The Expanse also has realistic space combat.

Realistic but the scope is completely different. The Expanse theater is limited to our solar system, so ships are still moving relatively slow. In the Lost Fleet, the theater is across many star systems where capital ships move at around .2C. I can't recall if they ever detailed how fast the ships go in the Expanse, but it was still a considerable time distance to travel between the planets. In comparison, our space shuttle now traveling at 25,000 mph is 0.00004C.

For the most part though, I would recommend The Expanse over The Lost Fleet, but it's not quite right to even compare the two. The Expanse is just a really good story (only a small portion is space combat). The Lost Fleet is all about getting your naval space combat fix in, but it's not life changing or anything. I'm 11 books into the series and still enjoy it.

Looking at my tracked series, here are a few lesser known ones that I have enjoyed:

Iron Druid Chronicles - Kevin Hearne: modern fantasy with comedic flare. All the mythological gods and figures are real (Norse, Irish, Roman, werewolves, vampires, Jesus, etc) with their power coming from humanity's faith. One of the books is focused on killing Thor, mainly because he's a big jerk. All in all, the series is a fun read. Not a great read, but fun none the less. Hearne also wrote the recent Heir to the Jedi novel, to mixed reviews.

Odyssey One - Evan Currie: Future Military stuff. Takes place after WW3 and humanity is starting to venture beyond our solar system only to find we're completely out-gunned. The only thing we have going for us is that our society has evolved from constant war with ourselves, so humanity's weaponry is more effective even though its ridiculously under powered. Again, not a great read, but enjoyable.

Ghost Fleet - P.W. Singer / August Cole: A novel of the next world war. Not a series (yet) and just came out about a week ago. I just finished it yesterday and I found it quite enjoyable. It takes place in the near future and is about China/Russia launching a sneak attack against the US to primarily secure the Pacific for resources. It combines the latest trends in tech to imagine what the war of the near-future (nothing super advanced, more like militarized quadcopters). It has its problems, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I read the first Lost Fleet book and wasn't really impressed, but that might be because I'd just read "Through Struggle, the Stars", by John Lumpkin, which was freaking incredible. Best hard sci-fi space combat I've ever encountered, great geopolitical backdrop for everything, no "smart good guys, dumb bad guys" tropes.

The first space combat witnessed in the book is between two smallish Chinese and Japanese ships. The observers were really interested in measuring the "counterbattery" response time, basically the time it takes for small defensive lasers to target and blow out the main focusing mirrors of the primary weapon lasers. If this sounds as awesome to you as it did to me, you should go find this book ASAP.

The Martian was also great. I thing Matt Damon is a good choice for the main character.

Incredible exactly why ? With ships closing in to dish it out like in Startrek, and all those silly ideas about targeting ships and stealth. Lost Fleets version is way more real.

It was incredible for two main reasons. First, there was a huge amount of thought put into the how different types of weapons would be used in a battle. Guns can't really hit at long range, but are used to shape the battle by forcing the enemy to maneuver. Missiles have great range and power, but are susceptible to point defenses, Lasers have range and power also, but they take a little time to do their damage, so can be have their sensitive optics damaged in turn. The interplay between ship movmement, weapon abilities, and overall mission is very well thought out.

The second reason it's great is that every skirmish is in the context of its ramifications on the war. Most of the fights are small scale, but you get a really good understanding of how they fit into an overall strategy. In one of the rare big fights, everything goes to crap for once side, and it looks like it's going to be a route, but one of the smaller ships slips through and blows up an enemy fuel dump, forcing the winning fleet to use high efficiency maneuvers and allowing the losers to keep harassing them. There's always an eye on the big picture.

Ranges in TSTS is closer than in Lost Fleet because tech is lower, but it's certainly not Star Trek close, and there's definitely not stealth.

I just started ready player one because of this thread. And I ordered leviathan from the library.

My wife hates you all because now my head is stuck in a book I can't put down.

Oh... u know, Hate is Love... kinda...

They showed the pilot episode of Syfy's The Expanse at comicon and the reviews give me high hopes. There's some divergences already, like Avasarala showing up day one instead of only being introduced in book 2. She's one of my favorite characters in the book though, so I don't mind.

They should bombard Venus from orbit... Xenos should be purged

If you're into Warhammer 40k(and even if you're not), the Eisenhorn series by Dan Abnett is incredible.

