Recommendations wanted - space opera/ big idea sci-fi

[emptyman]

Hi all. I'm new here, but a long time sci-fi fan. One thing though - I am pretty picky. I am looking for some recommendations because on Amazon and Goodreads there is just far too much info and I don't know where to start.
So - what am I looking for? I want and tend to like fiction where there are big, new ideas that inspire my imagination in a creative way. I prefer optimistic approaches, and huge expanses of time and perspective. I like 'big picture' motifs. I'm not into fantasy or plot-driven novels - I read sci-fi to feed that part of me that needs creativity and newness.
Ok - some favourites to give you a sense:
-John c. Wright and his "Golden Age' books (tremendously packed with great, stimulating ideas. my favourite sci-fi in years).
- Douglas Adams HGTTG
- Kurt Vonnegut (yes, he IS sci-fi, sometimes)
- Philip K Dick (short stories are so awesome, super-cool)
- Hyperion books by Simmons (didn't love them, but liked them enough to finish.)

I didn't like Asimov's foundation series that much (sorry).
So, given this, does anyone have any good ideas for me?
The next book I'm going to try is "The Quantum Thief". Thanks so much!

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Well you might like:

Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan.
On Basilisk Station, by David Weber.
Ringworld, Larry Niven.
Expanded Universe, Heinlein short stories.
Rendezvous with Rama, Clarke.
Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson.
Quarantine, Greg Egan.
Hominids, Sawyer.
And there was a recent old-school space opera trade paperback that came out recently, that I can't seem to remember the title or author at the moment... dammit.

 

[iansales]

Iain M Banks' Culture novels, Ken MacLeod's Fall of the Republic quartet, Gary Gibson's Dakota Merrick trilogy, Michael Cobley's Humanity's Fire trilogy... all good British new space opera (which is the best kind of new space opera).

 

[Perpetual Man]

Someone else who fits your requirements, huge books, big ideas is Peter F Hamilton. Both his Night's Dawn Trilogy and the Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained are epic on the grandest scale.

But it has to be said that although I love his books, there are a sizeable amount of readers who don't. (Doesn't stop him being Britain's bestselling SF author )according to the front of his latest novel)

 

[iansales]

Yup, he's certainly popular. And yup, some of us don't like his books

 

[Vertigo]

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space books. Order of reading can be a little debatable but if you search on here it has been discussed on threads around about.

Poul Anderson's Tau Zero and The Boat of a Million Years. They are not related but both cover huge timespans and present interesting ideas. Tau Zero could loosely be described as space opera in that the action pretty much all takes place on a single (very long) space journey. The second is not really space opera until possibly the tail end of the book.

Neal Asher's Polity books - again take a look in his sub forum for help on the reading order.

Brian Aldiss' Helliconia - though that has some pretty strong Fantasy elements rather than space Opera.

If you like military space opera then consider David Weber's Honor Harrington books (On Basilisk Station mentioned above is the first). Also Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series (ignore the terrible book covers and titles - they really are quite good!).

Other than that I would second some of the other recommendations, such as Hamilton, Banks and Larry Niven (you might also consider his collaboration with Jerry Pournelle; the Moties books beginning with the Mote in God's Eye).

 

[emptyman]

Thanks, mates. All great suggestions. I am aware of most of those authors/ series, but not all. I'll do a bit more homework on them. It is so hard to know who and what you are going to like! I keep having 'altered carbon' recommended to me so maybe i'll give it a try next.
Have any of you read John C. Wright's series that I mentioned? I would love to find something comparable. (I secretly want some kind of official rating system called 'IPP' which stands for Ideas Per Page - and you can say something like, "Well Hamilton rates at about 4.2 new IPP, but the third in the trilogy is only a 2.3...")
cheers

 

[iansales]

John C Wright's books should be avoided. He makes Orson Scott Card's homophobia and sexism look amateur. He's like the Mel Gibson of the sf world...

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

John C Wright's books should be avoided. He makes Orson Scott Card's homophobia and sexism look amateur. He's like the Mel Gibson of the sf world...

Oh, snap.

 

[emptyman]

Wow. Snap! Indeed.
Now, is that a criticism of his character or of his books? Because, being ignorant of him as a person, I found his books incredible.
Iansales - did you happen to read 'The Golden Age'? Maybe I am alone in loving them... but that wouldn't be a first.

 

[Triceratops]

I'll second Poul Anderson's Tau Zero and The Boat of a Million Years.

chris

 

[emptyman]

Re: Recommendations wanted - cool ideas, never mind the space opera

After studying reviews and synopses, I have decided to try 'Altered Carbon' and Peter Hamilton's 'The Dreaming Void' (because that's what my library had, plus it looks kinda neat).
You have given me a good list of space opera to think about. But I wonder - what responses would I get if I omitted the notion of the space opera and simply requested recommendations for books that are crammed with creative and amazing ideas? Because in the end, this is really what it is about for me. It is simply that space opera tends to be the niche that those books fit into.
Ideas?

