[books] in praise of space opera
Feb. 11th, 2005 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyI have been a big fan, for a long time, of the genre known as the space opera.
What, you might ask, is a space opera? Well, I guess you could say that it's a soap opera with spaceships. Another way of describing it would be to say that it is science fiction that is character-driven, but not, generally speaking, with Larger Societal Implications.
Heinlein was probably the first to write space opera. His juveniles (Have Space Suit, Will Travel, etc,) are mostly along these lines.
However, I like my space opera to be a little more egalitarian in terms of the sexes. So I generally prefer more modern space opera. Here, I will list a few of my favorite titles and series.
The Liaden series, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Words alone can hardly express how much I love this series. Romance, high protocol, magic, space mercenaries, and eight-foot sentient turtles. Really, what more could you want? Oh, right - female characters that KICK ASS and male characters that are elegant, polite, and loving. Really, people. Read the books. They're wonderful. In the series timeline, the first Korval book is Local Custom. However, Agent of Change was the first book written, so that's a fair first choice as well. If you're anything like me, or the many people I have recommended the series to, you will soon gobble up all nine full-length books currently written, order the chapbooks, and be begging for more.
The Vorkosigan series, by Lois McMaster Bujold
These books are incredibly convoluted and hilarious. Some of them are also very touching. To begin at the very beginning, start with Shards of Honor, where we meet the parents of the main protagonist. Also very possible to begin The Warrior's Apprentice, which is the first book featuring Miles, who is very short, and far too smart for his own good. Bujold understands very well How People Work, and it shows.
The Honor Harrington series, by David Weber et al
This is military space opera. However, it is not as full of frightening acronyms the way some military sci fi is. Also, Weber makes a point of having important characters that aren't male, and even some that have different ethnicities. The interstellar empress (called the Queen) is mixed race. The first book is On Basilisk Station. It's also quite wonderful how Weber has matured as a writer in the past ten years. His first few books tend to be pretty strongly focused on "this new spaceship I thought of, and what cool tactics you can do with it," but he learns more about doing characters as he goes along.
Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey
The first space opera I ever encountered. It's fascinating to compare Sassinak with Honor Harrington. McCaffrey and Weber both explore many of the same themes (slavery on the galactic level, abuse of power, the military) in very different ways. I didn't like the sequels as much, unfortunately.
The Mageworlds series, by Debra Doyle and James MacDonald
This series doesn't get the credit it deserves. It's a bit Star Wars derivative, I suppose, but the characters are great, and so are the systems of magic. The first book is The Price of the Stars.
NB: I stand corrected. Heinlein wasn't the first. That was why I wrote "probably", since I didn't know for sure. But it seems like he is the first that most of us have heard of, and I was trying to give people a reference for what this genre looks like...
What, you might ask, is a space opera? Well, I guess you could say that it's a soap opera with spaceships. Another way of describing it would be to say that it is science fiction that is character-driven, but not, generally speaking, with Larger Societal Implications.
Heinlein was probably the first to write space opera. His juveniles (Have Space Suit, Will Travel, etc,) are mostly along these lines.
However, I like my space opera to be a little more egalitarian in terms of the sexes. So I generally prefer more modern space opera. Here, I will list a few of my favorite titles and series.
The Liaden series, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Words alone can hardly express how much I love this series. Romance, high protocol, magic, space mercenaries, and eight-foot sentient turtles. Really, what more could you want? Oh, right - female characters that KICK ASS and male characters that are elegant, polite, and loving. Really, people. Read the books. They're wonderful. In the series timeline, the first Korval book is Local Custom. However, Agent of Change was the first book written, so that's a fair first choice as well. If you're anything like me, or the many people I have recommended the series to, you will soon gobble up all nine full-length books currently written, order the chapbooks, and be begging for more.
The Vorkosigan series, by Lois McMaster Bujold
These books are incredibly convoluted and hilarious. Some of them are also very touching. To begin at the very beginning, start with Shards of Honor, where we meet the parents of the main protagonist. Also very possible to begin The Warrior's Apprentice, which is the first book featuring Miles, who is very short, and far too smart for his own good. Bujold understands very well How People Work, and it shows.
The Honor Harrington series, by David Weber et al
This is military space opera. However, it is not as full of frightening acronyms the way some military sci fi is. Also, Weber makes a point of having important characters that aren't male, and even some that have different ethnicities. The interstellar empress (called the Queen) is mixed race. The first book is On Basilisk Station. It's also quite wonderful how Weber has matured as a writer in the past ten years. His first few books tend to be pretty strongly focused on "this new spaceship I thought of, and what cool tactics you can do with it," but he learns more about doing characters as he goes along.
Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey
The first space opera I ever encountered. It's fascinating to compare Sassinak with Honor Harrington. McCaffrey and Weber both explore many of the same themes (slavery on the galactic level, abuse of power, the military) in very different ways. I didn't like the sequels as much, unfortunately.
The Mageworlds series, by Debra Doyle and James MacDonald
This series doesn't get the credit it deserves. It's a bit Star Wars derivative, I suppose, but the characters are great, and so are the systems of magic. The first book is The Price of the Stars.
NB: I stand corrected. Heinlein wasn't the first. That was why I wrote "probably", since I didn't know for sure. But it seems like he is the first that most of us have heard of, and I was trying to give people a reference for what this genre looks like...
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Date: 2005-02-11 04:55 pm (UTC)-Well, no. The term was coined in 1941, only three years after Heinlein started writing. Doc Smith's Lensman novels are regarded as cornerstones of the genre, and he was at the top of his form at that time. (He started writing SF in the late 1910s.) His work is a product of its time, but is also intelligent and complex.
See also Edmond Hamilton (began writing in 1928) and Jack Williamson (also 1928).