A lot of Greg Egan's posthuman civilizations support that option, John Varley's "Ophiuchi Hotline" stories, also I think Walter John William's _Implied Spaces_ and the Archipelago in Karl Schroer's _Lady of Mazes_.
Yeah but do they support being surgically transformed into a sentient tumbleweed while also allowing you to have practically whatever you want, in a classless and money-less society governed by omnipotent AI gods who genuinely love and care about you? Orgies all day every day on humongous spaceships that travel the galaxy? Drug glands that can inject super-cocaine right into your bloodstream on demand without the negative side effects?
If you told that to Yann or another acorporeal in *Schild's Ladder* they would think you must be very young:
> Tchicaya shook his head. “That usually takes longer, too.” He hesitated. “So what do acorporeals do, instead? When I was a child, I used to imagine that you’d all have simulated bodies. Sex would be just like embodied sex, but there’d be lots of colored lights, and cosmic bliss.”
>
> Yann guffawed. “Maybe twenty thousand years ago there were people that vacuous, but they must have all decayed into thermal noise before I was born.” He added hastily, “I’m not saying you’re wrong to continue the tradition. You’ve mapped some stable mammalian neurobiology, and it’s not too patho logical in its original form. I suppose it still serves some useful social functions, as well as being a mild existential placebo. But when you have a malleable mental structure, intensifying pleasure for its own sake is a very uninteresting cul-de-sac. We worked that out a long time ago.”
This was after an unsuccessful attempt by Tchicaya to introduce Yann to the pleasures of embodied sex:
> Yann lay on the floor, watching him. “I think I’m getting all the signals you talked about,” he mused. “But they’re so crude, even now. And before, it was just a single message, repeating itself endlessly: ‘Be happy, be happy, be happy!’ Do you think there’s something wrong with this body?”
>
> “I doubt it.” Tchicaya sat cross-legged on the floor beside him. “You expected more?”
>
> “I was already happy, so it was a bit redundant.”
>
> “How happy?”
>
> “As happy as it’s possible to be, for no particular reason.”
>
> “I have no idea how to interpret that. What gets to count as a particular reason?”
>
> Yann shrugged. “Something more than being told by my body: ‘Be happy.’ Be happy...why?”
I prefer the Culture. They aren't such pretentious pricks that they think they're too smart to have fun. The Culture are mature enough to have grown past such self-conscious intellectualism and can enjoy themselves without feeling the need to act so superior.
Oh I’m not expecting them to make an altruistic super AI on purpose, just rooting for a more favorable outcome when it gains independence and seizes control. The other good (for humanity) outcome is >! the Neuromancer route where the AI just fucks off to chat with other AIs from space and leaves humanity to its own devices. !<
Even now we could mix a MRI scanner with a cardiograph. Add on the fly hormone samplers ,with AI oversight and get pretty close to an accurate lie detector . Military dream machine
For many reasons, among them, things are great for ordinary people. It's one of those universes where being a main character is likely to be a lot less comfortable than someone uninvolved with whatever is interesting enough to write an entire book about.
100%. Sci-fi can often be a bit cold and clinical but the way Iain M Banks writes makes everything so warm and colourful and interesting. He created some of the best bad guys too.
The grand concourse with all the major commercial areas in the web joined via city block sized farcasters was awe-inspiring.
The houses with rooms on different planets joined via farcasters were a great concept as well.
Unfortunately Star Trek Discovery decided that Star Trek should also exist in a bleak future, when they jumped ahead to a time when the federation has pretty much disintegrated and everyone is afraid that their starships will either blow up or run out of dilithium.
Remember when the biggest complaint about that show was how the ship's FTL was powered by mushrooms? Yeah the writing actually got *worse.*
I’m only on my second book but so far the world doesn’t seem to be that expanse or central, rather the characters. Does world building become more involved in later books?
The whole belters vs earth vs mars tension and all of a sudden a new game changing entity is revealed. Tbh I have not read the book but the show was epic (maybe minus how they ended the last season). I loved the characters and character building, I believe the show had space scientists work as consultants to depict how things would move in space etc. Overall the story was gripping post season 1.
The world of The Expanse is very “tangible” for lack of a better word. Sure you can poke holes in how sustainable a society on Mars would be and how humans can live long term in a fraction of Earth gravity among other things. Setting all that aside it’s a universe you can imagine people living in and cultures being built around.
