RedEyedGhost Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 One book I haven't seen mentioned yet is Scott Westerfeld's The Risen Empire (sometimes published as a two book series) which I thought was a good Space Opera with a fairly heavy Dune influence. As far as I know he hasn't published anything in the same sub-genre (I think he's mostly a YA author now), which is a shame. I would have mentioned that, but it feels much more Military Sci-fi than Space Opera to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 John Maddox Roberts, he of the SPQR mystery series fame, also wrote a couple of books that definitely qualify for space opera, the Space Angel books.Space Angel (1979)Spacer: Window of the Mind (1988) He also collaborated with Yoji Kondo (writing under the pseudonym Eric Kotani) to write the Island Worlds books. Baen offers them in ebook form now for a very small price, considering what I paid for the paperbacks back in the day. Act of God (1985, Baen e-book)The Island Worlds (1987, Baen e-book)Between the Stars (1988, Baen e-book)Delta Pavonis (1990, Baen e-book) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Another one to look for as you peruse the shelves of your local used book store that you might not expect is Lawrence Watt-Evans, of Ethshar fantasy fame and author of The Lords of Dus books. He wrote both of the following War Surplus books, very serviceable 80s-style space opera and suitable to distract you on a flight home or a day out on the river. The Cyborg and the Sorcerers (1982)The Wizard and the War Machine (1987) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Finally, in addition to all the Gaean Reach novels that Jack Vance wrote, most of which could be stretched to include as space opera, he also wrote a novel entitled Space Opera (1965). I am not going to say anything about the book Space Opera, I am just going to lay it out here and back slowly away, daring the readers of this forum to go and pick up a copy of the ebook or the Vance Integral Edition and give it a read. http://www.jackvance.com/ebooks/shop/?q22_action=view&q22_id=70 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frey Filet Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I know there's a thread about this somewhere but Search function's down and I'm reading Poseidon's Wake and listening to Nemesis Games.....so, yeah, Space Opera favorites time. Mine? Revelation Space Culture (though not entirely "Space Opera" in my opinion but always worth a mention) the Gap Cycle Poseidon's Children Paradox Series the Expanse the Commonwealth Pushing Ice House of Suns (yeah, I like Reynolds) Hyperion Cantos (ALL FOUR!) Saturn's Children/Neptune's Brood, Not really Space Opera IMHO but worth a mention: Quantum Thief (Flambeur trilogy), Takeshi Kovacs, Dune (Frank's stuff) - it pretty much all takes place on Arrakis (excepting Chapterhouse) so I don't consider it Space Opera. So.....what are y'all's favorites? Right there with ya, chief. Revelation Space and the Hyperion Cantos are far and away my favorites. Makes everything else a disappointment. However, space operas aside, Peter Watts is an exceptional sci-fi author imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muwhahaha Posted June 7, 2015 Author Share Posted June 7, 2015 Blindsight is damn good as is Echopraxia but the Rifter series is my favorite, but yeah, not space opera. I love space opera but I'd have to say my single favorite sci-fi book is probably Richard Morgan's Blackman/Thirteen. I've never read Night's Dawn. One of these days I'll probably give it a go. As of right now, I'm about 150 pages into Poseidon's Wake and I'm really amazed at how original Reynolds is. Mars and the Evolvarium, the Tantors, the Mechanism, Crucible, Europa water cities, Post-Chibesa drive....etc. And still, the trilogy is primarily about the Akinya line and how they've influenced and shaped human expansion into the galaxy. It's so different than his other stuff and yet just as good if not better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 Dan Simmon's space stuff. I made a point of only ever reading the first two hyperion books but they still stick out as the best when I try and think of space opera novels.Other than that there's only the expanse series that springs to mind for me. Most of the sci-fi i read doesn't really fall into that category which is odd as I essentially read the Fantasy equivalent a lot. I'd almost think there'd be more SF trying to fit what mold given how successful it is in fantasy. I have a few of Hamilton's works lined up as well.I guess the Star Wars books are obvious candidates too? Or do people not like to mention them because they are not only a) tie-in novels but b) no longer canon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Richard II Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Hey there are currently FOUR canon Star Wars books! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 The stupid ending of the Revelation Space trilogy ruined it for me. Of course I love the Culture and the Gap (duh) but oddly I can't think of any books in this genre that surpass my love of Babylon 5. What irks me about the Revelation Space series is the fact that the core story of the trilogy is enhanced and fleshed-out by side-novellas and short stories. Unlike The Expanse, where they've made this clearer as it goes along and made the side-stories available, this was completely hidden away about the RS series so the ending is a total WTF moment. They really needed to make it clearer that you needed to read the Galactic North collection as well to see what was going on. Even then, it's not a great ending. Way too much of a, "And then forty thousand years later everything got wrecked anyway, so what the hell was the point of the trilogy?" vibe. I'm surprised there's not more Babylon 5-esque space opera out there. JMS was inspired by stuff like Foundation and Dune, but B5 is very different to those. The closest I've encountered are probably Night's Dawn and maybe Allen Steele's early novel Clarke County, Space, which was quite good. Cherryh's Downbelow Station as well, although I didn't like the writing style very much in that. Uplift isn't far off, with the massive number of races, the ancient species messing around with the younger ones (in a much more formalised way and omni-present way) and so on. Or the Mass Effect games, which often feel like a cover version of B5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leofric Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I's been awhile since i read it, but remember really liking the Exordium Series by Sherwood Smith and David Trowbridge. Pure space opera with several different cultures, interesting alien races, good space battles and action all thrown in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red snow Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I'm surprised there's not more Babylon 5-esque space opera out there. JMS was inspired by stuff like Foundation and Dune, but B5 is very different to those. The closest I've encountered are probably Night's Dawn and maybe Allen Steele's early novel Clarke County, Space, which was quite good. Cherryh's Downbelow Station as well, although I didn't like the writing style very much in that. Uplift isn't far off, with the massive number of races, the ancient species messing around with the younger ones (in a much more formalised way and omni-present way) and so on. Or the Mass Effect games, which often feel like a cover version of B5. It's been long enough that the B5 and DS9 series aired for them to have inspired that generation of writers. The expanse has a flavour of it (although Abraham says B5 was actually an influence on his Fantasy "dagger and coin" series). I think B5 might be more responsible for the "grim/shades of grey" Fantasy we see from the likes of Lawrence and co (although I've no evidence to back that but they are the right age). It's still odd that we don't see it in SF though. Maybe those people stick with TV - not that I see much evidence of that either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jussi Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Stephen Donaldson's The Gap Cycle is my favourite space opera. I really enjoyed Tad Williams' novella And Ministers of Grace. I hope he will write space opera series based on this story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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