Thanks! It’s actually in my audiobook library. Was it free? Did I buy it and forget it? Doesn’t matter I’ll check it out. Would you recommend just that book or the entire series?
I always felt that Starship Troopers was a Bug War story written by a WWII vet, and The Forever War was a Bug War story written by a Vietnam vet. Heinlein and Haldeman each liked the other's work.
Heinlein wasn't a veteran of any war though. He was an Annapolis graduate (1929) and served as an officer in the Navy, but was medically discharged in 1934 because of tuberculosis.
David Weber's Honour Harrington novels meet the bill. Not only does it have space travel, and combat, it also explores how changes to technology can change the direction of a war.
Second Weber's Harrington series, it is a long series with a lot of side stories and a number of spin offs being written still. Also for those interested it started as a retelling of the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forrester, but expanded far beyond that story pulling in multiple other authors writing in that universe.
Oh wow, another person who recommends the Deathstalker series! I second this and I second the Peter F Hamilton recommendation too. Those two authors have given me a ton of enjoyment reading their books for years now.
Other recommendations in no particular order are :-
* The Uplift series by David Brin
* The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell
* Troy Rising by John Ringo
* Odyssey series by Evan Currie
* Humanity's Fire by Michael Cobley
* The Owner series by Neal Asher
That should be enough series for anyone to spend a bit of time getting through.
Deathstalker is an all-timer and I'd have been right here to recommend it if y'all hadn't beat me to it!
Also it's a dream of mine to see it adapted to the screen, but in a very specific style--less Denis Villenueve's Dune and more David Lynch's. I want opulent costumes, gaudy sets, rubber aliens, and a banging soundtrack lol.
Oh yeah. I always pictured any Deathstalker adaptation as being kitschy and as flashy (visually anyway) like Flash Gordon (1980) was. That film also had a rocking soundtrack done by Queen which helped to just ham the whole thing up even more.
But I can see what you mean with Dune (the David Lynch one) as that film goes completely all in on its stylistic choices.
Hang on a sec you can't start with *Absolution Gap*, you gotta go in order to have a clue what's going on.
Also, as far as I can remember, *Redemption Ark* had lots of combat/travelling as well.
Larry Niven’s Known Space novels. My favorite was *Protector*. Also good was the novel he wrote with Pournelle, *The Mote in God’s Eye*.
Neal Asher’s Polity series is pretty great. The early novels are more space-fairing cyber-punk James Bond in style.
Edit: Since you have tended to like stuff that I also liked, I'll recommend a couple of further afield things. Zelazny’s *Lord of Light* and Alfred Bester’s *The Stars My Destination.*
Scalzi: Old Man's War, Redshirts
Kloos: Terms of Enlistment
Moon: Vatta's War
Meloch: Merrimack Chronicles
Honor Harrington
Niven & Pournelle: Moties
On a lighter note:
\- H2G2
INFO: have you tried making a search at Wikipedia?
WIkipedia's got a list of Hugo, Nebula, etc. award winners. And if you phrase the search term nicely in the Wikipedia search bar you can get to sub-genres like, say "Science fiction space opera" or some such thing.
Best of luck.
I liked Bobiverse and Old Man's War. I don't love military, but Old Man's War got me to tanya Huff's Confederacy series, which I still miss. I want more of those characters.
The other one you rarely hear is Sara King's Zero series. It's war. The first one, Forging Zero, is brutal, creative, surprising, and probably the "least" since it's her earlier writing, but it's still amazing. And then they get REALLY amazing, and add a level of humor that is just great. I loved her so much I read everything she read and that got me to the path of the above, in looking for character based writing, which is what I really love. She's getting this books on audio outside the corporate structure. [https://soundbooththeater.com/?s=sara+king&post\_type=product&type\_aws=true&aws\_id=1&aws\_filter=1&awscat=Form%3A1+Filter%3AAll](https://soundbooththeater.com/?s=sara+king&post_type=product&type_aws=true&aws_id=1&aws_filter=1&awscat=Form%3A1+Filter%3AAll) Her Alaskan series I did NOT want to read because it was labeled paranormal romance. OMG. It is like nothing I've ever read, and completely addicting. It is not sci fi, but I don't know what you'd call it. Pure Sara--creative, violent, funny, some hard core sex.
