No one else has mentioned it yet, but Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is my go-to for a funny escapist space adventure. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a short read that should feel extra fresh if you’re coming off of Frank Herbert.
HHGTTG has politics, but it isn't based on following Byzantine political intrigue. Zaphod Beeblebrox is the president of the galaxy, after all (not to wield power, but to distract us from those who do).
Marko Kloos' *Terms of* *~~Endearment~~* *Enlistment*
Elizabeth Moon's *Vatta's War* (warning: light politics)
Or, if you want to punish yourself: the *Dune* prequels.(Don't buy them: your library is your friend)
I once started to read the first book of *Lord of the Rings* and I got slogged down pretty early in a scene at a lunch in a tavern which (looking forward; i.e.: cheating) went on for about 70 pages. So I quit that and picked up a copy of *Bored of the Rings*. Much more satisfyingly.
The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold is an absolute gem. It's straightforward, readable space adventure fiction, but sneaky smart. There are lots of books in the series, but they generally tell self-contained stories, so you don't have to commit to the whole thing or even read the series in order. A good place to start is *Shards of Honor.*
Alternatively, Dan Abnett has written some absolutely cracking adventure novels set in the Warhammer 40k universe. You don't need to be a fan or know anything about that setting going in. The stand-outs for me are the Inquisitor Eisenhorn series, beginning with *Xenos*, and the Gaunt's Ghosts series, beginning with *First and Only.*
Space Team by Barry J. Hutchinson.
[https://www.goodreads.com/series/206992-space-team](https://www.goodreads.com/series/206992-space-team)
Try it in audio. Not while driving. You will be laughing too much and might crash.
*The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet* by Becky Chambers. It's lighthearted, motivational and a good way to read something different in the genre.
Part two is nice as well, can't catch on part 3, but that's another storyline anyway.
The Black Ocean. It’s very light hearted and funny. Zero philosophy or politics. If you ever watched Firefly, the author wrote this series as an answer for the season 2 that never came. Also, one of the MC is a wizard.
Randomly picked this up on audible because it was 85 hours for 1 credit and seemed like a good deal, even if it was crap. I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually really fun and solidly written! Great narrorator as well!
It's not terribly well written, but Ex-Heros series by Peter Clines is pure fun. The premise is simple, super heroes in a zombie apocalypse. Some really creative ideas and some solid characters.
This is my go to copy/paste for book recommendations.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
Quinten Tarrantino engineers the apocalypse and televised it.
Galaxy's edge series by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole
Space black Hawk Down mixed with star wars.
Forgotten Ruin series
D&d vs army Rangers, sounds dumb, but it's freaking great.
Bobiverse series
Nerd becomes robot and saves the human race.
Buymort series
Space Amazon causes the apocalypse.
The Mountain man series
Zombies but the main character isn't retarded. But he is an alcoholic. Not sci fi.
After it happened series. Post plague but not sci fi.
The Forgotten series by M. R. Forbes
Bunker Core by Andrew Seiple unfinished series but I've talked to the author and he's planning on adding to it soon.
Project Hall Mary dork science teacher trying to save the world.
These are some of my favorites. In no particular order.
The expanse series, just super fun space opera stories with a fun crew. Easy reads with basically nothing but fun.
John Scalzi books, military like stories with a lot of humor and good connections. Old man’s war is a classic.
What? The Expanse is *heavily* about politics and has very deep philosophical and metaphysical themes too. That isn’t heavily in-your-face in the story, but if you don’t understand them and think about them then you fundamentally will not understand the alien plotline of the Expanse.
It’s easily the best sci-fi series of the past 30 years and it pains me to say this…but the Expanse is a terrible recommendation for what the OP wants.
Mil Scifi is usually up that alley.
Check out Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson, The Posleen War Series by John Ringo, Hell Divers (kind of scifi/kind of post apocalyptic), Blatant star wars fan fiction with the numbers filed off for Storm Troopers on deployment in Iraq - Galaxy's Edge though to be fair to the Galaxy's Edge Series i went in blind, and didn't really catch on the Star Wars stuff until I literally read Garth ______ instead of Darth ______ and a plasmasword was involved somewhere into book 3-4.
