Books like “The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet”

What to read after “The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers: 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 Collapsing Empire
John Scalzi · 2017
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
- Space Ship
The Interdependency is bound together by the Flow, a network of routes that made the empire rich. When a scientist proves the Flow is shifting, an heir to the throne must hold together feuding houses before trade and power collapse.
2
A Fire Upon the Deep
Vernor Vinge · 1992
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
- Quest
In a galaxy where thought and technology work differently at its edges, a human expedition releases an ancient menace from a lost archive. Two children stranded on a medieval world and a crew racing to stop the Blight are drawn into the same crisis.
3
Ancillary Justice
Ann Leckie · 2013
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
A soldier who was once a starship's artificial intelligence wakes in a single human body. Cut off from her many selves, she crosses a collapsing empire to find the officer who destroyed everything she was, and to settle a debt of revenge.
4
Old Man's War
John Scalzi · 2005
From the same world: “Space Opera”
At seventy-five, John Perry joins the Colonial Defense Forces, leaving Earth for a new body and a war among the stars. What begins as a chance at a second life becomes a fight to understand the colonies, the enemy and what he is fighting for.
5
Leviathan Wakes
James S. A. Corey · 2011
From the same world: “Space Opera”
A detective on Ceres and an ice-hauler's executive officer are thrown together when a missing woman and a derelict ship point to something buried on an asteroid. Their search uncovers a conspiracy that could ignite war between Earth, Mars and the Belt.
6
Gateway
Frederik Pohl · 1977
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
- Space Ship
Prospectors ride alien ships left behind at Gateway, gambling their lives on unknown destinations in search of fortune. A miner haunted by his past signs on for one more trip, and the station's robot therapist records the fears he cannot voice.
7
A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine · 2019
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives at the heart of the Teixcalaanli Empire to replace a predecessor who died under unclear circumstances. Guided by his recorded memories, she must survive court politics, assassins, and a capital that hides its own plans.
8
The Quantum Thief
Hannu Rajaniemi · 2010
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
Jean le Flambeur is a thief imprisoned in a city where residents trade their memories and time. He is offered his freedom if he can pull off one more impossible heist, with a warrior from a distant society watching his every move.
9
Hyperion
Dan Simmons · 1989
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
- Quest
On the eve of war, seven pilgrims travel to the planet Hyperion to seek the Shrike, a deadly creature of legend. Each tells the story of what brought them there, and their tales circle the fate that awaits them at the Time Tombs.
10
Schismatrix
Bruce Sterling · 1985
From the same world: “Space Opera”
- Space Opera
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.
11
Children of Time
Adrian Tchaikovsky · 2015
Same genre: “Space opera”
- Space Ship
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.
12
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Becky Chambers · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Comfort Read”
A tea monk who serves travellers on a distant moon meets a robot that has spent centuries in the wild. The two travel together while the monk tries to answer a question the robot asks: what do people need?