If what gripped you in At Winter’s End was watching Hresh lead the People out of their cocoon as the Long Winter ebbed, you’ll love seeing an entire planet awaken in Helliconia Spring. As Helliconia warms, villages and kingdoms blossom, beliefs shift, and old survivals give way to bold new societies—echoing that same exhilaration you felt when the thaw opened ruined cities and possibilities before Hresh’s tribe.

You enjoyed the culture-clash and careful diplomacy that followed the People’s emergence—and the tense alliances Hresh must navigate on the thawing world. In The Left Hand of Darkness, envoy Genly Ai must understand the subtleties of Gethen’s unique society, culminating in a harrowing trek across the Gobrin Ice that mirrors the endurance and fragile trust of those post-winter journeys in At Winter’s End.

If the perilous overland travel after the Long Winter—scavenging amid ruins, brokering peace with wary communities—pulled you in, Dreamsnake delivers that same pulse with heart. Healer Snake crosses a scarred landscape to help people rebuild, facing danger and prejudice with compassion, much like the People forging routes and relationships as they push beyond their cocoon’s safety.

If you loved Hresh sifting through artifacts of the Great World and venturing into mysterious ruins as spring returns, The Shadow of the Torturer captures that same awe. Severian’s journey through a dying sun’s Earth teems with forgotten technologies, decayed splendor, and jaw-dropping discoveries—delivering the heady sense of wonder that comes from walking among the bones of civilizations long gone.

Hresh’s curiosity about the artifacts and histories left behind—turning scraps of the past into guidance for the People’s future—has a powerful echo here. A Canticle for Leibowitz follows monks preserving remnants of pre-collapse learning, showing how memory, myth, and patient scholarship can reignite civilization, much as the People try to rebuild wisdom after emerging into the new spring.