Space Opera Fans discussion

What are some books that in your opinion have the best described space battles. From tactics to visuals, spaceships ducking it out while attack craft have dogfights over them... I'm really curious to see what you guys come up with :D.
Thank you!

I can’t decide on best, but two series come to mind as having some crazy strategies in various space battles. Auberon by Blaze Ward is definitely military SF and almost every book in it has at least one memorable battle, most of them being in space. The series that starts with Bob's Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd has several great space battles, and a heckuva lot of really crazy training simulations, but less than half the books have space battles and it’s not a true military setup, even with an admiral, multiple carriers, destroyers, etc.

Two that immediately come to mind are the Horror Harrington series by David Weber and The Lost Fleet Series by Jack Campbell. Both have some awesome battles of the type you are describing.

Thank you! I'll check them out!

The Star Wars X-Wing books are pretty good at this. They also have a lot of infiltration and heist types of scenes.

I'm not a huge fan of military sci-fi, but I have to vote for the Honorverse series by David Weber. Most of the battles are very exciting and sometimes very creative.

Brandon wrote: "The Star Wars X-Wing books are pretty good at this. They also have a lot of infiltration and heist types of scenes."
Uh... Sorry but I am really not a fan of Star wars...

Betsy wrote: "I'm not a huge fan of military sci-fi, but I have to vote for the Honorverse series by David Weber. Most of the battles are very exciting and sometimes very creative."
These look promising but I am not sure where to start with them.

On Basilisk Station is the first book in the Honorverse series. The publisher, Baen, has typically had it for free in ebook form on their website.

Yes, start with On Basilisk Station.

One warning with the Honorverse series, there's also a lot of politics (i.e. speeches) and lots of description of the weaponry and ships. It's not all battles. But in my opinion it's worth it.

Ok, Thank you! I'll start with that.

The Rage War trilogy by Tim Lebbon’s is action packed and well written diving into the Weyland/Yutani verse which involves The Colonial Marines, Predators and Aliens. Recommend it highly.

The battles in John Birmingham‘s THE CRUEL STARS trilogy are quite fantastic.

Another one that comes to mind is Peter Hamilton’s NIGHTS DAWN trilogy. Great spaceship battles.

I recommend David Weber's and Steven White's Starfireseries. If you like nerve wrecking and claustrophobic space combat not unlike today's submarine warfare do check Glen Cook's Passage at Arms. Starfisher series (also by Glen Cook) is not solely about space combat but what space combat is in there (first book and third book) seems to be based on laws of physics (inertia, time to turn around, interception of vehicles using missiles etc :)).

Wow, those are some good sugestions.

Just wanted to revive this dead thread to say you’ve all convinced me to start On Basilisk Station and I love it so far

Nick wrote: "Just wanted to revive this dead thread to say you’ve all convinced me to start On Basilisk Station and I love it so far"

I'd never heard of this book, or author, but its currently free for kindle on Amazon UK, so I'll give it a try in June.

Nick wrote: "Just wanted to revive this dead thread to say you’ve all convinced me to start On Basilisk Station and I love it so far"

Glad to hear it. One of the things I've always liked about the Honorverse space battles is that he does a really good job of conveying the huge distances and incredible speeds involved. Both of those make warfare in space so different from land battles, but we have trouble grasping them since they are so beyond our experience.

Space Battles are interesting in their diversity. Writers vary greatly from completely ignoring physics to fixating on a specific aspect of physics to including every postulated theory that can be imagined. For me it's one of the most enjoyable parts of finding new authors. How are they going to tackle the subject?

I really enjoyed the Star Wars X-Wing series of books. I have all of them in paperback except X-Wing: Mercy Kill (luckily for me the local library has that one, so I was able to read it cover to cover). The space combat is heavily inspired by aircraft dogfights, like TopGun. And the physics might not be 100% accurate. But I find them a worthwhile read. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star...

I like Grubane as there are so many elements: subversions, weapons, missions, twists. All in one tiny book! All narrated by an AI I loved.

empire rising is a great series for space battles. 20 books published currently with the series planned yo end with the 22nd publication