Series

Books like Orthogonal: 9 series to read next

Orthogonal is science fiction and hard science fiction, about space exploration, set in far future, challenging in register. The 9 series below are ranked by how much of that they share — each card says which parts.

Orthogonal is 3 books, 2011–2013.

The Orthogonal page →Narrow this list →

Thistledown
Xeelee
Mesklin
Known Space
A Meeting with Medusa
Dune
Hainish
Dragon's Egg
Heechee

ThistledownSeries

seriesGreg Bear5 books1978

Science fiction and hard science fiction, about space exploration, set in far future and space.

Start with The Wind from a Burning Woman →

XeeleeSeries

seriesStephen Baxter & uncredited89 books1987

About aliens.

“The Xeelee are described as symbiotic entities composed of spacetime defects, Bose–Einstein condensates, and baryonic matter.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Raft →

MesklinSeries

seriesHal Clement6 books1954

Adventurous in tone, about aliens.

“The idea came from an object that was at the time believed to exist in the 61 Cygni system, and which might represent an extrasolar planet.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Mission of Gravity →

Known SpaceUniverse

universe142 books1964

About aliens.

“Give a clever species a few centuries and a working fusion drive, and it will fill the sky with problems.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

A Meeting with MedusaSeries

seriesAlastair Reynolds, Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter2 books1971

About aliens and immortality, set in outer planets & moons.

“Arthur C. Clarke's A Meeting with Medusa follows an astronaut, badly injured in an earlier disaster, on a solo balloon expedition into Jupiter's atmosphere, where he encounters vast floating lifeforms unlike anything previously catalogued.”
from the catalogue description

Start with A Meeting with Medusa →

DuneUniverse

universe78 books1963

Space opera.

“The desert planet, where empire runs on a single substance: the spice melange, which folds space, prolongs life, and unlocks prescience, and which exists nowhere else in the known universe.”
from the catalogue description

Start with Dune →

HainishSeries

seriesUrsula K. Le Guin33 books1964

Science fiction, reflective in tone, set in far future and other star systems.

“The Hainish Cycle consists of a number of science fiction novels and stories by Ursula K. Le Guin.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Rocannon's World →

Dragon's EggSeries

seriesRobert L. Forward3 books1980

First contact, about aliens.

Start with Dragon's Egg →

HeecheeSeries

seriesFrederik Pohl19 books1972

Space opera, about aliens.

“The Heechee are an advanced alien race that visited the Solar System hundreds of millennia ago and then mysteriously disappeared.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Gateway →

Why these

No sales rank, no star ratings, no readers also bought.

Shared terms are not a promise that a book feels the same. Two series can be far-future political intrigue and read nothing alike — what the ranking can say is what they are about, and each card says which parts it shares.

Questions readers ask

What should I read after Orthogonal?: Thistledown — the closest match to Orthogonal on what it is about, not on what sells.
Where do I start with Orthogonal?: The Clockwork Rocket. It is the entry the catalogue recommends for Orthogonal.
How big is Orthogonal?: Orthogonal is 3 books, 2011–2013.

Books like Orthogonal: 9 series to read next

Read next in Orthogonal

Why these

Questions readers ask

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