If Lorq von Ray’s bid to ignite a star for illyrion—and that heady blend of tarot, plugs, and the sensory syrynx—pulled you in, you’ll love the way Revelation Space marries big archaeology with bigger peril. Dan Sylveste’s obsessive dig into the extinct Amarantin mirrors Lorq’s cosmic-scale gambit, while the haunted starship Nostalgia for Infinity and its catastrophic tech echo the same sense of wonder and danger that surges through Lorq’s final run into the nova.

If Lorq’s fixation on outmaneuvering the Reds—risking everything to trigger a nova and corner illyrion—was the thrill, Gully Foyle’s white‑hot drive for vengeance will feel instantly familiar. Like Lorq, Foyle barrels through corporate cartels and decadent elites, warping the social order in his wake. The synesthetic set pieces and headlong momentum in The Stars My Destination deliver that same relentless, high‑octane purpose that made Lorq’s mission so irresistible.

If you loved riding with Lorq’s eclectic crew—Mouse with his sensory syrynx, the twin heavyworlders Idas and Lynceos, Katin the would‑be novelist, and Tyy—then the seven pilgrims of Hyperion will hit that same sweet spot. As each traveler unspools their past en route to the Time Tombs and the Shrike, their conflicting motives collide and interlock just like Lorq’s team, revealing a universe as rich, volatile, and emotionally charged as the one that framed the showdown with Prince Red.

If Delany’s mix of art (Mouse’s performances), class tension (Draco vs. Pleiades dynasts), and fate (the crew’s tarot spreads) kept you thinking between the action beats, Ancillary Justice offers that same reflective kick. Breq’s fractured identity as a former starship AI navigating the Radchaai empire interrogates power and personhood with the same philosophical bite that runs under Lorq’s nova‑or‑bust gambit—and it does so without losing the propulsion of a taut space opera.

If the stark divide between the Von Ray interests in Draco and the Reds in the Pleiades—and the workers risking everything to feed the illyrion economy—stuck with you, The Dispossessed digs straight into that fault line. Physicist Shevek’s journey between anarchist Anarres and capitalist Urras dissects class, ownership, and who benefits from discovery, echoing the way Lorq’s quest exposes the economic and moral machinery behind the nova‑age rush.