I am seeking a new book series. I am looking for expansive science fiction universes that specialize in gigantic space battles. I have a child like wonder for steel hulks in the void hurling lasers, railgun slugs, missiles, rockets, graviton beams etc at one another and I CANNOT get enough of it (to the point where I am writing my own books). Please drop your recommended over the top crazy space battle series below so I can add more to my ever growing list.
Thanks!
Here’s what I’ve read:
Star Wars: most of legends and canon
ExForce: Up to Date (including Homefront and spin offs)
David Webber: First 3 Honorverse books and a few others
Starcarrier Box Set: was really disappointed with the follow up series, because the original trilogy was quite enjoyable.
Horus Heresy: First 12
Galaxys Edge: S1 + bounty hunter series
Halo: I’ve read 7-8 of these.
Edit: Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell
Books on my list that I have not started but have heard good things.
Final Architecture: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Praxis - Dread Empires Fall - Walter Jon Williams
Starfire - Steve White
Spiral War Series - Joel Shepherd
Star Carrier - Ian Douglas
I have also heard that the Battletech and Robotech books are good as well, but more mecha focused.
I’d also love some post WWI naval war books as well if you know any. I’m quite fond of Harry Turtledove’s alt history novels, and Destroyermen too.
Gotta go old school here with the OG space opera: Doc Smith’s Lensman Saga. You want space battles? It’s got space battles! You want weird aliens? It’s got weird aliens! You want ancient races warring across Millenium! It’s got that — and space pirates and drug runners and blasters and stuff! You want fully realized, dimensional characters? It’s got…uh…it’s got space battles! And Weird aliens!
Seriously, though, at the very least, read Galactic Patrol. You’ll recognize a lot of tropes from elsewhere, but they pretty much start here.
I’ve had the Lensman series recommended to me before. It’s certainly going on my list.
OP, the Lensman series is so totally what you describe. With TREMENDOUS BEAMS OF FORCE! Q-TYPE HELICES! ALL THE WEAPONS!!!
QX, Ace!
AND ENERGIES FILLING SPACE! RODS AND BEAMS AND CONES OF FORCE PROBING SHIELDS AS THEY CORUSCATE THROUGH THE SPECTRUM!
Skylark sequence as well!
EE Doc Smith multiplies everything by 10 for each sequel in both series.
Right? It’s totally bonkers by the time you reach Second Stage Lensman.
From the wikipedia page:
"The series contains some of the largest-scale space battles ever written. Entire worlds are almost casually destroyed. Huge fleets of spaceships fight bloody wars of attrition. Alien races of two galaxies sort themselves into the allied, Lens-bearing adherents of "Civilization" and the enemy "Boskone"."
I think that Galactic Patrol and Gray Lensman are the core Lensman experience.
The Skylark series is also great. In the fourth book they destroy a couple of galaxies.
Also lumping in Spacehounds of IPC, probably his strongest standalone work.
Smith's characters are cardboard cutouts, his attempts at romance are pretty awkward, and he ran into the same overuse of superlatives that made Lovecraft tiresome, but GP, GL and the first couple of Skylark books remain some of my favorites.
I agree with much of what you say. But I have a soft spot for Nadreck of Palain VII who appears in Second Stage Lensman.
The prime Lensman books are Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, and Second Stage Lensman, which appeared in Astounding. When Gnome Press wanted to publish all the stories in hard cover, they persuaded Doc to write the Children of the Lens and rewrite a previous, standalone story into the saga, expanded with the fateful first meeting of the Arisians and Eddorians. This became First Lensman, and the whole was published under the banner The History of Civilization.
They're not the primary focus but Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy features some pretty epic space battles.
Going on my list
An unconventional suggestion, but a good fit: Schlock Mercenary
This is a now-completed run of a daily web comic series about space mercenaries that went on for twenty years. Yes, that’s over seven thousand strips.
The art starts out pretty rough, but improves greatly in pretty short order. It will definitely scratch the Ruttin’ Huge Space Battle itch.
It’s also available in print, or has been at least. I’m not sure how hard it would be to find, but it’s all online.
Seconded. When it ended it was the longest running daily webcomic. Daily for 20ish years.
With astonishing quality on writing, drawing, and plot!
And never a late installment
I’ll check it out. Thanks
Pillage, then burn.
