[King Bear]

After starting a re-watch of battlestar galactica and returning to Sins of a Solar Empire I feel a serious need to read some space opera. I want something really epic and grandiose, preferably involving war and space battles. Could anyone point me towards something like this?

What I've read:
Dune
Foundation
The Gap series
A couple of Culture books
The Night's Dawn Trilogy.
The Forever War

This post has been edited by Bombur: 29 March 2011 - 12:42 PM

[Illuyankas]

It's the Night's Dawn trilogy, can you please edit the title in as half the fun of recommending that book is the reactions people have upon finding that out.

[Binder of Demons]

The most obvious one, when i see your list above would be Alastair Reynolds. Some great tech, and a undercurrent of horror. Some of the books have space battles, but I'm struggling to remember which ones.

A much lighter series would be David Brin's UPLIFT series. The first book, Sundiver, is a bit weak but does introduce the concepts of the Uplift universe. However, the 2nd book, STARTIDE RISING, and the 3rd book, THE UPLIFT WAR are great sci-fi adventures. Some cool battles and a good story.

Will try and think of more.

[caladanbrood]

Yeah, if you haven't read Al Reynolds, he would definitely be the guy I would recommend. But you don't have to just try mez authors, Peter Hamilton has a few other series which are just as good as Night's Dawn. Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained are a very good duology, and the Confederation trilogy and the Void trilogy are also excellent.

If you like Banks' Culture books, I would also recommend Neal Asher. It's not really space opera, but reminds me very much of Banks' stuff, very kick-ass, slightly over the top, full of secret space agents and psychotic drones. Can't sing his praises highly enough!

[QuickTidal]

Alastair Reynolds mixes vast amounts of history, with cool races and space battles and giant death weapons, tech plagues ect...

He is certainly one to look at. I'd start with his book of short fiction (that takes place in his Revelation Space universe) called GALACTIC NORTH, of which you can read all the stories except the last two without spoiling yourself and it actually works as a good primer for his universe and the types of beings and things that populate it.

Then you can move onto the mains series. REVELATION SPACE, REDEMPTION ARK, ABSOLUTION GAP...and then there is a kind of standalone called CHAOS CITY...some people recommend reading it before the trilogy, some say in the middle or some say after.

At any rate, these books are a bit complex, but entirely readable and quite good.

[King Bear]

Thanks guys. Since you've all recommended Alastair Reynolds, I'll look into Revelation Space/Galactic North.

I fixed the spoiler Illy. Sorry about that.

[caladanbrood]

Chasm City is Reynold's best book. And fairly rare in the genre in that it is completely stand-alone, even if it is in the same universe as some of his others. That is definitely the author's strength, his best books are outside his Revelation Space series. House of Suns and Pushing Ice are my next two favourites after Chasm City, and all three are standalone. I can't wait until Terminal World is out in paperback in the next month or so, it looks awesome.

[murphy72]

There's also Walter Jon Williams' trilogy, Dread Empire's Fall.

The Praxis
The Sundering
Conventions of War

David Weber's Honor Harrington series starting with On Basilisk Station

C. J. Cherryh's Down Below Station and Rim Runner.

[QuickTidal]

caladanbrood, on 29 March 2011 - 01:19 PM, said:

Chasm City is Reynold's best book. And fairly rare in the genre in that it is completely stand-alone, even if it is in the same universe as some of his others. That is definitely the author's strength, his best books are outside his Revelation Space series. House of Suns and Pushing Ice are my next two favourites after Chasm City, and all three are standalone. I can't wait until Terminal World is out in paperback in the next month or so, it looks awesome.

I hear tell THE PREFECT is good too...another standalone within the RS universe.

HOUSE OF SUNS got a glowing review recently from Felicia Day....and if hottie mchottie liked it I'm tempted to make that my next Reynolds read.