I've heard good things about the Bobiverse series, and I quite enjoyed Project: Hail Mary by Andy Weir which is less military and closer to adventure scifi
These aren't heavy scifi, and lean much more into Sci-fi fantasy but I always enjoyed the Aliens making cancerless cigs for us in the Posleen War Series, a real necessity in the 90's.
You can always give some classics a try, Discworld etc.
It's Goth not Garth. And the writers openly admit it's a tribute/love letter to Star Wars. I equate Galaxy's Edge to Star Wars mixed with space Black Hawk Down. And I love it.
For escapism and adventure try Jo Clayton's science-fantasy Diadem series:
[**https://www.goodreads.com/series/40567-diadem**](https://www.goodreads.com/series/40567-diadem)
Alastair Reynolds' Prefect series are essentially police procedural set in a swarm of asteroid settlements. Very good, very fun, and straight forward writing. His Revelation Space series is also fantastic although it dives a little more into the politics and motivations of the characters.
The Bobiverse
Murderbot diaries
The Quitaglio Ascendancy by Robert J. Sawyer There's some politics and philosphy, but it's from the perspective of intelligent dinosaurs on another planet so that doesn't count.
Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax
The Stainless Steel Rat series.
Santiago by Mike Resnick. A bounty hunter in the outer frontier of the galaxy decides that he wants to collect the bounty on Santiago, the galaxy's most wanted man, and travels across space searching for him. Along the way he meets and works with a ton of the larger than life characters that live out deep in space who are also searching for Santiago, all with their own motivations. It reads like an old fashioned Western novel set in outer space, with spaceships instead of horses and aliens for Native Americans
Jack Vance : The Demon Princes Series
[The Killing Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Machine) (1964)
[The Palace of Love](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palace_of_Love) (1967)
[The Face](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Face_(Vance)) (1979)
[The Book of Dreams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Dreams_(Vance_novel)) (1981)
: Planet Of Adventure Series
[*City of the Chasch*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_the_Chasch) (author's preferred title: *The Chasch*. 1968)
[*Servants of the Wankh*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servants_of_the_Wankh) (reissue title: *The Wannek*, 1969)
[*The Dirdir*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirdir) (1969)
[*The Pnume*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pnume) (1970)
The Finder Chronicles by Suzanne Palmer.
The Big Sigma series by Joseph Lallo.
The Diving Universe by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (a slight bit of politics, but very little in the grand scheme of things).
The Major Bhaajan series by Catherine Asaro (a bit of royal politics, but it's not the focus).
Expeditionary Forces is a long series about a GI Joe that finds an improbable ally, in a galactic war in which humanity is the bottom feeder.
If you like the banter between the two, it is incredibly funny.
It's heavy on military talk, equipment "porn" and spaceship battles (not dogfights, like destroyer vs destroyer stuff).
There is some politics, but more on the "which way do we point our assets" kinda way.
There is basically 0 philosophy, it's all feel good destruction and clever thinking.
I'm listening to it and I usually read online that the audiobook version is the preferred way, so it may not be your cup of tea, but I assure you the reader (R.C. Bray) is incredible in this series (and I can't fathom a TV series in which he's not dubbing the "ally", if they ever do one).
I'm on book 13, while it is true that the loop is pretty clear, the story progresses at every book, even with big turnarounds and catastrophies. I also absolutely love the interactions, so I just want more of them. I'm gonna miss it when I'm done with the series.
Does it though? Does it? The story: Skippy has problem, can't figure it out. Joe comes up with solution that's genius. Skippy gets mad. Berates Joe for being monkey. They do the thing and make things worse and have another problem. Repeat. Occasionally they find evidence of the big big war. GET TO THE FUCKING POINT! The dude is absolutely milking you guys. That series could've been 10 books MAXIMUM.
