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Three good space series are the Lost Fleet books, which feature awesome realistic space battles/mechanics, the Midshipman series, and the books of The Helmsman, which is just a good action space opera series.

The whole Old Mans War by John Scalzi is really fun sci fi novels and short stories. I think 5 books now?

 Humble Guardsman wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:


Space: Above and Beyond might be worth a watch for some 90's space opera cheese. It starts off as the type of sci fi that Starship Troopers was parodying, although I think it got better. It had higher production values than Babylon 5.

Cheers mate, I'm enjoying this. The drill sergeant was a pleasant bonus as well.

Yeah, R. Lee Ermey's "Gunny" characters are always amusing.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, the Honor Harrington series. It essentially starts off as Hornblower IN SPACE... with a pretty good grasp of actual physics (although Weber had to revise the mass numbers for the biggest warships, as they originally were less dense than cigar smoke) but quickly grows into being just as much about the politics and societies involved in conflict as about the action scenes. The series also doesn't hesitate to kill important characters, but doesn't revel in it in the same way Game of Thrones does.

Agreed, with the disclaimer that you should stop reading after Ashes of Victory. The "famous author is too important for an editor" problems and repetitive battle scenes that had started to creep in by that point only get worse from there on, and really the story reaches its natural conclusion. The following books feel much less like a legitimate story than milking of the cash cow by an author who knows where his paycheck is coming from.

 Peregrine wrote:

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, the Honor Harrington series. It essentially starts off as Hornblower IN SPACE... with a pretty good grasp of actual physics (although Weber had to revise the mass numbers for the biggest warships, as they originally were less dense than cigar smoke) but quickly grows into being just as much about the politics and societies involved in conflict as about the action scenes. The series also doesn't hesitate to kill important characters, but doesn't revel in it in the same way Game of Thrones does.

Agreed, with the disclaimer that you should stop reading after Ashes of Victory. The "famous author is too important for an editor" problems and repetitive battle scenes that had started to creep in by that point only get worse from there on, and really the story reaches its natural conclusion. The following books feel much less like a legitimate story than milking of the cash cow by an author who knows where his paycheck is coming from.

Second. It's not so much a series, but I think his best work is 'In Fury Born'. It's one woman's quest for a dream- and when that dream falls apart, her quest for revenge against space pirates, battle fleets, and space lizards. Also there are godesses of questionable morality and AIs.


The Safehold series is also pretty good, but it's that peculiar brand of scifi where someone from the future goes back in time and starts a cultural revolution for primitives. Very well written and compelling, but as it's strictly terrestrial it's a very different flavor.

I'd recommend the Hyperion books. Excellent science fiction which manages to capture different flavours of works (noiresque detective fiction, military action, etc.) into a cohesive whole.

I guess I'll throw in a mention for the Hellhole trilogy, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (same guys who are writing the newer Dune stories). I actually haven't read the third one yet, but as soon as I can come up with a copy I want to read it, as the first two were REALLY good. Basically it is about the leader of a failed rebellion against the corrupt human government being placed in exile on a harsh world, where he and his followers uncover surprising ancient secrets and plan a new insurrection.

Just saw Orbiter 9 on Netflix. It's in spanish, but pretty cool, imo! Starts a little slow for the first 20 minutes but don't give up on it.

I've caught up Colony now so need to find another series, preferably available on Prime or Netflix. If folks wouldn't mind noting that in their posts it would be very helpful (searching "Netflix" in this thread currently gives very few hits)

Space Rangers is available on YouTube. It has a veritable who's who of "that guy!" actors, such as Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, Linda Hunt and Clint Howard.

 RiTides wrote:
Just saw Orbiter 9 on Netflix. It's in spanish, but pretty cool, imo! Starts a little slow for the first 20 minutes but don't give up on it.

I've caught up Colony now so need to find another series, preferably available on Prime or Netflix. If folks wouldn't mind noting that in their posts it would be very helpful (searching "Netflix" in this thread currently gives very few hits)

Travelers I mentioned. Great Time Travel show. 2 seasons out now and a 3rd on the way.

Black Mirror is pretty great.

Moon is on netflix. A pretty good movie with Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey as a computer.

Lost in Space was pretty good.

Altered Carbon was pretty good but it takes a few episodes to settle into it.

Dark Matter is a great show that unfortunetly ends on a cliff hanger. (thanks SyFy).

Beyond Skyline, the sequel to Skyline. If you liked the first youll like the second.

All 3 Cube movies are on netflix. The first is the best in my opinion but all are decent if you don't mind some camp.


Thats what I have opinions on doing a quick search on my netflix.

 Yodhrin wrote:

Calling a story about souls coming back from another dimension to possess the living "hard sci-fi" is funny in and of itself...

That also features organic space ships that are telepathically linked to their captains, who they have children with.

 Gitzbitah wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, the Honor Harrington series. It essentially starts off as Hornblower IN SPACE... with a pretty good grasp of actual physics (although Weber had to revise the mass numbers for the biggest warships, as they originally were less dense than cigar smoke) but quickly grows into being just as much about the politics and societies involved in conflict as about the action scenes. The series also doesn't hesitate to kill important characters, but doesn't revel in it in the same way Game of Thrones does.

