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Thanks for this thread there are some excellent suggestions here!

The two I'm watching are already mentioned - Travelers and Colony, both on Netflix. Love them but am almost done with both, so will check out some of the ideas above next

My recommendations (some have already been said, but whatever):
TV:
Star Trek (all of them): The original series is the one that started it all as far as good sci-fi TV. At least in America; Dr. Who was already becoming popular across the pond.
Original Battlestar Galactica: Much more fun than the newer, more grimdark, one.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Campy, but still very entertaining (and 1980s Erin Gray in those shiny outfits...). Second season was garbage, though.
Red Dwarf: This show gets comedic sci-fi absolutely right!
Stargate SG-1: Probably the best adaptation of a movie to a TV show there has ever been.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Some people hate this show, but I think it's really fun. Watching season 5 on Netflix currently.

Book series:
Dune: One of the enduring classics of science fiction. The first one is definitely the best, but the others are good too. The newer ones by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are quite good as well.
Destroyermen: If you like alternate-history sci-fi, you will enjoy these stories. The premise is that a U.S. Navy destroyer fleeing the Japanese after the takeover of the Philippines is caught in a strange storm and ends up somehow in an alternate reality where humans never evolved, but two other sentient races did. I can't say too much more without spoiling it, but seriously, give these a read. You won't be disappointed.
Troy Rising: John Ringo's trilogy about how Earth was suddenly thrust into galactic war makes for very interesting reading. Not the most realistic of stories, but entertaining nonetheless.
Star Carrier: To me, these stories are very cool because the science behind them is more accurate. Things like near-c impacts, time dilation, space-time distortion near supermassive objects like black holes, etc. Plus the story itself is very interesting.
Halo: If you like the video games, you should like the books too. I've enjoyed all of them that I've read.

Have to agree with the Banks and Reynolds suggestions - required reading.

I really enjoyed Neal Asher's Polity stuff too, space opera set in a post-galactic war universe where AI governs the human sphere, ancient alien tech causes issues, and there are bitter hangovers from the war (the aliens had a habit of coring humans and using them as slave thralls). I seem to recall the Agent Cormac series getting very OTT by the end, but was still fun (fans of Banks' drones will enjoy the Polity versions), and The Skinner was fantastic. Lots of weird aliens, strange parasites and warped AI across the Polity.

Charles Stross is very good. Had a couple of books about a sci-fi James Bond (that's a hugely and horribly broad strokes description) which was great, but I really love his Laundry series. Lovecraft knew what he was talking about, and obviously there's a secret government organisation that deals with magical occurrences and keeps an eye out to make sure the elder gods don't wake up and destroy the planet. Our main protagonist is Bob, who's just been promoted to field-work from the IT section - magic is just formulas and many hackers come close to catastrophic calamaties, if they survive then they'll get press-hanged into working for the Laundry. Some brilliantly funny writing in places, some well-crafted pastiches, and an ever-increasing sense of doom.

Justin's Robson's Quantum Gravity is a fun series - after a quantum bomb fractures reality and merges the realm of faerie with ours we follow the adventures of Lila Black, cyborg security operative as she herds Elven rock stars, deals with demons and tries to figure out where she ends and her implanted AI begins.

Ken MacLeod's Star Fraction - UN regulates the law across a world broken into micro-states, with scientific research heavily prohibited in many areas, and mid-21st century a revolution starts against the UN. There was a follow-up series which took an alternate timeline from a key point in the first series.

David Brin's Uplift series - Humans have 'uplifted' dolphins and apes and are exploring a galaxy where alien races have all been uplifting other alien races.

Karen Traviss' Wess'har War - I really enjoyed the first two or three of these, but then stopped, and I can't recall what it was that our me off the series. Humanity gets drawn into a war between alien species after attempting to colonize a planet already a home to one species, protected by another and contested by a third.

Steve and S.d perry's alien vs predator novel trillogy is legit great. Its an amazing adaptation of the dark horse comics that really fleshes out all the character human and predator alike.

The first one is Prey.

Steve Perry's Matador series beginning with the Man Who Never Missed was an entertaining book series.

It’s not exactly sci-fi, but I can heartily recommend Gotham.

First season is a bit ropey with more miss than hit. But it does find its stride, and now it’s one of the best things on tv

Reading?

Ok, it’s not a book, so possibly going out on a limb here, but 2000AD, The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. Released weekly, it’s a sci-fi anthology. Not only famous as the home of Dredd, but for being the professional birth place of pretty much everyone that’s anyone that’s British and works in comics. Each Prog (issue) has five to six episodes of strips. Most will see one ending, one starting, and the rest somewhere in their run. Some stuff won’t be to your taste, but you’ll still find plenty you do. From Old Stone Face, to ABC Warriors, to the utterly batpoop Zombo and the ‘You Never Know What You’ll Get’ Tharg’s Future Shocks, it is probably the finest and most experimental comic you can easily find in a news stand. At least in the U.K.

Some 2000 AD stories like the A.B.C warriors and Slaine would be a great shout.

