I am looking for Sci-Fi book recommendations.

[rcs619]

The Warhammer 40.000 universe is incredibly rich in lore and well worth getting into. Instead of throwing hundreds of the Black Library's titles at you, I'll just give you one solid recommendation - the very series that reeled me in.

Dan Abnett, one of the best W40k authors there is, penned a trilogy about inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. The whole thing is available in a handy omnibus edition, simply titled "Eisenhorn". The series mixes action and suspense expertly, creating an atmosphere that's somewhere between grim dystopian warfare and a science-fantasy detective novel.
And if you end up liking the series, Abnett also wrote a follow-up trilogy about Eisenhorn's proteg?, "Ravenor". Same deal in terms of publication, and also an excellent read.

Eisenhorn is quite good, so I'll definitely second that.

The Ciaphas Cain series is also a lot of fun. It's actually a comedy series that treats the 40k setting like the silly thing it inherently is.

Basically, the general rule with 40k novels is to avoid the ones that are actually about space marines (which I think is the majority of 40k literature at this point). Space marines can be fine as supporting characters in other books, but as main characters, there's just not a lot of ways to make them interesting. They're just big dumb guys who live to beat aliens/demons/heretics over the head while yelling about how holy they are

 

[x EvilErmine x]

Some really good suggestions in this thread so far, so they should keep you going for a while.

When you get a chance you might want to check out the Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

Spoiler: The Long Earth

1916: the Western Front, France. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landcape of No man's Land gone?

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson has returned to the burned-out home of one Willis Linsay, a reclusive and some said mad, others dangerous, scientist. It was arson but, as is often the way, the firemen seem to have caused more damage than the fire itself. Stepping through the wreck of a house, there's no sign of any human remains but on the mantelpiece Monica finds a curious gadget - a box, containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a...potato. It is the prototype of an invention that Linsay called a 'Stepper'. An invention he put up on the web for all the world to see, and use, an invention that would to change the way mankind viewed his world Earth for ever.

Spoiler: The Long War

A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth. But in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind ... A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government...

Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity?s thoughtless exploitation ... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before.

Spoiler: The Long Mars

2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous rescue work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has an ulterior motive for his request...

Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth.

For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their 'long childhood' in the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear have caused 'normal' human society to turn against the Next. A dramatic showdown seems inevitable...

Spoiler: The Long Utopia

2045-2059. Human society continues to evolve on Datum Earth, its battered and weary origin planet, as the spread of humanity progresses throughout the many Earths beyond.

Lobsang, now an elderly and complex AI, suffers a breakdown, and disguised as a human attempts to live a 'normal' life on one of the millions of Long Earth worlds. His old friend, Joshua, now in his fifties, searches for his father and discovers a heretofore unknown family history. And the super-intelligent post-humans known as 'the Next' continue to adapt to life among 'lesser' humans.

But an alarming new challenge looms. An alien planet has somehow become 'entangled' with one of the Long Earth worlds and, as Lobsang and Joshua learn, its voracious denizens intend to capture, conquer, and colonize the new universe they have inadvertently discovered.

Spoiler: The Long Cosmos *June 2016*

2070-71. Nearly six decades after Step Day and in the Long Earth, the new Next post-human society continues to evolve.

For Joshua Valiente, now in his late sixties, it is time to take one last solo journey into the High Meggers: an adventure that turns into a disaster. Alone and facing death, his only hope of salvation lies with a group of trolls. But as Joshua confronts his mortality, the Long Earth receives a signal from the stars. A signal that is picked up by radio astronomers but also in more abstract ways by the trolls and by the Great Traversers. Its message is simple but ts implications are enormous:

JOIN US.

The super-smart Next realise that the Message contains instructions on how to develop an immense artificial intelligence but to build it they have to seek help from throughout the industrious worlds of mankind. Bit by bit, byte by byte, they assemble a computer the size of a continent, a device that will alter the Long Earth's place within the cosmos and reveal the ultimate, life-affirming goal of those who sent the Message. Its impact will be felt by and resonate with all mankind and other species, young and old, communities and individuals who inhabit the Long Earths

 

[Sonicron]

The Ciaphas Cain series is also a lot of fun. It's actually a comedy series that treats the 40k setting like the silly thing it inherently is.

Basically, the general rule with 40k novels is to avoid the ones that are actually about space marines (which I think is the majority of 40k literature at this point). Space marines can be fine as supporting characters in other books, but as main characters, there's just not a lot of ways to make them interesting. They're just big dumb guys who live to beat aliens/demons/heretics over the head while yelling about how holy they are

Oh yes, Ciaphas Cain is a barrel of laughs. OP, the first six novels of the series are also available in 2 omnibus editions. If (weirdly enough) you ever wanted to read the self-aware memoirs of a shifty, lazy coward who unwittingly and unwillingly bumbled his way to the position of a universally praised hero of the Imperium, then Ciaphas Cain is for you!

And regarding Space Marines, I agree in part - some of those stories really are boring. It often depends on the author and if they manage to flesh out their characters beyond archetypes, which is why I tend to favour marines from the traitor legions. Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lords trilogy is, in my humblest opinion, an unequivocal masterpiece from start to finish. ^^

 

[American Fox]

Armor by John Stekley.

It should be made into a movie. And they could easily make Felix a female character and the movie would still be just as awesome.

Not like this stupid Ghostbusters remake.

 

[Hawki]

-Jules Verne (specifically Journey to the Centre of the Earth, War of the Worlds, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Journey is more fantasy than sci-fi now, due to how our understanding of the Earth's interior has changed, and War is a bit of a dry read, but they still get my stamp of approval)

Um... What? War of the Worlds was most certainly written by H.G. Wells. Not Jules Verne. :/

Heh, you're right. I sometimes get the two's bibliographies mixed up, and it's been ages since I've read either.