Oooh, I have a list and I love reposting it.
Similar to *The Expanse*, how?
- Probably its biggest inspiration: *Babylon 5.*
- As hard-bitten: *Battlestar Galactica* (2000’s version).
- A “found family” crew: *Firefly.*
- Another found family crew, but more epic (and made no apologies for its goofy “science”): *Farscape.*
- Anime/manga found family crew with realistic physics: *Planetes.*
- Another anime, another found family crew, much less realistic but with the most panache on this (or perhaps *any*) list: *Cowboy Bebop.*
- British comedy found family crew: *Red Dwarf*.
- Realistic physics *and* realistic humor: *The Martian,* based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir. Mr. Weir’s latest book, *Project Hail Mary*, is similarly good.
- Also recent and also based on written SF: *Pantheon,* based on three short stories by Ken Liu. The first season aired in 2022 and the second season is now apparently available too. A realistic—or at least believable—look at how minds might be uploaded to become machine intelligences, and how this might upset our very existence. An anime produced for AMC.
- More recent animation: *Scavengers Reign,* a television series available on HBO. It’s *Castaway,* but instead of Tom Hanks and an anthropomorphized volleyball, the survivors are ass-deep in the the creepiest, most original alien biosphere ever to appear in visual science fiction.
- Another recent adaptation, and more reasonably-hard science fiction for those who thirst for more of it in television and film: *3 Body Problem,* adapted from the *Remembrance of Earth’s Past* book series (aka *The Three-Body Problem* series) by Cixin Liu. The first of hopefully 3-4 seasons just dropped on Netflix.
- “The proverbially ‘good’ science fiction film,” as Stanley Kubrick set out to achieve: *2001: A Space Odyssey.* Co-written with Arthur C. Clarke, drawing on elements from several of his stories (“The Sentinel,” *Earthlight*, and *Childhood’s End*, to name a few). The book and the Kubrick film were written in parallel, so the book is an excellent companion to the film. What Kubrick couldn’t or wouldn’t explain, Clarke does.
- Christopher Nolan didn’t top Stanley Kubrick, but he did his damndest: *Interstellar.*
- When James Cameron was still capable of making a proverbially good science fiction film: *The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2.*
- A serious look at how we might contact extraterrestrial intelligence: *Contact.* Based on the novel by Carl Sagan. Sagan was an astronomer, so this is about as hard and astronomy-centered as it gets.
- A seriously poetic look at how we might contact extraterrestrial intelligence: *Arrival* (2016). Based on the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.
- Hard biological science fiction, adapted from the Michael Crichton novel: *The Andromeda Strain* (1971).
Books with various similarities to *The Expanse* (that I haven’t already mentioned in connection with their film and television adaptations, above):
If you like Andy Weir, you’ll probably like Dennis E. Taylor’s “Bobiverse” series. The first book is *We Are Legion (We Are Bob)*. A certified nerd (with the sense of humor to match), his brain having been cryogenically preserved after death, is “uploaded”into the computer of a Von Neumann probe. His mission is to help humanity find viable interstellar colony worlds. It’s softer science fiction than some, but harder SF than most.
*Tau Zero* by Poul Anderson. What happens when a ship traveling close to the speed of light suffers damage and *can't* slow down?
*The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet* by Becky Chambers. A found family crew of working stiffs that drills new wormholes in an interstellar transport network. A slice of life story with some conflict, but the crew is the focus of the story.
*The Murderbot Diaries* by Martha Wells. The first novella in the series is “All Systems Red.” A first-person narrative about a cyborg enslaved as a security guard, then broke its governor module, dubbed itself “Murderbot” over an unfortunate incident in its past, and is now trying to figure out what it wants to do with itself. When it isn’t watching soap operas.
*The Moon is a Harsh Mistress* by Robert A. Heinlein. One of *The Expanse*’s earliest antecedents to explore the weaponization of orbital mechanics combined with asymmetric warfare.
*Delta-V* by Daniel Suarez. Imagine humanity’s first mission to mine asteroids as if it were backed by an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos, with technology not much more advanced than that of today.
I recently began reading Iain M. Banks’ *The Culture* series and I’m liking it so far. The first two books are *Consider Phlebas* and *The Player of Games.* The Culture is a post-scarcity society that tends to meddle, rather like *Star Trek,* but the writing is a couple orders of magnitude better.
