SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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Space Opera Theme Books Needed
![Brad (judekyle) | 1614 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1442484575p1/1022982.jpg)
![Ubik | 42 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1227361522p1/1569308.jpg)
![Terence (spocksbro)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1555890512p1/1019174.jpg)
Player of Games
Against A Dark Background
- all Iain Banks
or
Downbelow Station, C.J. Cherryh
![Robert (rgbatduke) | 35 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1192229994p1/538288.jpg)
Space Opera begins with either E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Skylark" series or his "Lensman" series. This has it all -- Subgenius* physicist heroes with beautiful wives and sweethearts, B.E.M.s of every description, widespread nudity (but absolutely no actual "sex"), faster than light drives with "accelerations of millions of lights" (a phrase that causes me physical pain AS a "Doc" physicist:-), intergalactic war on drugs, and a certain trans-Neitzchiean Uberman thing transcending all human history.
Amazingly, for all the schlock, they're a damn good, highly entertaining read, no sillier that ERB's Mars series but a bit more up to date (for a date in the 50's, that is:-). I'd cheerfully reread them and have read both series a few dozen times already.
I have no idea if they are still in print, however. Maybe via Amazon or some POD thing. They'd still be in copyright (for another ten or twenty years I think) so I doubt they are out in the POD reprint lists yet, but maybe whoever is publishing it is doing small runs from time to time to keep them listed. I think I've seen them in bookstores in the last decade.
Luke Skywalker and the Jedi owe a large debt to the Lensmen. This is true pulp at its finest.
rgb
(Who has been WAY to busy to play much this semester, but I do still try to track the group from afar...:-)
![Michael Economy (michaeleconomy)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1389653970p1/73.jpg)
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/6...
![Jakub (jnareb) | 29 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1197078045p1/553748.jpg)
I really likes whole "Vatta's War" series by Elizabeth Moon (somobody already recommended).
![Jed (specklebang) | 109 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1283449250p1/41292.jpg)
I wish I could tell you that I loved that book because I am always looking for new authors. I rated it 3.5 stars which means I kept it to possibly lend to others. I probably won't read anything else by Banks. Arriving by FTL with a talking hyphenated name drone and then using a sword was a bit too jarring in it's incongruity.
Would Neal Asher be space opera? Like Gridlinked. I love Neal Asher but I consider him to be hard boiled SF noir. No romance!
![Robert (rgbatduke) | 35 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1192229994p1/538288.jpg)
BTW, my reference to Subgenius in the previous post should take the curious here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_o...
where you will learn about J. R. "Bob" Dobbs and Slack. Bob is a dead ringer for Richard Seaton, the protagonist of Skylark, right down to the pipe...;-)
rgb
![Robert (rgbatduke) | 35 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1192229994p1/538288.jpg)
rgb
![Michael Economy (michaeleconomy)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1389653970p1/73.jpg)
this is the one with the talking dolphins right? :D
![Terence (spocksbro)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1555890512p1/1019174.jpg)
This is a rule? I thought we were just brainstorming.
Well, if I'm in transgression, mea culpa.
![Matt (gojiro0) | 2 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1234914113p1/1732722.jpg)
![mlady_rebecca](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1199345526p1/732709.jpg)
Not sure if this would qualify as "space opera" on the melodramatic factor, but I enjoyed Lisanne Norman's Sholan Alliance series. The first book is Turning Point. It also didn't have clear heroes vs villains, at least in the later books.
![Laurel](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1315615381p1/1079533.jpg)
![GW Pickle (gwpickle) | 13 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1209645870p1/950514.jpg)
Can I nominate a book I wrote? It's military space opera (no aliens). No it is NOT self published. It can be ordered from Amazon or B&N.
I'll wait for your reply before I make my recomendation.
G W Pickle
![Dima (d1ma) | 8 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_25x33-8a3530ed95c3dbef8bf215b080559b09.png)
The Gap into Conflict The Real Story Gap 1 by Stephen R. Donaldson is the first in a series of books which adapt Wagner's Ring Cycle into a story about spaceship pilots. It's hard to think of a more operatic way to write SF.
