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