I feel like I wrote this post from time to time on Reddit and I think I’ll start this tradition here. I’m. a Honor Harrington fan. I’ve read several other space operas and they always fall short. The three that came close were Lt. Leary, Kris Longknife and Vorkosigan saga. Lt. Leary was nice, but it failed on World building. Kris Longknife also failed on world building and had astronomical levels of cringe with aliens and plot, but I enjoyed it. Vorkosigan saga had better world building and it was nice overall, but the books without Miles Vorkosigan weren’t enjoyable. There were other series that I enjoyed: Serrano Legacy, Vatta’s War (those are some of my favorites but they were too short), Starship’s mage (it declines with every new book), The Lost Fleet (it has a serious plot problem, the plot doesn’t move forward), Old Man’s War (it was really nice), Dread Empire Fall (also awesome), Teixcalaan (good, but short), Alarm of War (good, but short and pretty generic), Bobbiverse (I read until book 3, it isn’t for me), Red Rising 1st trilogy (really nice, but too Hunger Gamish, this whole dividing society into a cast system is getting old), Ark Royal. The Three Body Problem was awesome and, contrary to most series, didn’t leave me craving more after it was over. Edit: forgot to mention The Expanse, it was OK.
I think that what won me over on HH was the fact that she is a complete Mary Sue and other character don’t fall far from the tree, there is a nice world building, characters die, and there is a ton of action.
On the other hand, there are some long books that I enjoy that aren’t space operas. I really enjoy the Dresden Files (because he is cool and it is a long series), I absolutely love Jack Reacher (it is just a nice fun read, it’s like a nice Big Mac), I also enjoy The Spellmonger series, and I enjoyed the Riyria. I disliked Takeshi Kovacs (lack of sequence and plot) and I absolutely hate Southern Reach (VanderMeer), and there is another popular sci-fi book that is written as a report, which I also hated. I don’t like those very innovative mystery stories where you are trying to figure out wtf is going on or waiting for a plot to start until the middle of the book.
Got any suggestions? =)
(OMG, after writing this post, I see myself as an incredible hard reader to please)
No love for Iain M Banks? The Culture series looks like it will tick all your boxes and instead of following a single protagonist the Culture itself is the protagonist so each book has it’s own cast of interesting characters.
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I really enjoyed the Culture setting but had to give up after Look to Windward because that was about 3 books in a row with unsatisfying endings.
+1 - Banks is probably my favorite sci fi author (as you might have guessed based on my username). The Culture series is excellent and highly entertaining.
Two obvious suggestions are Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series, and Issac Asimov’s “Foundation” series.
Both are sci-fi classics (Dune is still the best selling sci-fi book of all time I believe) and are space operas of a massive scope.
They are also some of my personal favorites.
I also immensely enjoyed Asimov’s “Robot” books. Three fun little whodunnit’s set in an interesting universe.
About four years ago, on a whim I decided to buy the entire Asimov scifi collection (inc short stories which I’m usually not keen on). Really surprised me how prescient and creative he was, considering how long ago it was written.
He has a really ‘comfy’ writing style, only way I can explain it… trying to read some hard scifi afterwards was a bit of a slog. Like a reading version of wading through treacle.
And he’s funny, too!
You always hear about how forward thinking and philosophical his stories were, never how human and alive his characters are, or how he regularly gets a smile out of the reader.
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. I liked the prequel, A Deepness in the Sky even more.
I loved anything Vinge put out. Always good reading.
Vinge is probably my favourite SiFi author. Incredibly well paced and populated stories
Fantastic book, I had no clue there was a prequel. I must acquire this.
Dan Simmons - Hyperian
KCantos. Four books in the series, well worth a read imo… I loved itAdrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time / Children of Ruin / Children of Memory (not read the third but am sure it’ll be as good as the first two)
100% Hyperion Cantos
No idea why my brain had me put a K instead of a C. I haven’t played Mortal Kombat in a while so can’t even blame it on that
I want to know if OP has read AT and what they think. I love all his books (just finishing Lords of Uncreation) and so could use OP’s list for things to go to next :)
If you like Star Wars (original trilogy, that is), I’d recommend Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. I can also recommend his Conquerer’s trilogy and Cobra series.
I liked The Lost Fleet, personally. The space battles are excellent, and they’re quick reads. Agreed about the plot, though, it takes a while. Worth it overall IMO.
You might consider the Iron Druid series, too. It’s written in a lighter tone than the Dresden Files, but it’s got a similar vibe.
You might check out Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison, too. It’s another urban fantasy with an interesting world premise. I struggle a little to recommend it – I lost interest fairly quickly, but if you don’t mind some romance in your urban fantasy, you might like it more than I did. And if you do like it, it’s a long series, over a dozen books!
Reality Dysfunction, Hyperion, Red Rising, Dune, The Expanse, Foundation, The Mote in God’s Eye
The Expanse and Red Rising series is exactly what he’s looking for! Also the Bobbiverse is a decent addition!
I really like Neal Asher’s books. Sprawling long series (what is the plural of series?) and so good.
Was recommended the Children of Time books, am halfway through the first and WOW. I love it.
Plural of series is series, if that helps.
Children of time was amazing. What a unique, interesting concept. The following books were good too but for me didn’t live up to the first one. Which is okay, i still liked all of them.
