Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

After discovering the Vorkosigan Saga, Snow Crash, The Culture
Series, The Expanse Trilogy and rereading The Forever War I'm trying to
find more Science Fiction novels that combine exciting action with
smart/smartly executed story telling. Now to clear things up, by
"action" I don't necessarily mean Military Sci-Fi(although those
shouldn't be excluded) I'd like more variety like cyberpunk or present
based science fiction.

Ryan wrote: "After discovering the Vorkosigan Saga, Snow Crash, The Culture Series, The Expanse Trilogy and rereading The Forever War I'm trying to find more Science Fiction novels that combine exciting action with smart story telling. ..."


Hi, Ryan. Welcome to the group.

I think people may not know how to respond because the definition of "smart" seems rather subjective. To be clear, all books I like are smart; and books I don't like aren't. :) While I like most of the books you cited, I certainly don't like them all.

So here are some of my thoughts:

Continuing with Military Science Fiction, you might like Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet - Dauntless series, which as the name implies involves battles between fleets of spaceships. Or you might try Tanya Huff's Valor's Choice series, which is space Marines with snarky NCO attitude. (I didn't include Scalzi's Old Man's War only because I saw it was already on your bookshelf.) I think Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War is an excellent five-book series, but the "war" doesn't really start until the third book, so it's fairly sparse action in the early going.

In the subgenre of Cyberpunk, you might try Morgan's Altered Carbon, which is a stylistically noir far future detective cyberpunk and has a pretty high action rate. Or, you might try Charles Stross's Halting State, which is a near-future cyber crime mystery set in Edinburgh in the next few years, though it tends more investigative than action.

I'm not sure I've read enough good Steampunk to give a great answer, but I did enjoy Priest's Boneshaker, which is a Civil War era steampunk plus zombies!

In the broader category of Space Opera, you might try out Larry Niven with his Ringworld, or Arthur C Clarke with his Rendezvous with Rama.

In the category of Time Travel, I'm not really thinking of many of the "exciting action" variety. Maybe Flint's 1632 will fill the action bill (throw a bunch of Virginia coal miner rednecks back through time to Germany during the 30 years war, if you can suspend your disbelief to embrace that premise.)

In a miscellaneous category, Elizabeth Bear's Hammered trilogy combines postapocalypse cyberpunk with space opera pretty neatly.

Thanks for the warm welcome OG.

I actually have read Altered Carbon, and while I liked it I don't think the book had the wow factor I was looking for.

Try When Gravity Fails, by George Alec Effinger. It's a hard boiled detective, cyberpunk thriller set in a future middle-east loosely based on New Orleans. It's the first of a trilogy. Effinger researched all the religious and cultural details extensively.

I have also read When Gravity Fails. Good book, but not exactly what I was looking for.

Its not a series, but check out Path of Fury by David Weber, its a good read with solid pacing.

Smart action as others have mentioned is hard to get an exact read on - looking at your favorite books helps though to give a fairly clear idea of books you might like:-

Ready Player One is a great, smart, light read that has a fair amount of action in it.

Gene Wolfe has plenty of action in his stories and they are oozing in smart - Shadow and Claw is great. It is slightly less accessible than some other SF but it is worth checking out.

Ursula Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness is a superb book that hits all buttons.

I have not checked it out yet but Take Back Plenty seems to hit all the buttons.

Perhaps more on the "smart" side than the action side Light might be worth a try.

I love Liz Jensen and her The Uninvited is smart and exciting.

Finally Fallen Land might be worth a try.

Ready Player One has been under my radar for a while now, as well as the works of Weber. At least his early stuff.

Weber released an updated and expanded version of Path of Fury In Fury Born. This was pretty good.

I also just finished the Commonwealth series by Peter Hamilton Pandora's Star. This is excellent space adventure.

Also a few additional fun reads.
The Man Who Never Missed
Cobra
The Blackcollar
Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future
Armor
Sten
Dauntless
Startide Rising

Most of the above are the first book in a series.

I'd forgotten about the Sten series. They were good & fun. Thanks for reminding me, Conal. There are 8 books. The last 4 weren't as good as the first couple. The series is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/series/41559...

I'm actually in the middle of reading Armor. It's a book I never got around to finishing, and I'm enjoying it so far.

I have been hooked on Bujold's Vorkosigan books for so long that I wonder if anyone can recommend similar titles. Looking for Adventure, SciFi, with heart and soul. Much appreciate any ideas.

Laure wrote: "I have been hooked on Bujold's Vorkosigan books for so long that I wonder if anyone can recommend similar titles. Looking for Adventure, SciFi, with heart and soul. Much appreciate any ideas."

Well, off the top of my head, since we're currently reading and discussing Scalzi's Old Man's War as part of our group's monthly book club, that comes to mind.

Or you might enjoy Weber's Homor Harrington, Moon's Vatta's War (and if you like Moon, also her Serrano/Suiza series). or Corey's Leviathan Wakes (Expanse series), Campbell's The Lost Fleet series, or Rusch's Diving series. (Those are all relatively "modern" space opera, like Vorkosigan.)

By the way, Laure, welcome to the group!

Ryan wrote: "I'm actually in the middle of reading Armor. It's a book I never got around to finishing, and I'm enjoying it so far."

I can't imagine not finishing that book. I couldn't put it down!

I'm reading Panzer Soldier part of the Casca series by Barry Sadler. I read them all years ago & recall this as the best of the bunch.

Jim wrote:
I can't imagine not finishing that book. I couldn't put it down..."
It was indeed excellent.

G33z3r wrote: "Laure wrote: "I have been hooked on Bujold's Vorkosigan books for so long that I wonder if anyone can recommend similar titles. Looking for Adventure, SciFi, with heart and soul. Much appreciate an..."
Hi there, thanks for the welcome. I have read many of Moon's books, though worthwhile to locate any I missed. I'll check out your other recommendations.

While not marketed as scifi, the Legacy series is an action-packed spinoff of the venerabke Men's Adventure series The Destroyer.

C.E. Do you man the Lorien Legacies?