2y ago

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)

103 comments

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.
  
  Those are also some of my favorites, the only reason I didn’t recommend is because I didn’t consider it to be quite the same genre, but agree they are excellent!
  They are also in the same universe, as foundation makes a few references to that series, which are also fun to catch.

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.
- I second this. The Culture cycle is one of the best space opera series ever written.
- 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.

Dan Simmons - Hyperian KCantos. Four books in the series, well worth a read imo... I loved it
Adrian 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
  
  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 :)
  
  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

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.

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!
- Second Red Rising! Ender's Game combined with Hunger Games. Then the next books kick off with space combat, mech suits, & political intrigue
- ++ Hyperion by Dan Simmons. One of my favorites

Pandora’s Star and the sequel Judas Unchained by Peter F Hamilton
- Excellent storyline
- I really loved how many different storylines it weaves together.
- 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.

Children Of Time Trilogy.
Amazing books that explore topics like Consciousness and Intelligence from angles you wouldn't expect
- Also Adrian Tchaikovsky's new series, the Final Architecture. Two books in, so far so very good.
- I just finished the second book. We’re going on an adventure…

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.

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.

Revelation Space.
Niven's Ringworld series
Foundation?
- Revelation Space! Yes, yes, yes! Pick them up and don't look back.
  
  Also, if you're into pulpy sci-fi, the Avery Cates books are fun reads. Start with Electric Church.
- Ringworld (3) series plus the Fleet of Worlds (5) series.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy 🌌 . Probably not what you’re looking for.
- I've read it and it is awesome. Worth mentioning whenever someone wants a light read.
  
  Light? It has the meaning of life, the universe and everything. /s

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.

Have you read any of Alastair Reynolds's books?
House of Suns, while just a single book, felt like it had one of the biggest universes I'd ever read a story set in, and is my favorite sci-fi book, ever.
For something bigger, look into his Revelation Space series. It's a bunch of books, some connected, some not, all set in the same universe.
- Seconding Revelation Space series. His books are great about being epic and mildly disconcerting at the same time.
- Loved House of Suns
  
  A fellow fan! Ima gush a bit.
  It seems we might get more books set in the universe, at some point. I really want to know what happened to the first machine race. If it was indeed birthed by the boy Abigail played with as a child, as is implied. His family specialized in robotics, and he got stuck in palacial, which later became the brain scanning tech to create the lines using Gentians cloning tech, as opposed to digitizing, like the machine cloud Campion and Purslaine meet, which was originally human.
  And I also want to know if Purslane is indeed Abigail, as her having palacial aboard her ship implies.
  Man. I've never read a book with so many dots to connect, as House of Suns. And two main characters who are already a couple, and that's just how they are for the whole story? How unusual is that!?

The Damned trilogy by Alan Dean Foster Hyperion by Dan Simmons The Culture series by Iain M Banks

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!

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 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.
- 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.

Huge Honor fan here. Have you read Weber's other huge series, Safehold. Not space opera, more like sea opera, but it hits many of the same buttons that Honor does.
- I'll check it out. Wood ships or metal ships?
  
  Why not both? (IIRC, there's some sort of technological uplift going on that takes a civilization from wooden ships to metal ships).
  If you're OK with "ships on water, not in space", there's the Destroyermen series, which involves multiverse displaced WW2 ships finding themselves in a timeline where the asteroid didn't kill the dinosaurs. It gets a little too sprawling towards the last few books (much like the Honor Harrington books got a bit too sprawling, what with Talbot Sector, etc.), but was satisfyingly action packed, albeit the tech uplift is WW2 tech.
  Less exotically, there's the "1632" series, at least the first half dozen or so books. Time-displaced American small town, into Thirty Years War Germany (basically, at the beginning of what we'd call the Modern Era). With that series, the sprawl gets out of control and sort of kills any momentum, but the first books are excellent fun.
  
  Wood ships.
  David Weber loves Age of Sail warfare. In fact Honor Harrington is a tribute to Horatio Hornblower.
  There is a Sci Fi wrapper around the story.
  None of the characters are who I want to be when I grow up. Where Honor is. But the story telling us top notch.