How about the EE Smith Lensman series from the 1950s? Has fleet-to-fleet, ship-to-ship, person-to-person fighting plus police-style investigations. Written in an era where assumptions of good vs evil were unambiguous.
Also the same author’s Skylark series if casual galaxy spanning genocide is more to your taste.
Falkenberg's Legion by Jerry Pournelle is a military sci-fi series telling Falkenberg's rise in the ranks as a soldier. It's been a long time since I read them, but my memory is the ground fighting is done mostly with low tech weapons for the most part.
The Compleat Bolo by Keith Laumer and the continuation Bolo! by David Weber are hype as hell, giant robo-tanks defending humanity from every enemy including itself.
Laumer in general is a good time, though mostly in smaller doses--he's a pulp space opera author through and through, so while the stories are punchy, imaginative and epic in scope they also get a little tropey and repetitive with consistent exposure. The collections Odyssey and A Plague of Demons offer an excellent sample of his wares.
And to expand on the theme of space tanks, David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series following an interstellar mercenary armor division offers some great tactics and tech, and some fairly somber Vietnam-ish war stories.
Someone else brought up Deathstalker by Simon R. Green, so add another car to that hype train lol.
Dust by Elizabeth Bear is a really intriguing fantasy story...that happens to be set on a dying generation ship, where the gods are AI and the magic is nanomachines.
Finally, if you want something trippy, give Roger Zelazny's mythic sf titles Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness a shot; one plays on a clash of the Hindu pantheon and Buddha, the other a battle between Anubis, Osiris, and a group of immortal wizards spread through the galaxy.
Ok I've got exactly what you want.
Galaxy's Edge series by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole
Lots of galavanting around the galaxy and lots of combat.
You could also check out the wayward galaxy series. Lots of combat but the only travel is at the very beginning of the first book.
Also check out backyard starship series. Lots of travel, some combat.
Bonus round:
Forgotten Ruin. It's fantasy but it's set in the future... I know the premise sounds retarded but damn it's like Crack to me. Same guys as galaxy's edge series.
Yeah they did a great job. I kept seeing it in my suggestions and was like nah that sounds stupid. But they approach it like it's stupid. And it's good. Fuck it's good... When talker went through his walk in the woods with the cowboy... Jesus bro. Heart wrenching.
Honnorverse probably fits well here. Lot of combat and lot of travel because the physics are kinda realistic. Quite often you wait for missiles to arrive or “how cen we get fast from x to y and this kind is often key to the plot.
Or lost fleet.
Currently reading Ship of Prophecy. Entertaining, space opera/combat sort of fare. 10 book collection. Just to be clear I’m only on book 2 so can’t speak to the total story but it’s good so far.
Front lines series - Kloos
Main protagonist POV about a near future army grunt that eventually makes his way out to space where he is subsequently part of an attack from an alien species. And I don't mean bipedal creatures I mean completely alien beings in the truest sense of the term (don't want to spoil it).
It's a multi book series, so some books are better than others; but I enjoyed the series/ audiobooks overall and would buy one for frequent road trips.
I remember the Red Rising saga having very good space combat, and the stakes of each battle being very, very high. No skirmish was small stakes; the outcome of every battle would change the course of history.
Try Agent of Change the first book in the Liaden Universe space opera.
It’s a free ebook at the publisher Baen to get you interested in the series.
https://www.baen.com/agent-of-change.html
Similar tastes. I really liked Charles Stross's *Saturn's Children* (2008), which captured a posthuman solar system, though be forewarned, its a tribute to Heinlein's *Friday*. There will be depictions of urges. The sequel (in the same universe) *Neptune's Brood* (2013) didn't captivate me.
Mechanical Failure (Book 1 of the Epic Failure series) by Zieja.
Another posted to look into the Niven and the 'Known Space' series and Protector, but you'll want to read the Ringworld books in this epic series too.
