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I'm looking for space opera books where the plots include parts and flashbacks to when humanity first left Earth to find other planets for colonization. I really enjoy books where humans left either as part of a joint gov't effort or from corporations. Also prefer books without alien presence unless it's akin to the Expanse series or the Protectorate series where they're very much removed physically and we were able to explore more systems with their technology.

Here are examples of books I finished and really enjoyed:

• The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
• The Expanse series
• The Protectorate series by Megan O'Keefe

Thanks in advance!

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I remember reading within the last decade a short story, perhaps part of a collection, about future generations of Martian humans restoring power to Opportunity and then going to look at her continuing her roving as a sort of rite-of-passage. Does anyone have any ideas what this might be? I’ve been wracking my brains and I can’t remember and it’s killing me!

I recently realised that I adore this trope. You know, like>! killing a npc surgeon!< in The Last of Us and its consequences in Part 2. Or >!the bagel!< in the recent Spiderverse movie. Or even Jason Momoa character in Fast X.

Are there the same ideas in any book series, where a character does something slightly noticeabale in the first book but it has long-range consequences and becomes the main plotpoint?

I'm depressed after finishing the Three Body Problem series a second time. I love it. Probably my favorite books of all time.

Other things I've liked

• Bobiverse series
• Hyperion series
• Project hail Mary

I want to try dune but I've heard bad things about the audio book with multiple people reading parts.

Please recommend me something!

Update:

Thank you all for the suggestions! I'm starting Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. And also going to look into Aurora, Ted Chiang, Philip K Dick, and Arthur C Clarke.

I’m on the hunt for this book edited by Donald Wollheim specifically a hardback edition (I can find the original paperback no problem) The Science Fiction Bookclub has published hard cover versions of this collection but seemingly skipped 1979. I can’t find a record of it or even a record of why. Does anyone have any idea of what happened or if it exists somewhere?

It was a post-apocalyptic story. The protagonist was a young teenage girl who comes out of some kind of a bomb shelter and has to deal with a world where almost everybody seems to have died. She was written as very bright and into martial arts I think. I seem to recall it was written in an odd style. Any ideas?

So I'm not super familiar with science fiction outside of the occasional story in anthologies, but something I'm aware occasionally pops up tends to involve futuristic interpretation of gender and sexuality, along with odd and out there biology. I think it'd be very fun to read a book that discusses these topics, however I don't know where to start.

Does anyone have any recommendations?