For Books - I would heartily recommend "The Clockmaker" by Neary and Williams. It's a newish but it would make an awesome mini series. It's sci fi / fantasy with the occult, and a little horror in the mix. It's about an old man, who's not your average guy, is held prisoner in Hitler's Bunker. As Berlin is attacked he escapes and takes an occult book with him. He chooses a village in rural Scotland to carry out his plans. He is a gifted creator and builds some fantastic creepy and awesome constructions. Also in the village is a war widow and her son and their paths cross. It has a cool weird war steam punky dark future vein to it. If you could give the Clockmaker's creatures a decent CGI budget, kept the dark atmosphere as well as all the bits about love and loss in, it would be cracking. Probably need a 15 certificate, as it's quite creepy and freaky in places.

 Overread wrote:

The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton - fantastic epic space opera. Really recommend this trilogy as not only is it hard-sci-fi but it has that edge of mystical unknown of the universe and space. Note if given the choice get it ebook - each paperback is 1200 pages long (they get heavy on the fingers)

Also be warned that there are a lot of sex scenes, and they're quite graphic...like gakky romance novel graphic.

In terms of books I've always been a big fan of David Drake and his RCN series has a nice space opera/space age of sail sort of vibe.

For something a little more shlocky the Terminator Salvation books were actually pretty decent (they were pre- and post movie to basically set up the characters). Timothy Zahn did 2 of them and he's a pretty good author usually.

It didn't hurt that it was the one Terminator movie since T2 I liked.

 dogma wrote:

 Overread wrote:

The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton - fantastic epic space opera. Really recommend this trilogy as not only is it hard-sci-fi but it has that edge of mystical unknown of the universe and space. Note if given the choice get it ebook - each paperback is 1200 pages long (they get heavy on the fingers)

Also be warned that there are a lot of sex scenes, and they're quite graphic...like gakky romance novel graphic.

Since advising avoidance is also part of the thread, I'd say just don't bother with the whole trilogy(I can't speak to the author's other works, as reading this one put me off them entirely). Calling a story about souls coming back from another dimension to possess the living "hard sci-fi" is funny in and of itself, but the stories themselves are among the worst sci-fi I've ever read, a turgid wandering mess trying desperately to sound profound while not really saying much of anything at all, and I have no idea whatsoever how Hamilton is so well regarded. Save your time and money.

I agree. I very rarely do not finish a book, but Hamilton's meandering mess that still hadn't gone anywhere plot-wise halfway through the first book just made me stop reading and put him on my "ignore" list as an author. Just like Paul Hoffman and Terry Goodkind, albeit for slightly different reasons.

Appalled at the lack of Firefly mentions here.

As for books:
-K.B.Wagers' 'The Indranan War'. It's a recent addition, Space Matriarchal India vs Space Not-Britain.

Mike Brooks' 'Dark Run' series is grittier and revolves around much lower stakes, which I personally prefer.

Marko Kloos' 'Frontlines' series is a must for those with a military sci-fi hard on.

 Lance845 wrote:
Steve and S.d perry's alien vs predator novel trillogy is legit great. Its an amazing adaptation of the dark horse comics that really fleshes out all the character human and predator alike.

The first one is Prey.

I really wish they had gone for that story for films

 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.

I've got sort of a soft-spot for this show, since they filmed most of the pilot around where I live, and the marine corps base in the pilot is the local AFB/civ airport (they pan past a bunch of F/A-18s with the distinctive 75 & 77th sqdn markings.)

 Humble Guardsman wrote:
Appalled at the lack of Firefly mentions here.

I mentioned it, it's really just not worth mentioning one season, heavy on the western, lacking on the space, vision and originality. there's a reason it only lasted one season.

It's like it was intended to be a western, but keeping horses around was to much for the budget so they went with a CGI ship instead.

 dogma wrote:

 Overread wrote:

The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton - fantastic epic space opera. Really recommend this trilogy as not only is it hard-sci-fi but it has that edge of mystical unknown of the universe and space. Note if given the choice get it ebook - each paperback is 1200 pages long (they get heavy on the fingers)

Also be warned that there are a lot of sex scenes, and they're quite graphic...like gakky romance novel graphic.

I would suggest anyone interested in reading Peter F. Hamilton start with the Commonwealth duology, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. They are better books and although the have some lurid sex scenes they feel less skeevy. The villain is also one of the best in sci fi.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
For some straight-up space opera, Timothy Zahn's Conqueror's trilogy is light and fun. Humanity unwittingly starts a war with an unknown species, and through a lot of misunderstanding and manipulation, the war keeps expanding, dragging in many alien species. It's somewhere between Babylon 5 and Star Wars in tone and scope.


In a similar vein, Dread Empire's Fall, starting with The Praxis. The brutal race who has conquered humanity and several other species and set up an inflexible Imperial Government...dies. That's when the intrigue begins as the former subject plot to become the brutal overlords themselves. There are a lot of space battles and dark humor.

 Humble Guardsman wrote:
Marko Kloos' 'Frontlines' series is a must for those with a military sci-fi hard on.

Enjoyable action series.