Note: John Ringo's Troy Rising is an unofficial but authorized prequel to Schlock Mercenary, and qualifies for stupid huge space battles involving armed asteroids. And it all starts with a Good Ol' Boy selling maple syrup to the aliens.
Final Architecture: Adrian Tchaikovsky- yeah you're going to love these!
Sounds like you'd really enjoy The Expanse, some of the best realised space battles you'll find.
Loved Leviathan Wakes, excited for the rest of the series. I loved the show too
These two were my first go to. Shards or earth starts out strong and has a very mind bending ending.
I agree about the Expanse. Really well done, well written, and realistic of physics. And the whole series is a good reflection on leadership and morality
Yes, the battle scene between Marco and the Roci springs to mind and apart from the slow zone/ ring space, physics has to be adhered to.
I read the first two of The Final Architecture, somehow I got distracted from the series before the third one came out. Is it a satisfying conclusion to the series?
Yeeessss...I meant it's space opera in a grand scale.... But even then the finale is a grandiose concept... Great fun tho so give it a read.
I love Idris,he's the antithesis if the hero, and the concept of the Parthos, there's so much to like about the series. They're on my short list of books I'm always happy to pick up.
I'm plodding my way through the Sun eater series ATM as he's just released a new one.... Feels like a chore....
The Agent Cormac series by Neal Asher has epic space battles and as well as melee action. Pandora's Star by Peter F Hamilton likewise. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan has good enhanced human action scenes
Asher writes my favorite space battles - AI ships going to town on each other!
I’m not sure I’ve ever read a novel as quickly as I read Pandora’s Star. I picked it up a while ago on a whim after reading a blurb on Good Reads and found it almost impossible to put down unless I really had to. I don’t think it’s necessarily the best written book ever, but it was the definition of a page turner for me and was so much fun to read. I even bought the sequel before I finished so I could start reading it as soon as I was done with Pandora’s Star.
Along with good action sequences, those books have some of my favorite depictions of alien species ever.
The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, but you have to get past the first book which starts off with a "hunger games" style training competition. After that, there are massive battles in space between giant fleets in orbit around planets, and also with mechs / armored suits on the planets.
Love red rising. I thought the action was cool and interesting, but the mechanics of the space battles themselves were a bit underdeveloped (at least in the first 3). Other than that they’re a 10/10 for me
CJ Cherryh's Merchanter series have some really good space sequences in them, especially Downbelow Station. They're all about the claustrophobic nature of space travel and are incredibly intense.
Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy has some of the best space battles in science fiction, IMO. They blew my mind when I first read them as a teenager. I love the Jim Burns painting of warships in action on the UK cover of the Reality Dysfunction.
Warhammer 40k has lots of space battles although the best novel specifically about them is the long OOP Execution Hour and Shadow Point. There are also some really good space battles coming up in the later Horus Heresy series, especially in Shadows of Treachery, Know No Fear, Scars, Path of Heaven and Wolfsbane.
Going on my list
Excession by Iain M. Banks has some awesome space battle scenes.
You don't need to read the other Culture novels, but it doesn't hurt! They're not serialized, but you might want to read a quick primer on the concept of The Culture if you have not read any before.
I came here to recommend this as well. The Culture novels, from book to book, tend to alternate between expansive space battles and smaller focus; Excession is space battles at its most epic.
A non-Culture but still Iain M. Banks book, The Algebraist, might give you some of that epic space battles fix too.
Yes this one, if you want truly epic
Lost fleet series by Jack Campbell.
Castle federation series by Glynn Stewart.
Duchy of Terra series also by Glynn Stewart.
Forgot to add list fleet to my list. Will add the other to my TBR
Glynn Stewart seems like a modern David Weber. Lots of series to explore. Thanks for the rec
Glynn Stewart's writing style borrows a ton from Weber too.
Glynn Stewart's best series imo is Starship's Mage.
Once past the first book which develops the character, it's very much focused on large scale space battles and the development of a better Navy to resist a potential threat. Deeper in the series it's very much large space battles in each book
The old anime Legends of the Galactic Heroes sounds right up your street and I believe they were based off of Japanese novels that are now translated.
Sounds perfect. Added to my to watch and to read lists
Another vote for lotgh. It's truly a masterpiece.
I like your list. Look at David Drake's Lt. Leary series. A number of books and the combat can be intense.
