Kevin's Watch

I'm simply curious. Part of that is because right now I am writing one, but also reading a couple. Keep in mind also that the biggest movie space opera, Star Wars, just came to its effective conclusion. And the most recent Star Trek has ended, while the Farscape storylines were wrapped up in a miniseries on the SciFi Channel recently, and of all things Battlestar Galactica has seen a high-quality rebirth!

Soooo...what do you look for?

Aliens? What kind? Do you have any favorites?

Interstellar warfare? If so, what would be the best parallel? The Napoleonic Wars? The US Civil War? World War II? Vietnam? The Crusades?

What do you look for in heroes? Who are your faves and why? What kinds of heroes would you like to see, but haven't?

I love: The Gap, Uplift Series.

I like interstellar warfare, but only when it has seriousness (tactics) and doesnt involve huge fleets or planets blowing up. I also love realistic aliens: they make sense (physiology and psychology) and are alien - nothing like us.

I'm about to start a 4-volume sci-fi epic that is themed on utopia and human condition. It is an exploration of character, and so my characters will have faults.

I look for Space opera's that have some kind content value (ie not Starwars).

I am currentlly reading Alastair Reynold's Chasm City after completeing Revelation Space and I' most impressed, as this is hsi first work I think, and my first experience reading his work. New Fan.

The best I have read is probably Ian M. Bank's Culture novels. Some others I like:

Lois Mcmaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga

Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy (and I'm tired of people crying about the ending, when if you look at the the otehr boosk they read, the quality sucks from begining to end, yet they don't complain).

Another relatively recent one was John C. Wright's Golden Age Trilogy, which is pretty dense for a Space Opera, but Wright is one of the most talented new writers in the genre IMHO, regarding both fantasy and SF.

Brian Aldiss's Helliconia Trilogy

Of course going abck to classic's EE Smith's work was fantastic, and can't forget about Hebert's Dune (not to be confused and not including the mindless work by his son and Kevin J. Anderson)

Tons of others, as most of what I like in SF falls under this category, as Hard SF is something I can only read sporadically.

Ainulindale wrote:Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy (and I'm tired of people crying about the ending, when if you look at the the otehr boosk they read, the quality sucks from begining to end, yet they don't complain).

I liked this series, but I thought the ending was too abrubt - and there seemed no basis for the character making the decision he did. His solution seemed to have come out of nowhere.

Yes, the Culture series is very good space opera.

Zahir wrote:Keep in mind also that the biggest movie space opera, Star Wars, just came to its effective conclusion.

Reminds me of a line from a webcomic:

"But this is the payoff! This is how it all ends...okay, no. It ends with teddy bears dancing in a forest, but this is the important midway point!"

Ainulindale wrote:I am currentlly reading Alastair Reynold's Chasm City after completeing Revelation Space and I' most impressed, as this is hsi first work I think, and my first experience reading his work. New Fan.

I really liked that series too, although I wish I'd have read Chasm City first. It is certainly amongst the most believable models of an interstellar society that I've encountered. No warp drive, no hyperspace just really big engines and awfully long journeys. I thought the conjoiners were a great extrapolation of man's integration with technology and where that could lead.

I love the Gap series, of course, and Iain M. Banks' last novel, The Algebraist, had some great passages examining how a fleet travelling at near-lightspeed would fight.

As for the best parallel, I'm not really sure there is one. In terms of readability, I'd say the Napoleonic Wars as there's plenty of ways to make combat exciting in the ships of that era (try reading Richard Woodman's excellent Nathaniel Drinkwater series. I much prefer them to Patrick O'Brien's more popular Jack Aubrey novels.). The problem is that in space it's likely, unless the ships in question are really huge, combat would likely be over in an eye-blink once the shooting starts.

Best space opera I'm familiar with is Babylon 5, the series, not the books ('cause I haven't read any of them yet).

Farscape (series, not the books... which completely suck)

...To this day,,the Aliens,,series still will hold my interest. The first two were excellent and it should have ended ,,period,, at the 3rd. But even the fourth one was captivating. All those versions of Ripley in the tanks ,,yeooow. Maybe I got'em mixed up, but,,the close in, personal one on one rather than the huge war machine and vast scopes of space and time and endless lists of weird characters...no..nothing like a Alien chomping at your face. I thought the 2nd of the series was the best for sheer terror effect. And ,,there is something about Paul Riser gettin munched. It seemed ..it just was a perfect match of casting and what happens to the character....and while we're on James Cameron,,as far as movies go,,The Terminator series was not shabby. T2 was pretty done amazingly well..okay, the 3rd was a turd.....MEL

So my favorite space opera novella's include the following:

Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons
Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
Rise of Endymion

Night's Dawn Trilogy - Peter F. Hamilton
The Reality Dysfunction: Emergence (Book 1)
The Reality Dysfunction: Expansion (Book 2)
The Neutronium Alchemist: Consolidation (Book 1)
The Neutronium Alchemist: Conflict (Book 2)
The Naked God: Flight (Book 1)
The Naked God: Faith (Book 2)

Dune - Frank Herbert
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heritics of Dune
Chapterhouse Dune

Culture Books - Iain M. Banks
Consider Phelbas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward

Chung Kao series by David Wingrove.

Prover of Life wrote:Chung Kao series by David Wingrove.

Enjoyed them, but thought the first two were the best.

--A

Avatar wrote:

Prover of Life wrote:Chung Kao series by David Wingrove.

Enjoyed them, but thought the first two were the best.

--A

Yeah, got a little bogged down after awhile. I stopped at book 7. Never have been able to afford/find book 8. Heard it was really junk anyway.

The is no real appreciation for space opera until you read Neverness, The Broken God, The Wild and War in Heaven. But it's much more than just space op. much more!