I’m looking for some light reading to get psyched for Starfield’s release. The game is inspired by the old Traveller RPG which I loved. I’m a huge fan of Ursula LeGuin and Jack Vance and also the Expanse series. I’m hoping for something escapist and fun, but not insipid, if you know what I mean.
Ideally, not aliens or alien artifacts, more a scrappy band of free traders just trying to make a buck in this indifferent galaxy ala Firefly.
Thanks in advance
You might find some ideas here:
Lots of good suggestions in that thread, some of which I used.
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
You might want to try “Infinity Gate” by Mike Carey. Only the first book is out but it promises to do for parallel worlds what “Expanse” did for solar system exploration.
If you like Vance, you could try Matthew Hughes- he writes in a very deliberately Vancian style, and while he’s obviously not as great as the original, he’s quite entertaining.
The Murderbot books by Martha Wells are quite popular, although the story of a generic enforcer robot rebelling against its programming seems to be slowly turning it into a space superhero as sequels accumulate.
I’m also a fan of Walter Jon William’s Praxis series, though it’s a bit mannered and may not be to everyone’s taste.
Oh, and “A long way To A Small Angry Planet” and sequels are very close to Firefly or Star Trek told from the little guy’s POV. Not a lot of violence, but plenty of adventure and interpersonal drama as folks find their place in a big universe.
Frequently coming up in these lists of space opera, Bujold’s Vorkosigan books are fun. Some of them definitely fit the requirement of a scrappy team making a buck (or a military objective). Others are romantic farces, and some are both.
Poul Anderson’s Psychotechnic League are traders.
His books featuring Dominic Flandry, agent of the Terran Empire are equally cool.
I’d recommend the first (emphasis) book of the Troy Rising series by Ringo. Live Free or Die is more or less set in the Schlock Mercenary Universe shortly after first contact - so humans are exposed to aliens and tech beyond their dreams, but aren’t participating, because humans don’t have anything the aliens want.
While it is rather libertarian in political leanings, it isn’t so bad to eliminate the fun elements of the story. The second (and especially third) books are more into the military scifi range, and while still good, aren’t the sort of thing you specified in the OP. And it just . . . stops. Something Ringo does more than I’d like.
LOL, I actually came in to recommend this book. I really enjoyed it, you did such a fantastic job.
Bujold’s stuff always gets cited in threads like this - and for good reason. I’ve purchased everything she has written at LEAST once (if you count the two that were bought for us as gifts), and read everything she’s written at least 3 times.
Not quite the “scrappy band of free traders” mentioned in the OP, though in Diplomatic Immunity, there is a character who HAD been part of such a group before the story opened. And then there’s the “whoops - I accidentally created a band of space mercenaries!” in Warrior’s Apprentice.
Her other stuff is also quite good: the “Chalion” books (after the first one, The Curse of Chalion, though it’s more generally referred to as The World Of The Five Gods). The novels (Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and Hallowed Hunt) took me 2 reads to really get “into” them, but her Penric and Desdemona novellas (first one: Penric’s Demon) are huge fun. Though they are fantasy, not sci-fi; still, highly recommended, just not what you’re looking for right now. Very, very rich world-building going on.
Her Sharing Knife books are pure fantasy also - just 4 books plus one novella. Massively different from either of the other two “worlds”, and not as well known, but have been compared (favorably) with the Lord of the Rings.
I agree with @JohnnyEcks on the Murderbot books and the Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - have only ingested the first in each series, but both were quite enjoyable. The Murderbot tales are novellas (I think there’s a novel down the line somewhere), so they don’t take too much commitment.
In the linked “humorous SF” thread, several folks mentioned “Space Opera” by Catherynne Valente. Might be great as a written book, but if you’re looking for an audiobook (you did not mention that), AVOID IT. The lengthy “encyclopedia” entries in each chapter really distract and make it hard to tell where you are in the tale, plus of course you can’t flip back and reference them if needed. As noted, very, very derivative of Hitchhiker’s Guide in style.
Wonderful, thanks so much!
I just ordered it. Looking forward to reading!
Terrific! I hope you enjoy it!
Well, there’s actually quite a lot of “aliens or alien artifacts”, but there’s also a scrappy band of free traders just trying to make a buck in this one:
Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture #1) Paperback – May 3 2022
Said Scrappy Band gets caught up in major Galactic Shenanigans because they were out there just trying to make a buck. A large part of the trilogy is members of the crew lamenting how they just wanted to make a buck, but the Galactic Powers just keep dragging them into more and more shit.
I’ve been reading quite a bit of Tchaikovsky lately, he’s ridiculously prolific. I really enjoyed his novella Elder Race, in which a space traveller is recruited by a princess to fight a mysterious evil on an isolated colony world; from his point of view it’s a science fiction story, from hers it’s a fantasy. Both are correct.