Books where characters have powers

[autumn]

Right now I'm looking for books that involves characters who have powers (ESP, psychic, or other (mutants/metahumans, whatever), *but not magic, vampire/werewolve, etc.*),as a result of human experimentation or natural evolution (you know what I mean, right?).

Anyway I'm having difficulty searching them out on my own, because I'm not sure what genre to search under.

I'm not interested in books that involve a lot of Romance or silly unnecessary love triangles between teenagers. Basically I'd like to avoid YA novels, if possible.

Other things:
*A modern setting.
*Good plot
-Exploring the implications of having ppl w/ abilities around
-I love love books with politics in them, like the Ender's Shadow books. Those were awesome.
-Revolution, war, or changing the world; I'm cool with these things
-Cool action sequences/fights
-I'm a fan of anti-heroes/villain as the protagonist type stories
-Male main character

*Needs to have these
- Doesn't have to include all these things, but it'd be nice if it did.

Also, suggestions for what to search for would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

[Goge (BARRONS) le Moning Maniac,]

She accidentally drinks a science concoction that gives her control of the elements. There's a psychic in here and others who were genetically modified. Agencies fighting against one another. It is adult romance but there's more action than romance I think.

[Michele]

Check out Control Point by Myke Cole maybe - it does have magic but there's kind of a scientific reason for it and plenty of action, a male MC, no angsty love triangles, modern day (slightly in the future).

[Rachel]

You might like Geek Love Most characters have physical oddities but one character has ESP. This is mostly due to their parents using various methods to make sure the kids are born with unusual qualities in order to have them work in a freak show. It's a totally bizarre book but very well written and not YA.

[A book away from an episode of hoarders]

I got some YA recs w/out love triangles:
(I've read the first 3 and I liked them)

I've heard is pretty good as well.

Not YA:
(gritty and dark) (a bit fluffier)

[autumn]

Thank you for your suggestions, I'll definitely be checking out some of them.

@Cristina, I'm actually reading Steelheart right now, lol

[Joseph]

Autumn wrote: "Thank you for your suggestions, I'll definitely be checking out some of them.

@Cristina, I'm actually reading Steelheart right now, lol"

You're going to love it! And when you finish it, the sequel Firefight just came out.

You might also like: After the Golden Age

[Elizabeth]

Gone

[Michelle °O°]

Lux Series - YA Romance but the Hero gets powers from the Alien that saved her life

Obsidian

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Ok, you said modern setting--but what about future settings? If you are OK with that then Anne McCaffrey has a series where the main characters all have psi talents. She introduced the series in Get Off the Unicorn as a series of a couple of short stories, then later expanded it into a full series of novels. The Rowan is the first novel (which is an edited and expanded updating of one of the short stories.) The series is called The Tower and the Hive.

[Scott]

[Conal]

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Ok, you said modern setting--but what about future settings? If you are OK with that then Anne McCaffrey has a series where the main characters all have psi talents. She introduced the ..."

Actually the The Tower and the Hive is the 2nd series in this storyline. The first one, The Talent Series, starts with To Ride Pegasus and continues with Pegasus in Flight and Pegasus in Space which are a lot of fun. Another author who used PSI talents as a basis for stories was Julian May with her Saga of the Pliocene Exile which starts with The Many-Coloured Land and the Galactic Milieu which starts with Jack the Bodiless. I think her best work though was the bridge between the two series Intervention.

[Suzette]

Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter world.
In that world, the Katagaria and the Arcadians are the results of a ancient king who loved his wife and offspring to the point he tried to keep them alive.
Even though they are classified as bodice rippers. They do have good plots. My man figured out that she is not afraid of using heavier set women as heroines. Like Bride and Vane in Night Play.
There are a variation on vampires. and those who hunt them. Along with one sexy boss man who is a Atlantian from Ancient Atlantis.
By the way, the Dark Hunters, Weres, Gods & Goddesses, all have powers.

[Random]

I'll second Steelheart and add Legion.

John Scalzi's Lock In.

Altered Carbon, the first in the Takeshi Kovacs series.

Nothing Human by Nancy Kress.

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. Excellent book IMO.

This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman

And for something that hits your requirements in a tangential sort of way
Blindsight by Peter Watts - also an excellent book IMO.

No YA, no love triangles. :)

And for your own searches, you'll find the most success searching under Science Fiction.

[Lou]

A couple more series in future settings are Joan D Vinge's Cat books and Alan Dean Foster's Pip and Flinx novels.

Psion

For Love of Mother-Not

I second McCaffrey's first Talent series as well.

[Suzette]

If you are looking for urban stories. You might want to check out also Yasmine Galenorn's books. I'm referring to both her China & Chintz series. As well as her Sisters of the Moon/Otherworld books. She also has the Indigo Court ones.

[Js700]

No powers, but Megan Whalen Turner's books are amazing: start with The Thief, but The Queen of Attolia is the real gem.

[Lou]

Jumper

If you saw the movie of this, you have my sincerest condolences. The plot of the book is completely different, though.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

There is also Victoria Laurie's Psychic Eye series. Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye is the first book. The MC is a professional (and real) psychic. These are mysteries, btw.

Casey Daniels has the Pepper Martin series. Don of the Dead is the first book. Again, mystery series.

Tanya Huff has a bunch of series that will fit. Some are light and humourous (the Keeper series) others are mysteries, and there is a fantasy set, as sci fi, and I think that there is even a romance series.

Blood Price this is a mystery series--I will warn you, there is a vampire, Henry, the illegemate son of Henry VIII of England. (As an fyi, this was made into a TV series). The mc is a retired (medically) Canadian cop with RP (Retinitis pigmentosa, which causes blindness).