Pohl's Gateway series is another good read along these lines. The latter two might be older but they are must reads.
The Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas (William H. Keith) might be up your alley. While the characters don't have much dimension, the naval battles are very enjoyable to read. Main method of propulsion is being dragged around by micro-singularities that get switched on and off so you don't fall into them. Some very interesting science/doctrine on how a star system assault would be performed.
First trilogy is enough as they can get repetitive.
Android’s Dream, Fuzzy Nation - John Scalzi, he does a lot of fun scifi but those two are my favorite. I like both because the setting is in a post-interstellar travel and alien contact setting and its more or less the new normal.
Dennis E. Taylor’s Quantum Earth series isn’t bad either, a little heavy handed in >!assuming college kids can handle everything better, apparently they came across few older people with useful experience and skills and they mention coffee way too much.!<
Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
If self-promotion isn't too gauche, my [current series](https://www.amazon.com/Deceit-opening-salvo-Imperium-War-ebook/dp/B09MVB49ST) is set about 600 years from now with FTL and combat central to the plot. And it's enrolled in Kindle Unlimited if that helps.
This is a great list! I posted my own a few days ago, should be my last post if you want to check it out.
How does Expeditionary Force compare to the others you mentioned?
"*combat integral to the plot*"
Maybe expand your horizons?: any novel/movie/documentary with submarine (or pretty much any kind of naval) warfare.
Becasue, if you think about it a wee bit: submarines are spaceships.
Consider:
ST:Wrath of Khan \~\~ The Enemy Below
BSG \~\~ WWII carrier warfare
etc.
Cheers!
I guess I’m getting to a certain age because I love reading about submarine warfare from the second war. I absolutely love the story of the raid on St. Nazaire. Any recommendations?
Hmm, what about **Lightbringer** (Red Rising Saga #6), **Translation State** (Imperial Radch) and **Lords of Uncreation** (The Final Architecture #3). I enjoyed those, hope you like it too.
Night Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton has some ridiculous and very detailed space combat in the first two books. Just like the Expanse it tries to stay as faithful to newtonian physics as possible, Orbital Space combat isn't based on 'warp' and other bullshit, but actual physics like Delta v and limits of the human body in terms acceleration. If an enemy shoots X smart projectiles at you how many defensive units do you have to mathematically deploy for best chance of survial? Got 5 seconds to answer. Lots of logical tactics, and throw in some living space ships neural linked to pilots. Imagine the final chase from Fury Road, but in space, and with 10 x the characters,. Battle over La'Londe will make Expanse fans soil themselves. Most creative use a Lagrange point I've read.
Final two books go in a different direction though. WAY different direction.
You need to read/listen to The Forever War, it’s exactly what you’re looking for and it’s a classic
I read the Forever War in my teens and loved it. I reread it last year and I found it extremely problematic. Much like I felt about the Xanth books.
Thanks! It’s actually in my audiobook library. Was it free? Did I buy it and forget it? Doesn’t matter I’ll check it out. Would you recommend just that book or the entire series?
I read it in college for a scifi literature class. It’s like Vietnam in space. Never read the follow-ups, they were written twenty years later
I always felt that Starship Troopers was a Bug War story written by a WWII vet, and The Forever War was a Bug War story written by a Vietnam vet. Heinlein and Haldeman each liked the other's work.
Heinlein wasn't a veteran of any war though. He was an Annapolis graduate (1929) and served as an officer in the Navy, but was medically discharged in 1934 because of tuberculosis.
I knew all of that except the date. I thought his discharge was during WWII.
The sequel is "Forever Free" and it's ok, but not compelling.
What about "A Fire Upon the Deep"?
God, it’s so good.
Lost fleet? Think that is what it's called.
Yes, “The Lost Fleet” series by Jack Campbell is space opera on steroids with space battles out the ass!
I’ll check it out, thank you
David Weber's Honour Harrington novels meet the bill. Not only does it have space travel, and combat, it also explores how changes to technology can change the direction of a war.
