Epic Sci Fi novels

[Dakkareth]

In addition to Simmons' brilliant Hyperion Cantos, I would recommend the Ilium/Olympos duology.

Starman

And of course Endymion, the sequel to Hyperion.

 

[Starman]

And of course Endymion, the sequel to Hyperion.

And The Rise of Endymion, the sequel to Endymion. The Cantos to me has always been all four books, so I tend to assume that those that have read the first two have read all four.

Starman

 

[Hijinks]

Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars series. Old, but still a good read

 

[EricNoah]

It's not a series, but Stephen Baxter's The Time Ships will set your soul a-singing praises to the glory of creation.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I have to say I did not like Hyperion (Dan Simmons). The plots were incredibly contrived, the characters were stereotype, and overall it read like something written in a community college creative writing class.

I am also not a fan of the Honor Harrington novels. The concept it good (take Horatio Hornblower and translate it into a space opera), but Honor herself is just too damn perfect. And her tree-cat "familiar" is f--king annoying. I tell you, she's like the Drizzt Do'Urden of the sci-fi genre: she's invincible and she hangs around with a feline. Bleh.

 

[Starman]

I have to say I did not like Hyperion (Dan Simmons). The plots were incredibly contrived, the characters were stereotype, and overall it read like something written in a community college creative writing class.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

Sometimes words do not suffice.

(I about peed my pants. Funniest thing I've seen all day.)

 

[Heretic Apostate]

David Brin's Uplift series (Sundiver, Startide Rising, The Uplift War, Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore, Heaven's Reach). There are some brilliant ideas in these books.

You might be interested in this prequel, then:

http://www.davidbrin.com/aficionado1.html

Quite nice. It's set pre-Contact.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

David Weber: On Basilisk Station (1st in Honor Harrinton series)

The first two books are free from the Baen free library.

http://www.baen.com/library/067157793X/067157793X.htm?blurb

http://www.baen.com/chapters/W199912/0671578642.htm?blurb

The third book has the first ten chapters for free:

http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0671875965/0671875965.htm?blurb

 

[Remus Lupin]

I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the Dune series yet. Certainly the first three novels count as epic all by themselves. If you include the second three, that expands the scope of the universe enormously (thought not always in ways that were very helpful or inspired).

I'm torn as to whether to include the "House" series and the Butlerian Jihad series. They give a lot of good backstory, but I can't decide whether it should really be considered part of what makes Dune Dune.