Read-alikes for Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, or Kurt Vonnegut

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Read-alikes for Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, or Kurt Vonnegut

The Forever War 
By Joe Haldeman
SCIFI HALDEMAN Forever #1
This award winning book features a reluctant hero,Captain Mandella, insights into human behavior, anti-war sentiments and a similar moral stance to many of Card’s books. Captain Mandella must perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive before returning back home to an aging Earth. 




Blue Girl
By Charles DeLint
YA F DELINT  
DeLint, like Gaiman’s protagonists, live in a world resembling ours but contain differences that make the line between our world and the fantasy world just a bit blurry.  





Bellwether
By Connie Willis
SCIFI WILLIS  
If the reason you like Vonnegut is his sarcasm, poking fun at contemporary culture and satire you might enjoy Bellwether, the story of a sociologist who studies fads and a chaos theorist who are brought together when an unusual package is misdelivered.>

Catch 22

By Joseph Heller
F HELLER
Heller's Catch 22 is classic satire on the insanity of war. Heller and Vonnegut write with similar wit and sarcasm.

Teen Adventure Suspense Set in a Fantastical Medieval World

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure
• Fantasy
• Suspense
• Medieval time period
• Teen books
• Read-alikes for John Flanagan
  

Finnikin of the Rock
By Melina Marchetta
YA F MARCHETT
Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere.

The Prophecy
By Hilari Bell
YA F BELL
Guided by the words of a prophecy, Prince Perryndon, who loves books more than swords, sets out to slay the black dragon that is destroying his kingdom.

The Thief
By Megan Whalen Turner
YA F TURNER Attolia #1
Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone.

The Demon King
By Cinda Williams Chima
YA F CHIMA Seven Re #1
Relates the intertwining fates of former street gang leader Han Alister and headstrong Princess Raisa, as Han takes possession of an amulet that once belonged to an evil wizard and Raisa uncovers a conspiracy in the Grey Wolf Court.

Heroes of the Valley
By Jonathan Stroud
YA F STROUD
When young Halli Sveinsson takes one of his practical jokes too far, he is forced to leave the House of Svein and go on a hero's quest where he encounters highway robbers, terrifying monsters, and a girl who may be as fearless as he is.

Graceling
By Kristin Cashore
YA F CASHORE
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Grave Mercy
By Robin Lafevers
YA F LAFEVERS
In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny.

Historical Fiction Mixed with Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Historical fiction
• Read-alikes for Rick Riordan
• Focus on plot, action and events

Nobody’s Princess
By Esther M. Friesner
YA F FRIESNER
Determined to fend for herself in a world where only men have real freedom, headstrong Helen, who will be called queen of Sparta and Helen of Troy one day, learns to fight, hunt, and ride horses while disguised as a boy, and goes on an adventure throughout the Mediterranean world.

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE Leviatha #1
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts. (This one is science fiction, not fantasy.)

The Amulet of Samarkand
By Jonathan Stroud
YA F STROUD Bartimae #1
Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns
By Rae Carson
YA F CARSON
A fearful sixteen-year-old princess discovers her heroic destiny after being married off to the king of a neighboring country in turmoil and pursued by enemies seething with dark magic.

Airman
By Eoin Colfer
YA F COLFER
In the late nineteenth century, when Conor Broekhart discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king, he is branded a traitor, imprisoned, and forced to mine for diamonds under brutal conditions while he plans a daring escape from Little Saltee prison by way of a flying machine that he must design, build, and, hardest of all, trust to carry him to safety.

Historical Fiction Set in England

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical fiction
• Books set in England
• Read-alikes for Jane Austen or Philippa Gregory

Green Darkness
By Anya Seton
F SETON
A 16th-century Benedictine monk Stephen Marsdon falls in love with Celia de Bohun and forsakes his vows only to be reincarnated 400 years later in a similar situation.

Innocent Traitor
By Alison Weir
F WEIR
A fictional portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, follows her turbulent life against the backdrop of Tudor power politics and religious upheaval, from her youth, to her nine-day reign as Queen of England, to its tragic aftermath.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
By Mary Ann Shaffer
F SHAFFER
In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.

Katharine of Aragon
By Jean Plaidy
F PLAIDY
An evocative historical novel chronicles the life of Henry VIII's first wife, Katharine of Aragon, from her early days in England after being sent from Spain to marry Henry's sickly older brother, through her subsequent marriage to Henry, to the divorce that ignited a storm of controversy that changed history.

