![Great NEW Commander For Warcrow? Hegemony Mounted Hetman Review | Corvus Belli [7 Days Early Access]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/12/unboxing-corvus-belli-warcrow-hegemony-mounted-hetman-coverimage-225-127.jpg)
Get Inspired! Essential Reading for Your Game – Sci-Fi Books
August 13, 2015 by dracs
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
oh so many sci fi books that I think would be great back ground material, The Forever War, The Puppet Masters, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, and so on and so on, the ones you mentioned Sam are a good read.
Neuromancer! No, wait, R. Talsorian Games already did that and published it to boot!
A game that could ape the space combat in the nights dawn trilogy wothout being horrifically boring would be ace.
Dune is my fave book, comparable to a medieval or GoT political environment in space.
A must read.
There was also talk of director Peter Berg doing a reboot of it as hes a huge fan.
Given the quality of the source material and present day film making it could be just short of mind blowing to watch if done right.
Would love to see mass battles with soldiers using the Holtzman shields among other futuristic weapons described in the books.
I guess there is no such thing as a bad book. All bring good and bad but more importantly shape your concepts and ideas of what does and doesn’t work for you. Two contrasting novels I enjoyed are Harry Harrison’s Death world series, Ben Bova’s The Winds of Altair from many years ago which were ahead of their times and more recently Harry Turtledoves Colonization. The first two are of man fighting against and working in harmony with nature. The final one an alternate reality of invasion during the WW2 conflict. I look forward to readings others comments to add a few new ones to my list.
Everything and anything by Peter Hamilton. Especially the Commonwealth Saga twin volumes and Void Trilogy. Happy reading
Funnily enough, I’m 140 pages into The Reality Dysfunction (my first Hamilton) at the moment. It feels a little all over the place at the minute but I’m sure it will all come together!
Yeah there’s a lot going on in his books. They’re a nightmare if you can’t read them all in one go. Having to wait a year or more for the next book in a series meant a bit of a refresher was required.
Over halfway through now and I’m loving it. Totally not what I was expecting but that’s a good thing.
looks like a reading list from my fiction module when i did my degree:-)
been looking forward to seeing the series of Man in the high castle when it hits amazon prime:-)
Polish mastermind Stanislav Lem is probably the most overlooked author within the genre. The man has quite something to show for a lives work. Its wise and entertaining. Not a Prachett of Sci-Fi, but I love em both.
The Crystal Singer by Ann McCaffrey.
The Forge of God by Greg Bear.
I read most of Asimov when I was a kid, but no idea how I’d feel about them as an adult.
Fantastic timing! I’m a bit of a fantasy devotee by nature but having read a few good contemporary Sci-fi authors recently my thoughts have been turning to the stars. Will definitely take a look at some of those suggestions – have read Dune and know the others by reputation but never gone any further. I’ll look forward to seeing any forthcoming suggestions in the comments too.
Looking forward to the fantast list already too – might be a bit more useful there 🙂
I’ve always liked the hard sci-fi take on a long-term interstellar war presented by Larry Niven’s Multi-author Man-Kzin wars anthologies.
Oh, and Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger (heck, the whole Humanx Commonwealth series, really)
Yes, I’m an Old Grognard. Get off my Lawn.
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher would make a good skirmish game
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison is possibly the hardest story I ever read but its very post apocalyptic giant computer takes over the world stuff… But not for the casual reader
Great story! Makes Skynet look like Frank Spencer.
I thought that was Paranoia…
I thought it was Google.
Another shout for Neuromancer! The main reason I opted for Nomads in Infinity.
Iain M Banks did some awesome stuff – The Player of Games and Excession are awesome. I’d also mention Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds. Dark, nasty, bleak and incredible.
props for recomending Revelation Space, now thats good stuff!
Iain M Banks has some great books. I too recommend Player of Games. Not only is it a really good book in its own right, for anyone with an interest in games i.e. virtually anyone reading this, it just has a whole extra level of awesome!
