Mass Effect, Star Trek, similar stuff, without the giant franchise money machine. To consume like popcorn.

One of my favourites is Spiral Wars by Joel Sheppard.

  • Ragica
    4·
    1 year ago

    I’m feeling a little old school tonight so I’m going to boost Rimrunners by C.J. Cherryh. May say #3 in a series, but all the books stand alone (they just share the same universe).

    • TroyOPM
      1·
      1 year ago

      Is it part of Alliance-Union? I’ve read a couple of hers and always enjoyed them, but they never felt ship-and-crew. Rimrunners, you say (… heads to Wikipedia… )

      • Ragica
        3·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, most Cherryh is not ship-and-crew in the sense you are talking about (though I loved the duct-tape feel of the ships in Heavy Time, iirc). Rimrunners might be the closest to what you are looking for though. And yep, it is Union-Alliance. For Cherryh, I guess maybe The Pride of Chanur would be ship-and-crew adventure? I can’t quite remember as it was long, long, long ago I read that stuff – who knows how well its aged. It’s cover doesn’t look super compelling to me these days. So I’m not recommending it. Ha ha.

      • Krististrasza@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        Yes, it is. Cherry writes about different topics in that universe. Some books are ship-and-crew like Merchanter’s Luck and Heavy Time, some like Cyteen or Downbelow Station aren’t. The Chanur books are as well, but they are a series.

        Also, Becky Chambers’ Long Way To A Small Angry Planet.

      • ragica@lemmy.ml
        2·
        1 year ago

        Spiral Wars by Joel Sheppard.

        I was just looking over some reader reviews of the first book in this series, and I noticed this: “Really nice story setting, oddly enough the background story reminded me of C.J. Cherryh’s Chanur novels, which is a good thing.” So maybe that is a recommendation after all?

      • heavyboots@lemmy.mlEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Very, very late to the party but ship and crew ones she’s written in the A-U universe are Rimrunners, Tripoint and Merchanter’s Luck. Heavy Time almost falls into the category too but it takes place mostly on-station after a mining expedition gone wrong with a little bit of flashback to ship and crew.