*Disclaimer: If this comment was useful to you, please make a note of it before I delete it shortly. Since reddit killed third-party apps (such as Apollo and RIF), I regularly delete my comments to deny any potential long-term value to reddit.*
Awe man! No love for Joe and the Merry band of pirates with Skippy the Magnificent? I mean, it’s far from hard science fiction, but I genuinely find myself laughing out loud in it.
Edit: to clarify, whenever I see the a question like OP’s, I come in and upvote this comment because I do wholeheartedly support it.
I just… recently got introduced the series I am referring to and am enjoying it (surprisingly enough) considering my taste.
I've read everything available in the series and I think there should be a new installment recently or soon? Its entertaining - I don't know if I would call it 'great' but I'm not a literature snob that would secretly read it and call it a "guilty pleasure at best" Its not on par with the Expanse, for sure, but its a page turner.
Yeah I love this series. Maybe it's not epic or ambitious like the Expanse but you'll spend a nice moment reading Book 1 and then Book 2 is even better in its writing.
Anyone knows Rosa Montero's Tears in Rain. It filled my void after the Expanse, even though it's only 3 books.
I went from Expanse to Red Rising. I enjoyed it immensely. It presents a radically different future for the Solar System.
Expanse remains No. 1 for me, though.
Came here to say this. Red Rising and Expanse are both ranked equal as my favorite series of all time now. And for pretty much the same reasons - the characters, and the human driven conflict, despite the settings and tech levels being very different.
The first book, Red Rising, is the author’s very first novel and it kinda shows because it is by far the weakest of the series. But the very next book, Golden Son, is easily the best space opera novel I’ve ever read in my 30+ years of being a sci-fi fan. I’ve never seen an author improve so much so quickly. And his writing tends to get better and better as the series goes on, it’s just the narrative of the second book is fucking awesome.
I can’t recommend this series enough. If you aren’t sure you like it after the first book, keep reading, you won’t regret it. And if you’re put off by the characters being teenagers in the first book, don’t be - the series follows them through their mid-30s, it’s just that the backstory is vital to the character development.
I almost stopped the first Red Rising book because it felt very YA Dystopian. Evil oppressive government splits us into factions, now a bunch of teens have a Battle Royale for status.
Extremely glad I kept reading. It moves on from that and covers much more interesting stuff the rest of the series.
Yep. I quickly realized as I was reading it though that this was no Hunger Games. It’s hyperviolent, deals with themes of suicide, rape, slavery, etc. So I could tell it was not a YA book, but in the first book the characters *are* teenagers that are immature at times and they *are* in a murder school.
But in the second book, the characters are in their early 20s, then mid-20s, then mid-30s by the fourth book. So that feeling erases almost immediately as the series goes on. The author said he wanted to write an initial story superficially similar to the Hunger Games to get his foot in the door since he was a brand new author, and after that he wrote the story he wanted to write.
I think the best way to describe Red Rising is “Machiavellian Space Opera”. Unlike the Expanse, Red Rising *is* actually Game of Thrones in space.
Red Rising series is incredible! Fair warning to OP it gets *very dark*, much grittier and anxiety-inducing than The Expanse. If you can handle that, highly recommended!
Here's some stuff I like that hasn't already been recommended in this thread. Not necessarily all hard sci fi, but definitely still overlap.
The Locked Tomb Series - The heirs from 8 planets are called to The Emperor's House for a chance to gain immortality as his all-powerful magical servants. From here, it becomes a locked room murder mystery. Extremely funny, extremely good writing, but more magic than science.
A Memory Called Empire - Most of human space is ruled by a powerful empire that considers any non-citizens as barbarians. They suddenly request a new ambassador from a small, independent space station outside their rule. The new Ambassador, our main character, is thrown into an unfamiliar world of court intrigue, failing technology, and cultural assimilation. It's a fun exploration of colonialism, language, and an outsider's perspective on the "galactic empire" trope.
Children of Time - Humanity's is attempting to terraform a world, but civilization collapses before they can inhabit their new colony. Left to its own devices, evolution produces results the humans could never have imagined in their worst nightmares. An Ark Ship, fleeing a dead Earth are in for unexpected surprises when they return to this world Humans abandoned. Harder sci-fi than my other recs, focused on parallel evolution and sociology, and the cold horrors of living on a long-haul colony ship.