Added to list
The Troy Rising series has some massive space battles in it. Think realistic* way of making a Death Star and solar system defense system.
For a given value of realistic. Some of the math doesn't quite add up....
I thought the same thing. The space battles themselves were fun, but mechanically underdeveloped. More like set dressing for the story to occur within rather than being a driving force of the story.
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And Bobbie's last dance is epic.
Bobiverse by Taylor… ok, more character/snark but space battles happen
I’m assuming you trued Scalzi’s Old Mans War & its not your thing
Old Man’s war is on the list. Bobiverse is on my list too. Lots of overlap between ExForce fans and Bobiverse fans as far as I know
Vatta’s War by Elizabeth Moon, has some amazing space battles and deals with ship combat in space with time delay on scan and communication information. It’s something so fundamental that is completely missed in most books which seem to take for granted instantaneous real-time communication and scan information.
Bob is annoying a/f for the first 100 or so pages. Get past that and it really ... uh ... takes off.
the Sun Eater series has a few really cool space battle sequences!
Going on the list. I’ve heard good things
The „succession“ duology by Scott Westerfeld. Not only is it incredible fun to read, but it also contains the longest (and I daresay best) space battle I ever read, easily spanning 120 pages.
Of all the books I read in the last five years, these were among the biggest surprises.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/267022
Sold. Adding to list
You will not regret it!
The Expanse series has some pretty great space battles
For some really exotic weaponry, try The Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee, starting with Ninefox Gambit.
One of my favourites
Not a series, but the Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook fits. Also his Starfishers trilogy. And there are two or three additional books in the Praxis series that continue that story.
If you’re okay with a FanFiction story then I would recommend Sublight Drive, which can be found on Royal Road and Space Battles for free online. The grammar, spelling, story, and world building are phenomenal. It gets progressively cooler(by your definition) as the story goes on. It’s technically ended but will likely get a continuation in the somewhat near future.
Awesome! I’ll look into it
Starship's Mage series. It starts small, but quickly increases in scale.
Most science fiction by the same author is military science fiction. Some better than others.
Artifact space and its sequel.
Marko kloos has an excellent series and a spinoff in production as well.
You listed honor harrington, the Praxis, and Star fire series.. just go read those as they are the best of that genre
Elizabeth Moon, Gwyn Steward, Tanya Huff, Mike Shepard.
Arcana Imperii by Miles Cameron is what you’re looking for. Elizabeth Moon’s Vatta’s War and Serrano Legacy series also have a lot of space battles, but the series start smaller scale and go up in scope. There are also space battles in some of the earlier Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold.
I second the Arcana Imperii books, they are really good.
Please go play Freespace 2 on pc
I am personally partial to Space Engineers
Freespace 2 has the best “dodging between giant ships firing off beam weapons the size of houses” gameplay still
Look up Glynn Stewart. He had several different space opera series. I've only read his Starship's Mage series, which is Honor Harrington plus magic, and done very well.
Someone else recommended one of his series. Definitely will be looking into it more
The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell is exactly what you're looking for. It was written by a Navy vet who shared your itch; he developed an entire theory of naval tactics for deep space because he couldn't get enough of it. You'll get chapters of fleet movements and firing runs
The Last Reaper Series by Scott Moon. It’s 15 books long
From google:
The Last Reaper series, co-authored by Scott Moon and J.N. Chaney, is an action-packed military science fiction saga centered on Halek Cain, a veteran amputee-turned-cyborg and the final survivor of the elite "Reaper" program. Set in the expansive Renegade Star universe, the series follows Cain, a reluctant anti-hero with unmatched combat skills and a snarky artificial intelligence (AI) companion named X-37 integrated into his cybernetics. The narrative is known for its fast pace, frequent battles, and a tone often compared to classic sci-fi thrillers like Escape from New York and Deus Ex.
The series begins with Cain imprisoned by the Union, the very people who created him and then feared his power. He is offered a deal: his freedom in exchange for rescuing a high-value scientist held hostage inside the galaxy's most dangerous, exploding prison station, Dreadmax. What begins as a seemingly straightforward suicide mission quickly devolves into a complex web of double-crosses, vigilante mayhem, and a battle for survival against various prison gangs and the relentless pursuit of the Union's forces. During this initial mission, Cain rescues the scientist's daughter, Elise, who also has augmentations, and begins to form a crew and a sense of purpose beyond being a mere weapon.