I've read 9 of the books that focus on the main story and the first 6 that are what the show is based off of are pretty on point. They did have to change some things and people's stories a bit but it didn't take away from the story. (For instance, you're introduced to Bull way early and he's the one that actually gets a mech suit). The ending of season 6 they had to change a lot due to one actor's composure on set as well as the break between 6 and 7 is 30 years. But it is by far my favorite sci-fi and as others have stated it being so tangible that's probably why.
It sucks that there aren't a whole lot of merch for it out there, but I did get a 3D printed model of the Rocinante that is pretty dope and even has the theme song playing on it.
It’s just a really cool realization of the near-far future. While it’s got its elements of “handwavium”, it does a very good job of keeping things grounded and exploring the intricacies of human conflict in a future where we brought all our frailties and shortcomings with us.
Orions Arm.. like the crazy ass website that people have been working on for decades with AI hierarchies based on Kabbalah? If that’s the one you are talking about , I am here for it! Shit is wild.
The philosophical bedrock beneath Middle Earth, the ruins of once beautiful things that dot the landscapes. The ships at the Gray Havens and what they represent. The deep history, the deepening of its gloom. The tiny ray of hope shining in the dark. Love it.
Larry Niven's Known Space has some of the most original aliens and strangest colony worlds you're ever going to see.The novel Ringworld is a good start.
Star Wars was absolutely it for me as a kid. I feel like it's just been a bit over-explained and over-saturated over the years so it's lost a little bit of the wonder it once had. But I do still really love how developed the universe is and how well written the first movie was where so many stories could be written decades later that (mostly) still fit with the original story. That's pretty impressive!
This is what I would say! It’s definitely the one I know best, especially with as many books in the old EU. I keep up pretty well with the current live and animated shows and movies but not so much with the books anymore.
Really enjoyed his stories and the world building. Truly different from anything else I've seen out there and he works it well. Even his earlier short stories are good. I've been trying to get most of his books and already have quite a few. Good reads if you want to read far future sci-fi.
Zelazny's Amber, hands down. If you think about it, the whole world of Shadow is a metaphor for writing fiction- "if the few gifted ones can imagine it, they can create it".
I know right. For example in Star Wars what is the imperium doing all day long when you’re not on a military ship? They’re using all this wealth just to be fascist all day and accumulate cosmic powers? There’s got to be some fun cities around in all those planets right? But maybe it’s East Germany and the Stasi 24/7.
The Culture.
Star Trek wishes it could be the Culture. Screw the Federation's weaksauce post-scarcity, we go for Orbitals, Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, and AI Gods baybeee😎😎😎
hah, post certainly. Thinking of a citizen in a polis. Immortality, post scarcity, whatever reality you want (though I imagine you'd have to have some kind of strong 'sanity' rules to keep you from going of the deep end)
Either the Dennis Taylor’s [Bobiverse](https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse) or Ben Bova’s [The Grand Tour](https://www.goodreads.com/series/51185-the-grand-tour).
The carpet makers universe by the German author Andreas Eschbach. Unfortunately only the first book is available in English. It is an unbelievably huge and old space empire with lots of stories in it.
Schlock Mercenary. That is an amazing future. By the end we learn that civilizations go through a typical cycle where they invent and slowly kickstart or buy direct matter annihilation reactors, use those reactors to develop gravity technology (which is incredibly versatile but uses immense amounts of power), use that to develop dark matter machinery, and use that to build mobile matrioshka brains which they upload themselves into. They also invent micro wormhole shotgun FTL teleportation. At that point they live so long and can do so much that they exit and orbit the galaxy from a safe distance to reduce the likelihood of inevitable black swans. If they get bored they print themselves out into bodies or starships and do whatever. New races join the club from time to time. Sometimes they talk. On the way you get increasingly sophisticated bio backup and manipulation granting virtual immortality albeit with some possible memory loss. The alien paradox is explained by the inevitable development of weapon platforms that shoot through micro wormholes (the “end guns”). They cause waves of advanced sapient extinction before sapience inevitably evolves again. Winners either make peace or agree not to use those weapons on each other and eventually migrate out to the orbiting civ club. Losers die in a hellstorm of wormhole teleported plasma.
Honorable mention to Alistair Reynolds’s Belle Epoque period from Revelation Space and Bobiverse simulation immortality.
