Discovering a new book series is a fantastic feeling. Here’s hoping you find something new below.

If none of these is enough for you, look into the Perry Rhodan series. A new novella has been published weekly since 1961, and there are currently over 2700 stories. If that’s still not enough of a challenge for you, they’re also in German.

1 A Space Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke The 2001: A Space Odyssey screenplay was written by Clarke and filmmaker Stanley Kubrick jointly, based on the seed idea in Clarke’s story “The Sentinel,” where an alien civilization has left an object on the Moon to alert them (the aliens) to mankind’s attainment of space travel. Clarke wrote the book in parallel with the screenplay, and there’s a distinct difference: in the novel, the voyage was to the planet Saturn. During production of the film, it was decided that the special effects for Saturn’s rings would be too expensive, so the voyage in the film is to Jupiter instead. The second book, 2010, alters the storyline of the first book to make the destination Jupiter as seen in the film. Books: 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968 2010: Odyssey Two – 1982 2061: Odyssey Three – 1987 3001: The Final Odyssey – 1997

2 Zones of Thought series by Vernor Vinge Thousands of years from now, a mind’s potential is determined by its location in space—from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these “regions of thought,” but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Books: A Fire Upon the Deep – 1992 A Deepness in the Sky – 1999 The Children of the Sky – 2011

3 Takeshi Kovacs novels by Richard K. Morgan Brutal and noir, Alerted Carbon is generally considered the best of this brutal cyberpunk series, but I also loved Broken Angels, which is a little more space-y. Lately, author Morgan has turned his hand to fantasy in The Steel Remains, which, if reviews are true, is at least as gruesome as his SF. Books: Altered Carbon – 2002 Broken Angels – 2003 Woken Furies – 2005

5 Oxford Time Travel by Connie Willis Author Connie Willis can be a polarizing figure. Some readers cannot get enough of her beautiful, gripping gems and count her as their favorite author, while others can’t stomach the stories. Note that these books involve a fair amount of time travel to the past, so you’ll be learning more about gritty human history than warp drives. Books: Doomsday Book – 1992 To Say Nothing of the Dog – 1998 Blackout – 2010 All Clear – 2010

9 The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons The Hyperion universe originated when author Dan Simmons, an elementary school teacher at the time, told an extended tale at intervals to his young students. Those of you who have read Hyperion and know what a nasty piece of work the Shrike is cannot help but wonder what kind of emotional troubles those young students ended up with. Books: Hyperion – 1989 The Fall of Hyperion – 1990 Endymion – 1996 The Rise of Endymion – 1997

11 Sprawl Trilogy by William Gibson With Neuromancer, author William Gibson made cyberpunk grow up. The trilogy takes place in a world controlled by corporations and infused with computers at every point. The unintended consequences of so much technology is examined in all the books. Books: Neuromancer – 1984 Count Zero – 1986 Mona Lisa Overdrive – 1988

12 The Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter Like much of author Stephen Baxter’s work, the Xeelee Sequence is hard SF space opera. The novels span several billions of years, describing the future expansion of humanity, its war with its nemesis, an alien race called the Xeelee, and the Xeelee’s own war with dark matter entities called Photino Birds. (Two famous alien series in this list, and they’re “Heechee” and “Xeelee”? What are the odds?) Books: Raft – 1991 Timelike Infinity – 1992 Ring – 1993/4 Flux – 1993 Resplendent – 2000-2004 Coalescent – 2003 Transcendent – 2005 Exultant – 2005 Starfall – 2009 Gravity Dreams – 2011

13 Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson The Mars Trilogy follows the settlement and terraforming of Mars by following the personal tribulations of a wide number of characters over a couple centuries. There’s some really excellent hard SF here, plenty of believable characters, and perhaps a little too much talking at the end of the third book, but it’s still immensely satisfying to follow the colonization of Mars for such a long period of time. Books: Red Mars – 1992 Green Mars – 1993 Blue Mars – 1996

14 Revelation Space Series by Alastair Reynolds The Revelation Space universe is set in a future version of our world, with the addition of a number of extraterrestrial species and advanced technologies that are not necessarily grounded in current science. Nonetheless, it is somewhat “harder” than most examples of space opera, relying to a considerable extent on science Reynolds believes to be possible; in particular, faster-than-light travel is absent. While a great deal of science fiction reflects either very optimistic or dystopian visions of the human future, the Revelation Space universe is notable in that human societies have not departed to either positive or negative extremes, but instead are similar to those of today in terms of moral ambiguity and a mixture of cruelty and decency, corruption and opportunity, despite their technology being dramatically advanced. Books: Revelation Space – 2000 Chasm City – 2001 Redemption Ark – 2002 Absolution Gap – 2003 Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days – 2003 Galactic North – 2006 The Prefect – 2007

15 Ringworld Series by Larry Niven This series revolves around the Ringworld, a megastructure artifact 600 million miles in circumference around a sun. Readers are encouraging to read these books in order—they depend on each other. Books: Ringworld – 1970 The Ringworld Engineers – 1979 The Ringworld Throne – 1996 Ringworld’s Children – 2004

16 Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin The Hainish Cycle is set in an alternate history/future history in which civilizations of human beings on a number of nearby stars, including Terra (Earth), are contacting each other for the first time, establishing diplomatic relations, and setting up a confederacy under the guidance of the oldest of the human worlds, peaceful Hain. In this history, human beings did not evolve on Earth but were the result of interstellar colonies planted by Hain long ago, which was followed by a long period when interstellar travel ceased. Some of the races have new genetic traits, a result of ancient Hainish experiments in genetic engineering, including a people who can dream while awake, and a world of androgynous people who only come into active sexuality once a month, and can choose their gender. In keeping with Le Guin’s soft science fiction style, the setting is used primarily to explore anthropological and sociological ideas. Books: Rocannon’s World – 1966 Planet of Exile – 1966 City of Illusions – 1967 The Left Hand of Darkness – 1969 The Dispossessed – 1974 The Word for World Is Forest – 1976 The Telling – 2000

18 Spin Trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson I’m a fan of author Robert Charles Wilson, and I loved Spin. The combination of intriguing characters and wild SF was a home run for me. The other two novels in the trilogy continue the trend. Strongly recommended. Books: Spin – 2005 Axis – 2007 Vortex – 2011

19 The Uplift Saga by David Brin In the Uplift universe, an intergalactic civilization called the Five Galaxies, comprising a multitude of sentient races, has existed for billions of years. This civilization is perpetuated by the act of Uplift, in which a “patron” species genetically modifies a Pre-sapient “client” species until it is sapient. The client species is typically indentured to its patron species for 100,000 years. A patron species gains considerable status, and patrons and clients often unite into powerful clans. Patron status can be lost due to extermination, or gross crimes against the galactic civilization. When humans get involved with Uplift, do we screw things up? Yes. Yes, we do. Books: Sundiver – 1980 Startide Rising – 1983 The Uplift War – 1987 Brightness Reef – 1995 Infinity’s Shore – 1996 Heaven’s Reach – 1998