Books like 'The Original'
Readers who enjoyed The Original by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal & Julia Whelan also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
futuristic sc-fi mystery action / adventure dystopia crime cyberpunk espionage suspense assassins
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Fade by Ais, Santino Hassell
16 ratingsIn the Company of Shadows series description:Years after the bombs of WWIII have changed the physical and political landscape, the Agency ruthlessly works behind the scenes to take down rebel groups that threaten the current government. Their goals justify all means. Hsin Liu Vega (Sin) is their most efficient and deadly assassin ever... -
The Interludes by Santino Hassell, Ais
16 ratingsThe Interludes is an anthology of stand alone stories that exist between Book #2 (Afterimage) and Book #4 (Fade) of the In The Company of Shadows series. This anthology contains key plot points and major development of characters and relationships that cannot be missed...Categorized as:
assassins crime dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense abuse action-adventure -
Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez
28 ratingsThe propulsive, shockingly plausible sequel to New York Times bestseller Daemon, the "Greatest. Techno-thriller. Period."**William O'Brien, former director of cybersecurity and communications systems policy at the White House2009 saw one of the most inventive techno-thriller debuts in decades as Daniel Suarez introduced his terrifying and tantalizing vision of a new world order...Categorized as:
crime cyberpunk dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense 21st-century action-adventure -
Born of Fire by Sherrilyn Kenyon
24 ratingsIn a universe where assassins make the law, everyone lives in fear--except for Syn. Born of an illicit scandal that once rocked a dynasty, he always knew how to survive on the bloodthirsty streets. But that was then, and the future is now…Syn was raised as a tech-thief until his livelihood uncovered a truth that could end his life...Categorized as:
assassins dystopia female-mc political-intrigue suspense abuse action-adventure adult -
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The Unraveling by Hugh Howey
24 ratingsThere is a legend in their past of an uprising, a war they have learned about, but have learned nothing fromNobody knows what went wrong. Nobody talks about what happened. Such are the silo taboos.Now, nearly two hundred years later, the people of the Silo will get a chance to learn more about that distant uprising.They'll get to start one of their own.. -
The First City by Joe Hart
18 ratingsIn the thrilling conclusion to Joe Hart’s Dominion Trilogy, Zoey discovers who she truly is—and who she must become. Zoey has only ever known a world with few women and a society capable of unimaginable evil. Now she’s about to learn she may be the only hope it has for salvation... -
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
18 ratingsMary Robinette Kowal continues her award-winning Lady Astronaut series, which began with The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, with The Relentless Moon.The Earth is coming to the boiling point as the climate disaster of the Meteor strike becomes more and more clear, but the political situation is already overheated. Riots and sabotage plague the space program...Categorized as:
crime dystopia espionage female-mc political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult -
Executed by R.R. Haywood
18 ratingsThe team of heroes extracted from their timelines to stop the impending apocalypse didn’t think they needed a leader.But they’ve got one anyway.With their mission in tatters, Miri has been called in to steady the ship. And to focus them on their assignment: preventing the end of the world.The problem is, the world doesn’t know it’s in danger...Categorized as:
crime dystopia female-mc suspense action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic -
In the Shadows by Hailey Turner
14 ratingsTake a chance. Staff Sergeant Alexei Dvorkin doesn’t trust easily, and he most certainly doesn’t trust spies. He’ll work with them if ordered to, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it. Except Agent Sean Delaney is proving to be the exception to the rule. There’s something about Sean that gets under Alexei’s skin and won’t let go...Categorized as:
crime dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc -
War Song by B.R. Kingsolver
14 ratingsMy name is Danica James. I'm a cop with the Arcane Division.My job is to protect humanity from monsters - whether they be human or creatures from the Rift. It beats sitting in a factory cubical all day, which is where magiteks usually work.Most of humanity hates the magic users who rule the world, but the Magi stand between humans and the creatures who came across the Rift...Categorized as:
crime suspense female-mc assassins cyberpunk political-intrigue romance urban-fantasy -
Daemon by Daniel Suarez
33 ratingsA high-tech thriller for the wireless age that explores the unthinkable consequences of a computer program running without human control—a daemon—designed to dismantle society and bring about a new world orderTechnology controls almost everything in our modern-day world, from remote entry on our cars to access to our homes, from the flight controls of our airplanes to the movements of the entire...Categorized as:
crime cyberpunk dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense 21st-century action-adventure -
Afterimage by Ais, Santino Hassell
16 ratingsIn the Company of Shadows is a series about two people who are thrown together as partners in a secret agency; their mission is to disband rebels who have propagated in a post-war future, but they have to deal with everything that comes with an unlikely partnership as well...Categorized as:
assassins crime dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense abuse action-adventure -
Warcross by Marie Lu
44 ratingsFor the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally... -
Out of the Ashes by Hailey Turner
10 ratingsWar never leaves a soldier behind. Staff Sergeant Alexei Dvorkin is still healing from his brief stint as a prisoner of war. While his physical wounds have mended, the emotional scars left behind are slow to disappear...Categorized as:
crime dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc -
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1/27: An ICoS Anthology by Ais, Santino Hassell
12 ratingsJanuary 27, 2027 - One day around the world.Weeks after the last page of the In the Company of Shadows series, seven stories show glimpses of the lives of fifteen characters, scattered across the globe. In Ireland, an unexpected reunion takes a terrible turn. In Australia, the tides are changing while those involved never stop watching...Categorized as:
assassins dystopia political-intrigue suspense abuse action-adventure adult alpha-mc -
Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
25 ratingsA rich Komarran merchant fleet has been impounded at Graf Station, in distant Quaddiespace, after a bloody incident on the station docks involving a security officer from the convoy's Barrayaran military escort. Lord Miles Vorkosigan of Barrayar and his wife, Lady Ekaterin, have other things on their minds, such as getting home in time to attend the long-awaited births of their first children... -
Silenced: The Wrath of God Descends by Jerry B. Jenkins
14 ratingsEnter the continuing story of double agent Paul Stepola as he works to protect his fellow believers from the government that is trying to eliminate them. The underground church is in mortal peril following the apocalyptic events in Los Angeles, which have only cast further suspicion upon Christians...Categorized as:
dystopia political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book -
The Overlord Protocol by Mark Walden
20 ratingsHOW FAR WILL OTTO GO TO PROTECT HIS FRIENDS? Otto Malpense and his friends thought their first year at the Higher Institute of Villainous Education was the most adventurous and exciting that they would ever encounter. They were dead wrong...Categorized as:
crime dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense action-adventure anti-hero audiobook -
Missing in Death by J.D. Robb
20 ratingsJ. D. Robb’s In Death novels have been praised as “Law & Order: SVU – in the future” (Entertainment Weekly). Now, together for the first time in one volume, are three stories that spotlight Lieutenant Eve Dallas doing what she does best: solving crime with skill, integrity, and passion. Eternity in Death A seductive killer is luring in victims with a promise of the impossible – immortality...Categorized as:
assassins crime female-mc political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc -
The Syndicate by Sophie Davis
8 ratingsIn a future where time travel has been outlawed, a black market exists for anyone with the money, connections, and nerve to request items from days past... -
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
32 ratingsAmbassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court...Categorized as:
crime dystopia espionage female-mc political-intrigue suspense 21st-century action-adventure -
Raksha by Frankie Rose
14 ratings** Please note: The title of Raksha has been changed to Halo **She has no name. She has her knives; her training; her halo. The first and second give her the tools and the skill to defeat the opponents she is pitched against each month. The third frees her from pain and fear. From any kind of emotion at all. Everything is as it should be... -
Evenfall Volume One by Santino Hassell, Ais
16 ratingsIn a post-apocalyptic future, the Agency works behind the scenes to take down opposition groups that threaten the current government. Their goals justify all means, even when it comes to their own agents.Sin is the Agency's most efficient killer. His fighting skills and talent at assassination have led to him being described as a living weapon... -
Apex by Ramez Naam
18 ratingsGlobal unrest spreads as mass protests advance throughout the US and China, Nexus-upgraded riot police battle against upgraded protestors, and a once-dead scientist plans to take over the planet's electronic systems. The world has never experienced turmoil of this type, on this scale.They call them the Apex - humanity's replacement. They're smarter, faster, better. And infinitely more dangerous... -
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Evenfall by Ais, Santino Hassell