Battlestar galatica the new one is brilliant I recommend it strongly , it dealt with the issues of the time well such as Guantanamo bay really well.

 Lance845 wrote:
Steve and S.d perry's alien vs predator novel trillogy is legit great. Its an amazing adaptation of the dark horse comics that really fleshes out all the character human and predator alike.

The first one is Prey.

There are some elements of this (or maybe the comic series that it's actually based on) in the first AvP movie (many of those novels were direct rewrites of the comic storylines DH did during their ALIENS and Predator runs). It's why there's a "Dark Horse" imprint on them, not just Fox.
Just very badly done.

The first AvP movie has elements of the comic/books in the most superficial way. It completely missed the mark on anything that was good about the original content. The novels didn't miss that mark It fleshed those elements out and made them truely great.

I'm actually going to throw out a cartoon here, Exo Squad. For a show that was designed to sell bright colored toys of guys in power loader like battle suits in the 90s, the story was actually kind of amazing for it. Not only did people die, but it also dealt with themes like racism, slavery, genocide, and cloning in a conflict that drew heavily from WWII. I remembered the show when I found an article of "9 things Exo Squad did before the BSG reboot".

Skaorn wrote:
I'm actually going to throw out a cartoon here, Exo Squad. For a show that was designed to sell bright colored toys of guys in power loader like battle suits in the 90s, the story was actually kind of amazing for it. Not only did people die, but it also dealt with themes like racism, slavery, genocide, and cloning in a conflict that drew heavily from WWII. I remembered the show when I found an article of "9 things Exo Squad did before the BSG reboot".

YES! I own a DVD set of Exosquad ripped from VCR tapes I got at some flea market. Exosquad is full on amazing and super adult for being a brightly colored sell kids toys show. Someone dies in a orbital drop attempt and the C.O. J.T Marsh has PTSD for the rest of the show about it. Exosquad is probably actually the best 80s/90s cartoon there is.

Have scribbled down lots of book recommendations. Thank you, folks.

 Yodhrin wrote:
Since advising avoidance is also part of the thread, I'd say just don't bother with the whole trilogy(I can't speak to the author's other works, as reading this one put me off them entirely). Calling a story about souls coming back from another dimension to possess the living "hard sci-fi" is funny in and of itself, but the stories themselves are among the worst sci-fi I've ever read, a turgid wandering mess trying desperately to sound profound while not really saying much of anything at all, and I have no idea whatsoever how Hamilton is so well regarded. Save your time and money.

Finally, someone agrees with me on this. I have no idea how people praise that series so much, it just sprawls out into such a ridiculous mess of redundant plots that seem to exist for the sole purpose of adding page count. And then, after thousands of pages of aimless rambling, it all ends in a 10-page deus ex machina (literally!) that feels like the publisher told Hamilton he couldn't have a fourth book in the series but he wasn't willing to cut anything to make room for a proper ending. Any interesting thoughts are just hopelessly buried in hundreds of pages of slogging through filler content.

 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.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:
Since advising avoidance is also part of the thread, I'd say just don't bother with the whole trilogy(I can't speak to the author's other works, as reading this one put me off them entirely). Calling a story about souls coming back from another dimension to possess the living "hard sci-fi" is funny in and of itself, but the stories themselves are among the worst sci-fi I've ever read, a turgid wandering mess trying desperately to sound profound while not really saying much of anything at all, and I have no idea whatsoever how Hamilton is so well regarded. Save your time and money.

Finally, someone agrees with me on this. I have no idea how people praise that series so much, it just sprawls out into such a ridiculous mess of redundant plots that seem to exist for the sole purpose of adding page count. And then, after thousands of pages of aimless rambling, it all ends in a 10-page deus ex machina (literally!) that feels like the publisher told Hamilton he couldn't have a fourth book in the series but he wasn't willing to cut anything to make room for a proper ending. Any interesting thoughts are just hopelessly buried in hundreds of pages of slogging through filler content.

I would say read them if yuo've got a lot of spare reading time on your hands. I read them at a time when I was commuting by train for 2 hours a day, so I got through a lot of books.

His Pandora's Star duology are tighter written, and harder SF, if that's your bag.

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. It is about the difficulties in returning to society from war, drawing on the authors experiences in Vietnam and returning to the US afterwards, but uses time dilation as the mechanism for the soldiers to return to a drastically different world to the one they left.

It has some sequels but I haven't read them and they are not nearly as highly regarded.

Ohhh I forgot one!

SPACE 1999! When a nuclear disaster on the moon throws it out of orbit and onto an adventure through space; meet the colonists upon the Moonbase as they struggle to survive as they are sent hurtling through space without any control!

Forever Free is a direct sequel, but if Forever War is about Vietnam, Forever Free reads like he took too many drugs while he was there. Maybe it's my expectations; it's not mil-SF like War, it's a bit more ... out there.

And now that I'm onto mil-SF somehow, I'd recommend John Scalzi's Old Man's War and its sequels. The initial hook is that retirees sign up for the off-world army at 70 and get shiny new rejuvenated bodies, but that's just the beginning for where the plot goes.

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.