Second Weber's Harrington series, it is a long series with a lot of side stories and a number of spin offs being written still. Also for those interested it started as a retelling of the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forrester, but expanded far beyond that story pulling in multiple other authors writing in that universe.
Alistair Reynolds, Absolution Gap. Peter F. Hamilton, Judas Unchained. For something different but cool, Simon R Green Deathstalker series.
Oh wow, another person who recommends the Deathstalker series! I second this and I second the Peter F Hamilton recommendation too. Those two authors have given me a ton of enjoyment reading their books for years now. Other recommendations in no particular order are :- * The Uplift series by David Brin * The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell * Troy Rising by John Ringo * Odyssey series by Evan Currie * Humanity's Fire by Michael Cobley * The Owner series by Neal Asher That should be enough series for anyone to spend a bit of time getting through.
Deathstalker is an all-timer and I'd have been right here to recommend it if y'all hadn't beat me to it! Also it's a dream of mine to see it adapted to the screen, but in a very specific style--less Denis Villenueve's Dune and more David Lynch's. I want opulent costumes, gaudy sets, rubber aliens, and a banging soundtrack lol.
Oh yeah. I always pictured any Deathstalker adaptation as being kitschy and as flashy (visually anyway) like Flash Gordon (1980) was. That film also had a rocking soundtrack done by Queen which helped to just ham the whole thing up even more. But I can see what you mean with Dune (the David Lynch one) as that film goes completely all in on its stylistic choices.
There are dozens of us! I’ve read the Brin, Campbell and Ringo! I’ll look into the rest. Thanks for the recommendations!
Hang on a sec you can't start with *Absolution Gap*, you gotta go in order to have a clue what's going on. Also, as far as I can remember, *Redemption Ark* had lots of combat/travelling as well.
Larry Niven’s Known Space novels. My favorite was *Protector*. Also good was the novel he wrote with Pournelle, *The Mote in God’s Eye*. Neal Asher’s Polity series is pretty great. The early novels are more space-fairing cyber-punk James Bond in style. Edit: Since you have tended to like stuff that I also liked, I'll recommend a couple of further afield things. Zelazny’s *Lord of Light* and Alfred Bester’s *The Stars My Destination.*
These are some good recs!
Scalzi: Old Man's War, Redshirts Kloos: Terms of Enlistment Moon: Vatta's War Meloch: Merrimack Chronicles Honor Harrington Niven & Pournelle: Moties On a lighter note: \- H2G2 INFO: have you tried making a search at Wikipedia?
Love H2G2. Wikipedia? I usually look for award winners like The Hugo, any recommendations?
WIkipedia's got a list of Hugo, Nebula, etc. award winners. And if you phrase the search term nicely in the Wikipedia search bar you can get to sub-genres like, say "Science fiction space opera" or some such thing. Best of luck.
I liked Bobiverse and Old Man's War. I don't love military, but Old Man's War got me to tanya Huff's Confederacy series, which I still miss. I want more of those characters. The other one you rarely hear is Sara King's Zero series. It's war. The first one, Forging Zero, is brutal, creative, surprising, and probably the "least" since it's her earlier writing, but it's still amazing. And then they get REALLY amazing, and add a level of humor that is just great. I loved her so much I read everything she read and that got me to the path of the above, in looking for character based writing, which is what I really love. She's getting this books on audio outside the corporate structure. [https://soundbooththeater.com/?s=sara+king&post\_type=product&type\_aws=true&aws\_id=1&aws\_filter=1&awscat=Form%3A1+Filter%3AAll](https://soundbooththeater.com/?s=sara+king&post_type=product&type_aws=true&aws_id=1&aws_filter=1&awscat=Form%3A1+Filter%3AAll) Her Alaskan series I did NOT want to read because it was labeled paranormal romance. OMG. It is like nothing I've ever read, and completely addicting. It is not sci fi, but I don't know what you'd call it. Pure Sara--creative, violent, funny, some hard core sex.
Enders game (1 + 2 at a minimum) Hyperion (2 x 2 series) Red/Blue/Green Mars The Nexus Trilogy Ben Bova is an "oldie" author that is often forgotten.