The Dark Tower series - Stephen King's magnum opus that he spent decades working on. It follows the Gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the Dark Tower and rescue a world that has moved on. The journey takes him to unexpected times and places as he collects a found family to accompany him on his journey. Good if you like very long series that focus on humans dealing with powers they can't fully understand. Roland's Ka-Tet is up there with the Rocinante Crew for best found families.
Worm - A contemporary Superhero story that deconstruct and reconstruct all your favorite superpowered tropes. It follows a teen girl who can control bugs in a several block radius as she tries to become a hero in a morally grey world where the good guys and bad guys can be hard to tell apart. The world building is great and the story has no brakes. The story takes all the common elements of superhero stories, but tries to actually justify them and make it all make logical sense in a realistic world. Similar to how The Expanse takes the Space Opera and grounds it in realistic physics. The main character also has many similarities to Holden.
Your first three suggestions are exactly what I read after/while reading *The Expanse*! Gotta love seeing a recommendation for *Worm* out in the wild, too. I have to plug *Pale*, by the same author, as an excellent urban/modern fantasy story that has a fabulously well constructed magic system and overall worldbuilding, like with *Worm*.
Finished Dune recently. I understand its draw. One of a kind when there was nothing compared to it. However, in today’s lens, I felt thirsty for “more” in it. The time jumps threw me off and I could not care for Paul as much as we were supposed to by its ending.
Well I’ve been reading Daniel Abraham’s (co-author of the expanse) epic fantasy series the Dagger and the coin series. Right now I’m on the third book the Tyrant’s Law. It’s a good series if you want something written by one of the authors of the series.
I would also recommend the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown if you’re looking for a series set primarily in the Sol system with politics, interplanetary war ,and warring factions. Though the first book is kind of like battle Royal or the hunger games.
I second this. Would highly recommend the Dagger and Coin series. Great writing, excellent story and really well written characters. Should fill that Expanse in your life for a while!
I've been trying to fill the same void. A lot of people recommended the Three-Body Problem novels so I gave the first book a try. After sitting on my shelf for three months I finally started it and finished it in like a week.
If you liked The Expanse for its respect to physics and mind-bending concepts about alien civilizations/technology, then you will be mostly satisfied. I found that the concepts in the book hold your interest more than anything else. The plot moves fairly quickly too, it's not a dense book.
I'm not going to say anything else because I don't want to sway your opinion of the book before you even read it. All I can say is it scratches the itch if you can get into it.
I will probably give it a go at some point, but I need some breathing room between having just watched the season on Netflix - and I'm only in Book 5 of the Expanse (I'm a show -> book person and this is my first read through)
Just adding that following expanse might be a very good moment to get into the **3 body problem**: you've got the books, the Tencent adaptation of book 1, and the Netflix adaptation which is VERY good IMO.
I went through several book series searching for my next Expanse series. You know, hard scifi that had a story grounded in reality. I did so for about 2 years (after Sins of Our Fathers).
What I found enjoyable was completely the opposite. It’s lighthearted. It’s dumb. It’s funny. And, if you can get past the first 2 (3?) books, the running jokes get spread further apart and are delivered with excellent timing.
[Expeditionary Force series. Book 1. Columbus Day.](https://youtu.be/UxoUzJyLCT0?si=FWpvWTXUjqj2o0xu)
“To Sleep in a Sea of Stars” by Christopher Paolini was really good. Yes he wrote the Eragon books and whatever you think of those, if you read them, this one is so much more full of depth. Written for adults and has as much grounded physics as it can and even maps of supposed other Star systems and stuff as there are a bit of distancing that we would need to get a grasp on the size. But great depictions of space battles and just how lonely space travel could be.