[Pig Iron]

Glen Cook:

The Dragon Never Sleeps (standalone) fantastic and crazy military space opera

Starfishers vol 1-3 revenge story

Darkwar (trilogy in omnibus) magic is involved, definitely space opera though calling it that is a mild spoiler for the first book

Jack Vance

The Demon Princes series revenge story

E E Doc Smith

Lensman series pulp space opera, truly epic if a bit cheesy at times.

Asimov

Foundation

Alfred Bester

The Stars My Destination one of the best ever, another (!) revenge story

Van Vogt

Null-A series crazy, but fun.

This post has been edited by Pig Iron: 29 March 2011 - 03:22 PM

[Salt-Man Z]

Ooh, definitely Reynolds. Read everything set in the Revelation Space universe.

C. J. Cherryh does some good space opera with fantastic aliens. Check out her Chanur saga, which consists of a standalone novel followed by a trilogy, followed by another (purely option, IMHO) standalone. Also her Faded Sun trilogy, generally found in omnibus form.

[Abyss]

Neal Asher's POLITY series is a bit more gritty sf than space opera sf but a lot of fun. His sub-set SPATTERJAY books (SKINNER, VOYAGE OF THE SABLE KEECH, ORBUS) involve super-pirates vs aliens and if that's not pure win i don't know what is.


David Weber's THE STARS AT WAR series is more military sf than space opera but if you're looking for massive fleets of massive spaceships blasting the fuck out of each other and the odd planet, go download these, FREE, from the Baen Book site. Also by Weber but more space operatic is the ASHES OF EMPIRE series, also FREE. Did i mention these are free? And somewhat addictive? And also free?

There's actually A LOT of military sf in the space opera vein on that site. Worth a look.

[Pig Iron]

+1 for Cherryh.

Vinge A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep are two of my other favourites.

OP already read it, but Donaldson's Gap Cycle is a candidate for best in the genre.

[Avatar]

Does Hyperion qualify as space opera? If is is, try and read Hyperion!

This post has been edited by Avatar: 05 April 2011 - 08:09 PM

[Abyss]

Avatar, on 29 March 2011 - 05:31 PM, said:

Does Hyperion qualify as space opera? If not: try and: read Hyperion!

I say yes, and it's a good one either way.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Saga of Seven Suns by Kevin Anderson

I know a lot of people don't like him as an author, but I really enjoyed this series.

[Illuyankas]

I read some of those. They are horrendous.

[Darkwatch]

If you're going into Asimov's Foundation then you must do so in the understanding that the first book is a collection of short stories brought together. It's good, but it does show in the structure. The second book Is quite strong.

But in terms of feeling the vastness of Space and Time the best of the best is Reynolds as mentioned. I read Revelation Space then just devoured everything else I could get my hands on (not much else at the time). House of Suns is one of my favourite books and Pushing Ice is awesome. Short story wise there's some excellent stuff as well. The Merlin stories (space opera), Signal to Noise (near future) are some that spring to mind.

Also if you've got time to burn and a liking for Classic Space Opera then may I suggest Perry Rhodan. And I do mean a lot of time.

[amphibian]

The sheer amount of people reppin' for Alastair Reynolds should give you an inkling of how awesome the man's books are. Get 'em all. I bet you really enjoy them too.

Blindsight by Peter Watts is kinda space dramatic, but it's one ship and its crew against one group of aliens, so perhaps not in the same grand scale as what you're looking for. Excellent book. It's available online for free (search the title and author and you'll be reading it in no time), and after reading it, I went out and bought the actual book.

Bombur, on 29 March 2011 - 11:47 AM, said:

The Forever War

John Scalzi's Old Man's War is a great, great book in the same vein as The Forever War. It's less sad though and way more battle P.O.Vs actually occur. He's produced two or three sequels which are very much worth reading as well.

Also... RichardMorganRichardMorganRichardMorgan. Not space opera, but damn enjoyable as well.

And Foundation sucked pruney old fogey balls. Asimov has an inflated reputation he doesn't deserve.

[Salt-Man Z]

Seconding Scalzi and Simmons.

I found Asimov's Foundation and Empire books to be pretty dated and stale, but his Robot novels are great.