Recomend me a grand future

[MasFina]

I don't know how I ended up here, but I love space opera. There, I've said it. In order to move forward with this unplanned affection, I need some help from you, Whateveresque-ers. What should I read next?
To give a sense of what my style preferences are I'll list a few of the books I've enjoyed.
- Glasshouse and Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
- Revolation Space by Alastair Reynolds
- A fire on the deep by Vernor Vinge
- Blindsight by Peter Watts
So, what should be on my nightstand?

[hugh57]

If you like space opera, I highly recommend Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell. :)

[MasFina]

Thanks Hugh, I'll go find it at the free book procurement building.

Also, I may have been too restrictive in wanting just space opera, If persons unknown wanted to recommend hard s.f. I would love to chase that genre too

[Skar]

My favorite Space Opera of all time is "Galactic Odyssey" by Keith Laumer.

Jack Vance also wrote some truly incredible Space Opera. I recommend the Tschai series by him as well. First book, if you find them in anything but an omnibus nowadays, is "City of the Chasch."


That said, of the list you posted I've only read A Fire Upon the Deep so I don't know how these compare in style and tone.

[Jeri]

I haven't read most of those books either - but I really enjoyed CJ Cherryh's Alliance/Union universe books. Downbelow Station, Finity's End, Tripoint, Rimrunner, the Hellburner trilogy. They're older works, but great reading.

[Randy Johnson]

Try Larry Niven"s Known space books, particularly the Ringworld series, if you want to give hard science a go.

[Starstruck]

My favourite space operas are M.K. Wren's Phoenix Legacy trilogy (The Sword of the Lamb, Shadow of the Swan and House of the Wolf) and Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's Keltiad series(Tales of Aeron (The Copper Crown, The Throne of Scone and The Silver Branch), Tales of Arthur (The Hawk's Grey Feather, The Oak Above the Kings and The Hedge of Mist) as well as Blackmantle: A Triumph and The Deer's Cry). These are both grand, sweeping, family dynasty in space kinds of series, and the books are probably all out of print.

I haven't read any of your list, so I'm not sure my idea of space opera matches yours, however.

[MasFina]

Thank you all so much for the help in finding good books. I appreciate the time you spent.

[PixelFish]

I like Lois Bujold's space opera and future. (Any future with uterine replicators is fine by me.)

[dr-phil-physics]

Jack McDevitt's series: A Talent for War, Polaris, Seeker. They're mysteries that also bring into question how we know what we know about history. A Talent for War was for me a wonderful book, and then last year I found out he recently wrote two sequels. What makes them intriguing is that he changes POV character between the first and second books -- which works for me.

Dr. Phil

[Janiece]

I like Lois Bujold's space opera and future. (Any future with uterine replicators is fine by me.)

Yeah, me too. Besides, how can you not love MIles? And Cordelia's the shit.

[MasFina]

I like Lois Bujold's space opera and future. (Any future with uterine replicators is fine by me.)

What would be the book to start on? Shards of Honor?

[Phil]

As for Space Opera, two come to mind right away.

The first is Simon R Green's Deathstalker series (7 books, I think). Lot's of swashbuckling and beings of incalculable cosmic power duking it out.

The other would be Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy (although they broke the mass market paperback into 6 volumes). Pirates, smugglers, the returned dead, sentient organic spaceships, sentient organic space habitats. What's not to like?

[Jeri]

On Lois' books, I like Shards of Honor as a first book... it comes in a double, omibus edition with Barrayar (one of my faves!) called Cordelia's Honor.

I want to be Cordelia when I grow up. :)

[Janiece]

On Lois' books, I like Shards of Honor as a first book... it comes in a double, omibus edition with Barrayar (one of my faves!) called Cordelia's Honor.

I want to be Cordelia when I grow up. :)

I agree with Jeri. And if you like Prequels, check out Free Fall.

[PixelFish]

I started on the Young Miles omnibus myself. (The Warrior's Apprentice and The Vor Game.) And which is how I presented the series to my guy friends and my brothers, if only because Cordelia's Honor's cover looks rather like a romance novel cover. (Young Miles' cover is arguably the worst of the lot but doesn't look like a romance novel which is something to be said when you are trying to push the Vorkosigan Saga onto your male acquaintances. Lois has certainly gotten some craptastic covers with the books, which would have deterred me if a friend hadn't more or less shoved Young Miles into my hands and said, "You'll love this.") None of my girlfriends worry about the Cordelia's cover though. (I know it's kinda sexist to segregate the covers that way, but REALLY, I don't think I could have gotten my boyfriend to read the Miles books if he had to start with, say, oh, A Civil Campaign. He likes the book....but have you seen the cover to that one? It's one of the more hideous ones. Poser people and CGI bugs not very well rendered. EEEESH.)

The perils (or the added delight) of starting with Young Miles as opposed to Cordelia's Honor is that if you've never read any of Bujold's work before, and if you don't know how she delights on turning conventions on their head, you'll come away from Warrior's Apprentice thinking of Cordelia as just another society wife. (Warning: she gets like a scene and a half in Warrior's Apprentice. And if you read those scenes just the wrong way you might come away with the impression that she's something other than what she is.) Anyway, while I say that's a peril, it can be an added delight as well, because I had the fun of having that entire impression completely undermined when I finally did read Cordelia's Honor.

But I digress. The whole point of this post:

READ THESE BOOKS.

You will not regret it.

PS. Did I mention the uterine replicators?