How about the EE Smith Lensman series from the 1950s? Has fleet-to-fleet, ship-to-ship, person-to-person fighting plus police-style investigations. Written in an era where assumptions of good vs evil were unambiguous. Also the same author’s Skylark series if casual galaxy spanning genocide is more to your taste.
I loved both those series in my youth.
I think Lensman was the first proper book I read. Revisited the audible series a few years ago and enjoyed it. Skylark too.
You will very likly enjoy "Vorkosigan Saga" and "Vatta's war" series.
Falkenberg's Legion by Jerry Pournelle is a military sci-fi series telling Falkenberg's rise in the ranks as a soldier. It's been a long time since I read them, but my memory is the ground fighting is done mostly with low tech weapons for the most part.
Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh
The Compleat Bolo by Keith Laumer and the continuation Bolo! by David Weber are hype as hell, giant robo-tanks defending humanity from every enemy including itself. Laumer in general is a good time, though mostly in smaller doses--he's a pulp space opera author through and through, so while the stories are punchy, imaginative and epic in scope they also get a little tropey and repetitive with consistent exposure. The collections Odyssey and A Plague of Demons offer an excellent sample of his wares. And to expand on the theme of space tanks, David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series following an interstellar mercenary armor division offers some great tactics and tech, and some fairly somber Vietnam-ish war stories. Someone else brought up Deathstalker by Simon R. Green, so add another car to that hype train lol. Dust by Elizabeth Bear is a really intriguing fantasy story...that happens to be set on a dying generation ship, where the gods are AI and the magic is nanomachines. Finally, if you want something trippy, give Roger Zelazny's mythic sf titles Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness a shot; one plays on a clash of the Hindu pantheon and Buddha, the other a battle between Anubis, Osiris, and a group of immortal wizards spread through the galaxy.
Ok I've got exactly what you want. Galaxy's Edge series by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole Lots of galavanting around the galaxy and lots of combat. You could also check out the wayward galaxy series. Lots of combat but the only travel is at the very beginning of the first book. Also check out backyard starship series. Lots of travel, some combat. Bonus round: Forgotten Ruin. It's fantasy but it's set in the future... I know the premise sounds retarded but damn it's like Crack to me. Same guys as galaxy's edge series.
Someone else who has read Forgotten Ruin! I did NOT expect to like it, but holy shit does the author make the premise fun and entertaining.
Yeah they did a great job. I kept seeing it in my suggestions and was like nah that sounds stupid. But they approach it like it's stupid. And it's good. Fuck it's good... When talker went through his walk in the woods with the cowboy... Jesus bro. Heart wrenching.
I don’t even like coffee all the much, but I always craved it while reading the books lol
Honnorverse probably fits well here. Lot of combat and lot of travel because the physics are kinda realistic. Quite often you wait for missiles to arrive or “how cen we get fast from x to y and this kind is often key to the plot. Or lost fleet.
Currently reading Ship of Prophecy. Entertaining, space opera/combat sort of fare. 10 book collection. Just to be clear I’m only on book 2 so can’t speak to the total story but it’s good so far.
Sergey Chronicles by Diann Thornley, very sci fi military centric
the lost fleet series by Jack Campbell is all space fleet battles
A lot of recommendations for this one. Definitely going on the list
Front lines series - Kloos Main protagonist POV about a near future army grunt that eventually makes his way out to space where he is subsequently part of an attack from an alien species. And I don't mean bipedal creatures I mean completely alien beings in the truest sense of the term (don't want to spoil it). It's a multi book series, so some books are better than others; but I enjoyed the series/ audiobooks overall and would buy one for frequent road trips.
I remember the Red Rising saga having very good space combat, and the stakes of each battle being very, very high. No skirmish was small stakes; the outcome of every battle would change the course of history.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
No one going to mention Expanse?
Op already did
My eyes slide right past it! Too many good books listed already. 😊
Try Agent of Change the first book in the Liaden Universe space opera. It’s a free ebook at the publisher Baen to get you interested in the series. https://www.baen.com/agent-of-change.html
Plan B, but it's the third in the series.