A word of warning. While I think the series is well done, it's not for the squeamish. About half of Book 1 is devoted to one character raping another; this sets up useful narrative conflict, but it may be unpleasant for many readers.
A word of warning. While I think the series is well done, it's not for the squeamish. About half of Book 1 is devoted to one character raping another; this sets up useful narrative conflict, but it may be unpleasant for many readers.
![bsc (bsc0) | 251 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1207337517p1/337197.jpg)
In this Hugo-winning 1993 SF novel, Vernor Vinge gives us a wild new cosmology, a galaxy-spanning "Net of a Million Lies," some finely imagined aliens, and much nail-biting suspense.
Faster-than-light travel remains impossible near Earth, deep in the galaxy's Slow Zone--but physical laws relax in the surrounding Beyond. Outside that again is the Transcend, full of unguessable, godlike "Powers." When human meddling wakes an old Power, the Blight, this spreads like a wildfire mind virus that turns whole civilizations into its unthinking tools. And the half-mythical Countermeasure, if it exists, is lost with two human children on primitive Tines World.
Serious complications follow. One paranoid alien alliance blames humanity for the Blight and launches a genocidal strike. Pham Nuwen, the man who knows about Countermeasure, escapes this ruin in the spacecraft Out of Band--heading for more violence and treachery, with 500 warships soon in hot pursuit. On his destination world, the fascinating Tines are intelligent only in combination: named "individuals" are small packs of the doglike aliens. Primitive doesn't mean stupid, and opposed Tine leaders wheedle the young castaways for information about guns and radios. Low-tech war looms, with elaborately nested betrayals and schemes to seize Out of Band if it ever arrives. The tension becomes extreme... while half the Beyond debates the issues on galactic Usenet.
Vinge's climax is suitably mindboggling. This epic combines the flash and dazzle of old-style space opera with modern, polished thoughtfulness.
![Jakub (jnareb) | 29 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1197078045p1/553748.jpg)
![Marc (authorguy) | 348 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1488826493p1/1348693.jpg)
Wolf Star
![bsc (bsc0) | 251 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1207337517p1/337197.jpg)
These are the nominations that will end up in the poll that we will vote for. I think the "1 per" limit is to keep the poll from getting out of hand.
Hello,
I'm just trying to keep the poll list frm goig crazy. Of course, if others are mentioned I'm not going to shoot anyone...
Nick
I'm just trying to keep the poll list frm goig crazy. Of course, if others are mentioned I'm not going to shoot anyone...
Nick
![JuliAnna | 53 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1231967982p1/1269729.jpg)
Thanks to all for the great recommendations that I've gotten from these discussions. I especially love it when folks include a sentence explaining why they chose to recommend something.
![Mary JL (maryjl) | 181 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
Note: Galactic Patrol was actually the first Lensman story to appear (in the s. f. magazines). Triplanetary (Lensman #1) was rewritten when the Lensman series was issued in book form. And "First Lensman" (Lensman #2) was actually written AFTER Galactic Patrol as a link between Book #1 and Book #3.
The first two are prequels and can be read later; also of the six books in the Lensman Series, Galactic Patrol is probably the most representative of space opera.
![Jensownzoo | 200 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1256839468p1/1571381.jpg)
![Shannon (shannoncb)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1665017521p1/395599.jpg)
If people want to recommend other books (but nominate just one), that would be great - it would help people like me! I recently read Grimspace and Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre and absolutely loved them - definitely space opera, I think, and really fun exciting reads.
I loved Consider Plebus, that was an excellent book. I didn't know it was considered Space Opera but the sci-fi sub-genres are pretty hazy to me.
Oh this is going to be fun!
![Jensownzoo | 200 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1256839468p1/1571381.jpg)
![bsc (bsc0) | 251 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1207337517p1/337197.jpg)
Light - Harrison is an excellent writer and this is supposed to be pretty weird and good.
