Reddit mentions of Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga) (Miles Vorsokigan Book 1)

Not necessarily my strong suit (my own stuff is roughly the opposite of what you're looking for, so I figure I'm safe to recommend things here) but I definitely have a few to check out

​

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga first and foremost. There is quite a bit of war and conflict, but it's not really the focus of the plot. The focus is the characters and their development, primarily the titular Miles Vorkosigan.

You can start with the first Miles Vorkosigan book ( https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Apprentice-Lois-McMaster-Bujold/dp/1886778272 ) or with the duology around his mother (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BH9T86/ref=series_dp_rw_ca_2)

​

Next up would be Nathan Lowell's Golden Age of The Solar Clipper. No wars at all, these cover the life story of a merchant shipper rising from a generic crewman to captain and owner of his own ship. Fascinating character studies and very well written. Start with Quarter Share ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AMO7VM4/ref=series_dp_rw_ca_1)


Lindsay Buroker's space opera has a bunch of war and conflict, but it's mostly background for a more general adventure SF story. The first three books of her Fallen Empire series are bundled up here: https://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Empire-Omnibus-Books-prequel-ebook/dp/B06XK7HT4T

​

I'm now going to lurk on this thread, as I should probably be reading stuff with a tad fewer explosions myself ;)

Try Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. Cordelia is a remarkable character. And the Honor Harrington series by David Weber isn't bad, either.

I'd strongly recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. It's sci fi, and at first it seems pretty fluffy, before it hits you with much more complex themes. Also, as a bonus, the 'Tyrion' character in GoT was pretty much lifted from the main character in this series. It's more 'mature' romance I suppose, both characters being in their 30s and both having had past emotional traumas.

http://www.amazon.com/Shards-Honor-Vorkosigan-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B005BH9T86/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449090743&sr=1-2&keywords=vorkosigan+series


Here's the first several chapters of the first book.

http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/9781625793980/9781625793980.htm?blurb

Well, I'm almost 40, and I trade books with my 60+ neighbor.

If you're sticking with romance, Eloisa James is a good romance author; Courtney Milan is also amazing.



For science fiction and fantasy with a dose of romance - Lois Bujold's Vorkosigan series (start here) is very very very good, and her Chalion series (here) is excellent for the first two books (you can easily skip the third book, it's a prequel and not as interesting all around.)Bujold tends to be very, very popular with women, and older women; she's a very sharp and insightful person who happens to write big, fun space operas.


I strongly recommend Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population; it has no romance but features an older woman, adn is very very thoughtfully done. Her The Speed of Dark is more challenging but still excellent work. Karen Lord's The Best of All Possible Worlds is also utterly amazing.

For nonfiction, try Bill Bryson. I recommend A Walk In The Woods.

If you want two series which I prefer in many ways (but are both very different overall) try

The Vorkosigan Saga Start here, the "part 1" is a prequel, and I'm not sure why it's considered the beginning, but anyway, the idea is that the first two books start with the main character's parents, until he is born, and he takes over from the third book onward. This one has great character development, better than any series I've ever seen, and the author has a great name, too.

The Expanse Is very dark and starts off as realistic hard sci-fi, and is also now on Netflix (but only season 1 is out at the moment)