Several SciFi Books series I have been reading/ listening too.

11B30B4

Well-Known Member
Several SciFi Books series I have been reading/ listening too.
Spoiler Free ….

Well, I should first say that I am not much of a reader so for most of these I have listened to the unabridged audiobooks.

Like most SciFi fans I have read several (not all) of the Dune series, Ender Series, and many works by Phillip K. Dick, Isaak Asimov, etc… However, this is a list of “primarily” recent publications. If you are looking for something to read, I hope you find interest in one or all of these books.

First, The Old Man’s War (OMW) by John Scalzi.
Possibly one of the best modern SciFi series with lots of awards and nominations to back that claim. The OMW series has lost of cool tech, great characters, and a great storyline. It has been selected by the SyFy channel to become a new series in 2016 named after the second book in the series “The Ghost Brigades”.



The series starts off with the first book “Old Man’s War” where we get introduced to the main characters, the Colonial Defense Force (CDF), and the many of the alien races. The main character in this books is John Perry and is told from his (first person) point of view. The audiobook is expertly narrated by William Dufris.



This kind of short story “Questions for a Soldier” can be read anytime in the series but I recommend it be done between book 1 and 2. It provides more detail on the technologies involved in the OMW universe. I read the book and did not get the audiobook for this one.



The second book “The Ghost Brigades” focuses on the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Force and continues many of the plot lines from the first book. It is told primarily in first person from a new character named Jared Dirac and includes many of the characters from book one, especially LT Jane Sagan. The audiobook is expertly narrated by William Dufris.



“The Sagan Diary” is a short story that occurs between “The Ghost Brigades” and the third book in the series “The Last Colony”. “The Sagan Diary” is told completely from the point of view of LT Jane Sagan. The audiobook is expertly narrated by Stephani Wolfe and John Scalzi.



The Third book “The Last Colony” is once again told from John Perry’s point of view and continues the storyline as well as introduces a new main character Zoe. The audiobook is expertly narrated by William Dufris.



The fourth book “Zoe’s Tale” is told entirely from Zoe’s perspective. Zoe is a teenage human female and I found this to be one of the best books in the series. Most of this book is a rehash of “The Last Colony” but it is from Zoe’s perspective and contains a tone of background story that was never known to John Perry during “The Last Colony”. Based on characters in this book, I have chosen the names for my next too dogs Consu and Oben. The audiobook is expertly narrated by Tavia Gilbert.



The short story “After the Coup” is told from CDF Soldier Harry Wilson’s perspective. Wilson (for the most part) becomes the main character for the remainder of the series to date. I read this and did not get the audiobook.



The fifth book “The Human Division” is unlike the other books in that it is told from many perspectives and opens up unpredictable plot lines. The main character of Harry Wilson is carried over into this book, but like I said, it is not entirely told from his perspective. The audiobook is expertly narrated by William Dufris. Also each of the chapters were released individually but later compiled into the actual book.



The sixth book “The End of All Things” released in a similar fashion as “The Human Division” is told from several points of view. Harry Wilson’s perspective carries 1/3 of the book, The 400 alien race Conclave carries another third and the remainder is told from the perspective of a new character who is a brain in box and there is a short part that is told from another CDF Soldier’s perspective. The audiobook is expertly narrated by Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, and John Scalzi.

I truly loved this series and found the audiobooks to be the best way to experience it as the narrators provide a whole new dimension of emotion to the characters. Scalzi has said that he is putting OMW aside for now but may return to it at some future point. I really hope SyFy does this series justice.



After I finished the first five books of OMW and while waiting for the 6th to be released I moved to another series “The Forever War” by Joe Haldeman. This series has three books in it and I have only read two of them. “The Forever War”, “Forever Free”, and Forever Peace”. This series starts off with some cool tech and good character development but I was not endured to the world that Haldeman built.






From this series I moved to “Armor” by John Steakley.



While this book was considerably darker thant any of the previous books listed here. It has epic and I do mean epic battles in it and some cool tech. For those who have read it, I have one world “Banshee”.

So it was about this time that I found my new favorite Science Fiction series and author. The “Undying Mercenaries” by B.V. Larson.











The First book in this series is “Steel World” which like the rest of the series is told from the perspective of the main character James McGill. Other books in this series are “Dust World”, “Tech World”, “Machine World”, and “Death World”. As a retired Army Soldier, I was more able to associate with this series than the OMW series. Don’t get me wrong, the OMW series is fantastic and would be my absolute favorite series if I had not read the Undying Mercenaries series. That said, the Undying Mercenaries series (I felt) was an overall better story where the Soldiers exploit the use of an alien machine to regrow bodies and transfer their consciousness into the new body. So if you cannot die, what the fun in telling that story, so there are things that can happen to prevent someone from transferring into the new body which is called being “permed”. That’s all I can really say about that. There is a whole lot more humor in this series and each character is very developed. The audio books are expertly narrated by Mark Boyett.

