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Looking for epic space operas (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by hbar@lemmy.ml to c/books@lemmy.ml

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I really enjoyed The Hyperion Cantos, and the first few Dune books I read a long time ago (may reread these now). Can anyone recommend some other books (or series) along these lines? Huge stories on an epic scale, space battles, cool future tech, etc.

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[–] Landrin201@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think The Expanse is a pretty obvious recommendation.

I also really like the Remembrance of Earth's Past books by Cixin Liu, but I'm not sure I'd call that a Space Opera. It's a series, yes, but it is very unlike other long-form space operas.

[–] hbar@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I've heard the Expanse books are great, I watched the Amazon series already. Are the books even better?

[–] Landrin201@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

I watched the show first (I've never gotten past season 4, personally) and I liked the books WAY more. The show added a lot of unnecessary drama that distracted from the overall plot IMO.

[–] iNeedScissors67@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The show is my favorite show of all time and I still think the books are better. If you liked the show, at all, you'll really like the books. Amos Burton is probably my favorite character in any fictional universe.

[–] two_wheel2@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Part of the reason why the show is so good is because it follows the books pretty closely imo. It's astounding how on narrative they manage to stay for that many seasons (with some exceptions, probably.. it had been a while since I'd read the books when I watched the show)

[–] Jaximus@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

The expanse is probably the best sci fi series of recent past. It is only comparable to classics like Asimov and le Guin in quality, although it has a very different philosophy and style.

[–] Octorine@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space series is fantastic and sounds like what you're looking for.

[–] Cybertardis@infosec.pub 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would recommend the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. Every book takes place on a different planet with an amazing amount of character building and detail in the plot.

[–] senatorpresident@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

Did you finish book 5? That one was a slog for me, and I enjoyed most of the rest (even if book 3 showed much of the strain of finishing the first trilogy, I never felt the pacing slip as much).

[–] tiny_fingers@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

I really enjoyed Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained) + The Void Trilogy which is in the same universe as the Commonwealth Saga books and features some of the same characters.

[–] JollyRoberts@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Honor Harrington series is great for epic space opera.

The Bobiverse is really good too, though less... grandiose? It felt more personal to me.

The Well of Souls serie(s) are great.

For less opera and more funny the Phule books by Robert Aspirin are good.

[–] hbar@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Awesome list, thanks! Looks like the first book of Honor Harrington is free on Kindle so I can check it out right away. Should I read that series in publication order?

[–] JollyRoberts@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it chronological in publish order as far as i know