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.
+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.
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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.
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
Dan Simmons - Hyperian Kantos. 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)
Reality Dysfunction, Hyperion, Red Rising, Dune, The Expanse, Foundation, The Mote in God’s Eye
Pandora’s Star and the sequel Judas Unchained by Peter F Hamilton
Excellent storyline
Really, all of the Commonwealth Saga are good reads
I really loved how many different storylines it weaves together.
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’m just finishing the third, great series overall.
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation space i.e. Inhibitor sequence
Peter F Hamilton - Void trilogy in the Commonwealth universe
+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.
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.
Off the top of my head, here’s a few:
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The Commonwealth Saga, by Peter F Hamilton
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Hyperion Cantos
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The Spiral Wars
+1 for Commonwealth. Space trains.
Another +1 to commonwealth, just all around.
For real, space trains are the tits.
Hamilton is a model railroader IRL which I suspect had something to do with his lavish descriptions of those space trains.
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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
You would typically be the person I would go to for book suggestions, not the other way around.
Sorry I can’t help more :/
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.
If you’re looking for genuine space opera, I quite enjoyed the Final Architecture series by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Seconded - I liked a lot of the series in OP’s list and I though the F.A. series was awesome. I liked it more than Children of Time, me.
Maybe House of Leaves
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
