I feel like I wrote this post from time to time on Reddit and I think I'll start this tradition here. I'm. a Honor Harrington fan. I've read several other space operas and they always fall short. The three that came close were Lt. Leary, Kris Longknife and Vorkosigan saga. Lt. Leary was nice, but it failed on World building. Kris Longknife also failed on world building and had astronomical levels of cringe with aliens and plot, but I enjoyed it. Vorkosigan saga had better world building and it was nice overall, but the books without Miles Vorkosigan weren't enjoyable. There were other series that I enjoyed: Serrano Legacy, Vatta's War (those are some of my favorites but they were too short), Starship's mage (it declines with every new book), The Lost Fleet (it has a serious plot problem, the plot doesn't move forward), Old Man's War (it was really nice), Dread Empire Fall (also awesome), Teixcalaan (good, but short), Alarm of War (good, but short and pretty generic), Bobbiverse (I read until book 3, it isn't for me), Red Rising 1st trilogy (really nice, but too Hunger Gamish, this whole dividing society into a cast system is getting old), Ark Royal. The Three Body Problem was awesome and, contrary to most series, didn't leave me craving more after it was over. Edit: forgot to mention The Expanse, it was OK.
I think that what won me over on HH was the fact that she is a complete Mary Sue and other character don't fall far from the tree, there is a nice world building, characters die, and there is a ton of action.
On the other hand, there are some long books that I enjoy that aren't space operas. I really enjoy the Dresden Files (because he is cool and it is a long series), I absolutely love Jack Reacher (it is just a nice fun read, it's like a nice Big Mac), I also enjoy The Spellmonger series, and I enjoyed the Riyria. I disliked Takeshi Kovacs (lack of sequence and plot) and I absolutely hate Southern Reach (VanderMeer), and there is another popular sci-fi book that is written as a report, which I also hated. I don't like those very innovative mystery stories where you are trying to figure out wtf is going on or waiting for a plot to start until the middle of the book.
Got any suggestions? =)
(OMG, after writing this post, I see myself as an incredible hard reader to please)
Takeshi Kovachs is power fantasy, gary sue, erotica. The universe has an interesting premise, but utterly refuses to explore any of the implications properly.
It's explicitly stated that cortical stacks only record a mind, but cannot run one. But then how exactly does a mind get "written" to a body it didn't originate in? A brain IS its contents, you can't just swap out the harddrive and use the same CPU. A human brain is both storage medium and processor, but this fact is never dealth with. What if the human brain was overriden by a cortical stack running a mind? What if there was always an "original" trapped copy running on that wetware? So much more interesting, but all that potential detail is just handwaved off.
What happens if you install someone into a brain that's damaged? Does that person now have a brain damage related disability while in that body?
And the ever referenced "quellism", some newfangled ultimate ideology for achieving utopia, that is never ever actually explained or explored. And when the creator of that dogma appears, she's little more than a set of genitals for our dear main character to screw.
The best book in the series, is the second, dealing which with the ancient aliens that came before humans, and even in that one Takeshi hypno fingerbangs a woman out of her ptsd. What. The. Fuck. Maybe the netflix series skipping to the third book was for the best.
Even the second one was a slog to get through with plenty of slow parts throughout the book.
Oh yes. I'm sure I zoned out a lot listening to the audiobook while working.
I gave up on the second. I simply lost interest.