A not-so-typical space opera?

[Mary]

I've been calling my book, Artificial Absolutes, a space opera because it takes place in the far future and takes you to planets across the galaxy, but at the same time, it's different from the other books in its genre. There are no aliens, no evil galactic empires, no end-of-the-world stakes... so does it still count? I've had people say it reminds them of Firefly (which I'll take as a compliment!), but does Firefly count? It's technically a Space Western, which may be a little different from Space Opera... or maybe I'm just overthinking this whole genre thing. What do you think?

BTW, here's the Amazon link for Artificial Absolutes, if you want to have a look inside... http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Abso...

[Stephen]

IMO, a Space Western is a flavor of Space Opera. I just finished writing a book that mixes the Space Western with heavy doses of the Space Adventure (Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc.) Like yours, my novel has been compaired with Firefly (which I also take as a huge compliment!).

In short, Firefly totally counts!

Looking forward to picking up a copy of your book.

[Mary]

Fantastic! I hope you enjoy it :-)

I think maybe Space Opera started out as one thing, and then expanded to include other types of stories, kind of like how fantasy went from mostly epics and fairy tales to the paranormal/urban stuff we see today. Genres are getting so fuzzy these days...

Good luck with your novel, btw! There need to be more Firefly-esque stories in the world :-)

[Joe]

Sure, your book can count as space opera. You don't need aliens or the traditional galactic evil empire for space opera. I don't have either element in my Star Chosen space opera either.

Space opera is a melodramatic story told with outer space action. That does it for me. I define the term Space Opera in more detail in this post: http://joechiappetta.blogspot.com/201...

As for your book, you have a very compelling premise for the story. Wish you the very best!

[Mary]

Nice post! I find it interesting that you say that space operas are focused on the characters over the concepts. Personally, that's what I like about the genre :-)

[Przemek]

IMHO
Space Opera need just adventure that somehow require space technology. And not necessary in times of your ploy, it may be long lost history (space ship crash landing on a planet, and story is about descendants who think they are native to given planet), or distant reality (news from distant inter planetary war, that arrive to your Earth bound character), or distant future even.

Heck even space theme can be introduced at last page in the book and Space Opera badge can be applied :)

[Erik]

Classic - Space Opera to me is often “large scale” science fiction stories involving many characters and sometime several story lines that eventually will come together towards the end.

One of the first science fiction story I read as a “kid” was Robert A. Heinlein; Starship Troopers. I consider this book to be a science fiction action, drama and not a space opera. The film, however; I consider to be more of a space opera. The reason is because the film was very different from the book.

I have received several reviews on my first book; a science fiction story, space opera – and some of the reviewers are questioning the gender space opera and that has puzzled me because I think the story is similar to any classic space opera?

Someone suggested horror? If a reader is into horror, then they will be disappointed in my story. There are some “horrible” events throughout the story but not nearly as much as it to be considered a horror story. Another reviewer thought it was more of a sexual…romantic novel??? And it’s definitely not an erotic sci-fi. There are some sexual…romantic scenes, more so for character development than anything else – same here - if a reader want to read an erotic sci-fi then my story will be a disappointment.

Where does one draw the line? I sure don’t know?