Book recomendations

[Jericho]

Please help!!!!!

I've run out of books. I've reread everything that I want to, and I'm looking for recommendations that don't come from Amazon.

"The first page is great! 5 Stars!"
"I loved his last book, I hope this is going to be just as good! 5 Stars!"
"There was a split infinitive on the second page, ruined the whole book for me. Only giving it 1 star because I can't give it zero."
"The postman damaged the corner of the book when he pushed it through my letterbox!!!!!11!!1!!!!!!!1!11!!! 1 star!!!!!1!!!!"

etc etc etc.

I like most of Peter F Hamilton's work, apart from his recent series with the retcon planet pulled out of the Void... Also the blurb from his upcoming book sounds awful, and reads like it was written by a 12 year old who overheard a conversation about the book in a foreign language:
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/pe ... /salvation

I was a fan of the Warhammer 40K universe, I like all the Dan Abnett books... But the Horus Heresy series is just painful, and makes me utterly hate all the space marines and their primarchs, and paints all the heretics as cartoon villains. I guess it is because they've just told a bunch of authors to write whatever they want, and we'll just put "Horus Heresy" on the title, even if it doesn't have anything to do with the narrative.

The Commissar Cain series is mostly good.


And that's about it these days... I found most other author's I've tried to be tiresome when creating their worlds (where Peter F Hamilton succeeds).

Ideally a good space opera like the Night's Dawn trilogy or Commonwealth saga, or good character based action like Gaunt's Ghosts (The Black Library is overflowing with books these days, and I've been burnt too many times to go in blind).


Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[clakclak]

Did you read The Expanse already?

[Morkonan]

These are pretty good: BBC: The 100 Stories that Shaped the World.

You might like Neal Asher's "Transformation" series, starting with "Dark Intelligence."

"The Expanse" novels, by James Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) starting with "Leviathan Wakes."

The "Revelation Space" series by Alastair Reynolds is outstanding, starting with "Revelation Space." However, they aren't exactly serials, and only loosely connected to each other.

I'm thinking, due to your comments, you might really like the Honorverse novels, by David Weber, starting with "On Basilisk Station."

The "Deathstalker" series by Green (Out of print, look for in used bookstore) combines the sorts of books you described very, very, well.

David Sherman's "Starfist" series, starting with "First to Fight" is excellent military sci-fi. May be hard to find, though. (It's really good military sci-fi, dunno why it's not mentioned enough.)

The "Dorsai!" series by Gordon R. Dickson is great. May find an omnibus edition, otherwise look in used bookstores.

C.J. Cherryh's "Chanur Saga" starting with "The Pride of Chanur" is one of my favorites. It's more of an adventure/intrigue kind of series than combat/space-opera/military-sci-fi, but there's plenty of battles and the like.

Have you read any Ian Banks, Niven and Pournelle, Heinlein, Vernor Vinge, Ringo, Laumer, David Drake, etc?

Edit Add: IF you can find Green's "Deathstalker" books, I think you'd like them better than any others in this list. There aren't a lot of decent "space opera" books out there, but there are plenty space-adventure and military sci-fi books. (There are a lot of space-operish series, but I don't like them, so can't recommend... )

[pjknibbs]

If it has to be space then Deathstalker is pretty good, yes, as of course is anything by Iain M. Banks (the M is important, the books without that are not space opera!). Can also recommend David Brin's "Uplift" books and Vernor Vinge's work--I particularly like the latter's idea that everything deep inside the galaxy (including Earth) is in a "Slow Zone" where hyperspace travel is impossible, but if you get out far enough you reach regions where FTL is possible.

[Morkonan]

...I particularly like the latter's idea that everything deep inside the galaxy (including Earth) is in a "Slow Zone" where hyperspace travel is impossible, but if you get out far enough you reach regions where FTL is possible.

^-- This.

It's a wonderfully creative setting where literally "anything can happen." It's a fantasy-like setting, but with a hard-science-fiction edge to it. In the higher bands, remarkable AI's and supra-intelligent life is possible.

What was that series...

There was a series where species who were ready to advance to the next stage of existence would gather together and then journey into a singularity-like thingie, taking themselves out of the Universe and becoming "something else." Sometimes, a few would either stay or get left behind. Was that Brin's stuff? He had something like that, but this was much more "final" I think.

Anyway, Vinge's universe sort of reminded me of that. But, the beings that live in the higher bands of his universe couldn't function in the lower bands. Man, that's just an awesome universe... The possibilities for mucking around with it are friggin unending!

[red assassin]

Some particularly good things I've read recently:

The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin (first book: The Fifth Season) is not a space opera, but it is character based sci-fi (ish) action, and also the best thing I've read in years (also, the first two books won Hugos and the third is nominated for this year's). The world-building is subtle and utterly brilliant (the setting is a tectonically disturbed world subject to regular cataclysms where some people have developed the ability to control tectonic processes).

The Bobiverse trilogy by Dennis Taylor (first book: We Are Legion (We Are Bob)) is not exactly high literature, but it's good fun - space opera where a contemporary computer programmer wakes up one day to find himself digitised and expected to run a von Neumann probe.

