Non-Elite Sci-Fi universes that feel a bit similar...

DaveB

DaveB
Just for some holiday entertainment... space gamers like us tend to include quite a high percentage of Sci-Fi readers and watchers. Over the years, there have been some amazing stories in this genre, in books, movies and TV shows, that have come with some incredibly good world building. So, my fellow Sci-Fi nerds and Elite commanders, what  other universes have you read or watched that give you something of the feel of the Elite universe?

 Not other  games, we're looking exclusively at other media here and that includes disqualification of books etc derived from computer games.

Since it was my idea, I'll go first...

The alliance/union universe created by C J Cherryh. The factions of that space, particularly if you also include the multispecies Compact space in the related Chanur stories always had a very "Elite-like" feel to me, with the absence of FTL inter-system comms, the need for all data to be couriered back and forth between stars, along with the trade goods you hoped, assuming your market data wasn't too out of date, would make you a profit at the other end. In its own way, the Pilots Federation feels a wee bit like the Merchants Alliance, poised uneasily between Sol and Cyteen and having to deal with both.

So, what have you encountered that felt a bit like the space were flying in?
 

Arioch

Arioch
One series that I saw mentioned on these forums and enjoyed, and having a similar Empire/Federation/Alliance political set up to Elite (though ship battles are completely different), is Legend of the Galactic Heroes (and the remake, LotGH Die Neue These).
 

aRJay

aRJay
As mentioned there are Cherryh’s Merchanter Alliance books, I think part of the similarity is that feel of being part of something that started before the book did and is going on even though the bit of the story the book told has stopped, plus the viewpoint characters are often not hugely significant or important outside of their ships or the story being told.

And I have gone blank.
 

BDelacroix

BDelacroix
aRJay said:
As mentioned there are Cherryh’s Merchanter Alliance books, I think part of the similarity is that feel of being part of something that started before the book did and is going on even though the bit of the story the book told has stopped, plus the viewpoint characters are often not hugely significant or important outside of their ships or the story being told.

And I have gone blank.
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Was also going to suggest Cherryh's work.

Since we are talking other media, I also suggest some stuff terribly named filk. Space folk songs, though the terrible name covers a number of genres.
 

DaveB

DaveB
aRJay said:
As mentioned there are Cherryh’s Merchanter Alliance books, I think part of the similarity is that feel of being part of something that started before the book did and is going on even though the bit of the story the book told has stopped, plus the viewpoint characters are often not hugely significant or important outside of their ships or the story being told.

And I have gone blank.
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Agreed, particularly if you're looking at some of the "standalones" outside the main story arcs. Rimrunner or Merchanter's Luck spring to mind particularly in that regard
 

Markov Chaney

M
Inscydeus said:
Hmm, I would say The Expanse has elements in common, just not as far into the future as the Elite universe, obviously.
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Most of what the Expanse has in common with Elite is also in common with Larry Niven's Known Space books and stories. It's not clear how The Expanse has quite such a strong resemblance to a Belter culture that first appears in 1964 and was considered the absolute best and most popular all through the 1970s; I'm sure James SA Corey's lawyers have a good explanation.

Although whilst we're at it, the ED Guardians seem very much like the Tnuctipun / Thrint bit.

I was going to mention Niven anyway because whenever I am delivering a Coffee mission and hanging out with the Navy I get a strong Motie vibe, and the way the high-wake mechanic works with a single entry point to any system and therefore an actually pretty limited network of possible hyperspace routes reminds me of how both the combat and politics depend on Alderson points in Mote In God's Eye and the sequels.

Low-wake travel reminds me of inertialess travel in the Lensman universe. Not sure why because the physics of them is quite different, but then Bergenholm [or Doc Smith] beat Alcubierre to it by about half a century; still seems to have the same vibes though. A lot of Lensman reads exactly how you'd expect a sci-fi romp from the 1940s to read so you'll need to, erm... forgive some things, but they're still great fun.

Ship names... well, SHIP NAMES. If you've never read an Iain M Banks, read one. "Excession" is the one most about blowing up shizzle in deep space; Consider Phlebas is possibly the most literary and still fun. (I like Matter, but it's a heavy read.)

And finally, every time I dock in a Coriolis and see those huge spikes rising from the back wall, I think of Rendezvous with Rama.
 

Brieus

Brieus
SteveWW57 said:
So many forgotten ones. A real brain teaser.

One that springs to mind is the "Vatta's War" series by Elizabeth Moon.
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Yeah, that's a good one. Especially the way they can mix and match various ship systems and the importance of trade.

Have you read the Vatta's Peace series? Two more books about Kylara returning home after the war.

Also by Moon, the Heris Serrano series. Same kind of thing.

The Ship who Sang by Anne McCaffrey and various semi-sequels by Anne and other authors.

Lt. Leary series starting with With the Lightnings by David Drake. Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Innnnn SpaaaAAAAaaace. You're going to start out thinking it's Napoleonic Wars, but it's actually closer to the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage.

Here we go, the first book in the series is available for free from Baen Books:
www.baen.com

With the Lightnings

A Friendship Forged in Hell! Daniel Leary is a lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy with no money and no prospects since he quarreled with his ruthless, politically powerful father. Adele Mundy is a scholar with no money and no prospects since her family was massacred for conspiring...
www.baen.com www.baen.com
 
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Nekozji

Nekozji
Hear me out, and perhaps this is a dumb thought, but take away the Empire, the Republic, the Jedi, the Sith, and aliens... Star Wars?