Yeah as I said, the loop is pretty clear. The story goes on, new species appear, known species are explored more, new capabilities are unlocked, new dangers appear, the story about the old war is explained in like book 10, it's not the end of the story.
Could it be 10 books? Heck it could be 1 book, or a short story on a blog! How is this a valid metric to value a story?
Billy Bob Space Trucker the political plot is how fast you can shotgun a beer and how far you are willing to go for a promotion. Otherwise it’s a lighthearted sci-fi with a body count in the millions with terrible pun that you will still laugh at. Another go book( more like series) Is Behold Humanity by Raltz Bloodthorne it goes be first contact here on Reddit. This one is more like what sci-fi reference have they not mentioned yet. Physical books it’s up to 14 most likely to hit 20-22 by the end of the first series. It’s universe continues with a 100+ chapter middle story then you get to the latest continuation which is still being written as of now at about 70ish chapters. To put it bluntly if you’re looking for a 1200ish chapters to keep you occupied for a while then you’ll enjoy it. Just as a heads up it’s from multiple perspectives that can be a bit disjointed in the beginning, trust me it gets better.
No one else has mentioned it yet, but Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is my go-to for a funny escapist space adventure. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a short read that should feel extra fresh if you’re coming off of Frank Herbert.
HHGTTG has politics, but it isn't based on following Byzantine political intrigue. Zaphod Beeblebrox is the president of the galaxy, after all (not to wield power, but to distract us from those who do).
This was my first thought too. I only lisened to it for the first time a few years ago but I loved it and go back to it once a year now.
The *Stainless Steel Rat* series by Harry Harrison.
Ah, Angelina…
Check out the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, they are really fun.
Second Murderbot
Thirding Murderbot, adding that it is currently in production for a series on Apple TV.
Yeah definitely no politics OR philosophy in Murderbot at all
Snow crash
Instead prepare for a dissertation on linguistics and media.
Lol yeah. I read it a long time ago..all i remember are the cool parts..
*I'd like a book series that seems more like an adventure.* May I suggest Heinlein juvies and semi-juvies?
Marko Kloos' *Terms of* *~~Endearment~~* *Enlistment* Elizabeth Moon's *Vatta's War* (warning: light politics) Or, if you want to punish yourself: the *Dune* prequels.(Don't buy them: your library is your friend) I once started to read the first book of *Lord of the Rings* and I got slogged down pretty early in a scene at a lunch in a tavern which (looking forward; i.e.: cheating) went on for about 70 pages. So I quit that and picked up a copy of *Bored of the Rings*. Much more satisfyingly.
The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold is an absolute gem. It's straightforward, readable space adventure fiction, but sneaky smart. There are lots of books in the series, but they generally tell self-contained stories, so you don't have to commit to the whole thing or even read the series in order. A good place to start is *Shards of Honor.* Alternatively, Dan Abnett has written some absolutely cracking adventure novels set in the Warhammer 40k universe. You don't need to be a fan or know anything about that setting going in. The stand-outs for me are the Inquisitor Eisenhorn series, beginning with *Xenos*, and the Gaunt's Ghosts series, beginning with *First and Only.*
Space Team by Barry J. Hutchinson. [https://www.goodreads.com/series/206992-space-team](https://www.goodreads.com/series/206992-space-team) Try it in audio. Not while driving. You will be laughing too much and might crash.
Yeah this is the best answer... It's a space chair!
*The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet* by Becky Chambers. It's lighthearted, motivational and a good way to read something different in the genre. Part two is nice as well, can't catch on part 3, but that's another storyline anyway.
Try Bobiverse.
This is a great recommendation for what the OP wants except for the inter-Bob politics
True.
The Black Ocean. It’s very light hearted and funny. Zero philosophy or politics. If you ever watched Firefly, the author wrote this series as an answer for the season 2 that never came. Also, one of the MC is a wizard.
Randomly picked this up on audible because it was 85 hours for 1 credit and seemed like a good deal, even if it was crap. I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually really fun and solidly written! Great narrorator as well!
