Hi everyone. I’m looking for my next book (or series) to read but I’m in the mood for a particular theme. I’m hoping you all can assist with some recommendations.
I’m looking for a book written around humanity first discovering FTL travel. So the first moments of humanity starting to explore outside of the solar system.
Don’t ask me why I want this specific kind of story but I do haha. Thank you in advance!
EDIT: Thank you all! I’ve added every book here to my reading list.
Have you checked out The Expanse series? I think it’s 8 primary books, with like 4 optional novellas. Its not exactly what you’re looking for, but it does deal with some of what you’re interested in. It was also turned into a pretty good TV show.
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The murder mystery thing is literally only in the first season. After that it’s very much an afterthought.
Highly highly recommend. Fantastic series.
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Ignore those concerns. The “mystery” is not the only plotline even from the early going, it’s fairly quickly tied into the overarching narrative, and it’s largely used to do some awesome world building. It’s worthwhile in both the show and the books.
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This is what I came to suggest. I’m just finishing the series now and have really enjoyed it. There is a lot of stuff going on in the story, but a bug part of it is FTL travel and humanity expanding beyond the solar system.
100% the expanse. Best Sci Fi books in years.
9 books, with I believe also 9 novellas. 6 seasons of a show that cover the first 6 books. A video game coming out as well as some comic books.
Books 3-6 very much deal with the premise of humanity discovering FTL travel and what happens to the political landscape when they do.
Fantastic series. Definitely recommend.
I got annoyed at Corey’s constant preaching about ships not swooping. 1) we get it. we got it for a long time, actually. 2) the reason aircraft swoop has more to do with being under constant acceleration and the frame of reference we observe them from. given constant acceleration and an appropriate frame of reference for observing… yes, space fighters would “swoop” too.
I’ve actually read the first three books and really enjoyed it. Somewhere down the line I forgot about the series somehow. I’ll add that to the list for sure.
Old Man’s War by Scalzi, The Forever War by Haldeman, and Galaxy’s Edge are good series that cover this. The last one not so much from the inception point of view though
Old Man’s War by Scalzi
+1 for this. I read the series years ago, and absolutely loved it. I really don’t see it talked about much though.
I think I’ve read both of the first two and confused them for the longest time, but they both were good
I’m currently going through Niven’s work. I’d suggest The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is also an amazing book if you haven’t read it yet.
One more suggestion: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, just couldn’t put it down and it is similar enough to OP’s prompt to recommend to them.
It’s not a book but if you enjoyed Project Hail Mary you might enjoy For All Mankind on Apple TV. It has a similar vibe of engineers and tech driving the plot balanced with looking at the human costs of a rapidly advancing space program both on and off Earth
+1 for Project Hail Mary, one of the few books that can make me forget to sleep on a weekdays to finish it
My wife’s review of project Hail Mary is that “it was a good book, but now I know how to build a centrifuge”. If you like that kind of sci-fi I’d recommend it. I also really enjoyed it as well.
Rendezvous with Rama is also very good.
I vaguely know how to build a centrifuge… I don’t necessarily know how to balance it. which leads to some exciting moments…
Pandora’s Star might be a good one. They are a little past the discovery but do look back on it.
Second this recommendation. The aliens are pretty inventive too.
Morning Light Mountain in the house!
How about Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained (it’s a two parter) by Peter F Hamilton? I remember having fun with that.
Not FTL, but speaker for the dead and the rest of that plot line is my favorite, and of course you can read enders game as well if you want continuity.
Thanks for making me remember these. I read Ender’s Game as a teenager and loved it, but Speaker for the Dead really stuck with me, and it may be a bit hyperbolic to say, but I really feel like it had a huge impact on my perspective on life.
Same. Enders game and speaker for the dead et al. is the single most important work of fiction in my life :P I avoided the movie for years because of it
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You might look at Robert Buettner’s first two series. Humanity gets FTL by getting invaded and using the alien ships. Good military sci-fi!
Learning the world, by Ken MacLeod perhaps. It’s an alien invasion book, but it’s humans that are the invaders.
If you want a really light but fun read (and a long series) the Omega Force books are a lot of fun. It feels like a Guardians of the Galaxy type story but in some ways even better. The books are on the shorter side and there are a lot of them (just finished the 14th) I find them to be a nice pallet cleanser between heavier sci-if stories.
My two favorite SF series are The Expanse and The Three Body Problem. Both fit your FTL desire (the former a bit more directly)
generally speaking, what kind of SciFi do you like? I’ve been enjoying some trashy pulp scifi- the series is called Backyard Starship. Earth technically still doesn’t know about space, aliens or the like; but there are humans that are out there… and the main character gets to be a space cop. this series is by JN Channey and Terry Magert
Alternatively, asimov’s robot series might tickle your fancy- humans have jumped out and colonized other worlds, but the protagonist is an earthman, and it’s all his first time, etc. (the iRobot short stories would be set well before that, actually, one of them does deal with development of the hyperdrive.).
Also, back in the pulpy category- this is more military sci fi, as well, there’s the Semper Mars, by Ian Douglas. here, we got humanity finding some wacky alien shit on mars. Good. Pulpy. but good. (i mean, space marines, of course it’s pulpy.)
If you like Hard Sci-Fi I can’t recommend Children of Time (and the two sequels) by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Incredibly inventive and well written.
I found those a little depressing. Like everything is kinda awful. I enjoyed his The Final Architecture series more.
I can see that from the perspective of humanity, but for the children of earth it’s pretty hopeful and a great story (less so in the 3rd book though I suppose). Even really for humanity at the end of the day. They have the opportunity to live on through progeny. I am also very interested to see where the story goes from here. I think that if he ever reveals the actual events that took place on earth it’s going to be a wild ride.
I’ll check out that Final Architecture series though.
I guess my problem is that it is a bit too real… humanity destroying itself with poor decisions and zealotry feels too much like life right now.
Ain’t that the truth.
Jem
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson. Very interesting look at what traveling at near light speed might actually be like.