 

[Vertigo]

A word of warning Hamilton's Void trilogy (Dreaming, Temporal and Evolutionary) follow on from his two book Commonwealth series. It is set some time later and although it is a totally separate story it does have some of the same characters in it. I suspect you would be better off reading the two Commonwealth books first: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained.

As far as the second question goes. It would be hard to know where to begin there are so many. My earlier post (#6) had a couple of suggestions that weren't quite space opera and then there's PKD; his books tend to be quite small but his ideas certainly aren't!

 

[iansales]

Iansales - did you happen to read 'The Golden Age'? Maybe I am alone in loving them... but that wouldn't be a first.

Yes, I read that, and the sequel, Phoenix Exultant... before I discovered how odious his personal views were. I didn't think they were very good. David Herter's Ceres Storm covers similar ground and does it a thousand times better.

 

[emptyman]

@Iansales: Really? Fair enough - I will certainly check out 'Ceres Storm' then, because I was damn impressed with John C Wright's trilogy - I enjoyed them all quite a bit. They were slow, idea driven, and creative.
Also, I appreciate Vertigo's caveat about the Dreaming trilogy. I'm still going to give it a whirl. I'm reading 'The Quantum Thief' right now.
I'll let you know if I ever figure out what the heck is going on...

 

[Vertigo]

Ah now The Quantum Thief has been on my TBR pile for some time now. Really must get around to it.

 

[J-Sun]

I'll let you know if I ever figure out what the heck is going on...

There's not much to figure. Relatively undefined power blocks that it's difficult to care much about one way or the other face off while the usual fairy-tale amnesiac character comes into his own and there's another fairy tale Star Wars riff I won't spoil.

It's not big idea SF - it's a few million ideas other SF writers have been having - spider-cabs I most recently saw in Reynolds' Chasm City, moving cities I most recently saw in Stross' Saturn's Children, the timepieces probably lifted from some recent movie, Sterling terminology like "spimes" and factions reminiscent of his Shaper/Mechanist Factions or Reynolds' Conjoiner/Demarchists or... Then there's quite a few bits of The Matrix. The posthumanity and software uploads of practically everyone. Visuals that coexist with Inception (which is just a zeitgeist thing as those were probably in development simultaneously). It conceptually references or namechecks Gogol, Sartre, Wells. Etc etc. To quote the book: "'Ideas are cheap,' Paul [the thief] says. 'It's all in the execution.'" Well, I dispute that ideas are cheap and that it's all in the execution but I will grant that originality can be overrated. However, this book has almost none and it's execution is not particularly good, either.

As far as positives, I've liked some Asher, Banks, Reynolds. Also:

Baxter - Xeelee series
Egan - anything, especially Diaspora and collections
Forward - Dragon's Egg
Rucker - for different sorts of big ideas, there's Spacetime Donuts, White Light, etc.
Sheffield - Between the Strokes of Night
Sterling - Shaper/Mechanist stories in Crystal Express, Schismatrix, Chattanooga stories in A Good Old-Fashioned Future, etc.
Vinge - Zones series

I'll third Anderson's Tau Zero.

Also, I'll second Clarke's Rendezvous. There are a bunch of other Big Dumb Object books out there, not all of which are great, but might be worth a look. Of course Niven's Ringworld, Sheffield's written some, I just read Hex by Allen Steele about a true Dyson sphere. Bear, of course, did Eon but I didn't like that as much as his apocalyptically transformational Blood Music, or his AI book Queen of Angels, or his own kind of quantum magic in Moving Mars.

The problem is, I don't know what a "new" idea is to you, because I don't know what you've read and if you didn't care for Asimov's Foundation Trilogy then we're probably not speaking the same language anyway.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'll third Rendezvous, I loved it. I'm also reading Ray Bradbury for the first time (I know, I know.... but all things come eventually ) and pretty blown away - I like the horror edge, - qu'elle surprise to anyone who's read my stuff. Also, in terms of huge expanses, Dune certainly fills that remit.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Rendevous with Rama, but don't bother with the sequels (supposedly co-written, but I suspect mostly or totally written by the other author).

Ringworld, and do bother with the sequels. And the rest of Niven's Known Space future history.

David Brin's Uplift books (Sundiver, Startide Rising, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, Heaven's Reach, The Uplift War.), for a civilisation that spans thousands of "uplifted"* sentient species, at least five galaxies and two billion years.

*Brin proposes a first sentient species that began a chain of genetically engineering clever animals into sentient, civilised beings, who then went on to uplift later species of clever animals...

 

[emptyman]

Thanks Mr. Evil Overlord!
I read a bit of Brin - the whole dolphin thing was pretty fun, actually. But his style didn't make me feel like I want much more of it.
I totally forgot to mention Dune - definitely one of my all-time favourites. But who the heck doesn't like Dune?
I really appreciate this conversation here - it has given me loads of great leads and is certain to keep me going through the next long while.