I think The Expanse is a pretty obvious recommendation.
I also really like the Remembrance of Earth's Past books by Cixin Liu, but I'm not sure I'd call that a Space Opera. It's a series, yes, but it is very unlike other long-form space operas.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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I've heard the Expanse books are great, I watched the Amazon series already. Are the books even better?
The show is my favorite show of all time and I still think the books are better. If you liked the show, at all, you'll really like the books. Amos Burton is probably my favorite character in any fictional universe.
Part of the reason why the show is so good is because it follows the books pretty closely imo. It's astounding how on narrative they manage to stay for that many seasons (with some exceptions, probably.. it had been a while since I'd read the books when I watched the show)
I'm seconding the other guy that the books are even better! Plus they go past the point of the show so you'll be able to get more out of the world.
The expanse is probably the best sci fi series of recent past. It is only comparable to classics like Asimov and le Guin in quality, although it has a very different philosophy and style.
Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space series is fantastic and sounds like what you're looking for.
The Honor Harrington series is great for epic space opera.
The Bobiverse is really good too, though less... grandiose? It felt more personal to me.
The Well of Souls serie(s) are great.
For less opera and more funny the Phule books by Robert Aspirin are good.
Awesome list, thanks! Looks like the first book of Honor Harrington is free on Kindle so I can check it out right away. Should I read that series in publication order?
I loved the Bobiverse series, I'll have to check out the other ones!
One of my favorite series, but wouldn't really call it space opera
Agreed, more hard SciFi / Empire Building imo
I would recommend the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. Every book takes place on a different planet with an amazing amount of character building and detail in the plot.
Audible reviews made it sound like a rehash of hunger games. Is that true?
The Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie was very good. It's got a few interesting themes along with the space battles and evil empires and weird aliens, like gender and personhood. I hear there's a new book in the same universe, but unconnected to the trilogy characters, that just came out I think?
Neal Asher's polity books. Culture books, kind of, in setting if nothing else.