Admittedly I'm a bit of a tourist when it comes to S.F. I dip my toes in every so often, usually via cyberpunk works like Neuromancer and Altered Carbon and classics like Frankenstein, The War of The Worlds, and the works of Lovecraft.
I really want a dark space opera with humanoid aliens, like an R rated Star Trek. From what I can gleam it seems that humanoid aliens are in lighter works (like stuff from Rebecca Chambers) and darker stuff (like Peter Watts) have starfish aliens, or maybe no aliens at all. I want a good combo of the two.
What are good space opera books (series or stand alone) with humanoid aliens but with more murder, sex, and copius amounts of the word "Fuck"?
Bonus points if I don't need a Phd to understand everything. (I don't really care how lightspeed works. Just that it works.)
On my radar but lack humanoid aliens:
The Expanse
Shards of Earth
Dune
Project Hail Mary
I have absolutely no interest in reading Dungeon Crawler Carl.
by insane677