Rebecca
By Daphne du Maurier
F DU MAURIER
A classic novel of romantic suspense finds the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter entering the home of her mysterious and enigmatic new husband and learning the story of the house's first mistress, to whom the sinister housekeeper is unnaturally devoted.

Plot-Driven Suspenseful Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Plot-driven books
• Action
• Suspenseful fiction
• Read-alikes for to Brandon Sanderson

The City of Golden Shadow
By Tad Williams
SCI-FI Williams Otherlan #1
In a strange world of the near future, where virtual reality encompasses all aspects of society and boundaries are limited only by the power of the imagination, a dark conspiracy involving the world's most powerful individuals threatens to destroy everything.

The Thief
By Megan Whalen Turner
YA F Turner Attolia #1
Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone.

Finnikin of the Rock
By Melina Marchetta
YA F Marchett
Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere.

I Am Not a Serial Killer
By Dan Wells
F Wells John Cle #1
John Wayne Cleaver keeps his obsession with serial killers in check by a set of rigid rules that he lives by, hoping to the prevent himself from committing murder; but when a body turns up behind a laundromat, John must confront a danger outside himself. (This is not fantasy like the other three books on the list, but it has a surprising twist in the middle and an action-packed plot.)

Epic Fantasy, in the Tradition of Brandon Sanderson

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Epic fantasy
• Read-alikes for Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan

The Name of the Wind
By Patrick Rothfuss
SCI-FI ROTHFUSS Kingkill #1
A hero named Kvothe, now living under an assumed name as the humble proprietor of an inn, recounts his transformation from a magically gifted young man into the most notorious wizard, musician, thief, and assassin in his world.

The Dragonbone Chair
By Tad Williams
SCI-FI WILLIAMS Memory #1
Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician's apprentice, finds his dreams of great deeds and heroic wars becoming an all too shocking reality in a terrifying civil war.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
By Susanna Clarke
SCI-FI CLARKE
In nineteenth-century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr. Norell, who has regained some of the power of England's magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr. Norrell's pupil.

The Black Company
By Glen Cook
SCI-FI COOK Black Co #1
The tough mercenaries of the Black Company risk their lives and their souls as they set out to find the White Rose, a mystical figure who embodies the very essence of good.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
By Robert V.S. Redick
SCI-FI REDICK Chathran #1
Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a 600-year-old ship sails for enemy lands and must deal with deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers in order to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace.

The Lies of Locke Lamora
By Scott Lynch
SCI-FI LYNCH Gentlema #1
Vowing to bring down the crime boss running the city, a group of Gentlemen Bastards, led by Locke Lamora, sets out to beat the Capa at his own game, taking on other thieves, murderers, beggars, and thugs in the process.

A Wizard of Earthsea 
By Ursula LeGuin
YA F LE GUIN Earthsea #1
During a spell recalling the dead, the boy Sparrowhawk, a sorcerer's apprentice, unwittingly unleashes evil on the land. He grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world.

The Sword of Shannara 
By Terry Brooks
SCI-FI BROOKS Shannara #1
As the last heir of Shannara, Shea must save the humans, gnomes, trolls, dwarfs, and elves of the world from the Warlock Lord by reclaiming the wondrous sword. 

Mysteries for Fans of Stieg Larsson

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Mysteries and thrillers
• Read-alikes for Stieg Larsson
• Books with a new perspective
  

Smilla’s Sense of Snow
By Peter Hoeg
MYSTERY HOEG
When her six-year-old neighbor falls to his death, and no one is willing to suspect foul play, Smilla Qaavigaaq Jasperson finds her own investigation taking her into the files of a Danish company.

Three Seconds
By Anders Roslun
MYSTERY ROSLUND
Ex-convict Piet Hoffman--a family man, a rising member of Stockholm's Polish mafia, and an undercover police informant--is sent to a maximum security prison to make himself the boss of the amphetamine trade so the police can shut it down.

In the Woods
By Tana French
MYSTERY FRENCH
Twenty years after witnessing the violent disappearances of two companions from their small Dublin suburb, detective Rob Ryan investigates a chillingly similar murder that takes place in the same wooded area, a case that forces him to piece together his traumatic memories.

