Looking for a good scifi book series

[dmnull]

Anyone got a recommendation for a scifi book series.

I am a big fan of the Honor Harrington, Lost Feet, and other "space navy book". Anyone have a recommendations on similar series?

[Lethologica]

Some options:

The Culture series
The Forever War series
The Mote in God's Eye
The Old Man's War series
The Imperial Radch series (Ancillary Justice etc.)
The Zones of Thought series (A Fire Upon the Deep etc.)

[Grinner]

Just finished watching "The Expanse". If the TV series is anything to go by, that might be something in the same genre as what you like, but written from a slightly different perspective.

[dmnull]

Lethologica,

Thanks, I have read Old Man's War, but the rest are new. I will check them out.

[dmnull]

Grinner,

I have read the Expanse books. I saw the show too. I thought they did a really good job with the TV adaption.

[Hopeless]

Does Omega Force count?
I think I got the title right, bought it on Kindle up to 8 books currently I believe?

[Sparx MacGyver]

Well, there is the Starship Series by Mike Resnick. There's 6 books I believe, and not so much space navy, per se, but can still be a fun rad if you get into it.

Another series I would recommend would be the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. There's 11 books, one of the just released in June of this year. To me this is some scifi stuff, but I suppose it's more alternate history than that. Haven't read the books in some time, but I remember them being enjoyable.

[Manga Shoggoth]

If you want to go old-school, there is the Lensman series - one of the defining Space Opera stories. It is a little old, though.

[BWR]

Seconding the Lensman series. Fun and pulpy (and I quite like pulp stories).
Don't have many recommendations beyond that because most of the SF books I read are not part of a series and aren't spacy, and the ones I know have already been listed. Maybe Steve White's stuff. I've only read the first two of the Disinherited stories. The first was enjoyable, the second passable, but I haven't read the third. His Starfire series might be interesting.
You might also like Sherman and Cragg's StarFIST series, which is basically the USMC in space with them being all awesome and their enemies and most politicians being stupid. Enjoyable enough if you can stomach the raging hard-ons the authors have for their marines.


Or you could try something not very military like Jo Clayton's Diadem series, just to throw out something I've never seen mentioned anywhere.

[Aeson]

You could also try the Foundation series and the Robot series by Isaac Asimov, or Known Space by Larry Niven.

[Olinser]

For single novels, my favorites have always been The Mote In God's Eye, Starship Troopers, Ender's Game, Dune and Ringworld (Ender's Game, Dune, and Ringworld have series that are decent but I consider the original books to be by far the best of the lot)

Also on the older front I always recommend Timothy Zahn's Conqueror trilogy (Conqueror's Pride is the first book). It was a great trilogy but could have been even better - the books follow the conflict between Humans and an alien race, and he originally intended to write all 3 books from a different perspective - the first from Human's view, the 2nd from the alien view, and the 3rd from an impartial AI observing the conflict. Unfortunately he couldn't deliver on writing from the perspective from a believable AI so he just went back to switching perspectives between humans and the aliens. Still a great series though.

[Manga Shoggoth]

For single novels, my favorites have always been The Mote In God's Eye, Starship Troopers, Ender's Game, Dune and Ringworld (Ender's Game, Dune, and Ringworld have series that are decent but I consider the original books to be by far the best of the lot)

And if Starship Troopers has been mentioned, I will add The Forever War, which was described as taking the opposite approach (as I didn't read ST I can't comment, though)..

[Gnoman]

If you like Weber, you might like David Drake, particularly the Republic of Cinnabar Navy series.

[GloatingSwine]

The Legend of the Galactic Heroes is one of the classic examples of space naval warfare, and after only three decades the books are finally getting an English translation.

[Flickerdart]

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is very good, and will definitely scratch the space navy itch for a good long while with 16 books.

[Hopeless]

How about the Vatta's War series?

[Psyren]

I'd recommend Anne McCaffrey's Brainship series (e.g. The City Who Fought, The Ship Who Sang etc.) These explore a lot of the applications and ethical ramifications of artificial intelligence in a space exploration setting. These are the kind of AI where an organic brain is literally wired up to some computers and goes on to form bonds/relationships with a human crew.

[Sermil]

+1 to Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. Very very good.

Also, Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy. It's set in the Star Wars universe, but is actually good despite that. Lots of good action and a villain (Grand Admiral Thrawn) so iconic that Disney brought him back after declaring the rest of the Expanded Universe non-canon.

(Edit for quick side note: Heir to the Empire was written after Return of the Jedi was released, but before the prequel movies were made (or even really planned). Therefore, Zahn just made up his own version of the history leading up to Star Wars: A New Hope and gave his own answers to questions like "What were the Clone Wars?" "What happened to the Republic?" "Where did all the Jedi go?", which ended up being completely different from Lucas's answers to those questions. If you read Heir to the Empire, just forget everything you learned from sources other than the first 3 movies, or you'll be very confused.)

[kraftcheese]

I'd recommend Anne McCaffrey's Brainship series (e.g. The City Who Fought, The Ship Who Sang etc.) These explore a lot of the applications and ethical ramifications of artificial intelligence in a space exploration setting. These are the kind of AI where an organic brain is literally wired up to some computers and goes on to form bonds/relationships with a human crew.
The Imperial Radch trilogy (Ancilliary Justice etc) explores some similar concepts; the morality of creating an AI to do something, hardwiring people to an AI, etc. and I really enjoyed it too.

It also goes into a future human culture that isn't just "X country but in space", the thought put into cultural practice kinda felt a bit Le Guin (a good thing!).

[argonite]

Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. These are easily my favorite sci-fi books. Great, highly detailed setting. Fantastic characters. And his writing style is easy to read.

I usually prefer fantasy, but i re-read these every few years.

[Wookieetank]

Cities in Flight is an older (1950-1960s) sci-fi series by James Blish. Humanity discover anti-gravity and use it to lift whole cities into space and use them as spacecraft. Makes for a fun quick read.

Revelation Space trilogy is a fantastic hard sci-fi space opera by Alastair Reynolds. A bit heavy on the techno babble side at times, but a spectacular read.

N+1 for the Culture series, but don't start with Consider Phlebas (I did, almost didn't read any of the other books), its much better once you've gotten a feel for the setting. The Player of Games makes for a much better introduction. Bit of a fair warning though Iain Banks likes to make his books on the farther side of squicktacular.

If you like fun, soft sci-fi romps, any of the Doctor Who novels make for a quick read and enjoyable time.

[Pivotal]

I really reccomend Aurora Rising. It's a bit unusual with more romance then most sci-fi, but the writing is great and its an awesome setting with tons of political intrigue and lots of deep tech talk. Lots of transhumanist themes as well as bigger themes of war and diplomacy. Also, there is like two new books each year in the series, so no long waits. 6 books so far, 3 more coming.

[Mister Tom]

Others beat me to All the naval recommendations I would have made, but you might also enjoy the laundry series by Charles stross - the man who invented the death knight! The short stories are freely available on the web, for example here - http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html

[kraftcheese]

I just thought of another good one!

The Nanotech Succession series by Linda Nagata; I really enjoyed them, lots of biotech, humans with engineered bodies, people are able to make copies of their consciousness in computer systems that link back into them for an infodump once they're done, etc. but the characters are written well, and the stories are enjoyable too, not just a vehicle for the ideas.

I actually read the last book (Vast) first because I found it in a charity shop and didn't realise it was part of a series, and I still really enjoyed it once I worked out what was happening.

[GloatingSwine]

the laundry series by Charles stross - the man who invented the death knight!

Also the Gith and the Slaad.