As the series progresses, the scope expands significantly from personal survival to the fate of an entire exodus fleet of survivors. Cain and his allies must navigate a galaxy filled with ancient enemies, new alien threats (like the Sansein), and internal crises as they search for a new home. The ongoing narrative sees Cain seeking repairs for his augmentations, confronting rivals from his past, and attempting to find redemption while protecting his newfound people. Ultimately, the journey culminates in a final confrontation to stop a major antagonist, Scheid, from seizing absolute power and achieving lasting peace for the fleet.
Try hunting down Michael Kube-McDowell's "Trigon Disunity" trilogy. Doesn't appear to be in print, so it might take some hunting. He also wrote several Star Wars novels, which are available if you don't have those already.
Neal Asher, start with Gridlinked. It ramps up from a sort of James Bond adventure to full AI space battles in other books. The series also features vicious aliens (The Prador), an insane homicidal android (Mr. Crane), a mad scientist who expands his mind with alien technology, innumerable AI ships and drones, reified humans, and elite warriors (sparkind). Later books explore stories set during a massive interstellar war.
Iain M. Banks’ Culture series. A good starting point is Player of Games or Use of Weapons. The books in the series aren’t related and can be read in any order. There’s also an interstellar war in the series, but it’s mostly a backdrop. Excession is a pretty wild ride, too.
I can’t remember which book, but Alastair Reynolds has a series which features an exotic weapon cache. His books are interesting in that there’s no faster-than-light communication or travel. Ships go a sizeable fraction of the speed of light, but still take centuries to get anywhere. Lighthugger captains are decidedly weird.
Ryk Brown’s Frontiers Saga may be up your alley. LOTS of books. 45 at the moment. Great space battles throughout, plus some fighter battles and other good stuff. One of my favorites
Dread Empire Fall has some great space battles as does THE EXPANSE
As someone has already recommended David Drake's Lt. Leary series (starts with "With the Lightning" if I recall) I'll add one not mentioned yet: Christopher Ruocchio's series that starts with The Empire of Silence.
The Expanse has some great space battles, and is am all argrest series.
Read the rest of Harrington, and also the Vorkosigan series by Bujold
Starship's Mage series is a lot better than it sounds from the title
Salvage Title Universe
Silver Ships Universe
Four Horseman Universe
The lost fleet
Thunder Below by Admiral Eugene Fluckey is about a submarine.
Pacific Crucible by Ian Toll about the naval campaign 1941-1942.
You might enjoy books about the Glomar Explorer. Not quite WWII, more cold war espionage. I read one but can't remember the exact name. There are a few.
The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmions has some parts about big ships at war in space. I think it's in the third and fourth in the series. All 4 books are good, but the first two are the best in my opinion.
Edit: just was you specified WWI, not the sequel. Still standing by my recommendations.
I meant to say post WWI, so these are perfect. Thankss
The Lost Fleet Series- Jack Campbell
Troy Rising Series - John Ringo
Heritage/Legacy /Inheritance trilogies (shared universe) -Ian Douglas - good mix of ground and space combat
Odyssey One series - Evan Currie
Look at Neal Asher books try reading them in chronology.
The expanse!
The Succession duology by Scott Westerfeld. I’d never heard of it. Before he started writing YA books he wrote this. It’s brilliant and I wish he would have written more.
You absolutely need to check out Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series - the space battles are terrifying and epic with relativistic kill vehicles and lighthugger ships that are basicaly cities in space with insane weaponary.
ok so if you haven't hit The Expanse yet that's wild because the Donnager battle alone... and it only gets bigger from there. The physics are real battles are great then
I love Alastair Reynolds for pure scale. Revelation Space universe has some unhinged engagements, lighthuggers throwing out relativistic weapons, centuries-long conflicts, lovecraftian ships... it's slower paced but when battles happen they're properly terrifying
Since you loved Horus Heresy definitely keep going, the later books have some of the most insane fleet actions in 40k... the main 40k novels outside HH have great stuff too, Battlefleet Gothic especially
Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson. Everything you wanted in your request. Check check check. 12 books or something like that.
I’ve read all 17 available, plus the spinoffs. Love them dearly.
If you're OK with the Sci fi getting reality breaking 3 body problem fits the bill
Enders game but I don't know if the follow on books are good
Xelee sequence if the hulking ships can be made of flesh