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

Third vote for Dune!

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.

You would typically be the person I would go to for book suggestions, not the other way around.
Sorry I can’t help more :/

If you're looking for genuine space opera, I quite enjoyed the Final Architecture series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

You could try Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan. It's the first book in the trilogy. The book was better then the Netflix series.
Starship Trooper

The Imperial Radch Trilogy by Ann Leckie

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

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.
- I strongly second this one - they’re great

Takeshi Kovachs is power fantasy, gary sue, erotica. The universe has an interesting premise, but utterly refuses to explore any of the implications properly.
It's explicitly stated that cortical stacks only record a mind, but cannot run one. But then how exactly does a mind get "written" to a body it didn't originate in? A brain IS its contents, you can't just swap out the harddrive and use the same CPU. A human brain is both storage medium and processor, but this fact is never dealth with. What if the human brain was overriden by a cortical stack running a mind? What if there was always an "original" trapped copy running on that wetware? So much more interesting, but all that potential detail is just handwaved off.
What happens if you install someone into a brain that's damaged? Does that person now have a brain damage related disability while in that body?
And the ever referenced "quellism", some newfangled ultimate ideology for achieving utopia, that is never ever actually explained or explored. And when the creator of that dogma appears, she's little more than a set of genitals for our dear main character to screw.
The best book in the series, is the second, dealing which with the ancient aliens that came before humans, and even in that one Takeshi hypno fingerbangs a woman out of her ptsd. What. The. Fuck. Maybe the netflix series skipping to the third book was for the best.
- Even the second one was a slog to get through with plenty of slow parts throughout the book.
  
  Oh yes. I'm sure I zoned out a lot listening to the audiobook while working.
  
  I gave up on the second. I simply lost interest.

I don't think any has mentioned this yet, The Expeditionary Force series?
- Man… I would have until the last book

The Three Body problem is a an absolutely phenomenal take on the Dark Forest Theory.
It has the unfortunate quality of reading like a news article at times, recounting events, rather than feeling like an illustrated narrative. And some plot points hinge on the authors pre-conceived notions about gender that really didn't sit well with me.
- Love that series but it's not really Space Opera

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.
- 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.

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.

I wouldn't say it is "packed with action" but I have to recommend the Revelation Spaces series by Alastair Reynolds, just because I think more people should be reading these.

Not super long, but Consider Phlebas is pretty action packed. Two agents on opposing sides of a war trying to secure the same thing

The Nanotech Succession by Linda Nagata is pretty awesome if less well-known.

Have you read revelation space? I also recommend house of suns from the same author. They fit your criteria

Stephen Donaldson's Gap series. Fair warning though, the first (short) book is very confronting.

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

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

Spinward Fringe series is good and decently long

This is kind of cheese ball, but have you tried Steve Perry's Matador series? The books aren't very long, but there's quite a few of them. Lots of fun characters and villains and such and it's a light, fun read.

I've actually really been enjoying the Warhammer 40k books, started with the Ultramarines omnibus, fun sci Fi fantasy

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

The Spinward Fringe series by Randolph Lalonde is very good. The first book is free too, so that's a plus 👍

Many good recommendations already. Mine are: Warhammer, namely the Horus Heresy, the first few books of which I've read. Only 51 more to go. Robert Heinlein, all of his books are in the same universe which is pretty neat. He has his issues but the world building is top notch and sustained across so many works.

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

Off the top of my head, here’s a few:
The Commonwealth Saga, by Peter F Hamilton
Hyperion Cantos
The Spiral Wars
- +1 for Commonwealth. Space trains.
  
  Another +1 to commonwealth, just all around.
  
  Hamilton is a model railroader IRL which I suspect had something to do with his lavish descriptions of those space trains.
  
  For real, space trains are the tits.
- Hyperion Cantos is weird but I couldn't put it down. Would recommend.

Maybe House of Leaves

I didn't see The Culture series in there by Iain M Banks. There are some thicc boi books in there any the overall quality of storytelling is very high. I do find them a little slow to get going though, but once they do, it's usually a good ride

103 comments