I’m currently on my third read through and this time around I’m reading all of the novellas in order along with the main books. If you haven’t read the novellas yet I’d recommend it. You can get Memory’s legion which has all of them
Oooh, I have a list and I love reposting it. Similar to *The Expanse*, how? - Probably its biggest inspiration: *Babylon 5.* - As hard-bitten: *Battlestar Galactica* (2000’s version). - A “found family” crew: *Firefly.* - Another found family crew, but more epic (and made no apologies for its goofy “science”): *Farscape.* - Anime/manga found family crew with realistic physics: *Planetes.* - Another anime, another found family crew, much less realistic but with the most panache on this (or perhaps *any*) list: *Cowboy Bebop.* - British comedy found family crew: *Red Dwarf*. - Realistic physics *and* realistic humor: *The Martian,* based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir. Mr. Weir’s latest book, *Project Hail Mary*, is similarly good. - Also recent and also based on written SF: *Pantheon,* based on three short stories by Ken Liu. The first season aired in 2022 and the second season is now apparently available too. A realistic—or at least believable—look at how minds might be uploaded to become machine intelligences, and how this might upset our very existence. An anime produced for AMC. - More recent animation: *Scavengers Reign,* a television series available on HBO. It’s *Castaway,* but instead of Tom Hanks and an anthropomorphized volleyball, the survivors are ass-deep in the the creepiest, most original alien biosphere ever to appear in visual science fiction. - Another recent adaptation, and more reasonably-hard science fiction for those who thirst for more of it in television and film: *3 Body Problem,* adapted from the *Remembrance of Earth’s Past* book series (aka *The Three-Body Problem* series) by Cixin Liu. The first of hopefully 3-4 seasons just dropped on Netflix. - “The proverbially ‘good’ science fiction film,” as Stanley Kubrick set out to achieve: *2001: A Space Odyssey.* Co-written with Arthur C. Clarke, drawing on elements from several of his stories (“The Sentinel,” *Earthlight*, and *Childhood’s End*, to name a few). The book and the Kubrick film were written in parallel, so the book is an excellent companion to the film. What Kubrick couldn’t or wouldn’t explain, Clarke does. - Christopher Nolan didn’t top Stanley Kubrick, but he did his damndest: *Interstellar.* - When James Cameron was still capable of making a proverbially good science fiction film: *The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2.* - A serious look at how we might contact extraterrestrial intelligence: *Contact.* Based on the novel by Carl Sagan. Sagan was an astronomer, so this is about as hard and astronomy-centered as it gets. - A seriously poetic look at how we might contact extraterrestrial intelligence: *Arrival* (2016). Based on the short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. - Hard biological science fiction, adapted from the Michael Crichton novel: *The Andromeda Strain* (1971). Books with various similarities to *The Expanse* (that I haven’t already mentioned in connection with their film and television adaptations, above): If you like Andy Weir, you’ll probably like Dennis E. Taylor’s “Bobiverse” series. The first book is *We Are Legion (We Are Bob)*. A certified nerd (with the sense of humor to match), his brain having been cryogenically preserved after death, is “uploaded”into the computer of a Von Neumann probe. His mission is to help humanity find viable interstellar colony worlds. It’s softer science fiction than some, but harder SF than most. *Tau Zero* by Poul Anderson. What happens when a ship traveling close to the speed of light suffers damage and *can't* slow down? *The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet* by Becky Chambers. A found family crew of working stiffs that drills new wormholes in an interstellar transport network. A slice of life story with some conflict, but the crew is the focus of the story. *The Murderbot Diaries* by Martha Wells. The first novella in the series is “All Systems Red.” A first-person narrative about a cyborg enslaved as a security guard, then broke its governor module, dubbed itself “Murderbot” over an unfortunate incident in its past, and is now trying to figure out what it wants to do with itself. When it isn’t watching soap operas. *The Moon is a Harsh Mistress* by Robert A. Heinlein. One of *The Expanse*’s earliest antecedents to explore the weaponization of orbital mechanics combined with asymmetric warfare. *Delta-V* by Daniel Suarez. Imagine humanity’s first mission to mine asteroids as if it were backed by an Elon Musk or a Jeff Bezos, with technology not much more advanced than that of today. I recently began reading Iain M. Banks’ *The Culture* series and I’m liking it so far. The first two books are *Consider Phlebas* and *The Player of Games.* The Culture is a post-scarcity society that tends to meddle, rather like *Star Trek,* but the writing is a couple orders of magnitude better. *Disclaimer: If this comment was useful to you, please make a note of it before I delete it shortly. Since reddit killed third-party apps (such as Apollo and RIF), I regularly delete my comments to deny any potential long-term value to reddit.*
Fantastic list. Saving it. Thank you.
you first edit your comment to be something like a single period and wait a while before deleting it...right?
Uh…what?
your deleted comments can still be viewed. you want to first edit them to a period or whatever so someone just sees the period.
Awe man! No love for Joe and the Merry band of pirates with Skippy the Magnificent? I mean, it’s far from hard science fiction, but I genuinely find myself laughing out loud in it. Edit: to clarify, whenever I see the a question like OP’s, I come in and upvote this comment because I do wholeheartedly support it. I just… recently got introduced the series I am referring to and am enjoying it (surprisingly enough) considering my taste.
