I prefer the STL in Card’s Ender’s Game series. They asymptotically approach the speed of light so the passengers only have several weeks pass when travelling to far flung locations but the universe around them experiences a normal passage of time which may be tens of years. This has really big implications on the plots in several stories.

They do have an ansible communications system that does allow instantaneous communication over astronomical distances.

goes Plaid

Silfen Paths from Judas Unchained. Aliens called Silfen walked from planet to planet directly via actual forest paths. Everything gets wonky time wise when your on one so you might emerge 100 years later. The technology itself is sentient and not maintained. The Silfen who lost interest long ago are asked how they manage the paths. They say they just let them do what they want. At least one path exists to/from Earth. But humans are boring and make things boring, so the aliens avoid Earth.

So if you’re on a walk and you get lost you may be walking to another planet.

One thing I’ll say is that I prefer gates or portals to “Teleporters” for the obvious “it actually kills you” thing

I wouldn’t say it was my favourite FTL but it has some interesting implications.

The artificial wormholes of The Algebraist by Ian Banks. I can’t say too much if you haven’t already read it, but it’s artificial wormholes that have to be transported sublight.

All the new wormholes are of course lovely and high capacity, but much of the network is still the original tiny little ones first installed. So your military at least uses kilometer long needle ships that can fit through these small points.

Think fitting an aircraft carrier through a Stargate.

CJ Cherryh and Joel Sheperd use basically the same system in their universes (Sheperd admitted he basically adopted CJ’s almost verbatim).

Ships can travel FTL transitioning into another plane of existence (to say it in an uncomplicated way), but to do so they must first acquire a speed very close to c. And when they transition back to the regular space they do it at transluminic velocity, that they must shred off pulsing their hyperdrives before coming down to ‘maneouvring’ speeds.

All of this makes for interesting tactical situations in the intent of an interstellar conflict.

The Infinite Probability Drive from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Not ftl but I really like cryo sleep themes. Someone wakes up 100+ years later and the world is post apocalyptic. James axlers deathlands audio books, alien, some obscure video games.

I like the kind where they didn’t try to explain it. Trying to show how they make their sausage never works out well. I can suspend disbelief for FTL but not for their stupid explanations

No mention of Futurama? Screw moving the ship, just move the universe around it!

I liked the wormholes from the Bobbyverse. You had instantaneous travel across interstellar distances but you had to get there via slower than light speed first. So no matter how technologically advanced you became your interstellar civilisation still grew at a rate of one or two systems per decade.

Star Control had an interesting take on it, where you’re able to jump between eiffererent “levels” of space if you have something that can induce the right field and at the right level of power. Sort of like jumping between electron shells or something.

But you can jump from normal space, to hyperspace on top of that, to quasispace on top of that. And maybe others above (and below). Traveling a certain distance in each space allows you to travel an exponentially larger amount of distance in the lower space.

So you induce a field, pop up to hyperspace, move at less than FTL (as relative to hyperspace), then fall back to regular space.

FTL travel in the series of book “the interdependency” is one of the major plot devices, so it’s one of those that marked me the most.

Without going into spoilers: FTL is limited to using a natural phenomenon that are pretty much akin to space-rivers, so humanity has no power onto what systems are connected to one another.

As rivers do, those “currents” can also shift and have done so in the past: the place where the books happen are completely cut off from earth since pretty much forever, for example.

My favourite one is Red Dwarf when they see the future. Requires a fair amount of “dont think about it” but its still a great plot.

I love the Farcaster network of the World Web from Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos (for anyone who hasnt read the books, they’re essentially frameless stargates that are always on). Such a cool concept of being able to build a series of them linking the main commercial streets of the biggest cities on different planets together; thus making one gigantic and near endless market across hundreds of worlds… and anyone can just walk from one planet to another across hundreds or thousands of light years.

What I really like about that book series though is that the Farcasters are not the only means of FTL… and that there are sound reasons to use another method over them OR even to oppose your planet getting connected to the Farcaster network. Just seriously good world building.