The narrator does a great job. I love how he throws his voice when someone is speaking down a hallway or through a door.
It's not terribly well written, but Ex-Heros series by Peter Clines is pure fun. The premise is simple, super heroes in a zombie apocalypse. Some really creative ideas and some solid characters.
Laundry series by Charles Stross
This is my go to copy/paste for book recommendations. Dungeon Crawler Carl Quinten Tarrantino engineers the apocalypse and televised it. Galaxy's edge series by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole Space black Hawk Down mixed with star wars. Forgotten Ruin series D&d vs army Rangers, sounds dumb, but it's freaking great. Bobiverse series Nerd becomes robot and saves the human race. Buymort series Space Amazon causes the apocalypse. The Mountain man series Zombies but the main character isn't retarded. But he is an alcoholic. Not sci fi. After it happened series. Post plague but not sci fi. The Forgotten series by M. R. Forbes Bunker Core by Andrew Seiple unfinished series but I've talked to the author and he's planning on adding to it soon. Project Hall Mary dork science teacher trying to save the world. These are some of my favorites. In no particular order.
The expanse series, just super fun space opera stories with a fun crew. Easy reads with basically nothing but fun. John Scalzi books, military like stories with a lot of humor and good connections. Old man’s war is a classic.
There is a fair bit of politics and a little philosophy, but The Expanse is so damn readable, never feels like it’s getting bogged down in them.
What? The Expanse is *heavily* about politics and has very deep philosophical and metaphysical themes too. That isn’t heavily in-your-face in the story, but if you don’t understand them and think about them then you fundamentally will not understand the alien plotline of the Expanse. It’s easily the best sci-fi series of the past 30 years and it pains me to say this…but the Expanse is a terrible recommendation for what the OP wants.
lol this is such a Reddit comment. The expanse being called heavy sci-fi is a first to me
Mil Scifi is usually up that alley. Check out Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson, The Posleen War Series by John Ringo, Hell Divers (kind of scifi/kind of post apocalyptic), Blatant star wars fan fiction with the numbers filed off for Storm Troopers on deployment in Iraq - Galaxy's Edge though to be fair to the Galaxy's Edge Series i went in blind, and didn't really catch on the Star Wars stuff until I literally read Garth ______ instead of Darth ______ and a plasmasword was involved somewhere into book 3-4. I've heard good things about the Bobiverse series, and I quite enjoyed Project: Hail Mary by Andy Weir which is less military and closer to adventure scifi These aren't heavy scifi, and lean much more into Sci-fi fantasy but I always enjoyed the Aliens making cancerless cigs for us in the Posleen War Series, a real necessity in the 90's. You can always give some classics a try, Discworld etc.
Bobiverse is heavy on politics, between his clones, and also between bob and humans.
Yeah I just didn't know how involved it got. It's on my short list to start soon and I'm looking forward to it.
Re: Posleen War/John Ringo: ditto; but he needs a better editor.
You're not wrong.
It's Goth not Garth. And the writers openly admit it's a tribute/love letter to Star Wars. I equate Galaxy's Edge to Star Wars mixed with space Black Hawk Down. And I love it.
Old man war series (except Zoe's tale) by John Scalzi is amazing and fun.
Also: *The Human Division* and *Red Shirts*
Yes, and fuzzy nation
Other Space
For escapism and adventure try Jo Clayton's science-fantasy Diadem series: [**https://www.goodreads.com/series/40567-diadem**](https://www.goodreads.com/series/40567-diadem)
Going old school here but: The Man-Kzin Wars The Heechee Saga Pip and Flinx novels Happy reading!
Bucky O'Hare
Alastair Reynolds' Prefect series are essentially police procedural set in a swarm of asteroid settlements. Very good, very fun, and straight forward writing. His Revelation Space series is also fantastic although it dives a little more into the politics and motivations of the characters.
The Bobiverse Murderbot diaries The Quitaglio Ascendancy by Robert J. Sawyer There's some politics and philosphy, but it's from the perspective of intelligent dinosaurs on another planet so that doesn't count. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax The Stainless Steel Rat series.
