Books like Special deliverance by Clifford D. Simak
When Professor Edward Lansing learns that the credit for his student’s Shakespeare paper was bought from a slot machine, he investigates and is led to a second device that offers two keys. After a third slot machine steals his money, Lansing and a bizarre ensemble of travelers—including a Brigadier, a Parson, a female engineer, a lady poet, and a caretaker robot—are whisked to an unfamiliar world. Plucked from their own timelines, they find themselves in a game without rules or a clear goal. Their unexpected journey takes them through an immense featureless blue cube, into an ancient and mysterious city, and through bizarre worlds. The adventure culminates in a life‑or‑death challenge that, if succeeded, promises a role in building a new galactic society.
First publish date: 1982
Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera
Authors: Clifford D. Simak
★
★
★
★
★
4.0 (1 community ratings)
How are these books recommended?
The books recommended for Special deliverance by Clifford D. Simak are shaped by reader interaction. Votes on how closely books relate, user ratings, and community comments all help refine these recommendations and highlight books readers genuinely find similar in theme, ideas, and overall reading experience.
Have you read any of these books?
Your votes, ratings, and comments help improve recommendations and make it easier
for other readers to discover books they’ll enjoy.
Books similar to Special deliverance (25 similar books)
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune follows Paul Atreides as he rises from betrayed heir to the enigmatic Muad'Dib, guarding the precious spice melange that fuels galactic politics and extends life.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
When a colossal alien cylinder enters the solar system, a hastily assembled crew docks aboard to explore its mysterious interior, uncovering scientific puzzles that reshape humanity’s view of the cosmos.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Charlie Gordon, a mentally disabled but curious man, undergoes an experimental brain surgery that boosts his intelligence beyond the known limits, raising profound questions about identity, ethics, and the cost of genius.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Ursula K. Le Guin’s landmark 1969 novel explores a gender‑fluid alien society on the ice‑bound world of Gethen, challenging human assumptions about sex, politics, and humanity through a compelling diplomacy adventure.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic, physicist Shevek leaves his home planet of anarchists to seek truth, challenge entrenched structures, and bridge the divide between his egalitarian society and the wider civilized universe.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In a future where people can "jaunte" a thousand miles with a thought, the wealthy fortify labyrinths and hire radioactive hitmen—while an inarticulate outcast becomes the most dangerous figure in the galaxy.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Retired tailor Jim Dreyfus is inadvertently hurled forward in time to a future where Earth is a subservient, radioactive planet in a vast Galactic Empire, forcing him to confront political intrigue and existential trials.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
When electronics engineer Dan Davis creates a revolutionary household robot, greed and a wager in suspended animation alter his fate. After 30 years he awakens to a world of time travel and must confront what he left behind.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
When a secret agency of temporal engineers rewrites history to secure humanity’s future, one man rebels to protect a loved one, sparking a battle that ends the bureaucracy and restores individual destiny.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Young Max, forced from home by his stepmother’s marriage, joins a hobo and stealthily infiltrates the Space Stewards, Cooks, and Purser’s Clerks brotherhood to pursue space travel at a time when only the wealthy could.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In *The Big Time*, soldiers are recruited at death to wage an endless battle across all of history, striving to alter the past and secure victory for the future.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
When a rival nation begins sending agents back in time with advanced weapons, the US must develop its own time‑transfer technology to counter the looming threat.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Clifford D. Simak’s 1952 collection "City" compiles a series of short stories that explore future worlds and humanity’s relationship with technology and animals.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Archaeologist Martin Padway is struck by lightning in Rome and inexplicably transported to the city of the 6th‑century AD, a time when the Western Roman Empire has fallen to the Goths and civilization teeters on the brink of chaos.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A wartime warrior becomes stranded on a desolate planet after an alien abduction, where an empress sees his home as exploitable real estate. Caught in love and intrigue, he and she search for the truth behind his kidnapping.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In a world fractured by a violent time storm, Marc Despard gathers a ragged crew—including an alien and a leopard—to uncover the source of the temporal chaos and restore the broken chronology.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A man is woken up 113 years later to a completely new social structure.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
In Victorian London, an unwitting messenger is recruited by Merlin to recover Excalibur and save Britain, blending time travel, alternate history and steampunk technology.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
When a renowned Federation scientist dies, his son auctions iconic inventions—including a photon pulse cannon—drawing interest from all galactic powers. Amid a Ferengi kidnapping, Captain Picard races to protect the Enterprise and the Federation from a devastating weapon.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A 20th‑century man named Clay is thrown into a distant future where Earth is inhabited by evolved human species—Skimmers, Eaters, Awaiters, Breathers, Interceders, and Destroyers—prompting a journey of discovery and self‑reflection.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A collected anthology of essays that discuss and catalogue numerous American science fiction series for readers and collectors.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
A curated collection of eighteen classic 20th‑century science‑fiction time‑travel stories, featuring works by Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Ursula K. Le Guin, and others, showcasing imaginative explorations of past and future.
Similar?
✓ Yes
0
✗ No
0
Some Other Similar Books
Time and Again by A. Bertram ChandlerThe Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
Have a similar book in mind? Let others know!
Please login to submit books!