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Ender's Game, Revelation Space, Altered Carbon and a few other great series out of there have dedicated a lot to overcoming time dilation.
Joe Haldeman tackled it head on in The Forever War Amazon link, a fantastic book that as a fan of similar stuff, you might like it!
I love his art style—if you guys are interested, check out The Metabarons comic book series written by Alejandro Jordorowsky illustrated by Giminez. It’s like Dune mixed with Star Wars and LSD. One of my favorites that I can not recommend enough to comic book lovers
Edit: here’s the amazon link to the complete saga. I want to reiterate that the art to this series is something to behold in your hands.
The Metabarons https://www.amazon.com/dp/159465106X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qhX9AbJTEBA80
I'm reminded of a line of dialogue in a book I recently read (well, listened to). To expound on the plot summary on Amazon, the protagonist awakens to find that, while he was dead, the US became a theocratic state. Cryogenic preservation was ruled to be blasphemous, preserved people were declared to be dead, and all related assets were confiscated and sold off, including the preserved people.
The protagonist observes that it seems like it the proper action would have been to just bury the people, to which the other character replies, "Did theologues limit themselves to logical or consistent behavior in your time?"
I laughed so hard at that line - especially how it's delivered by the narrator - that I nearly had to pull my car off the road.
While not a LitRPG I feel like the Bobiverse scratches the same itch very well.
It's about a guy who's consciousness is put into a robot and shot off into space. He has 3D printers that can create anything he can think of, including copies of himself. While not living "in a game" he still creates his own VR world that he shares with his copies and can control his perception of time by speeding up/slowing down his processor.
He explores, invents, creates and discovers tons of amazing stuff.
A book you want is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers.
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Nothing really epic happens in this book, which is what makes it so good. It just follows the crew of a ship that (best way to describe it) plots hyperspace routes on an adventure to plot a route further than anyone has gone before. Again, this is less full of sci-fi tropes and more character interaction. I recommend it to anyone. Also, it is a civilian ship, so no military.
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I liked Firefly, and I liked this, they are different, but have lots of similarities.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is $1.99 on Amazon kindle right now. I picked it up the other day and binged thru it...someday I'll learn not to start reading a book at 1030 when I have to work the next day...lol. It was well worth the price, I enjoyed it and will probably get the next one too
Just thinking about it and re-reading your post, have you looked at Charles Stross's Laundry Files? If you liked The Dresden Files these may be right up your alley...
The Forever War by Haldeman https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312536631/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zTFiDbR3EQFT2
Amazon Product Description: The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand--despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries...
It’s called Saga - I just bought a used copy of the anthology on Amazon for like $25. About halfway through, and loving it so far.
The Expeditionary Force series has all the books available to read for free for Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers, and the first audiobook for the Columbus Day (book1) is free too. So you can read and listen to the first book for free to decide if you want to continue the series. Books 2-5 are available on Audible for $7.95, cheaper than credits, so don't use a credit to buy them.
https://www.amazon.com/Columbus-Day-Expeditionary-Force-Book-ebook/dp/B01AIGC31E
Kindle Unlimited is $9.99/mos. I think it's worth subscribing for at least 6 months because I could easily find 10 books and audiobooks per month that I was able to enjoy. After clearing off all the books I was interested in reading/listening too, the subscription is probably of less value and not worth it for most people.
The Bobiverse Series is another excellent science fiction series on Kindle Unlimited.
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ/
Have you heard of We are Bob? It's a book that started as audiobook series. It very closely goes through the scenario you mention. One of the best sci-fi series imo.
Expeditionary Force
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AIGC31E
Dont read the reviews... lots of salty people about the success of the series.
The basics of the plot is aliens show up, and realistically the earth gets fucked in like 30 minutes. our protagonist along with 100,000 humans get shipped offworld to be an ground-pounding force, but really they get used more like... peace keepers. series of events happen, and plucky humans become space pirates. can't say what the events are without spoiling it, but it is a bit of a slow roll and then BAM it goes really well.
I recommend the audiobooks, R.C. Bray is a phenomenal narrator with a good range in voice acting and really brings things to life. The audiobooks by themselves are expensive, so I suggest getting audible subscription but there is a loophole, if you buy the kindle book you can get the audiobook for very little.
in that link there should be an option labeled:
(Add Audible narration to your purchase for just $7.49) With the kindle price being like $2.99
If magic is more your cup of tea, I also have a great series on that, its about a guy transported to another world but he is no hero, instead of a dungeon lord.
If space scifi realism is your cup of tea I got another series too.
Bobiverse is good. have you read the Frontlines Series by Marko Kloos? Excellent books. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CIXX144/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2
Colapsing Empire series by Scalzi.
Ian DOuglas's stuff is pretty good.
Rachel Bach's Paradox series
The Legend of Zero series - Sara King
If anyones looking for a fun Sci-Fi book and has an ereader
"Old Man's War" is on sale on amazon for $2.99
https://www.amazon.com/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi-ebook/dp/B000SEIK2S
I think its also on sale at googles store
Give the Bobiverse series a try.
