsIn the distant future, the Skolian empire rules one third of the human galaxy, and is the most powerful of all. For the ruling family has the power of telepathy, and through it, the ability to communicate faster than light across the interstellar space. but their most determined enemy, the traders, who thrive on human pain, need to interbreed with a Skolian to gain their powers...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book fiction futuristic -
Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro
16 ratingsThe Skolian Empire rules a third of the civilized galaxy through its mastery of faster-than-light communication. But war with the rival empire of the Traders seems imminent, a war that can only lead to slavery for the Skolians or the destruction of both sides. Destructive skirmishes have already occurred. A desperate attempt must be made to avert total disaster... -
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
25 ratingsLeo Graf was an effective engineer...Safety Regs weren't just the rule book he swore by; he'd helped write them. All that changed on his assignment to the Cay Habitat. Leo was profoundly uneasy with the corporate exploitation of his bright new students—till that exploitation turned to something much worse... -
The Cold Between by Elizabeth Bonesteel
13 ratingsWhen her crewmate Danny is murdered on the colony of Volhynia, Central Corps engineer Commander Elena Shaw is shocked to learn the main suspect is her lover, Treiko Zajec. She knows Trey is innocent—he was with her when Danny was killed...Categorized as:
space-opera space-travel 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook book conspiracies -
Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson, Sarah Zettel
6 ratingsAn Imploding Star System.A Murdered Galactic Spy.A Woman Seeking the Truth—and Finding the Unbelievable…The Erasmus System is a sprawling realm of slavery, smugglers, spies—and constant, creeping decrepitude. Here everyone who is not part of the ruling Four Families is a slave of one kind or another...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure adult book colonization espionage fiction galactic-empire -
Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi
14 ratingsAlana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils...Categorized as:
space-opera action-adventure book contemporary disability female-author female-mc feminism -
In the Quick by Kate Hope Day
14 ratingsGOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • A young, ambitious female astronaut’s life is upended by a love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew in this brilliantly imagined novel “with echoes of Station Eleven, The Martian, and, yes, Jane Eyre” (Observer).“The female astronaut novel we never knew we needed...Categorized as:
space-opera space-travel action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary drama
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