[Aventinus]

I love two genres. Fantasy and Science Fiction. Now, I just started reading Malazan so I have a long way to go but I was wondering, is there something with the scale of Malazan (or WoT) but in Science Fiction? Imagine Mass Effect in the span of 10 books. Because if there is not, someone should write it ASAP. :P

p.s. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise and my favorite scifi setting. I found it absolutely stunning and epic.

[Andorion]

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:36 AM, said:

I love two genres. Fantasy and Science Fiction. Now, I just started reading Malazan so I have a long way to go but I was wondering, is there something with the scale of Malazan (or WoT) but in Science Fiction? Imagine Mass Effect in the span of 10 books. Because if there is not, someone should write it ASAP.

p.s. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise and my favorite scifi setting. I found it absolutely stunning and epic.

You could try Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth and Void Books, Neal Ashers Polity and Spatterjay books, Iain M Banks Culture books

These are of the top off my head.

Will have to think for more

[Aventinus]

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 06:41 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:36 AM, said:

I love two genres. Fantasy and Science Fiction. Now, I just started reading Malazan so I have a long way to go but I was wondering, is there something with the scale of Malazan (or WoT) but in Science Fiction? Imagine Mass Effect in the span of 10 books. Because if there is not, someone should write it ASAP. :p

p.s. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise and my favorite scifi setting. I found it absolutely stunning and epic.

You could try Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth and Void Books, Neal Ashers Polity and Spatterjay books, Iain M Banks Culture books

These are of the top off my head.

Will have to think for more

I had no idea! Commonwealth and Void sounds awesome. I really like the fact that they are set in the same universe. Culture is 10 books, wow! Added both series in my to-read list. Thanks! :D

[Andorion]

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:52 AM, said:

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 06:41 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:36 AM, said:

I love two genres. Fantasy and Science Fiction. Now, I just started reading Malazan so I have a long way to go but I was wondering, is there something with the scale of Malazan (or WoT) but in Science Fiction? Imagine Mass Effect in the span of 10 books. Because if there is not, someone should write it ASAP.

p.s. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise and my favorite scifi setting. I found it absolutely stunning and epic.

You could try Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth and Void Books, Neal Ashers Polity and Spatterjay books, Iain M Banks Culture books

These are of the top off my head.

Will have to think for more

I had no idea! Commonwealth and Void sounds awesome. I really like the fact that they are set in the same universe. Culture is 10 books, wow! Added both series in my to-read list. Thanks!

Culture books are very very different. They are also among my all time favorite Sci fi books.

If you don't mind really dark, slow burn style long books try Alastair Reynolds, his Revelation Space books.
A very good Alastair Reynolds standalone is House of Suns.

[Aventinus]

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 07:02 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:52 AM, said:

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 06:41 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:36 AM, said:

I love two genres. Fantasy and Science Fiction. Now, I just started reading Malazan so I have a long way to go but I was wondering, is there something with the scale of Malazan (or WoT) but in Science Fiction? Imagine Mass Effect in the span of 10 books. Because if there is not, someone should write it ASAP.

p.s. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise and my favorite scifi setting. I found it absolutely stunning and epic.

You could try Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth and Void Books, Neal Ashers Polity and Spatterjay books, Iain M Banks Culture books

These are of the top off my head.

Will have to think for more

I had no idea! Commonwealth and Void sounds awesome. I really like the fact that they are set in the same universe. Culture is 10 books, wow! Added both series in my to-read list. Thanks!

Culture books are very very different. They are also among my all time favorite Sci fi books.

If you don't mind really dark, slow burn style long books try Alastair Reynolds, his Revelation Space books.
A very good Alastair Reynolds standalone is House of Suns.

Nice! So many books :3

This post has been edited by Oblivious: 12 October 2015 - 07:05 AM

[Andorion]

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 07:04 AM, said:

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 07:02 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:52 AM, said:

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 06:41 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:36 AM, said:

I love two genres. Fantasy and Science Fiction. Now, I just started reading Malazan so I have a long way to go but I was wondering, is there something with the scale of Malazan (or WoT) but in Science Fiction? Imagine Mass Effect in the span of 10 books. Because if there is not, someone should write it ASAP.

p.s. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise and my favorite scifi setting. I found it absolutely stunning and epic.

You could try Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth and Void Books, Neal Ashers Polity and Spatterjay books, Iain M Banks Culture books

These are of the top off my head.

Will have to think for more

I had no idea! Commonwealth and Void sounds awesome. I really like the fact that they are set in the same universe. Culture is 10 books, wow! Added both series in my to-read list. Thanks!

Culture books are very very different. They are also among my all time favorite Sci fi books.

If you don't mind really dark, slow burn style long books try Alastair Reynolds, his Revelation Space books.
A very good Alastair Reynolds standalone is House of Suns.