Ian McDonald's Luna series (first book: New Moon) is basically Game of Thrones in Space if you like that sort of thing (the setting is feuding mining corporations on the Moon).

Not sure if this is really your thing, but one of my other recent favourites is The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - it's a bit whimsical, but great characters and I enjoyed it a lot - read it if you enjoyed Firefly.

[Morkonan]

Some particularly good things I've read recently:...

Damn, I've stayed away from the bookstore for too damn long... Going to go hunting for all those titles.

[mrbadger]

You could go for some classic series.

the Dune Saga by Frank Herbert - Dune being the top selling SF book of all time I beleive.

Or Larry Nivens Ringworld series.

You'll see in both of those series the genesis of many things present in much recent science fiction. I think Ian M. Banks was heavily influenced by Niven, not just his Ringworld books, there are are signs of 'The Integral Trees' in his work too.

Not that either of them are in any way outdated. So complex as to be too hard to replicate by anyone but a true master would be closer to the truth.

Heinlein had some odd moments, but if you read Starship Troopers you'll have some difficulty accepting that it was written sixty years ago.

Or, frankly anything by Frederick Pohl, if I were to chose a favorite out of so many greats it would be 'Man Plus'. a truly prescient and wonderfully entertaining book.

[RegisterMe]

Completely not sci-fi, but anything by Michael Lewis.

[muppetts]

Banks novel 'Matter' is a great stand alone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_%28novel%29


{Link fixed. - Terre}

THANK YOU!

[mrbadger]

Banks novel 'Matter' is a great stand alone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_%28novel%29


{Link fixed. - Terre}

That was the book that drew me in to the Culture series. My choice was that or The Algabraist. I bought and read that afterwards, and hated it. It's possibly one of the worst space opera's I've ever read. However Matter left me wanting to read more Culture books. I've been hooked ever since.

[Santi]

Richard K Morgan, his series with ex Envoy Corps member Takeshi Kovacs are pretty good.

My brother in law had a lot of praise for Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, The Themis files trilogy, all out now.

[mrbadger]

As a result of various things, like non anjoyable time occupying nursing job, then full time degree then Ph.D. I missed some 25 years of Science Fiction Writing.

When I realised this at first I was bothered, but then I discovered a ton of fantastic authors with extamnsive portfolio's. And through recommendations by people at work and book searches myself I've been having a great time.

Not so keen on Peter Hamilton, haven't really liked any of his stuff so far, and while there are some fantastic US SF authors, too many of those read like armoury and tactical handbooks, and those get dull quickly, even if the underlying story has good potential.

I'm also not over keen on long books. Too often that means badly written overly wordy books. Not always, but far too often I find it does.

[Avis]

Banks novel 'Matter' is a great stand alone

I'd 2nd Muppets suggestion,
Matter was the last book I read I loved it start to finish, I'm reading 'Surface Detail' at the moment (nearing the end) and it was slower start but loving it now.
Can't remember who recommended the Culture series by Ian M Banks to me on here, but I've loved them since I read the 1st 'Consider Phlebas'.

Series I really enjoy reading.

SA Corey - The Expanse
(series) have to be read in order really.

Ian M Banks - Culture Series
can be read in any order some are harder going than others but I've personally really enjoyed all so far once they get going.

Harry Harrison - Stainless Steel Rat
(series) more tongue in cheek, best read in order but I personally like them.

Nick Harkaway - The Gone-Away World
not space opera but a decent enough one of sci-fi.

[muppetts]

Still waiting for the day 'Player of Games' is made into a movie, still ranks as my number 1 book, must have read it 30x

[mrbadger]

Still waiting for the day 'Player of Games' is made into a movie, still ranks as my number 1 book, must have read it 30x

That would be possible with the advances in CGI. Whether the book could be condensed into a single movie succesfully would be the thing.

a Netflix mini series of it would be more something I'd want.

[birdtable]

There was talk many years back of making a movie of Player of Game but nothing came of it... All of Banks novels would make great movie/mini series with maybe the exception of Excession (my favourite) and Feersum Endjinn.. Getting the emotions of "Minds" and ancillaries across to non readers would be a problem. How does one portray the nuances of Flere Imsaho.

[red assassin]

Amazon is considering a TV series based on Consider Phlebas - https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/21/1703 ... ision-show

[mrbadger]

There was talk many years back of making a movie of Player of Game but nothing came of it... All of Banks novels would make great movie/mini series with maybe the exception of Excession (my favourite) and Feersum Endjinn.. Getting the emotions of "Minds" and ancillaries across to non readers would be a problem. How does one portray the nuances of Flere Imsaho.

Excession is also one of my favorites, but translated poorly to audiobook. Possibly if they'd done a full cast adaption, such as they have with Dune or some other books it would have been better, but as it is, narrated by Peter Kenny it doesn't work well.
He does a good job with the other books, so it's not him, it's the source material that doesn't translate well.

[pjknibbs]

Amazon is considering a TV series based on Consider Phlebas

That's probably one of the easiest to make into a TV series or movie, I think--it's pretty much all space opera without too much in the way of complication in it, unlike the other Culture stories.