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Scifi / action (audiobooks)... who would I like next?
I'm in need of "the next" great Sci-Fi / action series to binge on. I've currently gone through read most / all of:
- Craig Alanson
- Andy Weir
- Jeremy Robinson
- John Scalzi
- Jonathan Maberry
- Timothy Zahn (all his Star Wars works)
- Max Brooks (WWZ)
- Earnest Cline (RP1/2)
I like Star Trekky plots and plucky nerd protagonists.
Also, I'm finding that I'm getting a bit tired of R.C. Bray (I think he narrates the majority of the above. At some point every snarky AI sounds like Skippy). Marc Thompson of the Star Wars series is an amazing narrator.
Side comment: I'm inclined to listen to a good audiobook just for the narrator's performance alone.
The Expanse by James S. A Corey.
Narrated by Jefferson Mays.
You've probably heard of the book or seen the show.
The crew isn't very nerdy but they can solve things and upkeep their ship. They do get nerdy companions sometimes though. What I liked about them was that they felt like a family. It was comforting in that sense even though they were going through shit.
It's not Star Trek, but I felt the same comfort as when watching The Next Generation.
Also, the performance for this book is great. I can't think of a narrator I like better. Book 4 had a different narrator for some reason and people hated that so much, they got Jefferson Mays to rerecord it.
So if you're inclined to listen to an audiobook for performance alone, it would be this one.
I'll just throw out there that while i'm glad I listened to/read this series, there were some rough patches for me personally where I almost gave up. Mileage varies, but there's certainly moments where I just rolled my eyes or felt that the book wasn't really handling certain behaviors well.
It's still very good scifi, but consider this the encouragement to continue if you're having a rough time with it.
That’s reassuring to hear, since I’m really struggling with the fourth book atm. I was really into it and even reading the short stories until I kind of hit a wall. Haven’t touched it in a few months now..
I'll also point out that I HAD to listen to it on audio book to get through it. Just listened on the way to work so I could get through certain parts that I personally found quite boring/poorly written. It is worth trudging through the rough spots, but they are there.
Oh yeah. I agree. It's kind of why I focused more on the crew being family and Jefferson May's performance.
Even when the book had rough patches, those 2 things kept me going.
It's not the greatest book, but the audiobook narration helps a lot.
I'll second The Expanse and definitely the audiobooks with Jefferson Mays. To me, he is the gold standard for how audiobooks should be done. His inflection changes just enough that you know when he is speaking as another character without veering into the painful audiobooks where readers go overboard or they bring in different voices. I now struggle getting into audiobooks not read by him.
As for The Expanse, while not Trek like @PossiblyBipedal said, it is grounded in hard science and realism so it is the closest thing to Trek I have found that's not just rewatching TNG again. They think about and deal with real problems for humans in the near future dealing with colonizing our own solar system. For example, a group of people called Belters are born and grow up in the far reaches meaning they have never really experienced the gravity well of a planet like earth. So they are tall and lanky and need to take medications to deal with the side effects of gravity of they go down the gravity well to Earth. For me, this was the first story I read that thought about issues like this and was grounded in science even though the novels absolutely go full scifi the further you get into them.
I have mixed feelings with The Expanse... I disliked the way the series became more about making the characters suffer than anything else. It was one shit event after another, and on and on. Cibola Burn was particularly bad, a real low point. Also, the series tended towards "Lost"-style mystery box writing where they probably didn't plan things, setting up mysteries because they were cool but didn't know what to do with them. The reveals stopped being satisfying.
A couple of things then ruined the series for me. The turn towards total fantastical "magic" rather than the dynamics between Earth, Mars and the Belters... it started with a sort of Foundation thing going on, but leaned into Hyperion-style sci-fi-fantasy, which I enjoy less. Then the story gimmick in book 7. That one... well, the authors threw away all their story potential, and I couldn't continue after that. If they'd done a similar thing to Foundation with different POV characters over generations it would have been fine, but to do what they did in book 7 like that was just frustrating.
So yeah. The Expanse. Books 1, 2 and 3 were pretty good, especially book 1, but it got both too miserable and fantastical after that.
Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse series starting with We are Legion (We are Bob). Bob qualifies as a nerd and is very likeable. I found it to be a genuinely fun series. The audiobooks are beautifully narrated by Ray Porter.
I've done all of Dennis E. Taylor's books including Bobiverse. I thought Bob 4 was a bit flat footed but am looking forward to the next one!