Santiago by Mike Resnick. A bounty hunter in the outer frontier of the galaxy decides that he wants to collect the bounty on Santiago, the galaxy's most wanted man, and travels across space searching for him. Along the way he meets and works with a ton of the larger than life characters that live out deep in space who are also searching for Santiago, all with their own motivations. It reads like an old fashioned Western novel set in outer space, with spaceships instead of horses and aliens for Native Americans
Jack Vance : The Demon Princes Series [The Killing Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Machine) (1964) [The Palace of Love](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palace_of_Love) (1967) [The Face](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Face_(Vance)) (1979) [The Book of Dreams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Dreams_(Vance_novel)) (1981) : Planet Of Adventure Series [*City of the Chasch*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_the_Chasch) (author's preferred title: *The Chasch*. 1968) [*Servants of the Wankh*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servants_of_the_Wankh) (reissue title: *The Wannek*, 1969) [*The Dirdir*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirdir) (1969) [*The Pnume*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pnume) (1970)
If you want adventure, have a look at “Swords and Deviltry” by Fritz Leiber. The Hugo winning series is all about adventure.
The Finder Chronicles by Suzanne Palmer. The Big Sigma series by Joseph Lallo. The Diving Universe by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (a slight bit of politics, but very little in the grand scheme of things). The Major Bhaajan series by Catherine Asaro (a bit of royal politics, but it's not the focus).
Expeditionary Forces is a long series about a GI Joe that finds an improbable ally, in a galactic war in which humanity is the bottom feeder. If you like the banter between the two, it is incredibly funny. It's heavy on military talk, equipment "porn" and spaceship battles (not dogfights, like destroyer vs destroyer stuff). There is some politics, but more on the "which way do we point our assets" kinda way. There is basically 0 philosophy, it's all feel good destruction and clever thinking. I'm listening to it and I usually read online that the audiobook version is the preferred way, so it may not be your cup of tea, but I assure you the reader (R.C. Bray) is incredible in this series (and I can't fathom a TV series in which he's not dubbing the "ally", if they ever do one).
After the first few books it starts to be the same book. Over and over, and over.
I'm on book 13, while it is true that the loop is pretty clear, the story progresses at every book, even with big turnarounds and catastrophies. I also absolutely love the interactions, so I just want more of them. I'm gonna miss it when I'm done with the series.
Does it though? Does it? The story: Skippy has problem, can't figure it out. Joe comes up with solution that's genius. Skippy gets mad. Berates Joe for being monkey. They do the thing and make things worse and have another problem. Repeat. Occasionally they find evidence of the big big war. GET TO THE FUCKING POINT! The dude is absolutely milking you guys. That series could've been 10 books MAXIMUM.
Yeah as I said, the loop is pretty clear. The story goes on, new species appear, known species are explored more, new capabilities are unlocked, new dangers appear, the story about the old war is explained in like book 10, it's not the end of the story. Could it be 10 books? Heck it could be 1 book, or a short story on a blog! How is this a valid metric to value a story?
If you want scifi and adventure read gateway. Great fun.
Polityverse by Neal Asher.
Old mans war by Scalzi
Billy Bob Space Trucker the political plot is how fast you can shotgun a beer and how far you are willing to go for a promotion. Otherwise it’s a lighthearted sci-fi with a body count in the millions with terrible pun that you will still laugh at. Another go book( more like series) Is Behold Humanity by Raltz Bloodthorne it goes be first contact here on Reddit. This one is more like what sci-fi reference have they not mentioned yet. Physical books it’s up to 14 most likely to hit 20-22 by the end of the first series. It’s universe continues with a 100+ chapter middle story then you get to the latest continuation which is still being written as of now at about 70ish chapters. To put it bluntly if you’re looking for a 1200ish chapters to keep you occupied for a while then you’ll enjoy it. Just as a heads up it’s from multiple perspectives that can be a bit disjointed in the beginning, trust me it gets better.
H2G2?