Can anyone recommend a book series with the flavor of UW? I don’t want a long series… a little more than a trilogy is good. Something along the lines of Firefly/Serenity or Dark Matter… where it’s mostly about a ship’s crew trying to make ends meet.
Can anyone recommend a book series with the flavor of UW?
Can anyone recommend a book series with the flavor of UW?
I would recommend the Expanse series by James SA Corey. First book is Leviathan Wakes. Excellent series, though up to like 6 or 7 books at present.
Dave I Absolutely. I’m on the third or fourth book and tearing through them. One of the reviewers has a line about how the books are the way science fiction should be. It’s accurate. They’re fun and definitely inspirational when it comes to playing UW
Hmm UW is fairly wide open. I think Larry Niven’s Ringworld trilogy would work, but that’s a certain type of game.
Dave I I’ve been watching the show and have enjoyed it a lot!!! I’m going to have to check out the books.
Oh boy do I have recommendations—when I get home I’ll send them along
OK, here we go. First, Becky Chambers’s Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014). The adventures of a bunch of wormhole drillers.
Karl Gallagher’s Torchship (2015). Hard SF merchanters.
J.S. Morin’s “Black Ocean” series is excellent for this and has a really fun “Firefly but with magic” flavor.
Chris Wooding’s “Tales of the Ketty Jay” series isn’t in space (jet-powered airships instead), but also very definitely channels that “Firefly” feel and is thoroughly excellent.
Colin Greenland’s Take Back Plenty (1990). Down-on-her-luck space captain agrees to charter a music group, hijinks ensue.
Andre Norton’s Sargasso of Space (1955) and Plague Ship (1956).
Any of Larry Niven’s Tales of Known Space — short stories are particularly good, but the cycle also includes novels.
Heinlein — Space Cadet, The Rolling Stones, Starman Jones, Citizen of the Galaxy.
Rob Barrett And Voodoo Planet (1959) and Postmarked the Stars (1969)
C. J. Cherryh’s Merchanter books: Merchanter’s Luck (1982), Tripoint (1995), Finity’s End (1997).
Rob Barrett I second the Becky Chambers books. Both of them were a delight and the worldbuilding is excellent.
I got some collecting to do. You’d thought that these types of si-fi genre would be more prevalent.
Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan novels would probably fit quite nicely. They’re a bit distressing, in that she likes to explore characters at their breaking points and watch them rebuild themselves. Status Quo isn’t much of a thing in her novels, but they’re not nihilistic or tragic either.
But in any case, it’s a fairly grounded science fiction with a focus on the characters trying to make their way in their careers and lives. It doesn’t all stay on one ship, though, so I wouldn’t say it’s much like Firefly in terms of plotting or what-have-you, but in terms of the more grounded sci-fi setting and the focus on a nuclear cluster of larger-than-life characters just trying to live in this universe rather than a more traditional heroes narrative with a universe to be saved or a big straightforward antagonist? Vorkosigan has you covered and feels pretty Uncharted Worlds-y to me.
I also highly recommend Embassytown and the Ancilliary Trilogy, but they seem a little further from what you’re describing even if they still feel more Uncharted Worlds-y to me than not.
Another C.J. Cherryh saga: Chanur. Starting with The Pride of Chanur, Chanur’s Venture / The Kif Strike Back / Chanur’s Homecoming, Chanur’s Legacy.
Adventures of an hany (feline) crew in a faction full sector of space.
It’s a little different than the “made for TV” Firefly sort of set-up but I’d highly recommend Anne Leckie’s Ancillary series. The following novel* that takes place in the same world, Provenance has a little more the feel of the beginnings of a more Firefly-esque set up.
I would also definitely third+ the expanse books.
* series, I assume but don’t know yet