Nice! So many books :3

I don't know why I didn't mention this before. Dan Simmons Hyperion duology - Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Two of the most mind blowing sci fi books I have ever read.

[EmperorMagus]

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 07:43 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 07:04 AM, said:

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 07:02 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:52 AM, said:

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 06:41 AM, said:

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 06:36 AM, said:

I love two genres. Fantasy and Science Fiction. Now, I just started reading Malazan so I have a long way to go but I was wondering, is there something with the scale of Malazan (or WoT) but in Science Fiction? Imagine Mass Effect in the span of 10 books. Because if there is not, someone should write it ASAP.

p.s. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise and my favorite scifi setting. I found it absolutely stunning and epic.

You could try Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth and Void Books, Neal Ashers Polity and Spatterjay books, Iain M Banks Culture books

These are of the top off my head.

Will have to think for more

I had no idea! Commonwealth and Void sounds awesome. I really like the fact that they are set in the same universe. Culture is 10 books, wow! Added both series in my to-read list. Thanks!

Culture books are very very different. They are also among my all time favorite Sci fi books.

If you don't mind really dark, slow burn style long books try Alastair Reynolds, his Revelation Space books.
A very good Alastair Reynolds standalone is House of Suns.

Nice! So many books :3

I don't know why I didn't mention this before. Dan Simmons Hyperion duology - Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Two of the most mind blowing sci fi books I have ever read.

The Hyperion doulogy does have some boring parts, but when you put it all together it's absolutely mind-blowing. I finished it more than two months ago and I still dream about it sometimes.
Shrike was creepy af.

[Aventinus]

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 07:43 AM, said:

I don't know why I didn't mention this before. Dan Simmons Hyperion duology - Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Two of the most mind blowing sci fi books I have ever read.

EmperorMagus, on 12 October 2015 - 07:52 AM, said:

The Hyperion doulogy does have some boring parts, but when you put it all together it's absolutely mind-blowing. I finished it more than two months ago and I still dream about it sometimes.
Shrike was creepy af.

Duology? According to Goodreads, Hyperion consists of four books. Am I missing something? Anyway, seems to be a must-read in the scifi category so when I feel like I want make the leap to outer space I'll start with that. :)

This post has been edited by Oblivious: 12 October 2015 - 08:41 AM

[Andorion]

Oblivious, on 12 October 2015 - 08:41 AM, said:

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 07:43 AM, said:

I don't know why I didn't mention this before. Dan Simmons Hyperion duology - Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. Two of the most mind blowing sci fi books I have ever read.

EmperorMagus, on 12 October 2015 - 07:52 AM, said:

The Hyperion doulogy does have some boring parts, but when you put it all together it's absolutely mind-blowing. I finished it more than two months ago and I still dream about it sometimes.
Shrike was creepy af.

Duology? According to Goodreads, Hyperion consists of four books. Am I missing something? Anyway, seems to be a must-read in the scifi category so when I feel like I want make the leap to outer space I'll start with that.

No, there's the Hyperion Duology, and then the Endymion Duology. The Hyperion story arc is completed in the first two books. I haven't read the second two but popular opinion is not in their favour

[Serenity]

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 07:02 AM, said:

If you don't mind really dark, slow burn style long books try Alastair Reynolds, his Revelation Space books.
A very good Alastair Reynolds standalone is House of Suns.

Second those. I thought the Revelation Space books were brilliant, individually and collectively. For the OP's info, if you've got a Kindle you can get all seven of the books in a collection:

http://www.amazon.co..._=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.co..._=sr_1_6&sr=8-6


I'll throw in Vernor Vinge's 'Zones of Thought' books, too. A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky are two of my all-time faves.

[Mentalist]

+1 for Asher`s Polity books. Used to be my follow-u to a new Malaz book.

As long as we`re talking about Peter F. Hamilton, we need to mention "Night's Dawn" trilo-massive and epic.

There's also Frank Herbert's "Dune" books.

Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" is a standalone, but it's as dense as Malaz, and just like Malaz, you're piecing together millenia worth of history as you go along. check it out.

The Expanse books are a series in progress that some forumites swear by. I've only read the first 2, so i'll withhold judgement.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 28 October 2015 - 04:17 PM

[polishgenius]

I haven't played Mass Effect but from what I know of it Revelation Space (by Reynolds) is a pretty big influence on the series so definitely go for that early on.

Quote

Neal Stephenson's "Anathem" is a standalone, but it's as dense as Malaz, and just like Malaz, you're pieing together millenia worth of history as you go along. check it out.

Anathem is ah-MAY-zing but OP seems mostly to be asking for space opera which this obviously isn't. So while I recommend it, it's with a caution in this particular topic.

[Binder of Demons]

Would the Dan Abnett novels set in the Warhammer 40K universe fit the bill? I know of, but am not familiar with Mass Effect, so don't really know if those match up well, but have heard lots of people rave about them.

