Amph current space opera?

I need some help.

suggestions?

 

More info on what you mean would help.

 

look at the warhammer 40k books. that might fulfill your need for space opera.

 

I know, Rogue. Terribly short and vague. I was in a hurry.

I'm looking for something in 1-3 books, with good characterization and a quickly engaging plot. I don't want Honor Harrington. I'm looking for something a little more contained with a beginning, middle, and end. I'm also not looking for the complexity of Dune. A little less dense would be good as well.

Does that help?

 

if you don't want dense, then stay away from iain m. banks.

 

No other recommendations? Really?

 

From Sean Williams and Shane Dix, either their Evergence trilogy or the Geodesica duology.

 

The Culture by Ian Banks.

 

Try Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. It is spacy with a fantasyish twist. Very good, just make sure you have a dictionary handy lol.

The story takes place billions of years into the future when the sun is a Red Giant and Earth is spelled Urth.

 

A lot of people are mixed on this, but I thought Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns series was pretty good.

 

I like Elizabeth Moon's work - The Serrano Legacy and Vatta's War are both space opera series with a military bent and excellent characterisation.

 

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space Trilogy (or anything else of his for that matter).

Pushing Ice is the highlight of his non-RS material.

 

Haven't you done this thread before?

My suggestion is the same as last time, Stephen Donaldson's Gap Series

 

I did this thread a year or two ago. My interests are cyclical and I'm always interested in seeing what people reccommend.

I know of the Gap series by Donaldson, but my experience with him is that his style is fairly depressive. I'm not in the mood to be depressed.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

In that case I'd second the suggestions above for Iain M Bank's Culture novels. One of the main advantages of them is that they are not linear, you could pick up almost any Culture novel and read it as a standalone*

You mention needing 1-3 books, in that case I would recommend starting with Player of Games and following this up with Excession and Consider Phlebas


* The only book this doesn't work for is Inversions, as without a knowledge of the Culture the ending won't make sense. It also helps to have read Consider Phlebas before reading Look To Windward, but the latter can still be enjoyed as a standalone.

 

I'll back up Xany. Serrano Legacy is pretty awesome, but it's 7 books (though in the UK it's 3 rather chunky books). Haven't tried Vatta's War yet though.

 

Oh yeah- I didn't notice the stipulation that it be 1-3 books, sorry. Still, I'd say The Serrano Legacy can be read as two successive trilogies and one conclusion book, and you can probably read either trilogy as a standalone if you like. (Although if you're like me, you'll then 'have' to pick up the rest just to know more, because there is an overarching plot in the background.)

Vatta's War is 5 books, so maybe not. I thought it was very good, and very engaging, but not quite as good as Serrano Legacy.

 

Neal Asher's Cormac series.

5 books, each self-contained, but building on the previous ones. Think of a futuristic James Bond.

The books aren't serious SF but out and out space opera entertainment, with big guns, battles, insane tech, smartarse AI and some very final fates for villains.

Book 1 is Gridlinked: Ever consider how much energy is released by transporatation and what sort of bomb could be made with it? Well....

 

Sorry, I know this is an old thread but...

Are you familiar with the work of Peter F. Hamilton? Fantastic space opera with great descriptions, dry British humor, suspense, good characters etc. I started with the Night's Dawn Trilogy which is still my favorite, but the Commonwealth series is good too and I think he's working on a third series.

One warning: It's not as "heavy" as Dune, but does have tons of characters and planets to keep track of.

I've also, *ahem*, written a book myself.

 

Oh, quite a few of us like Hamilton.

The final Void book is due later this year entitled The Evolutionary Void, which I'm looking forward to. Night's Dawn was great but I do enjoy the Commonwealth books. I especially like the humour, like the penalty for "shotgunning" junk across the net.

A more recent acquisition was Gary Gibson's Stealing Light, which is bk 1 of a trilogy, I've yet to start Bk 2, Nova War. The finale Empire of Light is also due later in the year.

 

the merrimack series by rebecca meluch is pretty awesome, there are 4 of them. i am posting a link that has excerpts

http://www.rmmeluch.com/index.html