In 2012 I tried designing a tactical space combat game that really took a hard look at actual astrophysics and the true scale of space (forget radar, forget radio communication, no Star Wars, Star Trek, or even David Weber “Honor” series stuff, etc). The game was a success at the gaming club, and one guy mentioned that it reminded him a lot of a series canned “LOST FLEET,” which Warren has mentioned a few times.
I checked out the first novel, and while I’m not really a fan of the universe they set up, I definitely have to give the book mad props for taking an intelligent, “science faction” approach to the actual scales and relativistic properties of interstellar space. If someone hasn’t designed a game for Lost Fleet (or something similar), I hope they do soon.
It just kills me in Star Trek when the warp drive fails. Instead of getting to their destination in “5 hours,” it’s now something like “four and a half days” . . . as opposed to 450,000 years. Do you people know what SPACE actually IS??
What I love in Star Trek is that their engines fail, and instead of just barreling on forever they grind to a halt. I suppose that’s due to what, road friction…? Oncoming wind?
So how did your game designing go? I’m working on some little indie projects. A lot of fun, but a logistical nightmare at the same time… finding artwork is the main problem! Nobody looks at a game these days unless it looks like it cost $300,000 to decorate.
The game I built was strictly “made to order” for the gaming group we had at the time. In that sense, it was a great success, it hit all the right buttons for tactical starship combat . . for my “demographic” of four people. No aliens, no FTL communication, no wormholes or jump gates or anything like that. We did have FTL travel, but at relatively modest speeds (no pun intended). We had scouts, couriers, corvettes and gunboats that could push x1,000 c, but the actual combat warships usually used were limited to about x300 c. So a trip to the nearest star is still about 5 days.
The thing that worked best about the game were the Excel spreadsheets that allowed players to very quickly and “accurately” build their own starships. Engines, armor, about 280 different types and sizes of weapons, shields, ECM, bridge/CIC systems, fighter bays, scouts, marines, ground assault ships, infantry and ground vehicles, 12 “levels” of FTL drives, weapons firing arcs, etc. Everything was balanced against available power and you wound up with your ship’s maneuverability and available net thrust.
Anyway, I can’t talk about the whole project here. It was almost a victim of its own success, we kept adding more and more to it until it basically started to collapse under its own weight. I always wanted to return to it for a “page-one rewrite,” making the game much faster and simpler to play.
…how do phasers fire while at warp?
I’d have to add enders game and the first 2 or 3 books of the shadow series, all written by Orson scott Card, to this list, Hell part of the stories is wargames, some of it being fleet based wargames.
When asked how fast the Enterprise can actually travel Gene Roddenbery responded with “it travels at the speed of plot”.
“It just kills me in Star Trek when the warp drive fails. Instead of getting to their destination in “5 hours,” it’s now something like “four and a half days” . . . as opposed to 450,000 years. Do you people know what SPACE actually IS??”
@oriskany Shhhhh… 😉
Foundation still rules for me. I’d chuck Peter F. hamilton and Larry Niven into the ring as names for consideration.
The first two Foundation books, for me, were awesome. The third – I could tell the series was turning south. The Fourth – started it and gave up. I will let Foundation remain an unfinished masterpiece for me.
Love The Mote in God’s Eye and Ringworld by Larry Niven.
You beat me to it recommending The Mote in God’s Eye! Though it was slightly ruined for me when a friend spotted the book and asked why I was reading a book on God’s cataracts 😉
The Mote In God’s Eye was a terrific read. I’m not sure why that stood out for me so much but I just loved the idea of stumbling onto a threat you suddenly realise you can’t contain.
Foundation had an awesome scale. Something that couldn’t be contained by one or two characters. It just pips Olaf Stapledon for me for having a little more direction.
Dresden Files, the Vatta’s War series by Elizabeth Moon and of course the Republic Commando books by Karen Traviss which I hope that @warzan will one day take off the BoW shelf and read 😉
Not htat anyone ever listens to my suggestions but here are my favourites if you want stuff that will blow your mind :
“Star Maker” – Olaf Stapledon (By far the BEST and most ambitious SF book EVER. Period)
– A history of the entire universe from beginnng to end with mind blowing concepts, ideas and civilizations and cultures that are truely alien.