I enjoyed this so much more than I thought I would. I can't wait for the next one!
I've seen this recommendation pop up a few times now in the past few months, so I took the plunge and added it to Audible!
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
Its easy listening doesn't get to deep but he is a likeable character. There are 9 books and quite a few of them are now on Audible.
Plus one for the Murderbot Diaries. For the full length spin off novel, I would recommend reading that last because it takes place towards the end of the novellas.
Plus two.
Plus three, these are such a fun time
I love this series. I found it by chance at my library and devoured all of them in a week. I tried to get into her fantasy series but I didn't care for it much.
I also found them by chance in my local library and I just devoured them within 3 weeks.
I agree with that, I read everything she had on Murderbot but then couldnt get a handle on the Fantasy stuff as well
A shame as I like her style and some of the interviews with her she comes over as just a nice person
Her fantasy books feel too much like poorly written fan fiction to me
PHM was one of my first dips into audiobooks and it's been a hard performance to top.
Oh yes, I put Andy Weir already in my list. I think I've listened to PHM... 8 or 9 times end-to-end, and that doesn't include the countless times I wanted to replay specific moments or chapters.
I've heard of Red Rising but there seem to be very strong, polarized opinions a la Hunger Games... I'd be interested to know what you think.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is sublime, I recommend it to everyone 😁 You might dig on the sequels more than I did, but it's the first book in the series that shines the brightest for me.
If you haven't tried it, Ender's Game is a stone cold classic (despite the author's slightly, er, intolerant views). The first couple of sequels are really great as well, and feature one of the best imagined alien species I have ever encountered. Be warned though: the series does get a little off the rails after a while.
I can give another +1 to Enders game. I recommend doing Enders game and Speaker for the Dead back to back. They have an extremely different tone and feel. Speaker for the Dead really feels like what Card intended to write, with Enders game being a way to build an incredibly nuanced character.
Also, for what it’s worth, the Ender books I have read don’t have any of the authors intolerant views that I could find. In fact, the morals seem to be extremely tolerant. I don’t say this to defend Card. I just value analyzing books outside of the authors influence. I know almost nothing about Card himself or his books that are controversial.
There's some pretty sexist "evolutionary psychology" in Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide. It's over pretty quickly and not the most egregious I've ever read, but I still roll my eyes and gag a bit during that part of every re-read.
Excellent point, his views don't come into his books at all :)
Xenocide is also good, but it's the start of the drop-off. Children of the Mind is fine, but definitely jumps the shark. I haven't read the most recent addition to the series, but the reviews haven't made it sound particularly appealing. Even if I am desperate to find out more about the Descolada!
I'd like to add that the narration on Children of Time was an excellent performance. IMO it nailed the tone of the book.
Adrian Tchaikovsky is without a doubt one of the, if not the best science fiction author of the early 21st century imo.
Lois McMaster Bujold - The Vorkosigan Saga. This is one of my favorite series' right now. The main protagonist could very much be described as a "plucky nerd".
Larry Niven and Steven Barnes - Dream Park. A Disneyland-style park driven by holodeck technology all for the purpose of Dungeons and Dragons larping, plus murder. The main character isn't a nerd (kind of the opposite) but he is forced to enter the world of super-nerds.
The Vorkosigan series is awesome! Particularly for those who love long series:
Of the novels, 10 are from the POV of Miles Vorkosigan, 3 are from Cordelia's POV, and 3 others are from other characters in the universe. The series has won a bunch of Hugo awards and is well-regarded.
Most people (including the author) would recommend reading in the order of internal chronology. You can either start with the slower-paced Shards of Honor and Barrayar (about Cordelia; I loved Barrayar) or the faster-paced Warrior's Apprentice (about Miles Vorkosigan, the series' main protagonist). Be warned that the first third of Shards of Honor is very rough, in my opinion; it took me three tries to get through, but I enjoyed the last two thirds of the book much more.
Most would also suggest skipping Falling Free and Ethan of Athos on a first read-through of the series (they are ancillary to the main series).
Because they were written out of order, the books vary significantly in quality. Barrayar (#3), Mirror Dance (#9), Memory (#10), Komarr (#11), and A Civil Campaign (#12) were my favourites, and most of these were written more recently. The Warrior's Apprentice (#4) and Cetaganda (#6) were earlier books and are my least favourites.
The novels are all sci-fi but run through a variety of subgenres, which helps them stay fresh. Cetaganda is a murder mystery; Komarr is romance; A Civil Campaign is a comedy of manners; the Warrior's Apprentice is classic space opera; etc.
