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The Expanse

James S. A. Corey

19 readers recommend it across 18 discussions

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Original Hacker News comments, in the readers’ own words.

LaffertyDev
> The Expanse have been great, but I think I will be good and ready to say good bye when I'm done with the mainline novels. The novellas are fantastic and more bite sized. They published the anthology for the expanse ones that I read after book 9. Even if you're burned out on the main series, I feel like I'd still recommend the novellas.
Mossy9
Humble Bundle has spoiled me and my ebook library has grown by around a 100 books this year... Tech book recommendations: 'Secure by Design', 'Designing Data-Intensive Applications', 'Building Secure and Reliable Systems' and 'Fundamentals of Software Architecture'. For scifi: 'Murderbot Diaries' and 'The Expanse' - both are just great entertainment
spoiler
The Cradle series by Will Wight. It's a Wuxia adapted for Western audiences. He has other great series; I liked the parallel Sea/Shadow trilogies a lot. Traveler's Gate series I enjoyed, but not as much as the rest. He recently also started a new series called Last Horizon; it's about space wizards and it's a bit whimsical, but fun. The Expanse series is great, but I reckon people already mentioned it elsewhere in the thread. James Islington's Licanius trilogy is one of my favourite fantasy book series probably. He recently started a new series called Hierarchy, which I also recommend. They're very "grounded" fantasy, and the magic systems is very woven into society and its structure. The human relationships in his books are pretty nuanced, which is why I like his works so much.
hesdeadjim
* Greg Egan’s short story collections, Diaspora, and Permutation City. Fair warning, Egan puts the “hard” in “hard sci-fi”. * Haven’t finished the Expanse final trilogy, but I really enjoyed the first two. * The Wool series * Project Hail Mary, for story reasons I’d recommend the audio book. * We Are Bob trilogy, fourth book is garbage. * Old Man’s War * The Culture Series by Ian Banks * If you enjoyed Seveneves, and thus can tolerate Stephenson’s consistent habit to drop the ball in the last 20% of his books, Diamond Age is enjoyable.
spoiler
The Expanse books are great. The TV show is a pretty good adaptation too, but I love the portrayal of the characters in the books. A recent thing I started reading (first book release this month) is The Last Horizon series by Will Wight (author of Cradle, and Elder Empire books). This one's more of a sci-fi and fantasy blend, if you're into that sort of thing. In a nutshell, it's magic-as-technology, but with space travel.

Also recommended in this reply

xupybd
> What are you reading and why? Audiobooks are a special case for me. They help fill the time when I'm driving to work, mowing the lawn or doing dishes. If I consume my entertainment during these productive times, I find I'm less drawn to television and other mindless distractions. They also help me to be motivated to do tasks that I otherwise find dull. The better alternative is to find a friend to share these tasks with, but that is not always a practical option. While I do read for entertainment, I really enjoy non-fiction as long as it's light. If I want to explore a topic and truly learn something, I often need to find a text version. That said, I have found some great audiobooks that I have learnt from: -The Goal -Pragmatic Programmer -Designing Data-Intensive Applications -Thinking Fast and Slow -Ultralearning The best entertainment so far have been -Dune -The Expanse series -The Bobiverse series -The Expeditionary force series.…
AndrewLiptak
A bunch of books: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (as well as several of the sequels), American Gods by Neil Gaiman, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, and a bunch of others.
rexaliquid
Some fiction from this year I would recommend: Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S. A. Corey - I enjoyed this whole series. I like that the physics of space travel is respected among the politics/mystery. Each book in the series is a bit of a different genre set in the universe. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak - Eastern European folk tale akin to Rumplestiltskin. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green - Contemporary fiction with a scifi bent. Ultimately hopeful, it explores the consequences of viral fame.
anotherevan
Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein [1] The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov [2] The Wrong Unit [3] wasn't a bad little humorous tale. Pretty much anything by Timothy Zahn (sans Star Wars novelisations) [4] or Robert Sawyer [5] floats my boat. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North [6] Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen [7] made me care about sentient elephants. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi [8] is very funny. Audiobook version narrated by Wil Wheaton. Of ones already mentioned: The Bobiverse was surprisingly good (including the audiobook version). The Expanse is good. With regards to Dune, there are some like myself who only ever liked the first book in the series. (Also there is a good audiobook version out there.) The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and sequels are great world building and characters, although the plots seem to meander about with not too much purpose. The Martian is great. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50851.Farmer_in_the_Sky [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50091.The_Complete_Robot [3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30959279-the-wrong-unit [4] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12479.Timothy_Zahn…
spapas82
Here are a couple I like : - Seveneves: A really great hard sci-fi. Very thought provoking ideas and excellent plot! Warning this is a heavy themed book. Also keep in mind that at about 3/4 in the novel there's a conclusion to the main story; the rest of the novel feels rushed and doesnt keep up; you won't miss anything if you just skip it. - The Expanse series (starting with Leviathan wakes). A very good series. It has a light tone and mainly focuses on characters. Some books are better than the others. If you liked the 1st one then you wont regret reading the others. Not much philosofy of hard sci-fi ideas so probably near to your liking. - Rendezvous with Rama: Probably my favorite Arthur Clarke novel. The plot may not be so interesting but the ideas presented make up for it. - Red rising series: This is a great read, the plot feels something like a GoT of scifi; although the setting could also be considered a fantasy one. This is a plot intensive series but not many scifi philosophical ideas. Probably good for your linking.…
Jemaclus
I keep an active list of books I've read, along with my reviews at my book review website, https://books.brianseitel.com. One of the benefits of this is that my favorite books automatically populate on the left. In 2016, I read over 60 books. My top 10 for 2016 (so far) are, in rough order of favorite-ness: - "All the Birds in the Sky" by Charlie Jane Anders - "The Shards of Heaven" and its sequel "The Gates of Hell" by Michael Livingston (fictional story set in Roman times) - "The Last Breath" by Charlie Magee - "The Guns of Empire" by Django Wexler (Book 4 of The Shadow Campaigns series, which I highly recommend) - "The King's Traitor" by Jeff Wheeler (original take on Arthurian legend) - "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik - "End Game" by Lindsay Buroker (Book 8 of her sci-fi series, The Fallen Empire, which is a pretty fun series overall. Short and sweet adventures.) - "Soulblade" by Lindsay Buroker (Book 8 of her fantasy series, Dragon Blood, which is another great series. All of Buroker's books are good, imo.) - "Ghost Talkers" by Mary Robinette Kowal (It's WWII, ghosts are real... and they're spies.)…
nkzednan
Riyria Revelations trilogy - quite good. Follows two thieves for hire. Read the books in publication order Ready player one - liked it samurai's garden Expanse series by James Corey entertaining Steelheart and Firefight by Sanderson- good but like Mistborn better Worm online serial parahumans good Nonfiction I read: Delivering happiness, Drive, Power of Habit, Power of full engagement