Epic Sci Fi novels

[Dakkareth]

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

And to me Hyperion and Endymion are two books instead of four, so ... confusion for everbody .

And Stephen Baxter I can recommend, too - I've only read a few of his books, not enough to see the big picture, what I saw was really cool .

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

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.

Didn't mention them because he said he likes them...so I assume that means he's read them.

 

[Justin]

Alastair Reynolds' Inhibitor Universe books are excellent, very noir, but with a catch. The first three books are Revelation Space, Chasm City* and Redemption Ark. However, I must add with great regret that the final book, Absolution Gap, was quite a disappointment. I won't say anything else, as others may have a different opinion and I'd rather let people make up their own minds on this, since maybe it was just me.

John C. Wright's The Golden Age, The Phoenix Exultant** and The Golden Transcendence are also incredible, though you have to really like science fiction. We're talking stuff on par with Greg Egan in terms of technical complexity and density.

* Chasm City was not a sequel to Revelation Space, but more of a historical story that explains some details of the Inhibitor Universe.
** I really hate seeing the word phoenix misspelled as pheonix. Sorry, but it had to be said.

EDIT: Better wording.

 

[Zweihänder]

Of course, there is always the Dragonriders of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey (and now Todd McCaffrey). Also, anything by Iain Banks is good.

 

[Dr. Talos]

Gene Wolfe's New, Long, and Short Sun series are always an excellent sci-fi choice.

 

[Belen]

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.

I have to disagree here. Honor is hardly perfect. She is a damn good naval officier, strategist, and tactician, but she has had her issues. She makes a lot of mistakes on the social end of the spectrum and has created a multitude of personal demons for herself.

Of course, the greatest part of the honorverse is how large it truly has become. I find myself constantly wanting to run a d20 future campaign using the setting. In fact, it is one of the few settings where I think the main character/story does not override things so much that it would be hard to run outside their shadow.

I admit to being a major fan of the books and if you really dislike Honor, she is not as much a total focus of the later books. They even have two books in universe "Crown of Slaves" and "The Shadow of Saganami" that are outside of the Honor story arc.

 

[amethal]

Alastair Reynolds' Inhibitor Universe books are excellent, very noir, but with a catch. The first three books are Revelation Space, Chasm City* and Redemption Ark. However, I must add with great regret that the final book, Absolution Gap, was quite a disappointment. I won't say anything else, as others may have a different opinion and I'd rather let people make up their own minds on this, since maybe it was just me.

I agree with the above.

If you haven't read this series, then give it a try. Its excellent.

I also found the last book disappointing, but only in the sense that having waited so long to see where the story was going I found that I didn't like where it ended up. That's very much a personal opinion, and is not intended as a criticism (the author gets to decide where he wants to go with his universe, after all).

None of the books are for the squeamish, but there were one or two scenes in the last book which I found unnecessarily nasty.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Gene Wolfe's New, Long, and Short Sun series are always an excellent sci-fi choice.

Listen to Dr. Talos, for Dr. Talos knows of what Dr. Talos speaks. I've long promoted Wolfe, so I won't rehash all I've said before, other than to say the man is among the finest writers (not just science fiction) I've ever read, and few outside science fiction circles know his work, which is a damn shame.

I'll also recommend Donaldson's Gap series. It's awesome in scope, very epic (it's essentially a retelling of Der Ring des Nibelungen, after all), and extremely well written. It is not, however, a happy story. It doesn't make you cheer at the end. It drags you across the galaxy, shows you some horrific things, deeply and profoundly wounds its protagonists, and leaves you wondering about the future. But it is good.

Asimov's Robot and Foundation series, top notch.

Warrior Poet

 

[Elf Witch]

How about CJ Cerryh Merchanter series.

 

[Melkor Lord Of ALL!]

Necroscope! Awesome horror/fantasy mix. Best vampires ever.