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Salvage by Alexandra Duncan
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In Salvage, did you enjoy ...
... a young woman breaking from an insular spacefaring culture and coming into her own?
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
If you connected with Ava fleeing the Parastrata’s rigid, patriarchal rules to forge her own path planetside, you’ll love Binti. Binti defies her Himba family to leave Earth for Oomza University, survives a deadly encounter with the Meduse, and uses the very traditions she was told to abandon—like her otjize—to broker peace. It’s the same intimate journey of self-definition you admired in Ava, but set against an equally wondrous, perilous stretch of the cosmos.
... social-science-driven SF that interrogates culture, gender, and power more than tech specs?
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Like Salvage, where Ava’s escape from the Parastrata forces her to navigate clashing values on Earth, The Dispossessed follows physicist Shevek as he leaves the anarchist moon Anarres for the more opulent world of Urras. The tension between societies—and how a person remakes themselves between them—drives the story more than gadgets. If you loved the cultural lens in Ava’s journey, Shevek’s border-crossing odyssey will hit the same sweet spot.
... intricately imagined, anthropology-rich societies you can live in?
A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
If the layered customs of the Parastrata and the richly rendered life Ava discovers planetside drew you in, A Door into Ocean will sweep you away. The Sharers of Shora—an all-female, ocean-dwelling people—have a fully realized language, ethics, medicine, and nonviolent resistance that feel as tangible as the trade rules and taboos Ava grew up with. It offers that same immersive cultural depth you loved exploring alongside her.
... a resilient heroine defying a rigid starship hierarchy?
An Unkindness Of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
If Ava’s pushback against the Parastrata’s oppressive codes hooked you, meet Aster on the generation ship Matilda. She navigates a brutal, stratified deck system, uncovers secrets in the ship’s records, and fights for a future beyond the rules designed to break her. As with Ava’s struggle to seize control of her life, Aster’s defiance on the ship’s margins makes for a searing, cathartic read.
... futuristic worlds centered on non-Western cultures and queer-inclusive casts?
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
If you appreciated how Salvage foregrounds cultures beyond the usual Western defaults as Ava rebuilds her life on Earth, The Summer Prince offers a future Brazil where art and politics collide. June Costa’s relationship with the crowned Summer King, Enki, challenges her city’s matriarchal order and celebrates queer, multicultural identity. It echoes Ava’s cross-cultural self-reinvention while offering a vibrant, South American–rooted vision of tomorrow.
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