The humourous series Summon the Keeper

Smoke and Shadows is a spin off of the first series, and the MC in this is a minor character in the Victory Nelson series. It turns out that he is actually a sorcerer. It is definitely set AFTER the Vickie series, ends, so you'll want to read that one first.

Enchantment Emporium, The is the one that I think is the romance series. It follows a line of women who are all witches.

Valor's Choice is book one in the Sci fi series.

I'm going to throw this one in, even though it's not something you listed, just because some of the short stories in it are a total riot. Stealing Magic

I'm going to suggest the Kate Daniel's series. It's set in an alternate Earth--one where magic is taking over from Science. Magic Bites is the first book. There is also a single book "set in the world of" that features one of the secondary characters in this series, Andrea.) Gunmetal Magic

[Peter]

Wearing the Cape: A Superhero Story by Marion G Harmon is set in a world where people started developing super-powers roughly ten years ago. America is still the same for all intents and purposes, but the rest of the world has definitely changed. China went through a nasty civil war, for example, and is now four or five separate countries.

Our Hero is named Hope, and she develops super-powers of her own after a terrorist's bomb drops a bridge on her. She joins the local super-team and works to understand her powers and use them to help people. It's both a coming of age story and a superhero origin story, and it's quite a good read. In the sequels Hope and her allies take on ever more powerful threats and responsibilities and we meet more and more fascinating super-powered characters.

[Ingo]

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "..."

To put into context as you left it out:
Blood Price has Vicky, the female, retired Canadian Cop, of which Smoke and Shadows is a spin-off. And, I only read the first book of the Smoke and Shadows series, it features gay romance in detail, which did nothing for the story for me, turning me off from reading the other books in the series (I might still do that, but with so many books to read...), this sounds sexist, as write it, but just so you know.

[Harsh]

Try Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card. The main character has the power to see basically any path that was made by a living creature, even if that creature existed centuries ago!Pathfinder

[Suzette]

Good half of the series C L Bevill are of folks with psychic abilities.

[Scott]

Of course there's Carrie, Firestarter and The Dead Zone.

And Crossfire.

[Railyn]

Don't know if you've read it, or if it fits your criteria, but Christine was interesting. If you've seen the movie, forget it, and try the book. Arnie doesn't have powers, per se, but Christine does, and she and Arnie share a deep other-worldly connection. I don't want to ruin any more of it, but you may like it.

[Hillary]

Monster has a main character who has different powers. Each morning he wakes up, and depending on what color he is (blue, red, etc.) that tells him what power he has. His wisecracking partner, who I think is a genie but takes the form of a piece of paper that can fold himself into different shapes, are assigned to take out supernatural beings who enter the real world. Very Buffy the Vampire Slayer type setting, but with a monster as the lead.

The Girl with the Silver Eyes is great, she doesn't know what power she has, just that she has sliver eyes. Until she meets another teen ... with silver eyes!

[Clay]

The Rook is a modern paranormal spy thriller where British secret agents with unusual powers battle strange threats. I think it hits a lot of your points. There is some power struggle/political stuff going on, but the main character has amnesia so she's trying to figure out everything (with help from letters from herself). The main character is female but there's not any kind of romance plot going on.

Maybe you would like the quirky Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, or perhaps it is too YA.

[Kelly]

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Ok, you said modern setting--but what about future settings? If you are OK with that then Anne McCaffrey has a series where the main characters all have psi talents. She introduced the ..."


i also recommend The Hive series... these are great books! altho i love her Pern series, i love these even more. and i did NOT know the Pegasus books were precursors to them... now i'm on a hunt!

[James]

Autumn wrote: "Other things:
*A modern setting.
*Good plot
-Exploring the implications of having ppl w/ abilities around
-I love love books with politics in them, like the Ender's Shadow books. Those were awesome.
-Revolution, war, or changing the world; I'm cool with these things
-Cool action sequences/fights
-I'm a fan of anti-heroes/villain as the protagonist type stories
-Male main character

*Needs to have these
- Doesn't have to include all these things, but it'd be nice if it did. "

One book which has every element that you wanted and no romance angle is Firestarter.

Granted, the prime character is the girl, but her father is a secondary main character and... well... it's a prime example in every other respect.


Autumn wrote: "Also, suggestions for what to search for would be appreciated. "

Here's a search that I concocted. It allows you to search for books that have a shared grouping of shelves.

Goodreads Multi-Shelf Search

Just add the words that you would like to search for, to the beginning of the search. Any words that would appear on Shelf names.

An example:
Search for books that shared "Psychic" and "Thriller" on their shelves

Also, you can look up a book that is like what you want and then look for distinctive shelves it has, then check those. For example:
Telekinesis Shelf

[Ingo]

I wonder why no one has yet suggested the first two books of the Bone Season?
Well, here goes nothing:

The Bone Season
and

The Mime Order
Has a lot of the points mentioned.
Complicated, politics, plays in a future (2059), 200yrs after an event, which differs from our world, think like that the timeline forks in 1859.
The beginning of the first stakes of a revolution.
The main character is female but with a male mentor.
Some great fight scenes and some of the characters are rather grey, not simple black & white.
Very British book, with a Glossary in the end which explains the use and origin of some words.
The second book The Mime Order was just published, and this is supposed to be 7 books, like another well known series, I will not mention here.
As this is still ongoing I cannot really give an in-deepth review, without spoilers, but I highly recommend it, if you are up to it and gave each 5star reviews.

These are books to get lost in, and I did not like them to end, the second one ending with a nasty twist as a cliff-hanger which leaves you wanting for more.

My reviews:
The Bone Season
The Mime Order

[Abigail]

The Ariana Chronicles by Kresley Cole is a fantastic series you might like