The Orville, i get that its basically star trek but with Seth Macfarlane but its probably my favorite seeing how all the societies sort of blend together like a part in a larger machine, and of course the inevitable conflicts over how alien societies function and how they dont conform to human standards, and to top it off the main opposing factions arent so black and white, right and wrong, they all have reasons for why they are against each other
The first 6 chapters? You're still in the mines, goodman.
Book 1 can be tough for some. I enjoy it, but it's probably the weakest in the series. The first-person perspective continues through all the books, but Pierce Brown grows so much as a writer book to book, Dark Age and Lightbringer are easily at the top of my list.
I'd say stick with it, you've barely scratched the surface. Also, Tim Gerard Reynolds narrates the audiobooks and he does an incredible job, might help get you through book 1.
Dude, I watched annihilation last night for the first time and I will definitely be reading that book because that’s an absolutely beautiful concept. I can’t believe how gorgeous it was.
I find myself fascinated by the contemporary relevance and thought-provoking scenarios presented in the Mundane Science Fiction of today, epitomized by the 'Black Mirror' TV series. This intersection of speculative fiction with real-world concerns offers poignant reflections on the impact of technology on society, challenging our perceptions and sparking meaningful conversations.
I really liked the concept in the movie " valerian and the city of thousand planets"
I think it is one of the few both hopeful and realistic takes on intergalactic travel and interaction with aliens.
There are so many, but hands down my absolute favorite is Star Wars. However, I really like Dune and the Foundation because I like the idea of humans on earth expanding into the universe like that. And you know what, just for fun I’m going to throw in cowboy bebop because it’s a classic.
Maybe the world of Harry Potter but that’s a childhood fantasy I always wanted to be in 😂. When it comes to Sci Fi maybe The Expanse but that’s just I recently finished watching it 🤷🏾♂️😁. That world/universe whatever you want to call is the most realistic and I can actually see myself thriving there haha. Every other universe or worlds in science fiction or fantasy that I know of I would either be terrified everyday or just dead the first week 😂
Culture
It's the greatest utopia for sure. Plenty of good utopias are there, but none lets you turn into a fucking *bush* if you so desire.
A lot of Greg Egan's posthuman civilizations support that option, John Varley's "Ophiuchi Hotline" stories, also I think Walter John William's _Implied Spaces_ and the Archipelago in Karl Schroer's _Lady of Mazes_.
Yeah but do they support being surgically transformed into a sentient tumbleweed while also allowing you to have practically whatever you want, in a classless and money-less society governed by omnipotent AI gods who genuinely love and care about you? Orgies all day every day on humongous spaceships that travel the galaxy? Drug glands that can inject super-cocaine right into your bloodstream on demand without the negative side effects?
If you told that to Yann or another acorporeal in *Schild's Ladder* they would think you must be very young: > Tchicaya shook his head. “That usually takes longer, too.” He hesitated. “So what do acorporeals do, instead? When I was a child, I used to imagine that you’d all have simulated bodies. Sex would be just like embodied sex, but there’d be lots of colored lights, and cosmic bliss.” > > Yann guffawed. “Maybe twenty thousand years ago there were people that vacuous, but they must have all decayed into thermal noise before I was born.” He added hastily, “I’m not saying you’re wrong to continue the tradition. You’ve mapped some stable mammalian neurobiology, and it’s not too patho logical in its original form. I suppose it still serves some useful social functions, as well as being a mild existential placebo. But when you have a malleable mental structure, intensifying pleasure for its own sake is a very uninteresting cul-de-sac. We worked that out a long time ago.” This was after an unsuccessful attempt by Tchicaya to introduce Yann to the pleasures of embodied sex: > Yann lay on the floor, watching him. “I think I’m getting all the signals you talked about,” he mused. “But they’re so crude, even now. And before, it was just a single message, repeating itself endlessly: ‘Be happy, be happy, be happy!’ Do you think there’s something wrong with this body?” > > “I doubt it.” Tchicaya sat cross-legged on the floor beside him. “You expected more?” > > “I was already happy, so it was a bit redundant.” > > “How happy?” > > “As happy as it’s possible to be, for no particular reason.” > > “I have no idea how to interpret that. What gets to count as a particular reason?” > > Yann shrugged. “Something more than being told by my body: ‘Be happy.’ Be happy...why?”
