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.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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I've heard the Expanse books are great, I watched the Amazon series already. Are the books even better?
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.
I'm seconding the other guy that the books are even better! Plus they go past the point of the show so you'll be able to get more out of the world.
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.
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)
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.
Came here to say the same about Three Body Problem. Not quite space opera... but similar cool stuff as Hyperion.
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.
I second this. Hamilton often uses similar technology and themes and this is my favourite version of his take on the future of humanity. Definitely epic
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.
I loved the Bobiverse series, I'll have to check out the other ones!
One of my favorite series, but wouldn't really call it space opera
Agreed, more hard SciFi / Empire Building imo
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?
Yeah, it chronological in publish order as far as i know
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.
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).
1st trilogy is great - highly recommend.
Couldn't make it through the 1st book of the second trilogy. Just couldn't care about most of the point of views.
The first book of the second trilogy was a bit rough, it felt to me that the entire thing was just giving backstory setting up the story. I did enjoy book 5 though.
The Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie was very good. It's got a few interesting themes along with the space battles and evil empires and weird aliens, like gender and personhood. I hear there's a new book in the same universe, but unconnected to the trilogy characters, that just came out I think?
Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space series is fantastic and sounds like what you're looking for.
2nd this, great worldbuilding in the first books; and the peripheral Inspector Dreyfus books. diamond dogs etc.
IMO the latest book in the series (the final one? maybe?) Inhibitor Phase was disappointing...rehashed characters (somehow, Palpatine returned vibes) & a "grudgingly respect through shared adversities " trope that was hard to overcome.
I‘m reading the Culture series right now and I feel like it fits at least partially. It‘s got an epic scale, space battles and future tech. Only thing disorienting for me is how each book so far seems to be about someone/somewhere else.
Yeah! I've read a couple of them. I thought it was cool how they were in the same universe, but just little stories that had not much to do with each other. It could be I need to read more of them to find more ties between them, but.. I like them, really cool feel.
Deathstalker series is good old fashioned space opera
I dig Perry Rhodan. Read the first cycle of the original series: The Third Power (vols 1 - 49). The NEO series - a reboot - is being published in english by J Novel Club and, while it has a manga-style cover art, it is not Japanese content. It's a german pulp series.
Neal Asher's polity books. Culture books, kind of, in setting if nothing else.