“Last and first men” – Olaf Stapledon
– practically all of transhumanism can be traced back to this one.
“Mission of Gravity” – Hal Clement
Hard SF set on an oblate planet. The main character happens to be an alien centipede.
“Dragon’s Egg” – Robert L Forward
History of an alien race that live on a dying neutron star. Very hard SF with good aliens.
“Ring” – Stephen Baxter
Part of the amazing XeeLee trilogy. The ring itself is an escape hatch out of the universe and it is made from a cosmic string turned into a loop. Really hard SF that explains what the great attractor is, dark matter creatures that inhabit gravity wells of stars, sub-quantum civilisations that exist in the first nano-seconds afte the big bang and a war that is long as the universe itself.
Still waiting for that “Primeval Abyssal” to come out, @abstractalien . . . 😉
Yeah, I need to get back to sculpting – health problems have held me back a bit the past few months so haven’t had much energy for it sadly.
Oh I really want to read XeeLee – found an omnibus in my local bookshop, but it was all dog-eared and yet strangely full price. I should have bitten the bullet and just gone for it,
was it orange with a black ship on the front? That’s the one I got and I loved it. The XeeLee really kick ass. Along with Stapledon, Baxter is my SF god.
Ian M Banks (the same Ian Banks in Sci-Fi mode) and his Culture series.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture
The Hyperion books by Dan Simmons are really good.
Hell yes. Can you imagine fielding the Shrike?
“Hits on a 1. Wounds on a 1. Oh, I rolled a 6. You’re now pinned to a tree of spikes. Sorry.”
I’m surprised noone mentioned Ender’s Game.
I did, 🙂
I should read more. 🙁
Rendezvous with Rama is a book i periodically go back to. Fantastic concept by Arthur C. Clark. The rest of the series doesnt reach the same standards as the first, unfortunately. Another author overlooked is Piers Anthony with his memiors of a Space Tyrant. Generally agree with the list that everyone has suggested so far – I loves me sci-fi!!
Was about to suggest Rendezvous with Rama 🙂
I’m gonna heed your caution about the Rama sequels. Rendezvous was great and I don’t want to spoil the Universe that lives in my imagination.
Rendezvous is definitely one of the best Hard SF novels of all time.
What about the greatest sci-fi novel of all time, H.G. Wells’ swat of the worlds?
War of the worlds. Stupid iPad autocorrect!
Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons. Also anything Isaac Asimov, I loved the Empire series
The foundation series, pebble in the sky, I robot, to name just a few Asimov rules.
For “military science fiction”, see David drake’s hammers slammers series. A mercenary hovertank regiment. Anything by david drake is strongly recommended if you like your action scifi from the soldiers viewpoint, and with a thoughtful twist.
john ringo posleen-books are a ripping read.
Alternative history: anything by harry turtledove.
Space opera at its hornblowing best: david weber and his honor harrington-series.
Definitely agree on the Hammer’s Slammers books. I read 2 or 3 of them back in 99-2000. The call-backs, references, and parallels to the Vietnam War were pretty hard to miss.
Great subject. And gosh, I’ve only read one of those five books (The Day of the Triffids). Call myself a geek?
My suggestion would be ‘A Fall of Moondust’ by Arthur C Clark. It’s not about space combat, but about an emergency search and rescue mission when vehicle gets swallowed by the dust sea on the moon in a freak accident. It’s super-tense and bascially most of the plot elements are common to any good non-SF thriller, although the science and the setting is very well developed, adding all sorts of complications.
…someone with taste!
welcome back Sam!
James S A Corey’s The Expanse series, for me.
The first one, Leviathan Wakes, became my favourite book of all time. It overtook my previous favourite of 20 years, Necromancer.