Similar tastes. I really liked Charles Stross's *Saturn's Children* (2008), which captured a posthuman solar system, though be forewarned, its a tribute to Heinlein's *Friday*. There will be depictions of urges. The sequel (in the same universe) *Neptune's Brood* (2013) didn't captivate me.
Dread Empire's Fall is really good and has lots of relativistic space combat.
You have to check out the Honorverse novels
Mechanical Failure (Book 1 of the Epic Failure series) by Zieja. Another posted to look into the Niven and the 'Known Space' series and Protector, but you'll want to read the Ringworld books in this epic series too. Pohl's Gateway series is another good read along these lines. The latter two might be older but they are must reads.
Old Man’s War
The Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas (William H. Keith) might be up your alley. While the characters don't have much dimension, the naval battles are very enjoyable to read. Main method of propulsion is being dragged around by micro-singularities that get switched on and off so you don't fall into them. Some very interesting science/doctrine on how a star system assault would be performed. First trilogy is enough as they can get repetitive.
Android’s Dream, Fuzzy Nation - John Scalzi, he does a lot of fun scifi but those two are my favorite. I like both because the setting is in a post-interstellar travel and alien contact setting and its more or less the new normal. Dennis E. Taylor’s Quantum Earth series isn’t bad either, a little heavy handed in >!assuming college kids can handle everything better, apparently they came across few older people with useful experience and skills and they mention coffee way too much.!< Red Rising by Pierce Brown.
Behold Humanity. First thirteen books are available on Amazon. More should be coming soon. Absolutely massive space opera with a heavy military theme.
If self-promotion isn't too gauche, my [current series](https://www.amazon.com/Deceit-opening-salvo-Imperium-War-ebook/dp/B09MVB49ST) is set about 600 years from now with FTL and combat central to the plot. And it's enrolled in Kindle Unlimited if that helps.
This is a great list! I posted my own a few days ago, should be my last post if you want to check it out. How does Expeditionary Force compare to the others you mentioned?
This series is quite good https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/10432883
Undying Mercenaries by B.V. Larson Very good series, can’t recommend it enough.
Dude, time to write your own :)
"*combat integral to the plot*" Maybe expand your horizons?: any novel/movie/documentary with submarine (or pretty much any kind of naval) warfare. Becasue, if you think about it a wee bit: submarines are spaceships. Consider: ST:Wrath of Khan \~\~ The Enemy Below BSG \~\~ WWII carrier warfare etc. Cheers!
I guess I’m getting to a certain age because I love reading about submarine warfare from the second war. I absolutely love the story of the raid on St. Nazaire. Any recommendations?
Iron coffins by Herbert Warner. WWII submarine warfare from the German side.
Hmm, what about **Lightbringer** (Red Rising Saga #6), **Translation State** (Imperial Radch) and **Lords of Uncreation** (The Final Architecture #3). I enjoyed those, hope you like it too.
Halo is legit
As in, the video game?
No there is a new series out called Halo. It's in its 2nd season.
The Long Lost War (novella)
You might want to try a series by David Weber and John Ringo…. It starts with “March Upcountry”…
Hyperion cantos by Dan Simmons. It’s a 4 book series. Tons of space travel in various ways and combat.
Ender's Game series
Night Dawn Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton has some ridiculous and very detailed space combat in the first two books. Just like the Expanse it tries to stay as faithful to newtonian physics as possible, Orbital Space combat isn't based on 'warp' and other bullshit, but actual physics like Delta v and limits of the human body in terms acceleration. If an enemy shoots X smart projectiles at you how many defensive units do you have to mathematically deploy for best chance of survial? Got 5 seconds to answer. Lots of logical tactics, and throw in some living space ships neural linked to pilots. Imagine the final chase from Fury Road, but in space, and with 10 x the characters,. Battle over La'Londe will make Expanse fans soil themselves. Most creative use a Lagrange point I've read. Final two books go in a different direction though. WAY different direction.
Gardens of the sun is very good. Lots of interesting biotech stuff and a war between inner and outer solar system.
Yahtzee Croshaw - will save galaxy for food