Stephen Donaldson has written a great sci-fi series, known as THE GAP CYCLE, or THE GAP SERIES. It's either 5 or 6 books long, and gets better as it progresses. It's pretty grim in the first book with some rather nasty characters, but don't let that deter you.

Otherwise, the series' suggested above are good.
I'm a huge fan of all of Neal Asher's work, especially the Polity books.

Alastair Reynolds has written some great sci-fi, some of which have a horror feel to them.

The Peter Hamilton books look great on paper, but I've never been entirely satisfied with how he ends his books/series. The set-up is usually brilliant though.

HYPERION is a classic and should be read. I enjoyed the Endymion books too, but maybe that was because of how much i enjoyed the Hyperion books.

Frank Herbert's DUNE series is great, and suitably epic in scale. Do yourself a favour and ignore the numerous sequels written by his son (and Kevin J Anderson) which are shit.

Iain M. Banks' CULTURE series is fantastic, but some of the standalone novels might be closer to what you're looking for (like The Algebraist, or Surface Detail).

[Aventinus]

polishgenius, on 12 October 2015 - 06:33 PM, said:

I haven't played Mass Effect but from what I know of it Revelation Space (by Reynolds) is a pretty big influence on the series so definitely go for that early on.

I noticed this too by reading the plot in Goodreads. As a matter of fact, it seems that Mass Effect is a straight copy of Revelation Space, although I can't tell for sure because I haven't read it. Can someone tell me their opinion on the matter?

Briar King, on 12 October 2015 - 11:29 PM, said:

Your going to get the same exact answers on every reco thread.

So get Dune 1-6
Hamilton's Commonwealth set
The Expanse 1-5(so far) is actually a great time to read these fun books since the tv show is just 2 months away from starting.

Thanks Briar King, will do. :)

[Gorefest]

Andorion, on 12 October 2015 - 08:46 AM, said:

No, there's the Hyperion Duology, and then the Endymion Duology. The Hyperion story arc is completed in the first two books. I haven't read the second two but popular opinion is not in their favour

They're not so bad, really. They flesh out a lot of world background and explore more in depth the mysteries behind the labyrinth and tthe time tombs. But if you're not really into psychology and Zen Buddhism, it can sometimes be a bit of a taxing read.

Someone mention Asimov's 'Foundation' series yet?

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 13 October 2015 - 09:35 AM

[Garak]

The Mass Effect books are so and so. It's the games that do the real set up and awesome stuff (ME1 has aged somewhat but ME2 and 3 still rock).

[Tiste Simeon]

Just chiming in to say read all the Iain M Banks books (especially his Culture novels) and Peter F. Hamilton. I prefer "Nights Dawn" trilogy to Commonwealth & Void but they're all good.

[amphibian]

Try Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series. It focuses on Miles extensively, yet it's well written and the scope gets pretty big and intense.

Elizabeth Bear's Jenny Casey books are fantastic as well, but smaller in scope.

The Uplift series by David Brin is fairly epic in scope and execution.

Banks' Culture series is so good that Alistair Reynolds and Richard Morgan explicitly point interviewers and readers towards his works as companions/primers for their own works. Morgan goes more personal and small scale in what he works with (which I like too), while Reynolds stays a bit further out like Banks does.

Hannu Rajaniemi also has a smaller scale sci-fi trilogy in the Quantum Thief books. Not Malazan-ish in complexity, but it's a fun ride.

[stone monkey]

Seconding the recommendation for Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief trilogy. They're not quite guns blazing Space Opera, but it does get pretty epic in the 3rd part.

Nobody seems to have mentioned Stephen Donaldson's Gap Series yet, so I'll do that. It is Space Opera, of a particularly dark and grim sort, so not the best reading if you want something light to just zoom through.

If you want to go really old school there's always what is practically the ur-text of Space Opera EE Smith's Lensman series. That gets epic in a hurry, and keeps on getting... um... epic-er. They were written in the 30s-50s. so there is a certain... primitive... quality about them, though.

For a change in pace, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy (and the pendant novel 2312 - which is set in sort of the same universe) are worth a read.

Another fairly epic Neal Stephenson read might well be Seveneves - which literally starts with the moon getting asploded and trundles through the end of humanity on earth and what it takes to survive in space afterwards, along with more than you might ever conceivably want to know about orbital mechanics, in fairly detailed order. And then cuts to 5000 years later for the aftermath...

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 13 October 2015 - 09:35 PM

[Imperial Historian]

Seconding the gap. Donaldson's the Gap series is literal space opera being an adaptation of 'the ring cycle' opera to a scifi setting, it's certainly epic though it's pretty dark and not for the light of heart. I will say the first book of the series is a lot shorter and quite different from what comes after, if you don't like it it's worth picking up the next book regardless as it's more of a prologue to the main series.