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ladybusinessLate last year, I decided to pick up my languishing Space Opera reading challenge. I work in politics on Earth, so what's better than politics in space?
Back in the mists of time when I started this challenge,coffeeandink introduced me to space opera's sister, planetary romance. It's a a distinction I've found extremely useful, but I quickly learned that what's planetary romance for me is space opera for someone else, and vice versa. Sometimes the distinction simply V I B E S.
I've also come across a lot of books about generation ships, locked room mysteries, detective stories, and more, all set in space. Most are great fun! But they're not space opera. For me space opera has stakes that rely on movement around planets/celestial bodies and/or spaceships, space stations, and/or star systems that is external to the characters. Do the stakes change repeatedly when the characters shift between these locations? If so, space opera. Planetary romance can feel similarly epic, but the action is rooted in a specific planet/celestial body that's relevant to the plot and the focus is more heavily on the characters.
Since I've done enough space adventure reading recently to have a short list, I decided to formalize some thoughts.
The Interdependency series by John Scalzi
I loved the first two books in this series, The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire, but a plot development in the third book, The Last Emperox, led me to DNF it. 100% space opera, though!
The Divide series by J.S. Dewes
This series is military space opera. Also, I love it. It's got the perfect Mass Effect vibes while also doing its own cool world-building and character work. The character relationship writing remind me a lot of Becky Chambers. Science fantasy is a thing I love, yes. Space with technology that doesn't exist and might as well be magic? Yes. Unexplained artifacts that might as well be magic? Yes. Friendship…IN SPACE? Yes. This series is ongoing. Spectacular, give me 14 more.
The Paradox series by Rachel Bach
Now I'm going to contradict myself because while I just ranted about yes to magic in space, sometimes the vibes are off. I reread this series last year during the holidays. I see why past me loved Fortune's Pawn, the first book. But how quickly we can learn and grow! Honor's Knight made me go full side-eye and I couldn't bear to finish Heaven's Queen. This is space opera romance, but the romance is uhhhhhh no longer my cup of tea. Confirming I am not a dark romance girlie: DONE. Also, the "a little eugenics and genocide is okay as a treat" undertone to this series really soured me on the whole thing.
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
I reread this at least once a year (okay, maybe sometimes twice a year). I love Murderbot very much and have very few critiques from the series. All my complaints are publishing complaints, like why haven't we gotten beautiful special edition copies with beautiful cover art and sprayed edges? If you can do it with Gideon you can do it with Murderbot, Tor!
This series is firmly space opera because of the scope of the world, but there's some interesting entries!
Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden
In theory, this could be a planetary romance because of the location shift/stakes changes between Earth and the Moon. But ultimately, the shifts are more like obstacles to get to the meat of the plot. They're world-building and character revelation tools for Scorn's journey to find out what happened to zem. I also think it's too short to truly embody the expansive nature of what planetary romance or space opera should feel like, anyway, and it's also why I'm ehhhh about applying either label.
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
For me this was more literary, character-focused science fiction. They were traveling through space on a ship (not a generation ship in the traditional sense), there's a murder, but the plot flips back and forth in time. The stakes were the interpersonal relationships, solving the mystery of what happened on the ship, and determining which characters were up to some shenanigans. Even though the flashbacks of the novel happen on Earth, I wouldn't call this planetary romance because the consequential action is happening in the future on a spaceship. The mother/daughter and friendship threads in this book are gutting (complimentary).
The Finder series by Suzanne Palmer
Fergus Ferguson, intergalactic repo man and one of my favorite characters of the last few years. This is a space opera, although in Driving the Deep most of the action is taking place on a planetary body. But the locations shift a few times early on, and part of the stakes of the second book revolve around getting back to space. If anyone asks me to recommend them a completed, reasonably long space opera series, this is first on my list these days.
Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho
I would for sure put this in the space opera column because of the location shifts were the stakes shift a lot each time. The locations themselves end up not being as important as the character back stories and interpersonal relationships, though. The stakes, while large, take a back seat to the personal challenges of the characters as they attempt to solve their problems. The world feels expansive, too. Its premise reminded me of de Bodard's Xuya universe with how China discovered North America first. What might the future look like if a unified Korea became the space exploration power and Southeast Asian folks were like, "we'll be the business tech power in space, thanks!"? Onto the list it goes.
I have both a huge lists of books to revisit and new books to read for the first time, but there's where I stand right now in my own personal rankings.
Back in the mists of time when I started this challenge,
coffeeandink introduced me to space opera's sister, planetary romance. It's a a distinction I've found extremely useful, but I quickly learned that what's planetary romance for me is space opera for someone else, and vice versa. Sometimes the distinction simply V I B E S.I've also come across a lot of books about generation ships, locked room mysteries, detective stories, and more, all set in space. Most are great fun! But they're not space opera. For me space opera has stakes that rely on movement around planets/celestial bodies and/or spaceships, space stations, and/or star systems that is external to the characters. Do the stakes change repeatedly when the characters shift between these locations? If so, space opera. Planetary romance can feel similarly epic, but the action is rooted in a specific planet/celestial body that's relevant to the plot and the focus is more heavily on the characters.
