Science fiction about organized crime

[DeathFusion]

Does anyone know of any good science fiction books that focus on organized crime? Preferably not a detective story, I am thinking more Godfather or Goodfellas in the future. Both novels and short stories will do.

 

[hitmouse]

Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy features Al Capone as a major character.

For a light-hearted effort, try The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison.

 

[DeathFusion]

Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy

Seems pretty cool.

 

[DeathFusion]

Bonus points if it is hard(ish) science fiction.

 

[Toby Frost]

I seem to be recommending William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy a lot recently, but that's about crime and heists.

That said, in terms of families plotting against each other Godfather-style, would Dune work?

 

[farntfar]

Not what you want, I don't think, but the biggest crime organisation is found in the Lensman series by E.E. Doc Smith.

Also a bit in the Galactic Milieu series, by Julien May, particularly in the 1st book, Intervention.

 

[DeathFusion]

I seem to be recommending William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy a lot recently, but that's about crime and heists.

That said, in terms of families plotting against each other Godfather-style, would Dune work?

Read Sprawl, currently reading Children of Dune. Sprawl is closer to what I am thinking of.

 

[Rodders]

One of the subplots of Steve Perry’s Star Wars novel Shadow Of The Empire featured the leader of The Black Sun criminal group. I’d didn't go too deep into the organisation side of things, though.

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Might be worth giving Man O' War by @Dan Jones a read -it's not really close to Godfather or Goodfellas but there's mafia shenanigans aplenty.

 

[Toby Frost]

Would fantasy recommendations be acceptable? There's a whole subgenre of "rogues do crime" in fantasy, if that helps.

 

[DeathFusion]

Would fantasy recommendations be acceptable? There's a whole subgenre of "rogues do crime" in fantasy, if that helps.

I am more interested in science fiction, but if you have some great fantasy examples, go ahead.

 

[Toby Frost]

Well, there's The Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequels by Scott Lynch, which is a straight-up crime caper with a fantasy mafia, and the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books by Fritz Leiber, which might be a bit dated. The Ketty Jay books by Chris Wooding might work, although they're more steampunk than standard fantasy. And then there's Up To The Throne by, er, me...

Also, I found this list, which might be of interest: 12 Fantasy Heist Novels - B&N Reads

 

[DeathFusion]

Well, there's The Lies of Locke Lamora

Seems pretty interesting.

 

[worldofmutes]

Man, I do love Mario Puzo though.
I was looking up “Space Mafia” to see if I could write a book about it, and there were a few options.

 

[alexvss]

Does anyone know of any good science fiction books that focus on organized crime? Preferably not a detective story, I am thinking more Godfather or Goodfellas in the future. Both novels and short stories will do.

Since many pieces of prose were already recommended, I'd like to recommend one of my favorite movies: Ghost in The Shell (1995). You could sift through the whole franchise as well.

I wrote some science-fiction short-stories about the topic, but I'm still struggling to sell them.

 

[Dan Jones]

Might be worth giving Man O' War by @Dan Jones a read -it's not really close to Godfather or Goodfellas but there's mafia shenanigans aplenty.

You're very kind, but the gangster aspect was a subplot at most, just to set up the arc of one character in particular.

Unless you count oil corporations as gangsters, in which case there's a shedload of them

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Unless you count oil corporations as gangsters

They seem to operate in the same way, but I'm no expert on either ...no harm giving the book a go anyway.

 

[asp3]

Not exactly what you described but I'm pretty sure that Oaths and Miracles by Nancy Kress had an organized crime element to it. I enjoyed it because it was somewhat like a mystery.

 

[Danny McG]

Not a book but you can't go wrong with Star Trek TOS
"A piece of the action"

 

[Dave]

Again, not exactly what you are looking for, but in John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire series, there are family-owned megacorporations which control all the interstellar trade in the Interdependency. These trading houses are incredibly wealthy from government-sanctioned monopolies and not against illegal activities or the odd assassination.