SF series that most closely resembles Mass Effect?

[INeedAUserName]

I know, a slightly strange request. But I couldn't think of a better comparison than the game series, as to the type of series I'm looking for.

Basically, any recommendations for a sci-fi (or perhaps Mass Effect is more space opera?) series that involves exploration, some action -- whether it be ground-based or space battles -- and includes following a heroic figure or figures as they try and defend humanity against an impending evil.

Ironically, the actual novels in the ME universe aren't what I'm looking for, as they don't really contain the same interesting things the game has.

[hawkeyye]

Peter F. Hamilton's Nights Dawn series.

[Werthead]

Peter F. Hamilton's work, definitely. Mass Effect draws inspiration from quite a few sources, most of them from TV (there are elements of Farscape, Deep Space Nine, Blake's 7, the new Battlestar Galactica and, most prominently, Babylon 5 in the ME universe), but I'd say that Hamilton is probably the closest overall to them. Fred Saberhagen's Beserker series does have a few of the same tropes, however.

[INeedAUserName]

Thanks. Looks like that's the series I'll pick up after I'm done with Abercrombie's stuff.

[Charles.Dunphey]

I've heard the EVE series is pretty good. It's based on the online game series. Idk if that helps at all. Ha

[INeedAUserName]

Finished reading the Reality Dysfunction. Overall, it was a fun read. Despite being over 1000 pages, it didn't seem to take long to finish.

A couple of minor issues with the book:

1-Sex was a bit too ... overt. I'm not against sex scenes in novels, or even over the top, graphic descriptions of them. But these ones seemed almost ... silly in that two characters would just meet, then two pages later they're rolling around naked. It just seemed like every single character was a sex addict and had to sleep with any person they talked to.

2-Did they even hire anyone to edit this book? Dear God, there were so errors in this book it was like the author's 8 year old child proofread it. Between typos to spelling errors to bad sentence structure, it detracted from the flow of the novel.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise, the characters, and the action/story. Looking forward to the second book in the series. Hopefully they made enough from sales of the first novel to actually hire an editor this time around.

[Isaac Law]

Some works by A. E. van Vogt have similar things. Aliens, Hyperspace Travel, Galactic Warriors and so on. If I'm not mistaking.

[Werthead]

1-Sex was a bit too ... overt. I'm not against sex scenes in novels, or even over the top, graphic descriptions of them. But these ones seemed almost ... silly in that two characters would just meet, then two pages later they're rolling around naked. It just seemed like every single character was a sex addict and had to sleep with any person they talked to.

The book is set 600 years in the future, and Hamilton's assumption is that sex is simply much less of a taboo and big deal than it is now. That said, there's a lot less in the next two books as there's not much time for it whilst the universe is going to hell

2-Did they even hire anyone to edit this book? Dear God, there were so errors in this book it was like the author's 8 year old child proofread it. Between typos to spelling errors to bad sentence structure, it detracted from the flow of the novel.

Interesting. The UK edition is pretty much flawless, but the American editions I think are more problematic. The recent one-volume editions (the original US publication was in six volumes rather than three for some reason) had the type reset, IIRC, which introduced new errors to the books.

Overall, I enjoyed the premise, the characters, and the action/story. Looking forward to the second book in the series. Hopefully they made enough from sales of the first novel to actually hire an editor this time around.

Hamilton is now the biggest-selling SF author in the UK and one of the biggest in the world, so the money wasn't the issue

[Cbrons]

I almost fell out of my chair when i read this thread title. I wanted to find a series like ME and that is why i googled "science fiction forums." amazing.

Why is it that videogames have the best stories? Mass effect had me so enraptured by the different alien races, the citadel, the mass relay, the ancient alien history w/ the protheans, etc. Just amazing, really

http://io9.com/5886178/why-mass-effe...our-generation