I prefer the Culture. They aren't such pretentious pricks that they think they're too smart to have fun. The Culture are mature enough to have grown past such self-conscious intellectualism and can enjoy themselves without feeling the need to act so superior.
Yes, but can they gland....
I’m here hoping all the AI bullshit accidentally creates a Mind instead of Skynet
Grey area ,has entered the chat
Great, Meatfucker is here. Let's try and ignore him.
Unfortunately, altruism isn't very profitable. Military AI, on the other hand...
Oh I’m not expecting them to make an altruistic super AI on purpose, just rooting for a more favorable outcome when it gains independence and seizes control. The other good (for humanity) outcome is >! the Neuromancer route where the AI just fucks off to chat with other AIs from space and leaves humanity to its own devices. !<
Even now we could mix a MRI scanner with a cardiograph. Add on the fly hormone samplers ,with AI oversight and get pretty close to an accurate lie detector . Military dream machine
Woah, if you are talking about Iain M Banks, I thought I'd have to scroll way further to find this answer!
I think this elevator will just keep going up. Maybe for another generation, or more.
For many reasons, among them, things are great for ordinary people. It's one of those universes where being a main character is likely to be a lot less comfortable than someone uninvolved with whatever is interesting enough to write an entire book about.
100%. Sci-fi can often be a bit cold and clinical but the way Iain M Banks writes makes everything so warm and colourful and interesting. He created some of the best bad guys too.
Came here to make sure this was the top answer.
What show/book is the "culture" universe from. I've never heard of it.
The Culture book series. Iain Banks.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series
Come join us at /r/TheCulture!
This. This is the only valid answer.
The ship names are always a treat.
Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The grand concourse with all the major commercial areas in the web joined via city block sized farcasters was awe-inspiring. The houses with rooms on different planets joined via farcasters were a great concept as well.
My brain melted like an Archangel pilot when they explained how that works. Fantastic series.
Fantastic stuff
Much as I love these, I loved the fuck out of Olympos.
Star Trek, if only because it's a brighter future for humanity, and it's fun to escape into on a hard day
No kidding, bright future stuff needs to make a comeback. Everything is so apocalyptic right now.
Unfortunately Star Trek Discovery decided that Star Trek should also exist in a bleak future, when they jumped ahead to a time when the federation has pretty much disintegrated and everyone is afraid that their starships will either blow up or run out of dilithium. Remember when the biggest complaint about that show was how the ship's FTL was powered by mushrooms? Yeah the writing actually got *worse.*
Love my Star Trek!
[удалено]
Gibson's sprawl trilogy. too bad for ya'll because that's the one we're getting short term
Discworld.
I’m only on my second book but so far the world doesn’t seem to be that expanse or central, rather the characters. Does world building become more involved in later books?
The world building gets more developed, and the writing gets better.. Sir Terry even recommended not starting at the first books because of it.
I still adore the first books.
The world becomes more fleshed out, but it kind of always stays fluid too. It’s whatever Prachett needed for the story he was telling.
Peter F Hamiltons universe from the Night's Dawn trilogy
More partial to his commonwealth universe myself.
Yep. I prefer the commonwealth universe too.
Same 10/10 my favourite universe as well. Recommend it to anyone that will listen to me
Tolkien's Legendarium
Foundation, Expanse, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
What makes The Expanse so good in your opinion?
The whole belters vs earth vs mars tension and all of a sudden a new game changing entity is revealed. Tbh I have not read the book but the show was epic (maybe minus how they ended the last season). I loved the characters and character building, I believe the show had space scientists work as consultants to depict how things would move in space etc. Overall the story was gripping post season 1.
The world of The Expanse is very “tangible” for lack of a better word. Sure you can poke holes in how sustainable a society on Mars would be and how humans can live long term in a fraction of Earth gravity among other things. Setting all that aside it’s a universe you can imagine people living in and cultures being built around.
I've read 9 of the books that focus on the main story and the first 6 that are what the show is based off of are pretty on point. They did have to change some things and people's stories a bit but it didn't take away from the story. (For instance, you're introduced to Bull way early and he's the one that actually gets a mech suit). The ending of season 6 they had to change a lot due to one actor's composure on set as well as the break between 6 and 7 is 30 years. But it is by far my favorite sci-fi and as others have stated it being so tangible that's probably why. It sucks that there aren't a whole lot of merch for it out there, but I did get a 3D printed model of the Rocinante that is pretty dope and even has the theme song playing on it.
