[SilentRoamer]

Ok just to throw out a few Sci Fi series I dont see mentioned as much:

Patrick Tilley - The Amtrak Wars - Im on book 5 of 6 but enjoyed them so far if sometimes a bit crazy.
Michael Cobley - The Seeds of Earth - This is a space opera trilogy. Hyperspace analogues, evil cyborgs, strange aliens. Great fun.
Gary Gibson - The Shoal Sequence - Another space opera trilogy. Really enjoyable series.
Lois McMaster Bujold - Vorkosigan Saga - Plenty of books in this series of varying quality but well worth a read (Even the lower quality books are a decent read, the better books are great.) 25+ novels focused around the Vorkosigan family.

[Cüréthañ]

Probably already mentioned, but Black Man (or 13 in other countries) by Richard Morgan is something that should appeal to anyone who enjoyed TSA, I think.
Deals with some heavy themes (sexism, racism, alienation etc) from an interesting sci-fi angle.

[Alia]

And if you mention 13, other series by Morgan are also quite interesting - the one that starts with "Altered Carbon", which deals with such issues as identity, as well as "Steel Remains", which at first seems to be fantasy (but I very much suppose it will turn out to be s-f in Book 3).

[Cüréthañ]

Pretty keen for the next one tbh.

[Phallus Pendulus]

"The Steel Remains" was one of the worst pieces of shit I've read within this year.

The whole book was basically Morgan shrieking "I'M GAY! FUCK YOU, DAD!!!11" The prose was awful and try-hard, reminded by of a limp-wristed Tumblr post.

"Black Man" was really good, though.

[Cüréthañ]

Lol, I found the overwrought gay/violent sex scenes a bit disturbing and uncomfortable (especially in the first book), but the rest of the series was pretty awesome.
I guess those feeling is what gay readers have to put up with watching HBO or reading about Sam Tarley and his fat pink mast, so I can put up with it.

Morgan writes his hetero stuff the same way really - and I'm pretty sure he is actually (mostly) hetero which kinda nullifies the idea that his choice to write that way is reactionary... 
I may have experienced a confused boner myself reading TSR at some point, which probably pushes me up the Kinsey scale somewhat too. 8o

Definately check out Altered Carbon if you haven't though, but I wouldn't bother with Market Forces - it's pretty boring.

[Alia]

Well, Morgan is above all pretty much as left-wing as can be (which is obvious in all of his prose). And heroic fantasy is mostly libertarian dream come true - the strong male character who takes anything he wants, sometimes with overt critique of modern, degenerate (and, as is understood - effeminate) society. Think Conan and the like. So I took "Steel Remains" as a direct contradiction of that vision. Here we have the main character who is very much a typical heroic fantasy protagonist, a strong warrior, war hero - and gay. In addition, his society does not tolerate gay people, which makes him an outcast. I do believe this is Morgan's voice on the situation of homosexuals in our societies. Of course, in "western democracies" they do not face death penalty or imprisonment, but still there is a lot of prejudice.
(I would write more but for some reason my English seems to fail me here and I have trouble to express myself clearly).

[Cüréthañ]

Agree 100%.  For me, it's not as effective a subversive vision of Conan as Cnaiur is, but its pretty good.

It's not like Morgan dramatically alters his style to become deliberately provocative either - this is just what being inclusive means to him imo.

[Thing called Sarcellus]

The Gap Cycle by Stephen R Donaldson.  likely my most read series ever

Neuromancer (and the Sprawl Series) by William Gibson.  the forefather of the cyber punk genre.  also coined many terms and phrases used prior to the inception of the World Wide Web

Destination Void by Frank Herbert. also WAY ahead of its time...  shit I want to read that again now.

[Omnirom]

Though not exactly a series (being a bunch of books where the characters are different but set in the same universe) Ian M Bank's - Culture sci-fi books are the closest I can think of to Bakker's work.

The main reason for this is the AI spaceships thinking and decision making, they're so post human and intelligent it's a joy to read.  When the Dunyain were first introduced it was like, "hey, I know you guys !"

There are about 5 Culture books, all great, the first I read, which blew me away was The Player Of Games

Apart from that The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi was also a pretty epic read.  It will be a trilogy but it's not finished yet.  It's dark and philosophical and reminds me of Bakker in the kind of meta-discussion about what it is to be human.  Needs a thoughtful read that one though. 

Banks on the other hand works on every level; he's just a brilliant story teller.

[mrganondorf]

Though not exactly a series (being a bunch of books where the characters are different but set in the same universe) Ian M Bank's - Culture sci-fi books are the closest I can think of to Bakker's work.

The main reason for this is the AI spaceships thinking and decision making, they're so post human and intelligent it's a joy to read.  When the Dunyain were first introduced it was like, "hey, I know you guys !"

There are about 5 Culture books, all great, the first I read, which blew me away was The Player Of Games

Apart from that The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi was also a pretty epic read.  It will be a trilogy but it's not finished yet.  It's dark and philosophical and reminds me of Bakker in the kind of meta-discussion about what it is to be human.  Needs a thoughtful read that one though. 

Banks on the other hand works on every level; he's just a brilliant story teller.

Hi Omniron! Its person x from the bakkerfans facebook page! Welcome! Woah, i had no idea that Banks was like Bakker--thats been on my to read list forever. Thanks for the recommendation!

[SilentRoamer]

Yeah I have some Banks books - from memory I think I have Consider Phlebas, Look to Windward and The Hydrogen Sonata.

Banks just moved onto my more immediate reading list.

[Omnirom]

Hi Omniron! Its person x from the bakkerfans facebook page! Welcome! Woah, i had no idea that Banks was like Bakker--thats been on my to read list forever. Thanks for the recommendation!

Hi Person X, thanks very much for authorizing my posting rights, I was starting to try and come up with a shortest path to forcing the issue (had : setting up the third-apocalypse.com with all the content on here scraped to force you to get in touch, though that doesn't seem very very short :p)

As for Banks - it's the AIs of the Culture which have a lot in common with the Dunyain, though on the whole they are fluffier.

Something which  both authors have in common is being able to conceive and relate characters which are so much more... advanced || functional || intelligent  than ourselves.

The Quantum Thief is pretty hardcore - every character is an AI, and can be run thousands of times with thousands of forks.  Sounds familiar ?

Good to be here, will post some stuff that is more closely related to the Second Apocalypse soon, once it's straight in my mind.

[Wilshire]

Welcome to the forum. Btw there is a post on the news/announcements page that says to email me if you have trouble registering  . But that's just an excuse. I've been slow to regist r folks. Glad you finally made it.

[Alia]

Banks has been my favourite writer for years, I love all his work, both sci-fi and mainstream. I'm not sure if I would compare him to Bakker myself, but he's definitely worth reading.