Just picked up Armada today! Now I need to hurry up and finish Book 2 of the Lost Fleet (Fearless) so I can start on Armada tonight!

I found the book "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez to be a good read. Read it on my flight to California two weeks ago. I had the sequel "Freedom" come in the mail yesterday and I'm almost halfway through. Will polish it off tonight at the rate I'm reading it. I would also recommend his book "Influx".

Another book that I have read is "The Unincorporated Man" by the Kollins brothers. Very entertaining to read.

Correction: Armada is not a sequel to Ready Player One.

It's just a similar theme and the same author.

More importantly RP1 never touched on any 90's space combat movies or games. This book does so extensively.

Yeah I'm only a few chapters into Armada but it takes place in basically present day timeframe - the only similarity to RP1 is the Author. Still I like the writing style so it still seems to be enjoyable so far.

One book series i can recommend (particularly for horror fans and cameo spotters) is the 'anno dracula' series.

Basically its the plot of dracula but in the end instead of being defeated he wins and creates a victorian empire with an undead 'overclass', sherlock holmes is in a concentration camp (along with anyone else a threat to the prince consort) and its up to a small band of secret service types to try and stop Vlads tyranny.

I've not actually sold it very well there but its actually bloody brilliant (no pun intended)

The follow ups 'bloody red baron' (set in wwi) and 'dracula cha cha cha (50s/60s with james bond in it no less) is also jolly good fun.

Finished Armada earlier this week, and thought it wasn't even as enjoyable as the plodding but enthusiastic Ready Player One. It namechecked so many better works (like Ender's Game and Star Wars), but clearly wanted to be The Last Starfighter. I much, much prefer Pierce Brown's Red Rising (previously recced in this thread), Ender's Game (obviously), and John Scalzi's (cough Heinlein fanfic) Old Man's War series for the kind of accessible but intense space opera/military science fiction.

Yea Armada wasn't nearly as good as Ready Player One, but it was alright. It'll make a fantastic movie with the right director and writers.

One book series i can recommend (particularly for horror fans and cameo spotters) is the 'anno dracula' series.

The follow ups 'bloody red baron' (set in wwi) and 'dracula cha cha cha (50s/60s with james bond in it no less) is also jolly good fun.

And fore more Kim Newman fictional character namedropping action check out:

The Hound of the D'urbervilles.

Ever wondered what Prof. Moriarty got up to while he wasn't getting hounded by Sherlock Holmes?

This book tells it all. If you are a fan of the League of extraordinary gentlemen comic book series you should give it a try have picked it up already.

The humor in Newman's Holmes satires is much too dark for me to really enjoy. I prefer Laurie R. King's Holmes and Russell mysteries (at least the first three or four - they get a bit shallow after that).

I finished Armada today. Wasn't really impressed with the book as a whole, especially after reading great books like Ready Player One, and The Martian. All in all it wasn't BAD though, it just seemed really slow all the way up until the last few chapters. It ended well however.

Thing that drove me crazy was all the military errors. Enlisting to become a commissioned officer, Captains saluting Lieutennants... and a General getting promoted to Admiral? That sort of thing pisses me off. If you are making a military book, please have a military consultant read it over first.

See also: This book desperately wants to be The Last Starfighter.

I finished Armada today. Wasn't really impressed with the book as a whole, especially after reading great books like Ready Player One, and The Martian. All in all it wasn't BAD though, it just seemed really slow all the way up until the last few chapters. It ended well however.

Thing that drove me crazy was all the military errors. Enlisting to become a commissioned officer, Captains saluting Lieutennants... and a General getting promoted to Admiral? That sort of thing pisses me off. If you are making a military book, please have a military consultant read it over first.

I'm about a third of the way through Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson and really enjoying it. It just came out. It's about the first human generation ship arriving at its target home.

That reminds me of an old sci fi story: The first colonist ship finaly arives at it's destination and the colonists wake up out of cryo-suspenion only to find that FTL drives were discovered shortly after their ship was launched and the planet they were underway to has been colonised for decades now.

I'm about a third of the way through Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson and really enjoying it. It just came out. It's about the first human generation ship arriving at its target home.

If you want a depressing slog through various really good reasons why earth may be our only viable habitat then read Aurora. It was good, but man...so depressingly despairing.

If you want a slightly more upbeat view of humans living somewhere else try out Seveneves. It's great fun.

Go read the first three Dune books. Herbert is great.