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)

  • Qualanqui@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

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

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      +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.

  • Kayel@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    Alastair Reynolds - Revelation space i.e. Inhibitor sequence

    Peter F Hamilton - Void trilogy in the Commonwealth universe

  • bobgray123987@lemmynsfw.com
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    1 year ago

    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

  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Car@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    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.

    Another series I liked is the Castle Federation series by Glynn Stewart.

    This series spans a much shorter timeframe throughout its books but contains much more civil-war type political intrigue and seems to focus more on an important battle or two per book. As such, you get a more granular view of one starship officers experiences from the unit level up to the fleet. Tactics, deception, and an almost constant state of Pyrrhic victories help to make you feel like you aren’t simply following around a grand hero figure who is the unspoken savior of the galaxy. I don’t really remember how the series starts, but it’s mostly (or all) human-vs-human conflicts.

    Last series I enjoyed is the Frontlines storyline by Marko Kloos.

    In contrast to the stories above, it’s humans (mostly) good, aliens bad. A dystopian future is rocked by the sudden appearance of monolithic and seemingly invincible stegosaurus-like alien beings. They show up, terraform your world with CO2, and brush off humanity like we’re ants. You follow a few main characters who give you insight to how the big governments operate, how soldiers are thrown into unwinnable conflicts, and how freedom fighters back home protest against the majority of humanity’s production efforts going towards war while ignoring the problems at home. There’s a good mix of hopeless alien combat, human conflict and frustration towards the military industrial complex, Judge Dredd-like slums, and some anthropology thrown into the mix. Facing an existential threat, would you throw everything at offense and let your people starve?

    • karmiclychee @sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      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.