The Martian

Books like The Martian

13
Options
Considered
September 12, 2022
Last
Updated

#1 Jurassic Park

A remarkable method has been developed for retrieving and cloning dinosaur DNA. The most exhilarating fantasies of mankind have now materialized. Extinct creatures that have been extinct for ages wander Jurassic Park, and anyone in the world can go there for a fee. Before things go wrong. Michael Crichton uses all of his captivating talent and scientific acumen in Jurassic Park to produce his most thrilling technothriller.

Best Quotes from this Book:

#2 Ender’s Game

In reality, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is involved in something much more desperate while he believes he is playing computer-simulated war games. Ender, a product of genetic experimentation, might possess the military might Earth so sorely needs in a conflict with an alien foe out to exterminate all human life. The one and only method for finding out are to subject Ender to increasingly rigorous training, to chip away at him until you locate the diamond inside, or to completely destroy him. When it starts, Ender Wiggin is six years old. He will mature quickly.

But the experiment did not simply produce Ender. The search for the ideal commander has been ongoing for almost as long as the battle with the Buggers, which has lasted for 100 years. In reality, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is involved in something much more desperate while he believes he is playing computer-simulated war games. Ender, a product of genetic experimentation, might possess the military might Earth so sorely needs in a conflict with an alien foe out to exterminate all human life. The one and only method for finding out are to subject Ender to increasingly rigorous training, to chip away at him until you locate the diamond inside, or to completely destroy him. When it starts, Ender Wiggin is six years old. He will mature quickly.

#3 Ready Player One

The reality in 2044 is a dismal place. Wade Watts, a teenager, says that entering the virtual paradise termed as OASIS is the only time he truly feels alive. Wade has dedicated his life to understanding the riddles that lie buried within the digital walls of this realm; riddles that are founded on their creator’s love with the pop culture of bygone eras and that, if unlocked, hold the key to immense power and wealth.

Wade, however, finds himself surrounded by competitors prepared to kill to win this ultimate reward as he discovers the first clue. Wade will need to prevail in the race and face the reality that he has always been so anxious to escape if he is to survive.

#4 The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

Arthur Dent is snatched off the planet by his companion Ford Prefect, a researcher for the updated version of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who has been passing himself off as an unemployed actor for the past fifteen years. This happens just seconds before the Earth is destroyed to make room for a galactic freeway.

With the help of passages from The Hitch Hiker’s Guide, this dynamic duo sets off on their intergalactic voyage together. And a galaxy’s worth of other travelers: “A towel is perhaps the most hugely useful thing an intergalactic hitchhiker can have.” Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed, former hippie, and out-of-it president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod’s girlfriend (previously Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur once attempted to woo at a cocktail party; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is preoccupied with the disappearance of every ballpoint pen he has purchased in recent years.

#5 The Shining

The Overlook Hotel’s new position for Jack Torrance is the ideal opportunity for a new beginning. He will have a lot of time to devote to getting back in touch with his family and honing his literary skills as the eerie old hotel’s off-season keeper. But as winter’s severe conditions take hold, the lovely setting seems progressively more remote… and frightening. And Danny Torrance, a five-year-old boy with exceptional talent, is the only one to see the odd and terrifying forces assembling around the Overlook.

Best Quotes from this Book:

#6 The Hobbit

A hobbit dwelt in a hole in the ground. It was a hobbit-hole, and that signifies comfort. It wasn’t a terrible, filthy, wet hole full of worm ends with an oozy smell, nor was it a dry, empty, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit on or eat.

The Hobbit, which J.R.R. Tolkien wrote for his own children, received immediate praise from critics upon its 1937 release. This intro to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the magnificent world of Middle-earth is now regarded as a timeless masterpiece. It details the exploits of a reluctant hero, a potent and dangerous ring, and the vicious dragon Smaug the Magnificent.

#7 World War Z

Unimaginably near to wiping humanity was the Zombie War. Max Brooks traveled across the United States of America and around the world, from completely destroyed cities that once mingled with upwards of thirty million souls to the most distant and uninhabitable parts of the planet, pushed by the urgency of conserving the acid-etched first-hand life experience of the survivors from those apocalyptic years. He preserved the testimonies of men, women, and occasionally children who had direct encounters with the living hell of that terrible era, or at the very least, the undead. World War Z is what happens. We have never before had access to a text that so effectively captures the magnitude of terror and fear, as well as the unbreakable spirit of resistance, that engulfed human society during the plague years.

