Books like “Contact”

What to read after “Contact” by Carl Sagan: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Three-Body Problem
Cixin Liu · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
During the Cultural Revolution a secret military project sends signals into space, and an answer comes back. Decades later a scientist is pulled into a hidden struggle over how humanity should reply to an alien civilization facing its own collapse.
2
Red Mars
Kim Stanley Robinson · 1992
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Hard Science Fiction
- Philosophical
The first hundred colonists arrive on Mars in 2026 to build a new world, a mission split between those who want to preserve the planet and those who want to change it. Over decades their disagreements grow into open conflict with Earth.
3
Rendezvous with Rama
Arthur C. Clarke · 1973
From the same world: “Hard Science Fiction”
A giant cylinder enters the solar system, and a small expedition is sent to meet it. Inside they find a sealed alien world of cities, seas and machines, with no sign of its makers and systems that are beginning to wake.
4
Speaker for the Dead
Orson Scott Card · 1986
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
- First Contact
Years after the war against the Formics, Andrew Wiggin travels as a Speaker for the Dead, revealing the truth of the departed. On the colony world Lusitania he is drawn into the fate of a human family and the alien Pequeninos, whose customs hide a terrible secret.
5
The Martian
Andy Weir · 2011
From the same world: “Hard Science Fiction”
- Hard Science Fiction
During a mission to Mars, astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead and left behind. Alone with limited supplies and no way to call Earth, he applies his botany and engineering skills to grow food and signal that he is alive.
6
Blindsight
Peter Watts · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
A crew is sent to the edge of the solar system to meet an alien intelligence that has been watching Earth. Led by a man who has rewired his own brain, they discover that the visitor's mind works nothing like their own.
7
Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky · 2015
From the same world: “Hard Science Fiction”
- Hard Science Fiction
- First Contact
After humanity's fall, a terraforming experiment leaves a world where evolved spiders build a growing civilisation. A last ark ship of humans arrives above the planet, setting the two species on a collision course across centuries of war, memory and first contact.
8
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir · 2021
From the same world: “Hard Science Fiction”
- Hard Science Fiction
- First Contact
A man wakes on a spacecraft with no memory of his name and two dead crewmates. As his past returns, he learns he is humanity's last hope against a dying sun, and that his only ally may be something he never expected.
9
Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke · 1953
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
- First Contact
Giant alien ships appear above Earth's cities and impose a peaceful rule under the Overlords. Decades of calm and progress pass, but humanity's golden age hides a purpose no one can guess until the Overlords finally reveal themselves.
10
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin · 1969
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
An envoy from a galactic federation lands on the frozen world of Gethen to invite its nations into an alliance. Its people have no fixed gender, and as he crosses the ice with a disgraced politician, he learns how much of his own culture he took for granted.
11
The End of Eternity
Isaac Asimov · 1955
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
Andrew Harlan works for Eternity, an organization that lives outside time and edits human history for what it believes is the greater good. His work is upended when he falls in love with a woman from his own past.
12
Schismatrix
Bruce Sterling · 1985
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
Abelard Lindsay is a trained diplomat moving between two posthuman factions, the Shapers and the Mechanists, as humanity spreads across space. His long career of alliances and betrayals carries him across a changing solar system.