Series

Books like Lily Starling: 9 series to read next

Lily Starling is science fiction and space opera, set in space and far future, adventurous in register. The 9 series below are ranked by how much of that they share — each card says which parts.

Lily Starling is 3 books, 2025–2026.

“A young adult space opera about a teenager from Earth who joins the crew of an interstellar ship and discovers that courage and empathy can bridge even the widest distances.”
from the catalogue description of Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander

The Lily Starling page →Narrow this list →

Imperial Galaxy
Vatta
CoDominium
Known Space
Dune
The Final Architecture
Old Man's War
Alliance-Union
Cytoverse

Imperial GalaxySeries

seriesGarth Nix2 books2012

“Garth Nix's A Confusion of Princes follows Khemri through the empire's ruthless military, its secret intelligence service, and a deadly, decades-long competition to determine who might one day take the throne.”
from the catalogue description

Start with A Confusion of Princes →

VattaUniverse

universe10 books2003

Military science fiction.

“Get kicked out of the Academy and the family still hands you a ship.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

CoDominiumUniverse

universe98 books1971

Military science fiction.

“The body of work runs along a few hard threads rather than one line.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

Known SpaceUniverse

universe142 books1964

About aliens.

“Give a clever species a few centuries and a working fusion drive, and it will fill the sky with problems.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

DuneUniverse

universe78 books1963

Science fiction and space opera, about political intrigue, set in far future and other star systems.

“The desert planet, where empire runs on a single substance: the spice melange, which folds space, prolongs life, and unlocks prescience, and which exists nowhere else in the known universe.”
from the catalogue description

Start with Dune →

The Final ArchitectureSeries

seriesAdrian Tchaikovsky6 books2021

About aliens and war.

“Eighty years ago, Earth was destroyed by an alien 'Architect'.”
from the catalogue description of Shards of Earth
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Shards of Earth →

Old Man's WarSeries

seriesJohn Scalzi16 books2005

Military science fiction, about war.

“Sign a document at 65, saying you intend to join up 10 years later.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Old Man's War →

Alliance-UnionUniverse

universe173 books1976

Science fiction, set in far future.

“Around that spine cluster the merchanter novels of trader Families, the Faded Sun trilogy of human envoys among the martial alien Mri, and the Chanur books, narrated from the hierarchical, whiskered viewpoint of the hani.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

CytoverseUniverse

universe10 books2008

Science fiction, set in far future and other star systems.

“Detritus is a dead world buried under the wreckage of a hundred fallen starships, and the humans caverned beneath it live by one hard truth: to survive, you climb into a cockpit and you fight.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

Why these

No sales rank, no star ratings, no readers also bought.

Shared terms are not a promise that a book feels the same. Two series can be far-future political intrigue and read nothing alike — what the ranking can say is what they are about, and each card says which parts it shares.

Questions readers ask

What should I read after Lily Starling?: Imperial Galaxy — the closest match to Lily Starling on what it is about, not on what sells.
Where do I start with Lily Starling?: Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander. It is the entry the catalogue recommends for Lily Starling.
How big is Lily Starling?: Lily Starling is 3 books, 2025–2026.

Books like Lily Starling: 9 series to read next

Read next in Lily Starling

Why these

Questions readers ask

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