I listened to most of the series over the past couple years and really enjoyed it. Grover Gardner's narration is excellent. His voice didn't immediately click for me, but after listening for a couple hours he quickly became one of my favourite narrators.
Bujold's ability to develop a charming cast of characters brought me back again and again. I would highly recommend giving them a try! I stopped reading after A Civil Campaign (book#12) which felt like a natural ending point to the series. I tried reading Diplomatic Immunity (book#13) but decided halfway through I was happy to just have things end with ACC.
If this comment sounds familiar to long-term users, it's because it's a rephrase of my post from a few months back on the same topic :)
I would like to add my vote for Bujold's Vorkosigan stories. Wonderful characters you want to cheer for and thoughtful discussion of interesting ideas that may bleed over to your daily life. The Serrano Legacy books by Elizabeth Moon are also great fun. Weber's Honor Harrington books did not show on a quick search of this thread so I think they need to be mentioned. The very best I've read and my all time favorites are the Clan Korval books by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee.
Lot's of great recommendations in this thread!
I'd add Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga. It's wonderful worldbuilding and many of the characters are extremely nerdy.
this was my first thought for a recommendation as well
Hamilton is British, and he imagines an extremely British future where wormholes allow human civilization to span hundreds of solar systems, all connected by trains.
and then he has a sort of multi-layered whodunit set in that world, centered around a force field that encapsulates an entire solar system for reasons unknown, and then vanishes, also for reasons unknown.
I would highly recommend this as well. I listened to the entire Saga via Audible and it was excellent.
Seven Eves. It’s an epic and I love long audio books. Definitely worth a listen.
Red rising books are super entertaining and action packed.
Someone mentioned Adrian Tchaikovsky and whilst not connected it sparked something in my head and you know when you have the thread of a thought and you have to follow it?
Roadside Picnic. from the write up "Roadside Picnic is a philosophical science fiction novel by Soviet-Russian authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, written in 1971 and published in 1972. It is the brothers' most popular and most widely translated novel outside the former Soviet Union"
I borrowed it from a free library at a railway station, read it in one sitting, and returned it the next morning. For days after I couldn't think of anything else . Then a friend gifted me the audio book read by Robert Forster and it did it all over again.
This book should come with a warning though, "May cause consternation and philosophical musings"
I just started the audio version of Roadside Picnic, so far Forster is doing a really great job. He does have a really easy voice to listen to. I picked the book up mostly because I had seen great things that people had talked about this book here on Tildes.
I haven't listened to the audio versions of these books, but I found Iain M. Banks' Culture series pretty fascinating. The books are a series but feature different protagonists, aren't serial, and take place at various points of a roughly 10,000 year timeline. You can technically read them in any order without spoiling anything but reading them in published order lets you experience the world building that occurs over the books.
Just a warning, the very first chapter, of the very first book is a description of someone drowning in literal shit. In audiobook form, this is about 40 minutes of playtime.
This was going to be my reccomendation too. i really enjoyed all of them, plus Peter Kenny is the narrator, and he is one of my favourite for audiobooks.
Nice, I might have to check out the audio versions then. Thanks for the endorsement.
The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle tells the story of first contact of a spacefaring humanity with a strange species - the Moaties - that hide a pretty surprising secret. The book is one of the best, most surprising depiction of a truly alien species. It tends to vacillate between periods of calm tension-building drama and edge of your seat action. Highly recommended (if you can get past the first 150 pages that can be a little slow).
Since the authors you listed have a large overlap with the ones I enjoyed, I went through my Audible history to look for titles others have not yet mentioned. The best suggestions (Bobiverse, Expanse) were already covered by others, but I have a couple more to add:
I've yet to read his other books, but I very much enjoyed Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds.
The Fear Saga by Stephen Moss tickled the part of my brain that enjoys stories of contemporary humans dealing with very advanced things. I recommend skipping even the synopsis on this one and to just start listening.
The Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear is solid scifi, even if you are not familiar with the Halo game series, and especially if you are.
Have you done all of Scalzi’s books? The dispatcher, lock in, old man’s war, and the full series for each of those? Also The Presidents Brain is Missing is short but really fun.