Frontier spirit, advanced medical tech but quite easy to die in a bar fight you didn't want to start, hyperspace across the galaxy in a few days, high tech is common to the point of normal, constant little scuffles between rival factions, black markets, shady underbellies, mercenaries everywhere, weird little colonies on every world that can possibly support it.

Mostly what SW has that ED doesn't is the idea that intelligent life evolves pretty much everywhere. Where they have 1000s of spacefaring species, we have... like 3, and some indigenous tribes that are mentioned in footnotes.

I have wondered in the past why nobody ever took the ED formula and slapped a Star Wars skin on it.
 

Shurimal

Shurimal
The Alien movies, especially Alien, Aliens and Romulus have some very strong visual/aesthetic similarities along with thematic parallels (shady megacorporations, space truckers, space marines, humans dealing with two mysterious alien species). Whenever I romp around in some abandoned settlement I get strong Hadley's Hope vibes. And I'm 100% sure Thargoid stuff is strongly inspired by H.R Giger's iconic work in the first movie.

The Expanse has all the Powerplay and political machinations we see in E: D.

The Shadow War in Babylon 5 is much like the Thargoid war that just presumably ended.
 

DaveB

DaveB
Nekozji said:
Hear me out, and perhaps this is a dumb thought, but take away the Empire, the Republic, the Jedi, the Sith, and aliens... Star Wars?

Frontier spirit, advanced medical tech but quite easy to die in a bar fight you didn't want to start, hyperspace across the galaxy in a few days, high tech is common to the point of normal, constant little scuffles between rival factions, black markets, shady underbellies, mercenaries everywhere, weird little colonies on every world that can possibly support it.

Mostly what SW has that ED doesn't is the idea that intelligent life evolves pretty much everywhere. Where they have 1000s of spacefaring species, we have... like 3, and some indigenous tribes that are mentioned in footnotes.

I have wondered in the past why nobody ever took the ED formula and slapped a Star Wars skin on it.
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I see where you're coming from - but if you take away all that is it still Star Wars? The society, the dynamics of it - aren't they what makes Star Wars what it is? In the same way you cant try and take away the post-scarcity society and the ethos of the UFP from Star Trek and still keep it Star Trek. I get what you;re saying but it seems a wee bit like hammering the peg into the hole... Whatever the peg's shape might have been at the start, it's going to end up the same shape as the hole if you hit it hard enough to get it in there...
 

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
DaveB said:
I see where you're coming from - but if you take away all that is it still Star Wars? The society, the dynamics of it - aren't they what makes Star Wars what it is? In the same way you cant try and take away the post-scarcity society and the ethos of the UFP from Star Trek and still keep it Star Trek. I get what you;re saying but it seems a wee bit like hammering the peg into the hole... Whatever the peg's shape might have been at the start, it's going to end up the same shape as the hole if you hit it hard enough to get it in there...
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I think I get what they’re trying to say. From the point of view of a resident of the Star Wars Galaxy, especially in the Outer Rim, for whom the Republic held no authority, the Empire could (hopefully) be ignored, and the Jedi and Sith were figures of myth and legend… you’d get a society a lot like the Elite Universe.
 

Nekozji

Nekozji
Darkfyre99 said:
From the point of view of a resident of the Star Wars Galaxy, especially in the Outer Rim, for whom the Republic held no authority, the Empire could (hopefully) be ignored, and the Jedi and Sith were figures of myth and legend… you’d get a society a lot like the Elite Universe.
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Thank you! Put it better than I did 😸

If you are just a regular person, working on a chemical factory or mining colony 2,000ly from the core worlds... you have at best 1 person in-system who represents you on a galactic level, possibly nobody. Organised crime is real and may dominate your life. Antigravity (or equivalent) is commonplace and knackered old trade ships just come and go using it. And you have a theoretical ability to go to space in 1 minute flat, if only your 80cr per day job would cover the ticket price.

I genuinely think you could skin all the ED ships into SW ships, rename the systems, and call it Star Wars: Free Agent, and it would work. Maybe you let people exit hyperspace next to their preferred planet and bin supercruise.

That said, I'm also ignorant of most of the suggestions so far in this thread, so I'm hitting a screw with a hammer because it's the only tool I have 😹

My other suggestion might be something like Isaac Asimov's universe. Elite doesn't make use of robots in the same way, but does sort of use slaves and low-paid workers. Where Asimov would have a mining robot, we have a mining worker. On top of it floats a rich 1% who get to do anything they like, borne on the backs of machine slaves. Many of his stories involve dystopia meets utopia, and I think both exist in ED depending on who you are born.
 
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Darrack

Darrack
Im going to have to go with Drew Wagar's 'Shadeward Saga's, i just love his work and the way he creates exceptional story lines.

O7
 

DaveB

DaveB
Brieus said:
Lt. Leary series starting with With the Lightnings by David Drake. Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Innnnn SpaaaAAAAaaace. You're going to start out thinking it's Napoleonic Wars, but it's actually closer to the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage.
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Yeah, those are a good read - perhaps gazing at the Empire in Elite a bit like Cinnabar :)

And to get to Napoleonic rather than Punic, maybe the Honorverse?
 
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