Since I've done enough space adventure reading recently to have a short list, I decided to formalize some thoughts.
The Interdependency series by John Scalzi
I loved the first two books in this series, The Collapsing Empire and The Consuming Fire, but a plot development in the third book, The Last Emperox, led me to DNF it. 100% space opera, though!
The Divide series by J.S. Dewes
This series is military space opera. Also, I love it. It's got the perfect Mass Effect vibes while also doing its own cool world-building and character work. The character relationship writing remind me a lot of Becky Chambers. Science fantasy is a thing I love, yes. Space with technology that doesn't exist and might as well be magic? Yes. Unexplained artifacts that might as well be magic? Yes. Friendship…IN SPACE? Yes. This series is ongoing. Spectacular, give me 14 more.
The Paradox series by Rachel Bach
Now I'm going to contradict myself because while I just ranted about yes to magic in space, sometimes the vibes are off. I reread this series last year during the holidays. I see why past me loved Fortune's Pawn, the first book. But how quickly we can learn and grow! Honor's Knight made me go full side-eye and I couldn't bear to finish Heaven's Queen. This is space opera romance, but the romance is uhhhhhh no longer my cup of tea. Confirming I am not a dark romance girlie: DONE. Also, the "a little eugenics and genocide is okay as a treat" undertone to this series really soured me on the whole thing.
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
I reread this at least once a year (okay, maybe sometimes twice a year). I love Murderbot very much and have very few critiques from the series. All my complaints are publishing complaints, like why haven't we gotten beautiful special edition copies with beautiful cover art and sprayed edges? If you can do it with Gideon you can do it with Murderbot, Tor!
This series is firmly space opera because of the scope of the world, but there's some interesting entries!
- All Systems Red – mostly an SF mystery because the space travel is incidental
- Artificial Condition – space opera
- Rogue Protocol – space opera
- Exit Strategy – space opera
- Fugitive Telemetry – slightly space opera, but more SF murder mystery because there's one location shift from a space station to a ship and back, very temporarily
- Network Effect – space opera
- System Collapse – planetary romance
Emergent Properties by Aimee Ogden
In theory, this could be a planetary romance because of the location shift/stakes changes between Earth and the Moon. But ultimately, the shifts are more like obstacles to get to the meat of the plot. They're world-building and character revelation tools for Scorn's journey to find out what happened to zem. I also think it's too short to truly embody the expansive nature of what planetary romance or space opera should feel like, anyway, and it's also why I'm ehhhh about applying either label.
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
For me this was more literary, character-focused science fiction. They were traveling through space on a ship (not a generation ship in the traditional sense), there's a murder, but the plot flips back and forth in time. The stakes were the interpersonal relationships, solving the mystery of what happened on the ship, and determining which characters were up to some shenanigans. Even though the flashbacks of the novel happen on Earth, I wouldn't call this planetary romance because the consequential action is happening in the future on a spaceship. The mother/daughter and friendship threads in this book are gutting (complimentary).
The Finder series by Suzanne Palmer
Fergus Ferguson, intergalactic repo man and one of my favorite characters of the last few years. This is a space opera, although in Driving the Deep most of the action is taking place on a planetary body. But the locations shift a few times early on, and part of the stakes of the second book revolve around getting back to space. If anyone asks me to recommend them a completed, reasonably long space opera series, this is first on my list these days.
Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho
I would for sure put this in the space opera column because of the location shifts were the stakes shift a lot each time. The locations themselves end up not being as important as the character back stories and interpersonal relationships, though. The stakes, while large, take a back seat to the personal challenges of the characters as they attempt to solve their problems. The world feels expansive, too. Its premise reminded me of de Bodard's Xuya universe with how China discovered North America first. What might the future look like if a unified Korea became the space exploration power and Southeast Asian folks were like, "we'll be the business tech power in space, thanks!"? Onto the list it goes.
I have both a huge lists of books to revisit and new books to read for the first time, but there's where I stand right now in my own personal rankings.
Space Opera! Ranked (So Far)
- The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
- Finder (series) by Suzanne Palmer
- The Divide (series) by J.S. Dewes
- Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho
- The Interdependency (series) by John Scalzi
- Paradox (series) by Rachel Bach
no subject
Date: 2024-09-02 04:55 am (UTC)I don't think I'm spoiling too much to say that Scalzi DNF'd it as well. It doesn't end so much as crash to a halt.
no subject
Date: 2024-09-02 05:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-02 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-03 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-03 01:01 am (UTC)Some that I'd include, ordered only by how they occurred to me:
no subject
Date: 2024-09-03 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-09 02:19 pm (UTC)