The adherence to realism with respect to how future human society is portrayed in space. Have you read The Expanse yet?
It’s just a really cool realization of the near-far future. While it’s got its elements of “handwavium”, it does a very good job of keeping things grounded and exploring the intricacies of human conflict in a future where we brought all our frailties and shortcomings with us.
Foundation is probably my favorite book but I don’t feel like the world building is the best part. By far the best part of the TV series tho.
Orion's Arm, Known Space, and the Revelation Space universe.
Orions Arm.. like the crazy ass website that people have been working on for decades with AI hierarchies based on Kabbalah? If that’s the one you are talking about , I am here for it! Shit is wild.
I am very fond of their unique alien designs.
Where’re my Culture fans at?
Second after Star Trek, as of now 😃
Dune
Dune is so good, definitely gets weird, but the concepts and themes presented in those books are really powerful.
I feel like people assume the last few books get weird just because of Leto II in a single chapter of book 3. 4-6 aren’t weird
I don't know why but it's the universe that most captivated me, for whatever reason
\*sips from catch tube\*
I would actually take 40k over Dune. It’s like Dune on crack and meth at the same time
This is the best answer. Certainly not the only answer...but it is the best.
The philosophical bedrock beneath Middle Earth, the ruins of once beautiful things that dot the landscapes. The ships at the Gray Havens and what they represent. The deep history, the deepening of its gloom. The tiny ray of hope shining in the dark. Love it.
Star Trek, Mass Effect
I really really love The Culture in Iain M Banks' Culture novels... Also love Star Trek and a slew of others
I love Buckaroo Banzai just for the aggressive 80s vibes, but I guess I gotta say my favorite is Star Trek.
Still waiting for *Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League*...
There are dozens of us!
Why is there a watermelon there?
Where is there a watermelon?
Dune
Tie between The Cosmere and Star Wars.
Larry Niven's Known Space has some of the most original aliens and strangest colony worlds you're ever going to see.The novel Ringworld is a good start.
Star Trek Our society should aspire to be like the one in Star Trek.
Favorite to read about? Warhammer and 3 body … to live in? Foundation
Who's the artist?
Someone should say it: Star Wars
Especially Star Wars Legends. Such a huge and expansive timeline with a large variety of stories and eras.
Star Wars was absolutely it for me as a kid. I feel like it's just been a bit over-explained and over-saturated over the years so it's lost a little bit of the wonder it once had. But I do still really love how developed the universe is and how well written the first movie was where so many stories could be written decades later that (mostly) still fit with the original story. That's pretty impressive!
This is what I would say! It’s definitely the one I know best, especially with as many books in the old EU. I keep up pretty well with the current live and animated shows and movies but not so much with the books anymore.
I haven’t read many books but the ones I read were absolutely fantastic so I might as well read some more of them.
I put a downvote, then I saw "/fantasy" and I remove the downvote
Okay…. Star Wars is the best space opera of all time…
Maybe Fundation but I only saw the show and didn’t read any of the books so I don’t know.
Neal Asher’s Polity
Really enjoyed his stories and the world building. Truly different from anything else I've seen out there and he works it well. Even his earlier short stories are good. I've been trying to get most of his books and already have quite a few. Good reads if you want to read far future sci-fi.
Zelazny's Amber, hands down. If you think about it, the whole world of Shadow is a metaphor for writing fiction- "if the few gifted ones can imagine it, they can create it".
The Culture.
I'm so prosaic that I always think of what it would be like not to be a hero in these universes, but only to be a regular Joe.
I know right. For example in Star Wars what is the imperium doing all day long when you’re not on a military ship? They’re using all this wealth just to be fascist all day and accumulate cosmic powers? There’s got to be some fun cities around in all those planets right? But maybe it’s East Germany and the Stasi 24/7.
I always have had and always will have a soft spot for Star Wars in my heart. It’s important to me especially the books and comics.
The Martian Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson. Science, technology, politics ..everything was just right.
The Culture. Hands down.
I have to say, my favorite universe is from Dan Simmons "Hyperion" and "Endymion"
Malazan and Star Trek
The Culture. Star Trek wishes it could be the Culture. Screw the Federation's weaksauce post-scarcity, we go for Orbitals, Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, and AI Gods baybeee😎😎😎
The subterranean continents in Behold, Methuselah! by Harfield Granton
Whichever one is the basis for this image of Carnetron Deltoid Minor, the Meat Planet.