Most importantly, the book vividly conveys the human aspect of this historic event. The reader must have some bravery to confront the frequently shocking and vibrant nature of these personal accounts, but the effort is priceless because, as Mr. Brooks states in his introduction, “We run the risk of developing a personal separation from history that, God forbid, could cause us to repeat it in the future if we ignore the human element. And ultimately, isn’t the only real distinction between ourselves and the foe we now refer to as “the living dead” the human element?”

#8 Dune

The novel Dune, which is set on the desolate planet Arrakis, tells the tale of the young Paul Atreides, who is the heir of a noble family and is burdened with controlling a hostile world where the only valuable item is the “spice” melange, a stimulant that can lengthen life and elevate awareness. Melange is a reward that’s sought after throughout the known world and is worth dying for.

The murder of Paul’s family when House Atreides is betrayed will send the young man on a journey toward a destiny that is far greater than anything he could have ever dreamed. And he will realize humanity’s oldest and most remote dream as he develops into the enigmatic figure known as Muad’Dib.

#9 The Bourne Identity

Both the book adaptations of the Bourne series as well as the film in the series have become extremely popular around the world. The Jack Reacher series has a lot in common with the Bourne franchise because they both focus on rogue operatives. Because of his focus on heroic individuals, Robert Ludlum, who is known for creating the character of Jason Bourne, is considered an influence on the majority of contemporary thriller novelists.

Returning to the source material may surprise viewers who are familiar with the Jack Reacher book series or the Bourne movie franchise. After an explosion on a yacht, Jason Bourne is left with amnesia, which prompts him to set out on a journey to find out who he is and where he came from. Ludlum takes us on a chase through Europe, where the real-life terrorist Carlos the Jackal is in close pursuit of the fictional character Jason Bourne.

#10 It

Greetings from Derry, Maine… It’s a tiny city, one that feels eerily similar to your own hometown. The haunting is genuine only in Derry… When they first discovered the tragedy, they were seven teenagers. Now that they are adults, both sexes have ventured into the outside world in an effort to find success and pleasure. But none of them can resist the pull that has brought them back to Derry to confront the evil that goes unnamed and the horror that has no end.

Best Quotes from this Book:

#11 The Haunting Of Hill House

It tells the tale of four searchers who find themselves in Hill House, a famously hostile place: Eleanor, a lonely, frail young woman highly versed in poltergeists; Dr. Montague, an esoteric scholar seeking strong proof of a “haunting”; Theodora, the vivacious assistant; and Luke, the upcoming heir to Hill House At first, it appears that their visit will only be a terrifying run-in with strange events. However, Hill House is amassing its might and will soon pick one of them to call its own.

Best Quotes from this Book:

#12 Silence Of The Lambs

Buffalo Bill, a serial killer who goes only by that grotesquely appropriate nickname, is hunting women. Since the bodies are found in various conditions, no one can figure out his motive. Young FBI Academy student Clarice Starling is shocked when she receives a call from Jack Crawford, head of the division’s behavioral science division. Interviewing Dr. Hannibal Lecter, also known as Hannibal the Cannibal, who is kept under strict observation in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, is her task.

Dr. Lecter is a famous psychiatrist with a gruesome past, peculiar preferences, and a burning interest in the shadowy recesses of the mind. The core of “The Silence of the Lambs”—a brilliant, skillfully written work and an enduring classic of suspense fiction—is his deep understanding of the murderer and of Clarice herself.

#13 11 22 63

Three shots were fired in Dallas on November 22, 1963, killing President Kennedy and altering the course of history. What if you could reverse the change? A man goes back in time to thwart the JFK assassination in Stephen King’s new, heart-stoppingly dramatic novel, which is a thousand-page masterpiece. Following the phenomenal success of Under the Dome, King transports readers to another instance—a period in actual history—when everything goes awry: the JFK assassination. Additionally, he provides an introduction to a figure with the ability to alter the course of history.

Jake Epping, a 35-year-old English teacher at Lisbon Falls High School in Maine, also works as a GED instructor for adults. One of the students gives him an essay, a grisly, terrifying account of the night fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father returned home and murdered his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry survived with a broken leg, as was evident from his awkward gait. The owner of the neighborhood diner, Jake’s friend Al, reveals a secret shortly after that: his cellar is a doorway to 1958. In an insane—and absurdly possible—mission to try to stop the Kennedy assassination, he enlists Jake. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, a life that defies all the laws of time and is filled with Elvis and JFK, big American cars and sock hops, a disturbed loner named Lee Harvey Oswald, and a stunning high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who ends up being Jake’s love.