Space is big. It takes weeks/months/years to get places. The people groups and tech levels are rather Infinity-esque.
The first book is being made into a TV series, as well (please don’t screw it up!)
When is the stupid autocorrect going to get it into its head that I’m far more likely to want to type “Neuromancer” than “Necromancer”?
Someone already mentioned it but I am going to say it again.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons is an utterly brilliant scifi masterpiece.
David Weber’s Honorverse is awesome, as is the Safehold series.
On Basilisk Station was pretty good, Does the series get even better?
Oh yes…keep on reading. There are also spinoff series that are surprisingly good.
I would have to say from a purely possible gaming perspective “1984” the Orwellian nightmare of big brother and the thought police.
Now that would make for a dark game without the massive need for spaceflight, ray guns, aliens or time travel.
And would we be remiss not to mention the man himself wargamings great grandfather
H G Wells a war of the worlds, the book none of the crap film versions, I know there is a game that is beholden to it but he needs the mention along with little wars. Actually have an edition of his rules kicking about someplace.
Not a tale but art, what about some of the Roger Dean stuff? I find a lot of science fiction, well to be truthful just plain flawed in its assumptions, so I am struggling a bit. I have also to confess even after reading at my wife at the times insistence twice a poor tale. Yes I know take me out at dawn and shoot me, I actually fell asleep in the film never watched the TV series and to this day would rather re-read War and Peace. Soz, but we cant all like the same things for the same reasons.
That should say reading DUNE twice.
Soz thought it was predictable, slow paced and in places something I never do but able to skip some on the second read. Boring I would rather put pins in the back of my good hand than suffer that again. Parts of it were so shakespearian rip off that I found it a fraud. What can I say nothing its what I thought about that counts to me.
I have read 2 of these titles. Good choices. Philip K. Dick definitely has several good books to read. There are a lot of good books. I recommend reading outside of Sci-Fi, too.
What, like fantasy or horror?
Anything!!!
great list, thank you. This’ll kick me into reading more fiction and sci-fi
Here is some I would recommend.
Cyberpunk type game – I liked the word of Snow Crash by Niel Stephenson.
A different take on the apocalypse game – Someone mentioned Forever War, but I would go with Forever Peace by Joe Handleman picking up shortly after the end of the book. I don’t want to explain more because it would spoil the book. Forever War would not translate well into a game because of the setup of the world, great book and well worth the read.
World War Z by Max Brooks if this doesn’t give you ideas nothing can. Basically a series of short stories during the Zombie War, bunch of different perspectives which could translate into almost any type of Zombie game.
Super Heroes – Wild Cards edited by George RR Martin A bunch of reoccurring short stories throughout the series.
Alternate History – World at War Series by Harry Turtledove (aliens invade during WW2). Or anything by Harry Turtledove, WW2 type of war with magic? Yup he got it, The Darkness Series.
Steampunk – Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. A relatively standard steampunk universe with zeppelins, aeither, magical steam machinery.
River World by Phillip Farmer – All of humanity from all of history is put on this world and it deals with their interaction and trying to figure out where they are.
Ringworld by Larry Niven. The exploration of a dead world that turns out to be not so dead, not in a horror way though.
The Great North Road by Peter F Hamilton – Pretty much anything by Peter the Void Series and its prequels are good choices, but The Great North Road is a Sci Fi detective story.
Modern Magic – The Dresdin Series by Jim Butcher. Has most of the fantasy tropes in modern Chicago.
All of the above would translate into roleplaying games well, to translate to miniatures:
World at War Series by Harry Turtledove could be done easily. Take WW2 vehicles and match them up against modern vehicles. That is about the technology difference between the aliens in the books and the humans.
–Chris
While not prehaps classics yet, i would also throw in the following books:
Any book in the Polity Series by Neil Asher – Unstoppable Biotech, Killer robots, AI’s took over and humans liked it, really alien aliens, giant space crabs with lasers and adamantiam, so much good stuff.
Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson: Alternative history in WW2, data and cryptography cyberpunk done with credible technology in world you could easily see going out of control and ending up like blade runner. Anathem is also good, but in a more trad sci fi way.
Speaking of blade runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is well worth a read as its sufficiently different to the film to be barely recognizable as the source of blade runner.
Dragon’s Egg By Robert L. Forward has to do with a space mission to a neutron star that has evolved complex (human-like) microscopic civilization that lives in a timeframe where thousands of “years” pass in a matter of months of our time. Don’t know how it would wargame, but amorphous-blob creatures with crystalline spears could be cool. And they eventually (in a few weeks) surpass humanity in science and technology, developing faster than light travel.
I’m so happy someone else recomended Dragon’s Egg. one of my biggest influences that one.
Just for old times sake
I recommend
The Stainless Steel Rat and The Death World series, both by Harry Harrison
Frank Herbert – Dune. Best ever for me.
Scalzi doing some some really good books.
Haldeman – Forever War. Must Read. There is a good Comic too.
T. Zahn – Blackcollar Elite. A-Team-Ninjas in Space. I love it.
Scalzi’s Redshirts was a really good read and I loved fuzzy nation.
Something a little different and off the beaten track I would recommend John Ringo http://www.amazon.com/Live-Free-Die-Troy-Rising/dp/1439133972
The Null-A series by Van Vogt,
Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick
The Time Patrol series by Poul Anderson
The Agent of teh Terran Empire series by Poul Anderson
The Heechees saga by Frederick Pohl
The Space Merchants, by Cyril Kornbluth and Frederick Pohl
The Uplift saga by David Brin
And so many others… 🙂
Look out for the Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove (he also wrote the Myst novels).
I was very young when i readt it first time and lay it back on my book shelve because i was so horrorfied about some of the things happening there, but it returned on my must read list some time ago.
Starship Troopers by Heinlein, hands down my favourite.
Forever War by Haldeman
Hammers Slammers series by David Drake
Edgar Rice-burroughs Mars series
War of the Worlds by HG Wells
Dune, I rate that very highly too.
Manga wise I rate Appleseed, I know strictly not a novel, but still literature in a sense. Good for Infinity inspiration.
“The Dragon Masters” by Jack Vance. I have long hoped that someone would create a miniatures mass battle game based on this novella so I could recreate the battles it described. I have toyed with the idea making my own game, but can’t seem to find a range of miniatures that I could adapt to it.
“The Last Castle” by Jack Vance. Similar to “The Dragon Masters” but not as good. It does show an interesting vision of a human civilization in decline.
“Supremacy”, a short story by Arthur C. Clarke. This story shows on in a time of war, the focus on developing new “wonder weapons” can be a waste of effort and lead to defeat.it is based on the failed efforts of Nazi Germany to reverse their fortunes by developing “wonder weapons”. Instead of concentrating on building conventional forces.
I second the recommendation for Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series.
There have been games written based on Larry Niven’s “Ringworld” and David Drake’s “Hammer’s Slammers”.
Thank you. I was just thinking of what to read next.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy…..
I agree with most of those mentioned here but for true military sci fi it’s hard to go past Lost a fleet, Honor Harrington, Hammers Slammers and Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series.
Wife has bugged me for years to read some of her extensive Anne McCaffrey collection but was busy reading my Simon Sparrow, George R R Martin and Bernard Cornwell. I think I’ll give one a chance now. I’m slow reader. Wish me luck.
So many good ones!! Here are some of my favorites which I reread every now and then…
Voyage of the Space Beagle Van Vogt
Doorways in the Sans Zelazny
Inherit the Stars series Hogan
Pip and Flinx series Alan Dean Foster
Pride of Chanur Cherryh
For Star Wars fans Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Riaing, The Last Command) are the essential Star Wars novels. They are no longer canon, but for Star Wars adventuring, they are great inspiration and full of characters that would make excellent NPCs in role playing. He also painted a far more sensible picture of the clone wars, before Lucas came back and made the whole premise extremely stupid and juvenile.