19 ratingsNOTE FROM THE AUTHORS:This is the OLD version of Evenfall. An updated, heavily revised, and partially re-written edition of Evenfall can be found under Evenfall Volume 1: Director's Cut and Evenfall Volume 2: Director's CutThe authors strongly suggest new readers download the new edition.After September 21, 2014, the old edition will no longer be available for download...Categorized as:
assassins crime dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense abuse action-adventure -
A Better World by Marcus Sakey
24 ratingsThe brilliants changed everything.Since 1980, 1% of the world has been born with gifts we’d only dreamed of. The ability to sense a person’s most intimate secrets, or predict the stock market, or move virtually unseen. For thirty years the world has struggled with a growing divide between the exceptional...and the rest of us.Now a terrorist network led by brilliants has crippled three cities...Categorized as:
crime dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult alternate-history -
Eden Burning by Niall Teasdale
6 ratingsArtificial life is a hot-button topic in the summer of 2061. BioTek Microtechnologies have revealed Eve, the first real bioroid, and the rights of AIs and other infomorphs are on everyone’s mind, at least partially because MarTech now has the capability to digitise the human brain... -
State of Alliance by Summer Lane
8 ratingsNOW AVAILABLE!There is no such thing as safe. For Commander Cassidy Hart, staying alive is only one of her day-to-day problems. As a newly minted Senator of the State of California, she must travel to Monterey Bay with the hope of bringing an agreement between the militia forces and the Pacific Northwest Alliance as the United States desperately battles against the shadow invasion forces of Omega... -
Digital Divide by K.B. Spangler
10 ratingsRachel Peng misses the Army. Her old life in Criminal Investigation Command hadn’t been easy, but she had enjoyed it. Now, as the first cyborg liaison to the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police, Rachel is usually either bored senseless or is fighting off harassment from her coworkers... -
The Churn by James S.A. Corey
25 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author James S.A. Corey...Before his trip to the stars, before the Rocinante, Amos Burton's was confined to a Baltimore where crime paid you or killed you. Unless the authorities got to you first.Set in the hard-scrabble solar system of Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate and the upcoming Cibola Burn, Beloved of Broken Things deepens James S. A... -
Biochips by William Gibson
32 ratingsTurner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: Maas-Neotek's chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he's perfected...Categorized as:
crime cyberpunk dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
Winter's Edge by Mike Sheridan
6 ratingsThe year is 2047. Seven years after a global war has devastated mankind, the apparatus of the old security state has rebuilt itself into an even greater monster: the Strata State. But this time there's a difference--The Outzone. A choice too dangerous for most to consider. Not Frank Brogan... -
Caged by Elin Wyn
6 ratingsNo Past. No Trust. No Way Out.Zayda Caiden relies on no one. An Imperial spy, her mission was betrayed - but she doesn't know the identity of the traitor.And there's certainly no reason to trust the giant of a man dumped at the prison clinic, even if he makes her burn with feelings she thought long buried.Mack has no memory, no real name... -
The Ballad of Bad Jack by Anthony Ryan
6 ratingsThe Asteroid Belt, home to mining corporations and those who prefer to live beyond the heavily policed habitats of Earth orbit - the perfect hunting ground for Bad Jack, captain of the Dead Reckoning and the most feared pirate in the solar system... -
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Why You Were Taken by J.T. Lawrence
6 ratingsImagine discovering your murdered parents were really your abductors. Then you find out you're on the hit list, too. In tomorrow's world, a troubled woman approaches Kirsten with a warning and a wafer key and is later found dead...Categorized as:
cyberpunk dystopia female-mc political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
Europe at Dawn by Dave Hutchinson
8 ratingsAlice works at the Scottish Embassy in Tallinn in Estonia as a member of the Cultural Section. When two men bring her the jewelled skull of a Scottish saint her world gets turned on its head, and she becomes the latest recruit to Les Coureurs des Bois.On a Greek island Benno is just one of hundreds of refuges dreaming of a new life in Continental Europe...Categorized as:
dystopia espionage political-intrigue action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
The Robots of Gotham by Todd McAulty
10 ratingsAfter long years of war, the United States has sued for peace, yielding to a brutal coalition of nations ruled by fascist machines. One quarter of the country is under foreign occupation. Manhattan has been annexed by a weird robot monarchy, and in Tennessee, a permanent peace is being delicately negotiated between the battered remnants of the U.S. government and an envoy of implacable machines...Categorized as:
cyberpunk dystopia espionage political-intrigue action-adventure adult ai apocalyptic -
Europe in Winter by Dave Hutchinson