The premise: An engineer signs up for cryogenically freezing his brain when he dies on a whim. A bus runs him over. He wakes up hundreds of years in the future except it has been determined that these frozen brains are now the property of the state. They couldn't unfreeze him and bring him back to life, but they COULD use his brain as a template to be mapped into a computer system. He is now effectively an AI, given control over a Von Neuman probe that is to be sent out to colonize space.
There's lots of fun world building and an interesting look at the human condition. They're pretty clever with Bob too. For example, there's no such thing as Faster Than Light travel, so Bob just turns his clock speed down. In this way he experiences time slower than is actually happening and doesn't go insane on the long journey between planets. The books really start to pick up as he constructs other Bobs, each with their own slightly different personalities.
You might really enjoy a book series called “The Bobiverse”
It’s about a von Neumann probe with an Ai made of a human engineers (Bob) brain scan.
The science is pretty solid and general relativity and time dilation is an integral part of the plot.
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ/ref=nodl_
For a perspective on how things might go for a cryonics patient in the future, read "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" by Dennis E. Taylor. The audiobook narration is great!
Seriously though, try not to think about it. Everything ends. That's life. Live in the moment. You have the ability to choose how you want your life to go. Enjoy life while it lasts and appreciate how lucky you are to be self-aware as a human with opposable thumbs, Pokemon, and SpongeBob.
One thing that I've learned is that some books that you buy on Amazon will let you add the narration for really cheap if you buy the book. So instead of paying $30 for a book (or $15 a month for a credit), you can buy a kindle book on sale and 'add' the audio book.
I'm currently listening to a series called the Bobiverse thanks to this. The first book (We are Legion, We are Bob) was only $4 for the book and then another $2 to add the audiobook. If you like sci-fi/adventure books, I'd recommend it, it's dumb fun.
Also don't forget that your local library probably offers audiobooks on OverDrive.
Its not crucial, but even though most people like it a little bit less, I'd say its worth reading the Empyrean Age before Templar One, just so you fully understand the Amarr connection.
Lmao just realized I got the names mixed up. The book I was referring to is called “The Forever War”. Like the shitty Chris Pratt movie, it also has a sci fi war setting (and a similar name) so that’s probably why I got the two confused
https://www.amazon.com/Forever-War-Joe-Haldeman/dp/0312536631
This is an easy one.
The Bobiverse series from Dennis E. Taylor is very factorio like.
First Book is called "We are Legion (We are Bob)"
Amazon Description:
>!Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.
Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.
The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.!<
>!(https://www.amazon.de/Are-Legion-Bobiverse-Book-English-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ)!<
Makes sense. I'd check with Main street Books/Second Flight. They're (now) owned by the same folks, so they probably have a good line on any book clubs.
If you want a good "entry" book to SF/fantasy, check out Becky Chambers - specifically, the Wayfarer series. Here's a link to the first one. They're very wholesome, lovely books. There's not exactly romance in them, but in her books, everyone is doing their best and nobody wants to hurt anyone else.
Besides Chambers, there's a decent number of SF/fantasy books that are also thrillers, mysteries, and romance! I think the book club just read Project Hail Mary, which was definitely thriller-esque.
There's some good recommendations on this thread but most of them are not sci-fi at all, if you really want to check sci-fi you can't go wrong with The Metabarons by Jodorowski and Jimenez, crazy millenia spawning story across the universe, think of Dune meets The Borgias, you won't find any better sci-fi art
I want to second this 10000% Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples are an absolute gift to the medium and Saga is as close to perfection as you can ever hope to get.
The series is currently on issue 57 it you can buy a compendium of the first 54 issues on Amazon or most local comic shops for an insanely good price https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saga-Compendium-Brian-K-Vaughan/dp/153431346X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2K5HCY9Y6KVZF&keywords=saga+compendium&qid=1654895889&sprefix=saga+%2Caps%2C66&sr=8-1
I’m also going to use this commend to highly recommend Brian K Vaughan’s other works Y: the last man (disregard the tv adaptation) and Paper Girls.
If you are a fan of comics you will adore these!
This sort of thing occurs during Marko Kloos’ Frontlines series. If you’re down for military scifi it’s a good set of books. Not really done as a series yet.
First book.
I hate it when people post screenshots that show me only what they want me to see.
It has over 7200 reviews and 4.4 stars.
Stop going out of your way to be offended. JFC.
Dennis Taylor's Bobiverse .. 3 books all about exploration and first contact and saving earth ..
https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Book 1)
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/dp/B01LWAESYQ is litrpg-adjacent.
Guy wakes up, and he's a spaceship. (sorta).
Then transitions into a empire building/combat thing with massive light-speed delays.
There's a sci-fi book series I read called We Are Bob. It's about a human who has his consciousness uploaded into a Von Neumann probe, essentially the first synthetically ascended human. Aside from nostalgia and interacting with other humans, the human form is kinda impractical for even menial labor when there are more efficient forms.
Read it recently and found it very entertaining. The story is still ongoing.
It's a great series and super quick read. I know it's on Amazon (maybe digital only). I got the audio books and listened to them back and forth from work.