Agreed, with the disclaimer that you should stop reading after Ashes of Victory. The "famous author is too important for an editor" problems and repetitive battle scenes that had started to creep in by that point only get worse from there on, and really the story reaches its natural conclusion. The following books feel much less like a legitimate story than milking of the cash cow by an author who knows where his paycheck is coming from.

Second. It's not so much a series, but I think his best work is 'In Fury Born'. It's one woman's quest for a dream- and when that dream falls apart, her quest for revenge against space pirates, battle fleets, and space lizards. Also there are godesses of questionable morality and AIs.


The Safehold series is also pretty good, but it's that peculiar brand of scifi where someone from the future goes back in time and starts a cultural revolution for primitives. Very well written and compelling, but as it's strictly terrestrial it's a very different flavor.

I’ve read a lot of Webber, and he gets very same-y. Like the characters/plots are the same, just with different window dressing. Someone also needs to lock him into trilogies. Fun concept, starts strong, but what book are we on now, and the same basic stuff is happening? O look, the smaller, but more technologically advanced, group pulled another major victory out of their hat! Not that I have a problem with that, but somewhere around book 4-5 it gets a bit old.

On the topic of Mil-Sci Fi, I enjoyed reading David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers stuff. He also did a collaboration series with SM Stirling very similar to Webber’s Safehold, called “The General” which I recall enjoying reading, although it was a while ago.

LEXX.
The most powerful weapon in two universes. Enough said. First two seasons particularly were great.

Thanks for the detailed Netflix tips, Lance!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Space Rangers is available on YouTube. It has a veritable who's who of "that guy!" actors, such as Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, Linda Hunt and Clint Howard.

I vaguely remember this but the only real strong point I recalled were liking the banshees and I doubt they hold up all that well.

 RiTides wrote:
Thanks for the detailed Netflix tips, Lance!

Warning, Altered Carbon has a massive amount of sexual violence and imo, isn't all that good. It does have high production values, but the second half of the series was disappointing.

I enjoyed it right up until I realised they were swerving away from the anti-capitalism/eat the rich angle and going for a generic "man wasn't made to meddle medley"/immortality is inherently bad thing. Was just a weird choice, it's not like "inequality is probably bad" is a hideously controversial view particularly among sci-fi fans.

 Yodhrin wrote:
I enjoyed it right up until I realised they were swerving away from the anti-capitalism/eat the rich angle and going for a generic "man wasn't made to meddle medley"/immortality is inherently bad thing. Was just a weird choice, it's not like "inequality is probably bad" is a hideously controversial view particularly among sci-fi fans.

I could kind of see how the connection was made though. If immortality can be bought the inevitable result is going to be undying villains whose reign over man never ends. Stalin's reign of terror only ended after his natural death after all.

Got a series of books that I really enjoyed. They are... I dunno how to describe them. They're all over the shop time- and truth-wise, while still telling a good story is I guess the way to? If you want a series of relatively short sci-fi books that have some fun concepts, then I'd say give the Astropolis series by Sean Williams a go (first book is Saturn Returns)

 Humble Guardsman wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:
I enjoyed it right up until I realised they were swerving away from the anti-capitalism/eat the rich angle and going for a generic "man wasn't made to meddle medley"/immortality is inherently bad thing. Was just a weird choice, it's not like "inequality is probably bad" is a hideously controversial view particularly among sci-fi fans.

I could kind of see how the connection was made though. If immortality can be bought the inevitable result is going to be undying villains whose reign over man never ends. Stalin's reign of terror only ended after his natural death after all.

Well, no, that's exactly the point that the story was originally making - that result isn't inevitable at all, it only appears that way because as a society we've lost the capability to imagine any way to live our lives other than in the context of late-stage capitalism. There's no actual reason the only genuine immortals have to be rich people in AC, the actual tech that permits consciousness preservation and transfer(much as that's oxymoronic in my view) is ubiquitous, what maintains the relative inequality is the cost of clones and they only cost so much because they're treated as products in a free market and so the grotesque wealth of a few people distorted that cost and created a negative feedback loop. They have wealth, which grants them the capacity to garner more wealth, which further distorts the prices of the clones, which lets them live long enough to repeat the cycle, and on and on - it's meant to be using the sci-fi technology to point out how ludicrous that aspect of our society is, to emphasise the injustice and excess by removing the one thing that we pretend is "the great leveller".

By switching to the "rich people are kinda bad, but it's OK if they're kinda bad so long as they still die in the end like the rest of us" thing, the show fell into exactly the cognitive trap that the book was illustrating.

 Yodhrin wrote:
I enjoyed it right up until I realised they were swerving away from the anti-capitalism/eat the rich angle and going for a generic "man wasn't made to meddle medley"/immortality is inherently bad thing. Was just a weird choice, it's not like "inequality is probably bad" is a hideously controversial view particularly among sci-fi fans.

Yeah that left a sour taste in our mouths and seemed a complete cop out by the makers - no being rich is not bad, having all the wealth in their/our hands i not bad - but live too long and you become inherently evil

Its a pity as the books are far superior in that regard.

Still it was a fun ride.

Very nice set of vids under a user called Alien Theory on youtube.
Basically a set of narrated stuff around the Alien universe and EU.
The account of the Alien War comic series is great and production values are quite high (plus his voice is quite listenable).
Worth a peek.