If you like Sci-Fi books a series I'd recommend is the Empire of Man series by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle I found them so cool I named one of my SEIV games in tribute
.
The books in that series are:
The mote in God's Eye
and
"The Gripping Hand
Although there are about a dozen other stories that involve the First Empire of Man, and CoDominium, the books I listed evolve around the 2nd Empire of Man and their first encounter with aliens.
If you like Fantasy I'd recomend the World on the otherside of the Riftwar series by Raymond E. Fiest and Janny Wurtis:
Books in the series are:
Daughter of the Empire
Servant of the Empire
and
Mistress of the Empire
Another good sci-fi series thus far is "The Fleet", each book is a series of short stories written by many different authors some of the stories are less than entertaining but most are addictive:
Books in the series are:
The Fleet
The Fleet: Counter Attack
The Fleet: Breakthrough
The Fleet: Sworn Allies
The Fleet: Total War
The Fleet: Crisis
I've read the first two and have put the rest on order so I can't wait for em to come.
Anyway those are the books I'd recommend of the books I've read lately and found most entertaining.