Anyway, this recommendation certainly isn’t action packed, but I think it is some of the best sci-fi. I think sci-fi is at its best when it uses its setting to make an allegorical critique of human society and the human condition. So this series is long and plodding, but I still recommend it. Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson. This series has changed how I think about every aspect of my life and the world. It covers climate change, politics, capitalism, communism, religion, psychology, and much more. Robinson comes from a slightly different background than many sci-fi authors. This series has more of a humanities feel than some sci-fi.
Also no sci-fi discussion is complete without a mention of Dune. Take a stab at that one if you think you are ready. I haven’t read the other books in that world, so I’ll let others have opinions on if those are worth it.
Yes.
Will look into Red Mars and Dune (never thought about the book...!)
I just finished reading the Wanderers series by Becky Chambers. I loved it - very light reading, fun characters and an interesting universe. I'm not sure if there are audiobooks of them though.
Dungeon Crawler Carl - Matt Dinniman
It's a LitRPG series with sci fi elements. The protagonist isn't traditionally nerdy but he does come up with clever solutions to problems, and is certainly plucky in the face of overwhelming odds.
This series is just so damn fun, and remarkably consistent: book 6 just came out and every one of them has been excellent. Each installation continues to expand the scope of the world and the depth of the characters without feeling forced or contrived.
The narration by Jeff Hays is off the charts, his range is incredible - listen to a sample here
If you're down for a funny, wacky, charming, and very violent adventure I would highly recommend checking it out!
The authors I recommend are John Ringo and Dennis E. Taylor.
If you keep running out of books to listen to, try B.V. Larson. He's not the greatest, but he's got a lot.
I've read every Dennis E. Taylor book already.
Any recommendations on a starting point for John Ringo?
Start with Troy Rising series:
Live Free or Die
Citadel
The Hot Gate
A couple more recommendations:
Black Fleet Trilogy by Joshua Dalzelle
Blindsight by Peter Watts
The Captain by Will Wight, narrated by Travis Baldtree
This is the start of a new series by one of my favorite authors and it definitely toes the line between Sci-Fi and fantasy. Also Travis Baldtree is a gem of a narrator.
Edit: I love this book, but it's also cheap and short, so it's not a huge time investment if you decide you dont like it
It doesn't exactly fit your criteria, but I can never pass up a chance to recommend MR Carey, in this case the Rampart Trilogy (The Book of Koli, The Trials of Koli and The Fall of Koli). The premise is so interesting, and the characters are extremely likable. It's also the only time I've ever been Rick rolled by a book.
Infinity Gate by the same author has more of the traditional sci-fi aesthetic, and it's also incredibly good, but I personally like The Rampart Trilogy better.
MR Carey also has The Girl with All the Gifts and The Boy On the Bridge, which are a very specific subgenre but I think they're more enjoyable if you go in not knowing which.
The thing I like best about this author is his flavor of optimistic post-apocalypse. Most of his stories are examinations of how the systems we build can fail us, and we can individually fail each other, but most people want to help each other and do good things and even when facing terrible odds, that's often enough.
It's not a series but Camelot 30k by Robert L Forward is very much that. It's a story of first contact and involves some great scientific workarounds and investigation. Don't read too much about it beforehand - it's a short read and has a great ending.
One of the few suggestions I haven't yet seen in comments is The Laundry Files series by Charles Stross, beginning with The Atrocity Archives. I'd classify them as SciFi, but certain not in the harder science fiction category like some of other authors you've enjoyed. It absolutely falls into the "plucky nerd protagonist" subcategory, but not so much the Star Trek bucket, so you might still find it entertaining!
The series follows a British clandestine service that deals with the supernatural, but for mathematical and lovecraftian values of supernatural. "Magic" exists as a byproduct of performing calculations, meaning that computers and programming have become the de facto method for interacting with the various supernatural phenomena and our hero is a witty anti-establishment computer scientist turned field agent. There's lots of dry humor that pokes fun at governmental and corporate bureaucratic inefficiencies and just enough technical writing and action to feel grounded despite the more fantastical elements. The first book isn't the strongest in my opinion, but the author quickly finds his stride and I found the rest of the series quite fun - plus, the first few books are very intentional riffs on specific styles of spy novels from the last 50 years and seeing those connections paired with magic-computer-science-versus-extradimensional-horrors landed just right for me.
I would like to recommend Lightspeed Magazine, and their horror sister, Nightmare Magazine. Here you'll find sci-fi and fantasy short stories and novellas, by a wide range of authors. Most of their stories are available in audio format with some really excellent narrators, and are free.
nk jemison
three time Hugo winner
bitch please why nobody mention smdh