Young Miles - Probably the best modern representation of space opera. Not read this one and they aren't really what I like to read but fits the theme really well.
A Fire Upon The Deep - A bit of hard SF mixed with space opera. This is kind of the next stage of space opera, with people like Stross, Alistair Reynolds, and Banks being big contributors. This is much more my kind of SF than classic space opera.
Hyperion - Great book with excellent writing. However, it kind of requires you to read the sequel to get any kind of closure (which I found a bit disappointing).
On Basilisk Station - This is the more military space opera that is pretty popular now. Never read these because I've heard the writing is sub-par but lots of people like them so I wouldn't mind giving it a shot with the group. Others in this category would be things like Old Man's War and The Forever War.
![Jon (jonmoss) | 890 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1375036866p1/899665.jpg)
I'm looking forward to reading anything nominated and ultimately voted upon in this sub genre of science fiction. I can't make a recommendation though because I've never read a space opera novel (that I know of). :)
![GW Pickle (gwpickle) | 13 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1209645870p1/950514.jpg)
Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer very much.
I'd like to nominate my book SENTI, BUT I WON'T. IMHO it's a great book, yes I did write it and my opinion is biased, so that's why I'm NOT going to nominate it. SENTI got good reviews and when my first (E book) publisher (StarDust Press) went out of business, a traditional publisher (Trytium Press)republished it as a paperback.
The Lensman series by E. E. Smith. is another excellent series.
If I had to nominate one I'd nominate Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer.
G W Pickle
![Robert (rgbatduke) | 35 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1192229994p1/538288.jpg)
And yeah, it does have enormous space battles, cosmic billion year old conflicts, religious mania, and so on.
But the SCIENCE is too good to really be cheesy. Of course Brin has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics IIRC, so this is only to be expected. Even the talking dolphins make a lot of sense as an extrapolation given our rapidly expanding ability to manipulate genes. In a decade or two we could actually begin to practice "uplift". Hell, in a way we've been doing so for years -- look at dogs. But what we've done so far is nothing compared to what we can and will do when we can actually splice genes into eggs to form new species or radical alterations in old ones "deliberately".
Which we do already -- but only in e coli and the like.
That's the thing about Brin -- his work has more the feel of genuinely visionary classic science fiction more than space opera, except for the space war and talking vegetable thing...;-)
rgb
![bsc (bsc0) | 251 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1207337517p1/337197.jpg)
![Jakub (jnareb) | 29 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1197078045p1/553748.jpg)
![Jeff | 6 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1206923248p1/931406.jpg)
I would not like to read this as our Space Opera selection because of its dark "feel". I loved Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series, but was turned off by most everything h wrot after that. Just one man's opinion...
![Stephen (sullypython) | 12 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1311616811p1/1413439.jpg)
How about Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It might be fun to critique one of the classics
Another good one might be Dread Empire's Fall : The Praxis by Walter Jon Williams
![Deebles | 8 comments](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1641717499p1/475918.jpg)
![Shannon (shannoncb)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1665017521p1/395599.jpg)
Sullypython: that's definitely what we do best here! Someone recommended that book to me but I wasn't interested: I have it in my head that it's really dry and heavy. (No reason, I just got scared off sci-fi years ago and am only now getting into it.)
Dannii, I was wondering when anyone would get around to recommending The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , that should definitely go on the list!
I really enjoyed the Crystal Singer trilogy - I'm not sure how much fun it'd be just to read the first book of it though. I have the omnibus and read them right through, which made for a good read.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Last Hawk (other topics)The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (other topics)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (other topics)
The Player of Games (other topics)
Feersum Endjinn (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Piers Anthony (other topics)John W. Campbell Jr. (other topics)
L.E. Modesitt Jr. (other topics)
Harry Harrison (other topics)
Keith Laumer (other topics)
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One suggestion from each member and no author that we've already read.No limit! Having considered both sides I'll go with all sorts of suggestions. Just no huge, humongous lists please!
Have at it!