10 ratingsRudi, the former chef-turned-spy, returns on a mission to uncover the truth—in a fractured Europe utterly changed by the public unveiling of the Community.Union has been forged and the Community is now the largest nation in Europe; trains run there from as far afield as London and Prague. It is an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity... -
Borderless by Eliot Peper
10 ratingsInformation is power, and whoever controls the feed rules the world in this all-too-plausible follow-up to the science fiction thriller Bandwidth.Exiled from Washington after a covert operation gone wrong, Diana is building a new life as a freelance spy, though her obsessive secrecy is driving away the few friends and allies she can count on...Categorized as:
cyberpunk dystopia political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Havoc by Ann Aguirre
14 ratingsThe Conglomerate’s most dangerous convicts have made the prison ship Perdition their home. And they will defend it…Perdition is under siege. Mercenaries have boarded the station with orders to take control of the facility—and execute the prisoners. Their commander is offering full pardons to the first five inmates willing to help the mercs complete their mission...Categorized as:
assassins crime cyberpunk dystopia female-mc political-intrigue action-adventure aliens -
Fire Country by David Estes
14 ratingsIn a changed world where the sky bleeds red, winter is hotter than hell and full of sandstorms, and summer's even hotter with raging fires that roam the desert-like country, the Heaters manage to survive, barely. Due to toxic air, life expectancies are so low the only way the tribe can survive is by forcing women to procreate when they turn sixteen and every three years thereafter... -
Shatter City by Scott Westerfeld
16 ratingsCities at war. Identities stolen or hidden away. A love built on lies. In the second book of the New York Times bestselling Impostors, nothing is certain and anything can be taken away.When the world sees Frey, they think they see her twin sister, Rafi. Frey was raised to be Rafi's double, and now she's taken on the role . . . without anyone else knowing...Categorized as:
dystopia female-mc suspense action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age -
Soon: The Beginning of the End by Jerry B. Jenkins
18 ratings2004 Christy Fiction award winner! Paul Stepola, an agent working for the National Peacekeeping Organization (NPO), has been assigned to enforce compliance with the world government's prohibition on religion. Paul relishes his job and is good at it...Categorized as:
dystopia political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book -
Time's Edge by Rysa Walker
24 ratingsTo stop her sadistic grandfather, Saul, and his band of time travelers from rewriting history, Kate must race to retrieve the CHRONOS keys before they fall into the Cyrists' hands. If she jumps back in time and pulls the wrong key--one that might tip off the Cyrists to her strategy--her whole plan could come crashing down, jeopardizing the future of millions of innocent people... -
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The Gender Secret by Bella Forrest
26 ratingsGliding over the treacherous Green in a shaky aircraft that she has no idea how to land, Violet Bates is still in shock. The harrowing events of the previous night play over in her mind as she asks herself question after question...Categorized as:
dystopia espionage political-intrigue suspense action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book -
Slated by Teri Terry
27 ratingsA riveting psychological thrillerKYLA HAS BEEN SLATED - her memory erased, her personality wiped blank. This is the government's way of dealing with teen terrorists: give them a fresh start as a new person. They teach Kyla how to walk and talk again, give her a new identity and a new family, and tell her to be grateful for this second chance... -
Wildcard by Marie Lu
31 ratingsEmika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo's new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she's always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.Determined to put a stop to Hideo's grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo...Categorized as:
assassins crime cyberpunk dystopia female-mc political-intrigue suspense action-adventure -
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
27 ratingsIn a world in which the police have telepathic powers, how do you get away with murder?Ben Reichs heads a huge 24th century business empire, spanning the solar system. He is also an obsessed, driven man determined to murder a rival. To avoid capture, in a society where murderers can be detected even before they commit their crime, is the greatest challenge of his life... -
Summer Frost by Blake Crouch, N.K. Jemisin
26 ratingsA video game developer becomes obsessed with a willful character in her new project, in a mind-bending exploration of what it means to be human by the New York Times bestselling author of Recursion.Maxine was made to do one thing: die... -
Snapshot by Brandon Sanderson
25 ratingsSnapshot is a Science Fiction detective story following Anthony Davis, a cop assigned to Snapshot Duty. In this vivid world that author Brandon Sanderson has built, society can create a snapshot of a specific day in time. The experiences people have, the paths they follow—all of them are real again for a one day in the snapshot. All for the purposes of investigation by the court...
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