As a side note, when I learned about the TV series for OMW, I decided to write an e-mail to B.V. Larson inquiring about the possibility of an Undying Mercenary series. I honestly expected a reply from a press agent or no reply at all. B.V. Larson actually wrote me back and for any fans, there may be something in the works. Also unlike Scalzi, Larson said he will not stop writing the series. This hopefully means a steady stream of books for the future… This is also the only book series I have read where I and my friends have sat back and discussed who we would cast for the various characters in a TV series or movie.

After getting caught up on OMW and Undying Mercenaries, I have started the Vorkosigan Saga Series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Its very different from the series I have talked about here. Its more like Dune in some respects and it is quite large. I chose to read the series in the internal chronological order.



The first short story “Dreamweaver’s Dilemma” I have not read.



The first book “Falling Free” seems to be unrelated to the rest of the series so far as I have read, regardless it was an interesting story that questions morals and medical ethics.



The second book “Shards of Honor” introduces Capitan Lord Aral Vorkosigan and Capitan Cordelia Naismith.

The short story “Aftermaths” I have not read.



The Third book “Barrayar” continues the story of Capitan Lord Aral Vorkosigan and Capitan Cordelia Naismith.



The forth book “The Warrior’s Apprentice” continues the story of Capitan Lord Aral Vorkosigan and Capitan Cordelia Naismith and their son Miles. I am only partly into this book so far.

So far this series seems extremely well written and the characters are very, very developed, although a bit too heavy on the romance side for my general taste.

There are over 13 books in this series so I have my work cut out on this one. The Audio books are well narrated but the audio volume on them is very low so at times it hard to listen to them.
Well I hope you find this helpful.
 
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I've tried to get into audio books, but I just can't. However I have not listened to many. But the few I did listen to were just one person just reading the book. I found that completely boring. Now, stuff like radio plays with different voice actors and sound effects and all, like the Star Wars radio dramas and the BBC Lord of the Rings and Hitchhiker stuff I really enjoy on roadtrips.

I recently took a five hour road trip all by myself. As I have already listened to all my radio dramas so many times I just finally decided to hook up the portable dvd player in the car, turn the screen away from me (so I wouldn't be tempted to look), stuck in the earphones and put in my extended dvd editions of the Lord Of The Rings. Man, those 10 hours of driving there and back just flew by!! I was actually kind of sad to see it end as I still had about two hours to go on The Return of the King!:D
 
Laspector, normally I would agree with the one actor issue; however most of these books are first person so they are more internal monolog of the main character than most other books. Further, when I say that the narrators did an excellent job, I really mean it. The OMW series and the Undying Mercenaries series both get A+ from me on the audio books. The actors pull from a wide range of accents and dialects to (at time) cause me to question if it was the same narrator doing the voice.
The other books listed here don’t do as good of a job. Regardless, I simply do not have the time to sit down and read all these books. I play them on my 45 minute commute each way for work and sometimes about ½ an hour on my lunch break. Then I usually listen to about an hour each evening before I fall asleep. This allows me to plow through the books in days rather than weeks. Further, the stories dray me so much so that sometimes I don’t fall asleep and end up looking at the clock at 3am and realizing that I really need to get some sleep.
My recommendation to you and anyone else who has not read OMW to try the audio book, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
 
I've tried to get into audio books, but I just can't. However I have not listened to many. But the few I did listen to were just one person just reading the book. I found that completely boring. Now, stuff like radio plays with different voice actors and sound effects and all, like the Star Wars radio dramas and the BBC Lord of the Rings and Hitchhiker stuff I really enjoy on roadtrips.

I can't do audio books. Not only do I not do long drives, but it's such an inefficient use of time to me. I can read a 300 page novel in a couple of hours, I don't want to spend a month (remember, short drives) listening to someone read it to me. I can get through a dozen books in that time.
 
Thanks for this list!

Like you I have an hour commute to work each day, so I'm always searching for new titles to listen to, especially Military Sci-Fi like these.

If, by some chance you haven't heard of The Martian by Andy Weir, you should definitely give it a listen.
 
TooMuchBBQ , is there really ever too much BBQ? I don't think so, anyway, I am glad this list may help make your commute a more enjoyable one. I guess I should have said from the beginning that although I prefer the audiobooks, I recommend this list for anyone interested in Military SciFi. I am not necessarily "pushing"the audio books.

Well I just finished the “The Warrior’s Apprentice” from the Vorkosigan Saga. I had put it down to read "The Man in the High Castle" by PKD, anyway I finally finished “The Warrior’s Apprentice” and the series has really taken off at this point. Miles is a very interesting character and this book is a Tour De Force for the series (at least as far as I have read). I would rate this series right up there with OMW and UM, I am really looking forward to the additional books.
 
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