So, these book threads seem to be doing rather well, and I'm curious about whether there's some good space opera out there that I haven't run into yet. New authors preferred, because we all know the regulars, I'm sure. More points for space opera with actually alien aliens in it (in other words, not humans with funny accents), because I'm a sucker for that.
I'll start the ball rolling with a recommendation for Charles E. Gannon's Fire with Fire. This is a book that keeps shedding skins on the way in--you think you know what it is (and that's not /especially/ interesting), and then it opens up and becomes magnificent. The last half of the book, in particular, was something I didn't know I'd been missing so much until I got it. It's not perfect, but for a first novel (which I think it is), it's quite good.
(And it was the ARC that I read, so perhaps it's been tightened up in editing since then.)
Posts: 20 | Registered: Feb 2012
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If you have a Kindle, there's a couple good Space Opera's among the Self Published drek, I mean Amazon Publishing Partners. Even the good stuff is fairly rough, having never seen the loving embrace of a good editor, but there are some gems in there.
BV Larson's Star Force series isn't exactly Space Opera, but it's close and very readable. Larson does a good job of building a flawed and very human main character that makes mistakes all the time and pays dearly for them, but still manages to eek out victory. It's also an interesting read when you consider that he takes great effort to make the aliens *seem* alien. They have their own languages and customs that make it difficult for the main character and his followers to communicate with them. The resulting misunderstandings and miscommunication makes for some tense, interesting, hilarious, and some sad situations.
Thomas DePrima's Galaxy Unknown series is a very entertaining read, but the main character is kind of super-hero-y (never really makes any mistakes, always wins the day, etc) so it's not hard to predict what's going to happen. The plots aren't deep, but the action is entertaining and the story is quite enjoyable. The series universe is fleshed out quite well and there are lots of great characters and aliens. I went through the whole series before I knew what happened.
The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell is good Military Sci-Fi that borders on Space Opera land. It's basically a behind-enemy-lines space fleet story. Pretty good work that takes great pains to outline the challenges of commanding a fleet of ships that spans several light-minutes. There's a follow up series as well, but I haven't touched it yet.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Let me underscore again one of my recommendations from that older thread. Tony Daniel, "A Dry, Quiet War." Best short story I've ever read.
Posts: 4600 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: Half of Corey is Slash the Berserker. The other half is Daniel Abraham.
See, that's what I thought, because I remember reading that Slash was co-writing this series. Then they put the pen name on it and I thought I must have been mistaking it for something else.
Cool. Makes me enjoy it even more.
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Blayne Bradley
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Any scifi kind of like the Halo books? A mix of high brow fleet space navies doing their thing with ground combat/infiltration strike stuff? Karen Traviss is kinda annoying me with her disrespect of Nylund's characters.
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Hm, still enjoying Leviathan Wakes (reading it fairly slowly) although I have to put in the obligatory WTF at how the Mormons get lampooned. Seems a little sophomoric for someone of Slash's stature.
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How are they lampooned, in your opinion? Seemed like a pretty reasonable extrapolation from their current beliefs and expenditures into the future.
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I suppose it's possible that when the technology became available, the Mormons could decide to pick up and leave en masse. I can't see any reason why, though. Mormon beliefs about the future are wound pretty tightly with Earth. I could see individual Mormons deciding to get on a generation ship, but I think the time for the entire church to pick up and find new digs is over.
I'm objecting more to the one-dimensional portrayal the Mormons got in the book. It was disappointingly similar to the occasional mentions Mormons get in other sci-fi books by authors I have to assume aren't that familiar with the church. Kind of capped, IMO, by the young Mormon technician hissing "Antichrist!" at the POV when their ship gets commandeered. That's just not Mormon M.O. The only thing that rang even remotely of familiarity with the Mormons was the name of the ship, Nauvoo. I thought maybe that ties in to the idea that the Mormons in this universe still have that old exodus complex.
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