It’s not one of the Culture novels, but The Algebraist by Iain Banks is one of my favorite one book cover to cover operas.
Pandora’s Star and the sequel Judas Unchained by Peter F Hamilton
I really loved how many different storylines it weaves together.
Excellent storyline
Really, all of the Commonwealth Saga are good reads
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation space i.e. Inhibitor sequence
Peter F Hamilton - Void trilogy in the Commonwealth universe
I absolutely love Hamilton’s Commonwealth universe! Pandora’s Star then Judas Unchained, then the void trilogy followed up by The Abyss Beyond Dreams. I’ve read all of them 3 times and thinking of doing a 4th round soon!
I’ve also seen House of Suns mentioned here a few times. It gets my vote for the exploration of deep time due to the speed limits of causality.
I don’t know what it is, but I struggle with both series that take place in the Commonwealth. Pandora’s Star took quite a bit for me to get into, hooked me right as the book ended, but I enjoyed Judas Unchained after that.
I just finished Dreaming Void (Void #1), and it flowed the same as Pandora’s Star to me, but I’ve grown a little over that kind of lead-up and then just end the book. On top of that, the world shifted too much, and it’s hard for me to feel like I understand it in the slightest. I’ve been hesitant to continue it.
+1 for both authors.
Hamilton has great characters and great sci-fi.
fwiw, I really liked Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained from the Commonwealth series for wonderful world building. not a space battle every chapter, but there is some really insightful warfare going on.
Even if you don’t think you’re into Warhammer 40k you should check out the books. There’s 100’s of them and are actually very good. I put them off for a long time because i thought they’d just be battle porn. They are well written with compelling narratives, great characters, a sprawling galaxy full of different aliens and factions, and of course the aforementioned war porn.
If you are hesitant like i was, i recommend starting with the first three books in the Horrus Heresy. There’s like 40 something of them but the first three you could read and put down satisfied without continuing if you wanted.
I always list the three books out for people because there’s so many it’s easy to get lost looking for them.
Horrus Rising, False Gods, Galaxy in Flames
As for a non-opera book, I highly recommend Seven Eves. I don’t think i saw it in your post. But you had a long list so forgive me if i missed it. It’s one book, pretty long though and one of my GOATS.
I second this. I’ve never played or painted, but I’m fascinated by the universe, and it is LONG. I’m just now finishing the prequel series (the Horus Heresy) which is over 50 books long (and some extra short stories). The main universe has 500 or something books.
I listen to audiobooks on the way to work, and used to do the same on the way to school, so I go through books very quickly.
I started reading the Gaunt’s Ghosts series of books (I found a recommendation on some 40K subreddit a few years back). Some of them are really interesting with politics and (fantasy) tactics. Others are artificially bleak and evil, which lead me to stop. At one point it felt like the author had started retconning a minor character to be some crazy evil murderer, almost as if the publisher went “needs more bleak”, and it really boiled my gills. I didn’t feel like this character did anything other than cause random unhappiness and excuses to kill off characters; at no point did it tie into the plot or serve any proper purpose.
Oh and these books are stupidly expensive to get even second hand. I’ve also never succeeded at finding any in charity shops. For some honest and innocent reason my copies seem to have very bad OCR, but you get used to it.
What? No love for the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey? I love em. Gotta love genetically engineered dragons.
John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series was a long and pretty interesting read.
Premise starts out as a “humanity vs the stars” kind of story, but instead of sending young people to their deaths, the futuristic human society instead recruits old people who have already lived full lives. You can enlist towards the end of your natural life to transfer your mind to a (photo)synthetic purpose-built humanoid super soldier body. If you survive a period of time (5 years?), you earn another shot at life and can elect to become a colonist for far away worlds. Most don’t get that far. Your usual “long-term relationship tensions,” “humans are always bad guys,” “what will technology think of next?” tropes apply.
Another series I liked is the Castle Federation series by Glynn Stewart.
This series spans a much shorter timeframe throughout its books but contains much more civil-war type political intrigue and seems to focus more on an important battle or two per book. As such, you get a more granular view of one starship officers experiences from the unit level up to the fleet. Tactics, deception, and an almost constant state of Pyrrhic victories help to make you feel like you aren’t simply following around a grand hero figure who is the unspoken savior of the galaxy. I don’t really remember how the series starts, but it’s mostly (or all) human-vs-human conflicts.
Last series I enjoyed is the Frontlines storyline by Marko Kloos.
In contrast to the stories above, it’s humans (mostly) good, aliens bad. A dystopian future is rocked by the sudden appearance of monolithic and seemingly invincible stegosaurus-like alien beings. They show up, terraform your world with CO2, and brush off humanity like we’re ants. You follow a few main characters who give you insight to how the big governments operate, how soldiers are thrown into unwinnable conflicts, and how freedom fighters back home protest against the majority of humanity’s production efforts going towards war while ignoring the problems at home. There’s a good mix of hopeless alien combat, human conflict and frustration towards the military industrial complex, Judge Dredd-like slums, and some anthropology thrown into the mix. Facing an existential threat, would you throw everything at offense and let your people starve?
How about the Uplift series by David Brin? Start with Sundiver
Simon R. Greens Deathstalker series is pretty much what you’re describing. Very much space opera, melodramatic and big on action. They’re not incredibly well written but lots of fun.
Don’t let the cover art discourage you.
