Recommend some MANGA.

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Planetes...

Hard sci-fi that deals with the social and moral implications of human habitation beyond our terrestrial sphere, the logistical and ecological barriers to interplanetary habitation, and the 'ownership' of the resources of space.

I enjoyed it and I don't generally like manga.

Another I might suggest is the Spice & Wolf manga.

Medieval-esque economics and financial mysteries and plots. Fictional but European-esque setting that deals with the economic trials and travails of people in the Late Medieval Period. Has some incredibly devious and cunning 'economic mysteries and plots' ... and so the writing by nature is better than your usual manga garbage that gets churcned out by the hollow husk of the Japanese culture industry.

You won't get flashy fight scenes, and the threats are often mercantile and esoteric in nature. Scheming traders, runaway inflation, speculative bubbles, bad deals, smuggling, political intrigues, socioeconomic dimensions of religion, and the information trade.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Planetes...

Hard sci-fi that deals with the social and moral implications of human habitation beyond our terrestrial sphere, the logistical and ecological barriers to interplanetary habitation, and the 'ownership' of the resources of space.

I enjoyed it and I don't generally like manga.

Another I might suggest is the Spice & Wolf manga.

Medieval-esque economics and financial mysteries and plots. Fictional but European-esque setting that deals with the economic trials and travails of people in the Late Medieval Period. Has some incredibly devious and cunning 'economic mysteries and plots' ... and so the writing by nature is better than your usual manga garbage that gets churcned out by the hollow husk of the Japanese culture industry.

You won't get flashy fight scenes, and the threats are often mercantile and esoteric in nature. Scheming traders, runaway inflation, speculative bubbles, bad deals, smuggling, political intrigues, socioeconomic dimensions of religion, and the information trade.

I love spice and wolf but I refrained from recommending it cause I think you wanna read the light novel and it's one of the few that has the full series translated in english. It's one of the better ones and like you say there's not much action going on so it works really well in book form. The anime is also rather good too btw.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Planetes...

Hard sci-fi that deals with the social and moral implications of human habitation beyond our terrestrial sphere, the logistical and ecological barriers to interplanetary habitation, and the 'ownership' of the resources of space.

I enjoyed it and I don't generally like manga.

Another I might suggest is the Spice & Wolf manga.

Medieval-esque economics and financial mysteries and plots. Fictional but European-esque setting that deals with the economic trials and travails of people in the Late Medieval Period. Has some incredibly devious and cunning 'economic mysteries and plots' ... and so the writing by nature is better than your usual manga garbage that gets churcned out by the hollow husk of the Japanese culture industry.

You won't get flashy fight scenes, and the threats are often mercantile and esoteric in nature. Scheming traders, runaway inflation, speculative bubbles, bad deals, smuggling, political intrigues, socioeconomic dimensions of religion, and the information trade.

I love spice and wolf but I refrained from recommending it cause I think you wanna read the light novel and it's one of the few that has the full series translated in english. It's one of the better ones and like you say there's not much action going on so it works really well in book form. The anime is also rather good too btw.

The light novels are my favourites as well. I did like the show, but some of the most interesting novels the show doesn't even cover. Particularly the less 'economic mystery' and clever plot ones, but have more of a character narrative bent. Plus I like the fact that the light novels follows the footsteps of people that Holo knew in the distant past and their adventures.

But, you know ... thread is about manga.

I still really liked the manga even if it's distantly removed from the quality of the light novels ... but that speaks more to how good the light novels actually are.

 

[Spunky88]

Cromartie High School the manga is better than the anime,but both are really funny.