Modern Epic Sci Fi series?

[Morwaul]

Hello, I could use a little help.  I occasionally (dis)grace the Paranormal board but I am getting a bit tired or all the Vamps, Weres, and whatnot and would like to try a Sci Fi series.  I have never really read Sci Fi except for stuff from when I was in school years ago.  I did some searching and did read the first three books of the Culture series by Iain Banks as it was highly recommended but I would prefer a series that centers around one character or a group of characters like an epic fantasy series.  I would also like something written fairly recently (10 or 15 years old at most) if possible.  I may be limiting myself but I cannot see reading a Sci Fi series written on a typwriter by someone who had never seen laser pens, LCDs, cordless drills, computer games, the Internet, etc.  

If there is already a thread on this and I missed it just point me to it if you don't mind.

Thanks

[Omnigeek]

Morwaul --

How epic do you need to be?  What constitutes "epic" in your mind?  I usually think of an epic as one long continuous story -- sort of like The Lord of the Rings or the Harry Potter series.  If you're looking for something like that, you might like to try Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series.  On the other hand, if you mean a connected series of stories that pull together in the spirit of high adventure, try David Weber's Honor Harrington series -- it's a SF rendition of the Horatio Hornblower saga centered around a single character or continuity but with classic SF elements like a telepathic/empathic alien species coupled with hard hitting military fiction.

You might also want to revise your opinion of SF written before laser pens, LCDs, etc.  Much SF is independent of the technology so Isaac Asimov's Foundation series still holds together today as does Frank Herbert's Dune.  Nearly all of Robert Heinlein's Future History stories still read as well today as they did 30-40 years ago despite the occasional outdated reference to book spools and tapes.  If you want to stay with a single character, try his Lazarus Long stories starting with Methuselah's Children and continuing with Time Enough for Love then To Sail Beyond the Sunset and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.  I found The Number of the Beast to be a bit off-putting but am in the midst of rereading Heinlein's works to see if it improved as I aged (I find most of them are as enjoyable now as they were when I was younger).

I also recommend Gordon Dickson's Dorsai saga although it's more of a chronicle of an entire people than story about one person or group of people.  Ben Bova has a number of multi-volume series that you might want to consider.

[BrandieC]

@Morwaul:

There is a previous thread which might be helpful to you:

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Fantasy-Science-Fiction/RT-Nominees-in-Sci-Fi-Fantasy-amp-Epi...

Also, although not all of the recommendations may fit with your request for "modern" epic series, there is this thread "sticky noted" to the top of this board:

http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Fantasy-Science-Fiction/The-Best-Epic-Fantasy-Novels-and-Seri...

Happy reading!

[MacMcK1957]

If you want epic, I can think of a few series that I have enjoyed so much I anxiously awaited the next book:

Ender's Game (Ender Wiggin Series #1)  

For Love of Mother Not (Pip and Flinx Adventure Series #1)  

A Talent for War (Alex Benedict Series #1)  

[RHWright]

Even though it's not "recent," my go-to sci-fi epic series still has to be Herbert's original Dune series.

Some don't care for the more recent prequels penned by his son & Kevin Anderson (I do), but they really don't make much sense or have much importance if you haven't read the originals anyway.

[infael]

I like Allen Steele's Coyote books. About colonizing another planet and an eventual break from Earth.

[jmroyalty]

RAMA by Arthur C. Clarke

 Or you can read mine, Ursa Minor by Jonathan Royalty

[patgolfneb]

I don't know that there are a lot of hard Sci Fi epics in recent years. The epic stuff tends to slide closer to fantasy. Coming from paranormal David Weber has several series. You might take a look at the sub genre of military SF. Most of the epic stuff, Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Silverberg, Anne McCaffery (Dragonriders of Pern) is older. Dystopian stuff is dominating right now.

[Morwaul]

Thank You everyone for all the suggestions.  

@Omnigeek.  Yes, exactly.  By Epic I mean one long continuous story.  I will take a look at the Lazuras Long series for sure.

@BrandiC.  I already looked through some of the Epic Fantasy Series Post but I found that it mostly contained Epic Fantasy or if there was Epic Sci Fi mixed in I couldn't make it out.  I did check out the other link though. Thanks

@jmroyalty.  Wow, an author actualy responded to my post.  I will definatley check out your book.

@everyone.  Once again, thanks for the responses.  I noticed several people mentioned Dune.  I never considered it as I have seen both the movie and miniseries.  I imagine the books are much better however.  I will take a look at it and some of the other suggestions.  Maybe I will try some of the older stuff.  In fantasy I found that I like the modern authors more that the classics and though I figured the difference would be even worse with Sci Fi, maybe it will not be.

[Omnigeek]

Morwaul --

You can't even compare the Dune book(s) to the movies.  Try reading the first one and see where that takes you.

If you're looking for one long continuous story, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, Crystal Singer, and Rowan series are all excellent as is the two-volume Pegasus storyline.  I still recommend you look at Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant pentology.

David Weber and John Ringo had a very nice trilogy.  I think the first book was March Upcountry, followed by March to the Sea and March to the Stars and ending with We Few.

Jerry Pournelle had a nice shared continuity called War World but that's not a single continuous story as you were looking for.

Ben Bova's Voyagers series looks pretty promising but I haven't cracked it open yet.  He also has a Grand Tour series that sounds fantastic -- again, haven't got started on that one yet.

[Toast101]

My strongest suggestion is David Weber's Honor Harrington series.

My others are Lois Mcmaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series, Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet Series, and John Ringo's Troy Series is good too.

[Htom_Serveaux]

Hmm.  No Ringworld?  Core set of characters (for the first three, anyway), an expansive unexplored area, strange new civilizations, a quest, a war....

The original falls outside your "recent" requirement, but several of the latter ones fit.  As has been pointed out, this is often not a problem, I think especially with Larry Niven, who was pretty meticulous in most of his science.

At any rate, it's my suggestion for epic science-fiction.

Ringworld (Known Space Series) 

The Ringworld Engineers (Known Space Series) 

The Ringworld Throne (Known Space Series) 

Ringworld's Children (Known Space Series)     

Ditto on Dune, at least the first book, if not the first three.  The filmed adaptations really tell you nothing about the written works.  A completely different experience.  It's too bad the first (or only) impression so many have of Dune are these films.

[CryHavoc]

Hyperion

[MacFlash]

How about Scalazi's Old Man's War series:

Old Man’s War (2005)
The Ghost Brigades (2006)
The Last Colony (2007)
Zoe’s Tale (2008)

 Haldeman's Forever War Series:

• The Forever War (1974) - Nebula Award winner, 1975;[11] Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1976[9]
• Forever Peace (1997) - Hugo, Nebula and Campbell Awards winner, placed third in annual Locus Poll[14]
• Forever Free (1999)

Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought series:

Zones of Thought series

• A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) — Nebula Award nominee, 1992;[12] Hugo Award winner, 1993;[3] Campbell and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1993[3]
• A Deepness in the Sky (1999) — Nebula Award nominee, 1999;[13] Hugo,[4] Campbell,[4] and Prometheus Awards winner, 2000; Clarke and Locus SF Awards nominee, 2000[4]
• Children Of The Sky (October 2011)

[Ya_Ya]

I have to echo the suggestion of the Ender's Game Series and also suggest its companion series, Ender's Shadow series , although it's a little less sci-fi and more speculative military fiction...  (Is that a genre?!?)