Book suggestion: LONG Space Opera (or sci-fi or cyberpunk) packed with action and cool characters

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)

Car,

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.

MentalEdge, (edited )
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

Have you read Hannu Rajaniemis Jean le Flambeur series?

It’s a very high concept narrative, that begins with our main character being broken out of a simulated prison, where he is forced to play endless games of the prisoners dilemma, against endless copies of himself and other prisoners.

It continues on to tell a story set within our solar system, that’s complex on levels that can be hard to keep up with at times.

In this universe, where people end and software begins, is blurred, and the same is true for the edge between reality and simulation.

Some people are doomed to exist and be used as mere software for completing complex tasks, while others step through matter-conversion gates between the real and simulated on a regular basis.

I really, really loved it.

GunnarRunnar,

Hmm, maybe I should try it again. I dropped it during the first book because the beginning felt too familiar/obvious to me.

MoonManKipper,

I strongly second this one - they’re great

lowflyingduck,

I don’t think any has mentioned this yet, The Expeditionary Force series?

timetravelingnoodles,

Man… I would have until the last book

ikidd,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

Revelation Space.

Niven’s Ringworld series

Foundation?

brianorca,

Ringworld (3) series plus the Fleet of Worlds (5) series.

becool,

Revelation Space! Yes, yes, yes! Pick them up and don't look back.

becool,

Also, if you're into pulpy sci-fi, the Avery Cates books are fun reads. Start with Electric Church.

Kiwibrick,

Spinward Fringe series is good and decently long

bomberesque1,

Peter F Hamilton

  • Greg Mandel trilogy
  • Confederation universe
  • Void Trilogy
  • The Chronicle of the Fallers

And more that I haven’t read now I look him up

punched_cards,

I also really like the Honor Harrington series. I’m also a big fan of the Liaden universe created by Lee and Miller.

WaterWaiver,

Thankyou DoisBigo, I didn’t know other people liked Kris Longknife and Honor Harrington. I pickup random space operas from charity stores – which if their shelves are any metric then it seems my entire country wants to read nothing but stories about ordinary people on earth; good stuff is few and far between.

Hal Spacejock is good. I found the second book first, it was a hoot (opening: robot on the spaceship panics after making a mistake, wipes its own memory so nothing can be proven, the ship then starts failing and the robot assumes the captain must be at fault for poor maintenance). Some surreal space-opera travel scenes across planets towards the end mixed in with lots of humour.

“Revelation Space” by Alastair Reynolds was definitely interesting. At times a bit stretched out, but it had some cool concepts in it (like safely arresting your fall down an elevator shaft by reversing the thrust of an entire spaceship). Scale was insane (crazy time & space) but then it all focuses on a few smaller points, which felt a bit too distilled for what felt like a big universe moments before. Characters were 50/50 and I didn’t enjoy some of their arcs, but the others were good.

A few months back I finished “Crystal Healer” (the dodgiest book title ever if you didn’t know it was a space opera) by S.L. Viehl. I remember almost nothing from it, except a hot cat-woman that was enslaved to the main character. No mental staying power whatsoever, but I think I enjoyed reading it.

I recently found a book on my shelf “War Games” by Brian Stableford. I thought I hadn’t read this. I opened the first page and found:

2013-02-25 I want to crush this novel. Why? … because the author did not write a sequel.

No idea what it’s about :D

Thankyou everyone in this topic for suggestions. If you want any of the books I mention then just poke me, it’s better I send them to someone else rather than let them sit on my shelf forever. I’m in Australia.

valen,
@valen@lemmy.world avatar

What? No love for the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey? I love em. Gotta love genetically engineered dragons.

karmiclychee,

Ooh, another operatic that comes to mind: 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

karmiclychee,

MOAR: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Not too long ago I did a deep dive for non white male authors (as much as I love Asimov and Iain Banks) and it was really rewarding. Ann leckie, Kameron Hurley, Becky Chambers, Nnedi Okorafor, Lindsay Buroker, to name some, are all good for a spaceship. Strongly suggest NK Jemesin’s Broken Earth, which isn’t spaceships, but still great. It’s been a bit, but I remember enjoying Samuel Delaney’s Nova, as well.

Cmot_Dibbler, (edited )
@Cmot_Dibbler@lemmy.world avatar

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.

WaterWaiver,

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.

Noughmad,

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.

thelastknowngod,

The Helliconia trilogy might be worth looking into. It’s pretty unique in the genre… It’s not deeply political though if that’s what you’re looking for. The main character is essentially the planet itself and how the global society of people living on that planet changes over centuries. The seasons on the planet last hundreds of years too so it’s adds some interesting evolutionary survival ideas in there.

copymyjalopy,

Definite recommend for Helliconia. One of the few book series that has epic level story structure but digs into the every day lives of different species and how they communicate their culture through time.

RBWells,

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.

Cmot_Dibbler,
@Cmot_Dibbler@lemmy.world avatar

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.

PCurd,

Plural of series is series, if that helps.

jo3shmoo,

The Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson. It’s a huge favorite across our family.

Weirdmusic,
@Weirdmusic@lemmy.world avatar

How about the Uplift series by David Brin? Start with Sundiver

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