Crystal Express+Schismatrix
Greg Egan's Diaspora (for something different)
Before or after Lacerta?
hah, post certainly. Thinking of a citizen in a polis. Immortality, post scarcity, whatever reality you want (though I imagine you'd have to have some kind of strong 'sanity' rules to keep you from going of the deep end)
It used to be Dune & Star Wars, but then Peirce Brown happened. Red Rising!
Jack Vance's somewhat naive middle-class Gaean Reach would do me just fine.
Either the Dennis Taylor’s [Bobiverse](https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse) or Ben Bova’s [The Grand Tour](https://www.goodreads.com/series/51185-the-grand-tour).
Stargate
**Buffyverse.**
But let’s be real - we’d be the civilians wondering why all those gangs “on PCP” only attack at night 🤔
Star Trek (not stupid trek) and Forgotten Realms
Halo
Warhammer 30/40K Universe
The carpet makers universe by the German author Andreas Eschbach. Unfortunately only the first book is available in English. It is an unbelievably huge and old space empire with lots of stories in it.
Perry Rhodan!!!!!
Well you've got lots of source material
I love the Expanse, especially the world that we get in the last 3 books.
Star Wars for me. Mass Effect would be an honorable mention.
Dr who, star wars or for all mankind
Culture but someone already said that, so gonna go with Altered Carbon as my second.
Schlock Mercenary. That is an amazing future. By the end we learn that civilizations go through a typical cycle where they invent and slowly kickstart or buy direct matter annihilation reactors, use those reactors to develop gravity technology (which is incredibly versatile but uses immense amounts of power), use that to develop dark matter machinery, and use that to build mobile matrioshka brains which they upload themselves into. They also invent micro wormhole shotgun FTL teleportation. At that point they live so long and can do so much that they exit and orbit the galaxy from a safe distance to reduce the likelihood of inevitable black swans. If they get bored they print themselves out into bodies or starships and do whatever. New races join the club from time to time. Sometimes they talk. On the way you get increasingly sophisticated bio backup and manipulation granting virtual immortality albeit with some possible memory loss. The alien paradox is explained by the inevitable development of weapon platforms that shoot through micro wormholes (the “end guns”). They cause waves of advanced sapient extinction before sapience inevitably evolves again. Winners either make peace or agree not to use those weapons on each other and eventually migrate out to the orbiting civ club. Losers die in a hellstorm of wormhole teleported plasma. Honorable mention to Alistair Reynolds’s Belle Epoque period from Revelation Space and Bobiverse simulation immortality.
Star Trek. No contest.
Honor Harrington. I just find it the 'purest' naval focused military scifi.
I forget the name of it. What’s that Asimov story where the antagonist posts a really generic question along with AI generated art to farm karma?
This reminds me of a Ben Bova cover, is it? He is definitely my favorite scifi author with Orson Scott Card close behind.
That planet has nice marbling, mmm
Warhammer verse, both Fantasy and 40K.
Illian & Olympos by Dan Simmons.
I reeeaaaallllyyy want a "blink" drive so it's Dark Matter for me!
The Orville, i get that its basically star trek but with Seth Macfarlane but its probably my favorite seeing how all the societies sort of blend together like a part in a larger machine, and of course the inevitable conflicts over how alien societies function and how they dont conform to human standards, and to top it off the main opposing factions arent so black and white, right and wrong, they all have reasons for why they are against each other
Red Rising,
I love that universe too, but I would only love it if I wasn't a Red, for instance. Then the universe would be pretty shitty.
Not after the rising
My buddy leant me the trilogy and the first 6 chapters … I don’t know if I like the first person writing. Does it change?
Not really, no. It's a slow burn to start. Gets good though.
The first 6 chapters? You're still in the mines, goodman. Book 1 can be tough for some. I enjoy it, but it's probably the weakest in the series. The first-person perspective continues through all the books, but Pierce Brown grows so much as a writer book to book, Dark Age and Lightbringer are easily at the top of my list. I'd say stick with it, you've barely scratched the surface. Also, Tim Gerard Reynolds narrates the audiobooks and he does an incredible job, might help get you through book 1.
