Books like American Gods, according to Reddit

The read-alike list

Ranked by co-mention strength — how often each book shares a thread with American Gods, normalized so ubiquitous books don't dominate.

#1

Good Omens

Terry Pratchett

An angel and a demon who've grown fond of Earth team up to stop the apocalypse because neither wants their side to actually win.

16 shared threads

#2

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Susanna Clarke

England forgets it ever had real magic, until one book-obsessed magician brings the practical kind back from decades of theory-only study.

18 shared threads

#3

The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien

A gardener and three friends carry a cursed ring across a continent at war, because the only way to destroy it is to walk it into the volcano that forged it.

31 shared threads

#4

The Fifth Season

N. K. Jemisin

An orogene comes home to find her son beaten to death and her daughter gone, the same day a continent starts splitting apart.

35 shared threads

#5

Storm Front (The Dresden Files)

Jim Butcher

Chicago's only professional wizard takes a case involving black magic and a mob boss, with a police captain who wants it solved fast or him gone.

16 shared threads

#6

Dune

Frank Herbert

Paul Atreides survives his family's massacre on a desert planet and becomes the messiah the empire engineered him to be, then has to live with it.

57 shared threads

#7

The Eye of the World

Robert Jordan

Trollocs burn a village hunting for one of three farm boys, so an Aes Sedai spirits all three out before anyone learns which.

18 shared threads

#8

Gardens of the Moon

Steven Erikson

A continent-spanning empire's mage-soldiers besiege a city that might already be doomed by gods playing a board game with human pieces.

21 shared threads

#9

Hyperion

Dan Simmons

Seven pilgrims travel together to a planet that kills, each one carrying the private story of why they volunteered to go.

49 shared threads

#10

The Three-Body Problem

Liu Cixin

A disillusioned physicist's daughter answers a signal from another star and invites the invasion of Earth out of spite for humanity.

35 shared threads

#11

A Game of Thrones

George R. R. Martin

Ned Stark's family gets pulled into a succession war for the Iron Throne while an unkillable winter creeps south.

16 shared threads

#12

Red Rising

Pierce Brown

A low-caste miner surgically altered to pass as the ruling elite infiltrates the academy that killed his wife, planning to burn the system down from inside.

26 shared threads

The overlap, in numbers

Where each pairing actually shows up. Click through for the full Reddit verdict on each book.

1. #1 Good Omens by Terry Pratchett — 16 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
2. #2 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke — 18 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
3. #3 The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien — 31 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
4. #4 The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin — 35 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
5. #5 Storm Front (The Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher — 16 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
6. #6 Dune by Frank Herbert — 57 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
7. #7 The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan — 18 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
8. #8 Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson — 21 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
9. #9 Hyperion by Dan Simmons — 49 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
10. #10 The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin — 35 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
11. #11 A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin — 16 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF
12. #12 Red Rising by Pierce Brown — 26 shared threads , mostly in r/printSF