Some entertaining, modern, ongoing series or recently finished series are missing.
I’m sure many of you are also very familiar with the big names / older works.
If you are a fan of some of the golden age big names, and are a fan of that dated era,
I would look into enjoying some of the “forgotten” authors and series.
E.E. “Doc” Smith did a Lensman series.
In the 30s and 40s it was originally the novels Galactic Patrol, Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensmen, and Children of the Lens PJs listed/serialized in pulps. And that would be reading it in original order.
Prior to that he had written a story/novelette published in the pulps called Triplanetary.
It was my first introduction to an epic space opera/battle series that combined your typical brilliant/strong/brave archetype with a force / Jedi type. Because I read them as a kid before Star Wars.
So, Prior to those four being published, he had written Triplanetary.
After the Lensman serialization was popular, he went back and redid Triplanetary as a prequel to the series.
That version of Triplanetary was published as a book.
Then he wrote First Lensman as a sequel to that and prequel to those original four that was PJs listed as a book.
Then each year or two
Galactic Patrol
Gray Lensman
Second Stage Lensmen
and Children of the Lens
Were published as books.
And that order is how I experienced them, basically liking one of his stories in an anthology, looking up his books in the library, and going by the dates in the books.
Now, in the Heinlein book that is a collection of his essays and speeches or letters and stuff, he does pay some tribute to Smith and notes there was supposed to be a 7th novel, but Smith died before finishing it. While names like Weinbaum and Doc Smith are not on the tips of tongues - there was a time their names were like Asimov, Heinlein, etc. And Smith was “Heinlein” before Heinlein was.
Smith also had done some early “expanded universe” type stuff. Writing some stories about a guy that was, well, like a Lensman but not. In modern terms, he was sort of a force sensitive stud that was neither Sith nor Jedi. Time wise they take place between between Second Stage Lensmen and Children of the Lens. They were published as a book that I did not know about in the 60s called Vortex Blaster.
I read them later in life when I re-read the series.
Smith and then Heinlein (who had been told the plot and ending) went to their graves without saying/revealing how the 7th book would conclude and finalize the series. Some characters in a Heinlein novel in the 80s actually meet a Lensman. And the publishing of the original much longer original manuscript of the book a few years ago has a little more detail.
There is some non original author expanded universe type shorts stories only published in pulps after his death, that I have never seen.
And a trilogy in the 80s that sort of ties into Vortex Blaster.