A Duty to the Dead
By Charles Todd
MYSTERY TODD
Independent-minded Bess Crawford's upbringing is far different from that of the usual upper-middle-class British gentlewoman. At the outbreak of WWI, she volunteers for the nursing corps, serving from the battlefields of France to the doomed hospital ship Britannic. On one voyage, she promises to a deliver a message from a dying officer to his brother. Once she's able to do so, she's disturbed at the brother's indifferent reception of the message, and when an unexpected turn of events provides her with an opportunity to stay with the family for a short time, she takes it.

Entertaining Teen Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Historical Fiction
• Strong character development
• Read-alikes for Laurie Halse Anderson and Nancy Turner
• Clean reads

Boston Jane
By Jennifer Holm
YA F Holm Boston J #1
In 1854, sixteen-year-old Jane Peck has ventured to the unknown wilds of the Northwest to wed her childhood idol, William Baldt. But her impeccable training at Miss Hepplewhite's Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia is hardly preparation for the colorful characters and crude life that await her.

The Raging Quiet
By Sherryl Jordan
YA F Jordan
Suspicious of 16-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.

Hattie Big Sky
By Kirby Larson
YA F Larson
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.

A Countess below Stairs
By Eva Ibbotson
YA F Ibbotson
After the Russian revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as servant, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination.

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?
By Eleanor Updale
YA F Updale Montmore #1
In Victorian London, after his life is saved by a physician, a thief uses the knowledge he gains in prison and from scientific lectures he attends with the physician, to create a double life.

Issue-driven Books, with Emphasis on Characters

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Books about controversial issues
• Books about characters and relationships
• Books similar to Jodi Picoult’s but cleaner

Please Look after Mom
By Kyong-suk Shin
F SHIN
Follows the efforts of a family to find the mother who went missing from Seoul Station and their sobering realizations when they recall memories that suggest she may not have been happy.

Every Last One
By Anna Quindlen
F QUINDLEN
Mary Beth is first and foremost a mother whose three children come first, before her career, or even her life as the wife of a doctor. Caring for her family and preserving their everyday life is paramount. So when one of her sons becomes depressed, she focuses on him, and is blindsided by a shocking act of violence.

The Language of Flowers
By Vanessa Diffenbaugh
DIFFENBA
The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past.

State of Wonder
By Ann Patchett
F PATCHETT
A researcher at a pharmaceutical company, Marina Singh journeys into the heart of the Amazonian delta to check on a field team that has been silent for two years--a dangerous assignment that forces Marina to confront the ghosts of her past.

These Things Hidden
By Heather Gudenkauf
F GUDENKAU
When golden girl teenager Allison Glenn is released to a halfway house, she is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister. Their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden.

Janet Evanovich Read-alikes

Try these books if you're looking for

• Contemporary books
  
• Mystery series
• Female lead character
• Read-alikes for Janet Evanovich

The Dangerous Edge of Things
By Tina Whittle
MYSTERY WHITTLE Tai Rand #1
Trying to run her newly inherited Confederate-themed gun shop, Tia Randolph's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body in her brother's driveway. /div>

Bubbles Unbound
By Sarah Strohmeyer
MYSTERY STROHMEY
Against all odds, Bubbles Yablonsky has returned to school, but while on her way to journalism school, she happens upon a crime scene and finds herself drawn into a murder investigation.

Dating Dead Men
By Harley Jane Kozak
MYSTERY KOZAK
As part of her research for talk show host Dr. Cookie Lahven's upcoming book "How to Avoid Getting Dumped All the Time," Wollie Shelley is dating forty men in sixty days, but her assignment is complicated by an unexpected corpse.

Swift Justice
By Laura A. H. DiSilverio
MYSTERY DISILVER
Charlotte "Charlie" Swift, a former Air Force investigator turned private eye, likes her solitary existence. When her silent partner flees the the country, leaving his socialite wife Gigi with a half interest in the business, Charlie must find a way to cope with her while also investigating the case of an abandoned baby.

The War Against Miss Winter
By Kathryn Miller Haines
MYSTERY HAINES
Struggling with missing her enlisted boyfriend, a lack of employment, and the growing impact of World War II on her New York City home, aspiring actress Rosie Winter reluctantly accepts work with a lowbrow detective agency and is caught up in a high-society mystery when her new boss is murdered. (Though it is a historical mystery series, it has a strong, smart mouth female character, similar to Evanovich's Stephanie Plum.)