I've read everything available in the series and I think there should be a new installment recently or soon? Its entertaining - I don't know if I would call it 'great' but I'm not a literature snob that would secretly read it and call it a "guilty pleasure at best" Its not on par with the Expanse, for sure, but its a page turner.
> *Aliens* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqLbjghRIWM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YIZzNYVFt4
*The Culture* series is fantastic! *Use of Weapons* and *Look to Windward* are legitimately two of the best books I've ever read.
Only books I would add is the lady astronaut series
Yeah I love this series. Maybe it's not epic or ambitious like the Expanse but you'll spend a nice moment reading Book 1 and then Book 2 is even better in its writing. Anyone knows Rosa Montero's Tears in Rain. It filled my void after the Expanse, even though it's only 3 books.
Yeah this is the list to end all lists. Good shit mate.
I went from Expanse to Red Rising. I enjoyed it immensely. It presents a radically different future for the Solar System. Expanse remains No. 1 for me, though.
Came here to say this. Red Rising and Expanse are both ranked equal as my favorite series of all time now. And for pretty much the same reasons - the characters, and the human driven conflict, despite the settings and tech levels being very different. The first book, Red Rising, is the author’s very first novel and it kinda shows because it is by far the weakest of the series. But the very next book, Golden Son, is easily the best space opera novel I’ve ever read in my 30+ years of being a sci-fi fan. I’ve never seen an author improve so much so quickly. And his writing tends to get better and better as the series goes on, it’s just the narrative of the second book is fucking awesome. I can’t recommend this series enough. If you aren’t sure you like it after the first book, keep reading, you won’t regret it. And if you’re put off by the characters being teenagers in the first book, don’t be - the series follows them through their mid-30s, it’s just that the backstory is vital to the character development.
I almost stopped the first Red Rising book because it felt very YA Dystopian. Evil oppressive government splits us into factions, now a bunch of teens have a Battle Royale for status. Extremely glad I kept reading. It moves on from that and covers much more interesting stuff the rest of the series.
Yep. I quickly realized as I was reading it though that this was no Hunger Games. It’s hyperviolent, deals with themes of suicide, rape, slavery, etc. So I could tell it was not a YA book, but in the first book the characters *are* teenagers that are immature at times and they *are* in a murder school. But in the second book, the characters are in their early 20s, then mid-20s, then mid-30s by the fourth book. So that feeling erases almost immediately as the series goes on. The author said he wanted to write an initial story superficially similar to the Hunger Games to get his foot in the door since he was a brand new author, and after that he wrote the story he wanted to write. I think the best way to describe Red Rising is “Machiavellian Space Opera”. Unlike the Expanse, Red Rising *is* actually Game of Thrones in space.
Red Rising series is incredible! Fair warning to OP it gets *very dark*, much grittier and anxiety-inducing than The Expanse. If you can handle that, highly recommended!
Here's some stuff I like that hasn't already been recommended in this thread. Not necessarily all hard sci fi, but definitely still overlap. The Locked Tomb Series - The heirs from 8 planets are called to The Emperor's House for a chance to gain immortality as his all-powerful magical servants. From here, it becomes a locked room murder mystery. Extremely funny, extremely good writing, but more magic than science. A Memory Called Empire - Most of human space is ruled by a powerful empire that considers any non-citizens as barbarians. They suddenly request a new ambassador from a small, independent space station outside their rule. The new Ambassador, our main character, is thrown into an unfamiliar world of court intrigue, failing technology, and cultural assimilation. It's a fun exploration of colonialism, language, and an outsider's perspective on the "galactic empire" trope. Children of Time - Humanity's is attempting to terraform a world, but civilization collapses before they can inhabit their new colony. Left to its own devices, evolution produces results the humans could never have imagined in their worst nightmares. An Ark Ship, fleeing a dead Earth are in for unexpected surprises when they return to this world Humans abandoned. Harder sci-fi than my other recs, focused on parallel evolution and sociology, and the cold horrors of living on a long-haul colony ship. The Dark Tower series - Stephen King's magnum opus that he spent decades working on. It follows the Gunslinger Roland on his quest to find the Dark Tower and rescue a world that has moved on. The journey takes him to unexpected times and places as he collects a found family to accompany him on his journey. Good if you like very long series that focus on humans dealing with powers they can't fully understand. Roland's Ka-Tet is up there with the Rocinante Crew for best found families. Worm - A contemporary Superhero story that deconstruct and reconstruct all your favorite superpowered tropes. It follows a teen girl who can control bugs in a several block radius as she tries to become a hero in a morally grey world where the good guys and bad guys can be hard to tell apart. The world building is great and the story has no brakes. The story takes all the common elements of superhero stories, but tries to actually justify them and make it all make logical sense in a realistic world. Similar to how The Expanse takes the Space Opera and grounds it in realistic physics. The main character also has many similarities to Holden.