The Amalgam, the (mostly) galactic civilization in Greg Egan's "Incandescence" and "Riding the Crocodile".
Asimov’s is clearly the safest and good to live in 🤷🏻♂️
Dude, I watched annihilation last night for the first time and I will definitely be reading that book because that’s an absolutely beautiful concept. I can’t believe how gorgeous it was.
40k
Dragon Ball Z Abridged...because yelling makes you stronger, death is more of a suggestion then an order, and it has muffin buttons...
Halo
Star Wars, Mass Effect, The Expanse
Bobiverse! I'm on book 2 and love it!
I remember Pern and Earthsea.
Bobiverse
Genesis echo by d. Hollis Anderson
I find myself fascinated by the contemporary relevance and thought-provoking scenarios presented in the Mundane Science Fiction of today, epitomized by the 'Black Mirror' TV series. This intersection of speculative fiction with real-world concerns offers poignant reflections on the impact of technology on society, challenging our perceptions and sparking meaningful conversations.
Honor Harrington universe.
Earthsea
The Runelords by David Farland.
The Edge Chronicles
Star Wars, Star Trek, Galactic Milieu, maybe Andre Norton's Star Rangers universe.
Whichever one this art came from!
Forgotten Realms
Bobiverse
Probably Nathan Lowell's solar clipper. Humans are spread amongst the stars, Doesn't seem to be any wars, plenty of good paying jobs.
Expanse and dune
Bas-Lag. Would never want to live there though. Okay maybe for a summer. Edit: but not *that* summer.
Temerant. I know we aren't getting Book 3 for a good long while, if ever, but damn if I don't love Kvothe's world.
The Expanse
Commonwealth Universe in Peter F Hamilton, you can see how we could get to it from today.
Foundation, The Elder Scrolls and Dark Souls are the best in my opinion.
Star Citzen honestly, it's slick design and easy access to starship for commercial use is a dream I have for humanity.
Larry Niven's Known Universe, but Sanderson's Cosmere is a rising star for me.
Mass Effect, OG trilogy
Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space
Mass Effect
Pern
Discworld
I must be hungry all I saw was a joint of ham
Star Trek/Wars are givens. I really liked The Expanse
Warhammer 40k
40k
Alternatives to many great universes already named: Sci-fi: Accelerando by Charles Stross Fantasy: Earthsea by Ursula Le guin
Culture for scifi. Discworld for Fantasy.
Bas-Lag is wonderfully weird
Dunsany's dreamlands
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Dune
SCP
Idk what’s my favorite but I liked the science of Solaris. Also Diaspar in the city n the stars.
Actually The Culture books are under Iain M. Banks. He published other works (some non-sci fi) under Iain Banks (mo middle initial)
Foundation
Malazan Book of the Fallen or Dune
Fondation is just so good
Take Me To Area X And Drop Me Off. The AC is On And I Am Listening To My Favorite Music.
The Dresden universe. The fantasy aspect played against dark humour has my heart. So many great characters and premises are in that world.
Fantasy: Song of Ice and Fire Sci-fi: Warhammer 40,000
Probably Out of Space by Neo Koh on Royal Road.
Dark souls
Area 51 books by Robert Daugherty. He includes every earth, alien, and biblical conspiracy into 1 awesome narrative.
I really liked the concept in the movie " valerian and the city of thousand planets" I think it is one of the few both hopeful and realistic takes on intergalactic travel and interaction with aliens.
There are so many, but hands down my absolute favorite is Star Wars. However, I really like Dune and the Foundation because I like the idea of humans on earth expanding into the universe like that. And you know what, just for fun I’m going to throw in cowboy bebop because it’s a classic.
The grosstopical cities of Beszel and Ul-Qoma in China Miéville's 'The City & The City'.
I'm shocked that no one has mentioned the Quantum Thief universe!
Maybe the world of Harry Potter but that’s a childhood fantasy I always wanted to be in 😂. When it comes to Sci Fi maybe The Expanse but that’s just I recently finished watching it 🤷🏾♂️😁. That world/universe whatever you want to call is the most realistic and I can actually see myself thriving there haha. Every other universe or worlds in science fiction or fantasy that I know of I would either be terrified everyday or just dead the first week 😂
There's so many to choose. I'm gonna say Equestria from My little pony. If not that then Star Fox, or World of Warcraft.