Series

Books like Solar Cycle: 9 series to read next

Solar Cycle is science fantasy and science fiction, set in far future. The 9 series below are ranked by how much of that they share — each card says which parts.

Solar Cycle is 18 books, 1980–2001.

The Solar Cycle page →Narrow this list →

Lord of Light
Dune
The Locked Tomb
Hainish
Radchaai
The Culture
Riverworld
Teixcalaan
Foundation

Lord of LightSeries

seriesRoger Zelazny, Shariann Lewitt & Steve Perry5 books1967

Adventurous in tone, about reincarnation.

“One of their own, called Sam, breaks with the pantheon to return forbidden knowledge to the ordinary people they rule, touching off a war among the self-styled gods.”
from the catalogue description

Start with Dawn →

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 Locked TombSeries

seriesTamsyn Muir6 books2019

About undead and found family.

“Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth follows Gideon Nav, an indentured swordswoman raised among nuns and skeletons in the Ninth House, who is drafted into a deadly imperial trial by Harrowhark, the necromancer she can't stand.”
from the catalogue description

Start with Gideon the Ninth →

HainishSeries

seriesUrsula K. Le Guin33 books1964

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

“The Hainish Cycle consists of a number of science fiction novels and stories by Ursula K. Le Guin.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with Rocannon's World →

RadchaaiUniverse

universe11 books2012

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

“Civilization is what the Radch calls itself, and civilization is a courtesy extended at gunpoint.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

The CultureUniverse

universe21 books1987

About artificial intelligence, set in galactic scale.

“No money, no laws, no hunger, no death you didn't choose; a galaxy-spanning anarchy of humans and drones administered, gently and with enormous irony, by superintelligent Minds who name their warships things like *Frank Exchange Of Views*.”
from the catalogue description

Reading order →

RiverworldSeries

seriesPhilip José Farmer, John Gregory Betancourt, Robert Weinberg, Allen Steele, Barry N. Malzberg, Brad Strickland, David Bischoff, Dean Wesley Smith, Ed Gorman, Esther M. Friesner, Harry Turtledove, Jerry Oltion, Jody Lynn Nye, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Mike Resnick, Owl Goingback, Phillip C. Jennings, Rick Wilber, Robert Sampson & Robert Sheckley37 books1965

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

“The Riverworld is an artificial, or heavily terraformed, planet where all humans who ever lived throughout history have been resurrected.”
from the catalogue description
Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Start with River of Eternity →

TeixcalaanSeries

seriesArkady Martine2 books2019

Tense in tone.

“A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace pair court intrigue with Mahit's conflicted, outsider fascination with an empire she can't help admiring.”
from the catalogue description

Start with A Memory Called Empire →

FoundationUniverse

universe123 books1940

About robots.

“There is a science that reads the future of quadrillions the way an astronomer reads the orbits of stars.”
from the catalogue description

Start with Foundation →

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 Solar Cycle?: Lord of Light — the closest match to Solar Cycle on what it is about, not on what sells.
Where do I start with Solar Cycle?: The Cat. It is the entry the catalogue recommends for Solar Cycle.
How big is Solar Cycle?: Solar Cycle is 18 books, 1980–2001.
Is Solar Cycle finished?: Yes — 18 books, 1980–2001.

Books like Solar Cycle: 9 series to read next

Read next in Solar Cycle

Why these

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