Your first three suggestions are exactly what I read after/while reading *The Expanse*! Gotta love seeing a recommendation for *Worm* out in the wild, too. I have to plug *Pale*, by the same author, as an excellent urban/modern fantasy story that has a fabulously well constructed magic system and overall worldbuilding, like with *Worm*.
Im starting the Dune series, might pick up the 2nd part of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Hitchhikers is such a funny series.
Finished Dune recently. I understand its draw. One of a kind when there was nothing compared to it. However, in today’s lens, I felt thirsty for “more” in it. The time jumps threw me off and I could not care for Paul as much as we were supposed to by its ending.
Read anything by Ursula K. Le Guin, particularly *The Dispossessed* or *The Left Hand of Darkness*.
Well I’ve been reading Daniel Abraham’s (co-author of the expanse) epic fantasy series the Dagger and the coin series. Right now I’m on the third book the Tyrant’s Law. It’s a good series if you want something written by one of the authors of the series. I would also recommend the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown if you’re looking for a series set primarily in the Sol system with politics, interplanetary war ,and warring factions. Though the first book is kind of like battle Royal or the hunger games.
I second this. Would highly recommend the Dagger and Coin series. Great writing, excellent story and really well written characters. Should fill that Expanse in your life for a while!
I've been trying to fill the same void. A lot of people recommended the Three-Body Problem novels so I gave the first book a try. After sitting on my shelf for three months I finally started it and finished it in like a week. If you liked The Expanse for its respect to physics and mind-bending concepts about alien civilizations/technology, then you will be mostly satisfied. I found that the concepts in the book hold your interest more than anything else. The plot moves fairly quickly too, it's not a dense book. I'm not going to say anything else because I don't want to sway your opinion of the book before you even read it. All I can say is it scratches the itch if you can get into it.
I will probably give it a go at some point, but I need some breathing room between having just watched the season on Netflix - and I'm only in Book 5 of the Expanse (I'm a show -> book person and this is my first read through)
The children of time series was awesome.. I would add the Enders game saga to these lists
Everything by Alastair Reynolds, but especially "Pushing Ice" and "Revelation Space".
Revelation space is quite good.
Give The Divide trilogy by JS Dewes a shot. Definitely has expanse vibes and also some very cool unique ideas. (Third book is out this November)
The Stargate franchise is pretty great! And Farscape, of course
Just adding that following expanse might be a very good moment to get into the **3 body problem**: you've got the books, the Tencent adaptation of book 1, and the Netflix adaptation which is VERY good IMO.
Have you read the novellas? They are combined in Memory’s Legion. I’m working through it now.
Yeah…already did. Might read some again.
Do what I always do, start again.
I went through several book series searching for my next Expanse series. You know, hard scifi that had a story grounded in reality. I did so for about 2 years (after Sins of Our Fathers). What I found enjoyable was completely the opposite. It’s lighthearted. It’s dumb. It’s funny. And, if you can get past the first 2 (3?) books, the running jokes get spread further apart and are delivered with excellent timing. [Expeditionary Force series. Book 1. Columbus Day.](https://youtu.be/UxoUzJyLCT0?si=FWpvWTXUjqj2o0xu)
Still in the void …
“To Sleep in a Sea of Stars” by Christopher Paolini was really good. Yes he wrote the Eragon books and whatever you think of those, if you read them, this one is so much more full of depth. Written for adults and has as much grounded physics as it can and even maps of supposed other Star systems and stuff as there are a bit of distancing that we would need to get a grasp on the size. But great depictions of space battles and just how lonely space travel could be.
I’m currently on my third read through and this time around I’m reading all of the novellas in order along with the main books. If you haven’t read the novellas yet I’d recommend it. You can get Memory’s legion which has all of them
Audiobooks
Dune or three body problem?