The Expeditionary Force. Sentient AI with a crew of humans searching for answers.
this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2025
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The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi. First of a trilogy.
Chasm City Alastair Reynolds is kind of like a neo-noir style story in the Revelation Space series, might be fun even if it isn't quite as mystery-centric as you'd like. House of Suns is a standalone by the same author that also has a mystery at the center of the story. It also might not be as mystery focused as you're looking for, I'm not sure. Anyway, I recommend Reynolds as often as I can.
Edit: I can't believe I forgot about The Prefect and the two books that follow. They are also Revelation Space series books and are about a Prefect that investigates crimes in a society made up of mostly-independent communities in various space stations that orbit the planet Yellowstone in a large ring called the Glitter Band. Very good series.
The Expanse series, book 1 deals with one main character trying to solve the disappearance a a VIP's daughter. The series follows the POV of multiple characters, though, so it's not a straight up mystery because different characters have different things going on with them. However, the plot points do converge. Not necessarily in the same book, but they always converge.
It's an amazing series, though, even though it's not a mystery throughout. It blends different genres in. Noir mystery, horror, outbreak, political thriller, etc. The characters have consistent motivations, and while you may not always agree with their choices you will understand them. Also, the series is complete and it sticks the landing. And the human technology is rooted in hard science. No artificial gravity or laser blasters. Travel to different planets takes real time. High velocity has considerable strain on human bodies. It's extremely well thought out.
I really enjoyed The Expanse - the books that is, I’m stuck in season 4 of the tv series which covers my least favourite book. But I definitely wouldn’t call it a real mystery, detective Miller and his hunt for Julie aside.
But yeah don’t miss on The Expanse series it’s excellent.
High velocity has considerable strain on human bodies
Acceleration, not velocity
Yep, my bad
I have not read Lock-In, but the synopsis sounds similar to Recursion by Blake Crouch
Project Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir has some mystery, at least for a while while the character tries to figure out what's going on.
If you're okay with a horror element, Dead Silence by SA Barnes. Astronauts are trying to figure out what happened on a space ship that seems to drive everyone insane
I found Locked In to be quite good, Recursion looks interesting from the wiki plot synopsis, like crime riff on [Replay] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replay_(Grimwood_novel)) which is a really good book and a great concept. I’ll put Recursion in my bookshelf buffer.
I love Andy Weir’s work, I’ve been a fan from his Casey and Andy webcomic days. I really liked Hail Mary but I’m more talking about detective mysteries rather then science mysteries :)
I’m a bit iffy on horror, but mostly because I haven’t read enough to be in on the tropes. I do like the idea of space horror but I suspect that it all in the execution. Thanks I’ll give it go.
The Dark Side, is a murder mystery on the moon.
"In this dark and gripping sci-fi noir, an exiled police detective arrives at a lunar penal colony just as a psychotic android begins a murderous odyssey across the far side of the moon"
I like this concept and that opening paragraph is the bomb. “Son of a bitch, I’m in.” Morty pointing meme.
Hyperion is a sci-fi version of the Canterbury tales, each chapter the story of one of the characters with an overarching mystery. It’s an absolutely great book that i don’t see recommended enough
I’ve seen this book on a lot of shelves but I never knew about the Canterbury Tales concept. I drop this in to my bookshelf buffer just on the reference alone. Although I do reserve the right to picture Dan Simons as Paul Bettany ala A Knight’s Tale.
Expanse and pretty much all of Asimov? :)
You should try The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch. It’s a time traveling detective noir sort of thing with apocalyptic stakes.
“Inception meets True Detective” - pops the lollipop out of my mouth “You son of a bitch, I’m in.”
Yeah this sounds good thanks for the recommendation.
Might not be an exact fit, but maybe Old Man's War by John Scalzi. It's not a mystery per se, but there is definitely an element of "what's actually going on here" for the main character to sort out.
It’s funny I started on Scalzi with Redshirts, which was good but felt like a short story that he padded out to make a novel with. I then read the Old Man Wars series and it just wasn’t for me. It felt like a slog to get through and I was about to give up on Scalzi but I figured the first Lock In book was already in my reading list on my library audiobook app so I’d give it a go, and man that turned me around on Scalzi really right in my groove. So I’ll give Fuzzy Nation a go next and see if I just don’t like the Old Man’s War series.
Starter Villain might also scratch that itch for you, but to be honest, I'm just a big Scalzi fan. Kaiju Preservation Society and When the Moon Hits Your Eye were a lot of fun too.
Altered Carbon (by Richard Kadrey?).
A billionaire, in a fresh new body but missing a couple of days worth of memories, hires a special ops/detective to solve his own murder.
It's a great book, but unfortunately the series isn't as consistently good as that first one.
I’ll definitely pop Altered Carbon on my list. I haven’t watch the series but didn’t they also have an issue with quality consistency? I often find 3rd or 4th books in series have drop in quality and the it pulls back up (The Expanse) or completely nose dove into the dirt (The Magic of Xanth).
The Netflix series was good but, as always, the book was better. :) The TV series deviated from some of the important plot points in the book but the gist was there.
I think the third book is really good but 2 and 4 were kind of meh.
Check out Elizabeth Bear's White Space novels, not a trilogy but 3 books set in the same universe. Each has a main mystery set in a pretty well written universe.
A bit more melodrama than what I usually read, but al in all a solid set of books.
This one seems hard to find but I’ll put a request in at my local library to see if they can get a copy on loan from another library system.
Yeah, so I normally get my books online through Libby library app, I even have 2 cards from back in the US and it's frustrating to see book 1 & book 3 available at the library but book 2 somehow isn't?
So in that case I go to
https://elizabeth-bear.freenovelread.com/462247-ancestral_night
14 and The Fold, both by Peter Clines
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green