My two favorite SF series are The Expanse and The Three Body Problem. Both fit your FTL desire (the former a bit more directly)
Old Man's War by Scalzi, The Forever War by Haldeman, and Galaxy's Edge are good series that cover this. The last one not so much from the inception point of view though
Old Man's War by Scalzi
+1 for this. I read the series years ago, and absolutely loved it. I really don't see it talked about much though.
I think I've read both of the first two and confused them for the longest time, but they both were good
Not FTL, but speaker for the dead and the rest of that plot line is my favorite, and of course you can read enders game as well if you want continuity.
Thanks for making me remember these. I read Ender's Game as a teenager and loved it, but Speaker for the Dead really stuck with me, and it may be a bit hyperbolic to say, but I really feel like it had a huge impact on my perspective on life.
Same. Enders game and speaker for the dead et al. is the single most important work of fiction in my life :P I avoided the movie for years because of it
If you want a really light but fun read (and a long series) the Omega Force books are a lot of fun. It feels like a Guardians of the Galaxy type story but in some ways even better. The books are on the shorter side and there are a lot of them (just finished the 14th) I find them to be a nice pallet cleanser between heavier sci-if stories.
Have you checked out The Expanse series? I think it's 8 primary books, with like 4 optional novellas. Its not exactly what you're looking for, but it does deal with some of what you're interested in. It was also turned into a pretty good TV show.
I've actually read the first three books and really enjoyed it. Somewhere down the line I forgot about the series somehow. I'll add that to the list for sure.
9 books, with I believe also 9 novellas. 6 seasons of a show that cover the first 6 books. A video game coming out as well as some comic books.
Books 3-6 very much deal with the premise of humanity discovering FTL travel and what happens to the political landscape when they do.
Fantastic series. Definitely recommend.
I'm currently going through Niven's work. I'd suggest The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is also an amazing book if you haven't read it yet.
One more suggestion: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
+1 for Project Hail Mary, one of the few books that can make me forget to sleep on a weekdays to finish it
I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, just couldn't put it down and it is similar enough to OP's prompt to recommend to them.
It's not a book but if you enjoyed Project Hail Mary you might enjoy For All Mankind on Apple TV. It has a similar vibe of engineers and tech driving the plot balanced with looking at the human costs of a rapidly advancing space program both on and off Earth
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