[Gloomshade]

I've recently started reading science fiction books since I've just about read anything fantasy related already. Unfortunately, science fiction doesn't appear to be that popular of a genre. I've read the Honor Harrington series by David Weber which turned out to be a good space opera series, but I haven't been able to find any similar books since. I'm not really interested in Star Trek or Dune, but there must be another space epic series that someone has heard about?

[heavensstrike]

My most favorite is the Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow series by Orson Scott Card. In terms of Japanese, try Crest/Banner of the Stars (translated into English).

[alcaray]

Space. Well I've been reading scifi since the 60s and I've got a large collection of favorites.

One of my all-time favorite series is 'Pride of Chanur' by Cherryh. Amazingly well defined alien cultures. If you find you like Cherryh, then she wrote a several books set in a millieu usually called the company wars. They are mainly separate books but many of them feed into each other or describe events you've already heard about. I think that 'Cyteen' has a direct sequel, now.

-edit- ps: If you go for the company wars books you should probably read them in something like publication order.

Card's 'Ender's Game' is a great novel and it has 2 sequels, as well. There's also a spin-off series based on a character named Bean.

Dan Simmons' 'Olympos' series is kinda mind-blowing. Far-future/space/greek history+mythology mix. Really wierd stuff. Loved it.

Have fun!

Ooh! Ooh! I remembered another wierd favorite: Two books named 'The Smoke Ring' and 'The Integral Trees' by Larry Niven. I forget which comes first. The series is set in a habitat made by a column of gas orbiting a star, rather than on a planet. Strange physics.

[gaunt]

i highly recomend peter f hamilton's
"night's dawn trilogy" or the "gaunt's ghost's" novels by dan abnett.

[mooper]

peter f hamilton void series, night dawn series

thomas deprima a galaxy unknown series

mike resnick mutiny series

jack campbell lost fleet series (most realistic in my mind)

tony ballantyne recurion

all i can think of right now

[chicanerous]

Although not really in the same vein as the Honor Harrington series, I'd highly recommend:

Iain M. Bank's The Culture novels (starts with Consider Phlebas)
Joan D. Vinge's The Snow Queen series

The Culture novels are space opera. They're also (mostly) self-contained novels set at different points in a vast galactic civilization's history. The Snow Queen series are a continuous story in four novels. It might be considered space opera, but it's more accurately planetary romance. There's still, of course, travel and interaction between multiple planets with civilization-wide epic stakes. Both series are excellent.

These are fantastic military science fiction:

Joe Haldeman's The Forever War
John Scalzi's Old Man's War series

Of course:

Issac Asimov's Foundation series

On my to-read list are:

Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and its sequels
Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama and its sequels.

Space opera anime: Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Gundam, Macross, Crest of the Stars, Toward the Terra, Tytania, etc.

[master_tonberry]

also the saga of seven suns series by Kevin J Anderson is proably a good example of what you're looking for.

Although its not like you don't already have plenty to be going on with.

[digritz]

I'll go with heavensstrike on this. Ender's series are awesome. Hell anything by Orson Scott Card is going to be good.

Also Greg Bear is another favorite, though his work can be heady at times.

As for my favorite that would have to be from Harry Harrison The Stainless Steel Rat series, AKA slippery Jim diGritz. Hence my moniker.

For a twist of sci-fi and fantasy try Anne Mccaffrey's Dagonriders of Pern. Although this series, at first glance, may appear to be fantasy it's not. As the story progresses the ppl of Pern rediscover the lost tech that first brought them to this world.

[BlackSheep]

Since alcaray mentioned Dan Simmons, I just wanted to share a bit of anime trivia - in Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, when Nagato gives Kyon that book to read, I could tell by the cover art that it's Dan Simmons' Hyperion, which is the first of a series of 4 books which I thought were really great, though not quite as outlandish as the "Olympos" series.

BTW - another great sci-fi anime - Starship Operators. Not the best plot or characters, but the technology side of it is really interesting.

[Khalim]

Science fiction is an extremely popular genre. While it's difficult to make a good science fiction work in cinema or television because of the vast amount of special effects, props, and research it requires, as a literary genre it is way too easy to lose your way in an ocean of mediocre works and then stumble upon the gem that makes you realize your last fifty reads were a waste of your synapses.

I recommend starting with the classics: H.G. Wells; Arthur C. Clarke; Isaac Asimov; Stanislaw Lem...
You're better off reading everything you can get your eyes on these people wrote and realizing by yourself which are the true masterpieces.

After that just check wikipedia for "science fiction" and go from there, you'll drown in the sheer amount of different sub-genres and relative oceans of writers.