Space Opera Fans discussion
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Welcome Wagon & Rules
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Introduce Yourself - Part I
Paul wrote: "Day Job: Archaeologist / Author..."Welcome, Paul! When I read your bio, I got this image of Indiana Jones swashbuckling his way through the galaxy with a hot chicken curry on his tail :-) Welcome to SoF!
ahh yes the fabled Vindaloonian emipire....
Hello fellow space opera fans!Name: Mel Patterson
Favorite books: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dune, Foundation Trilogy, too many Star Trek and Star Wars books to list.
Favorite Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy and some techno-thrillers.
Favorite TV Shows: Classic Trek, Fringe, Ghost in the Shell anime series.
Favorite Movies: Dredd, Oblivion, Appleseed, Avatar
Favorite Food: A well prepared medium rare steak.
Day Job: Attorney/General Counsel
Hobbies: Computer gaming, writing, reading.
Anna wrote: "Welcome, Paul! When I read your bio, I got this image of Indiana Jones swashbuckling his way through the galaxy with a hot chicken curry on his ta..."Well, I think all archaeologists secretly want to Indiana Jones, except for the wrecking everything he touches part. We're not into that.
Hmm, the Millennium Chicken...
Mmm, Vindaloo...
Hi Mel!
Melvin wrote: "Day Job: Attorney..."Welcome, Melvin! That makes two annoyingly paranoid lawyers in the community (my day job is attorney as well). Although sci-fi fans tend to skew towards engineering and scientist types, so we can all be paranoid and THEN debate it amongst other detail-focused people. It's fun! Welcome to SoF!
Paul wrote: "Hmm, the Millennium Chicken... Vindaloo......"Isn't that east Indian cuisine? [*stomach rumbles*]
Thanks Anna,I usually think paranoid lawyers is a redundant phrase. :D It's a survival skill for us.
I've kind of been lurking because frankly I don't get enough time to do as much pleasure reading as I'd like to. so much stuff to read and so little time to read it!
Hi Paul, thanks for the welcome message!
hi my name is stephen im from liverpool U.K. i am a goodreads author, i love the whole sci fi world, it has helped me through some very boring night watches when i served in the royal navy, Favorite Books: loved all of issac asimov books
Favorite Genres: sci fi and horror i love the escapism
Favorite TV shows: loving almost human, fast and loud, mythbusters, deadliest catch and gold rush
Favorite Movies: dune is a film i must of watched hundreds of times, liked green lantern in 3d and the matrix
Favorite Food: tough one this, bacon buttys, good steak, anything from the far east and a good pan of scouse(I know a lot of people wont know what that is )
Day Job: i work for the highways agency in the control room
Hobbies: Love the outdoors canoeing, camping and playing games on ps4
look forward to speaking to you all soon
Stephen wrote: "i love the whole sci fi world, it has helped me through some very boring night watches when i served in the royal navy..."Welcome, Stephen! I started devouring sci-fi as a tween because there was nothing on our old, 19" black-and-white television most of the time. The worlds in the book were always much more vivid than that tiny screen.
i could not agree more, they are still a million times better than any film, try my book it has the look inside option, i remember when there was only three channels
Thomas wrote: "I also read thrillers if they are borderline sci-fi/fantasy. (Mundane serial killer stories bore me, but I like a good supernatural or near-future sci-fi techno-thriller)...."I know what you mean about the sci-fi twist! I loved Minority Report (even though I loathe Tom Cruise).
minority report was a great film , i dont mind tom cruise there are worse actors
good point ha ha i think it must be the money, but not having any i cant comment
Thomas wrote: "This Alien Shore, by C. S. Friedman"Why do I never remember this book? It's great.
I liked Oblivion.
I just make sure I'm out of touch with pop culture so that I don't know if actors are ass-hats in real life.
I've been with goodreads for quite a while but, alas, I was always lagging behind concerning the whole space opera thing as in "keep your mouth shut if you don't know what you're talking about".Now that the distance to my workplace has increased I find myself consuming audio books at a crazy pace.
So far I have waded through:
RCN Lt.C. Leary
Honorverse
All of Scalzis stuff
Hyperion and Ilium/Olympos
Song of ice and fire (ok, this is not Space opera related at all but I needed something different)
Mistborn
Cassandra Palmer
Empire of man
Currently I am working on Lost Fleet.
The last two series were being suggested by this group - thank you Anna for breathing some life in this!
Name: Thorsten
Favorite books: Old Man's War (Scalzi), Ilium and Olympus (Simmons), Song of Ice and Fire (Martin), Empire of Man (Weber+Ringo), Lost Fleet (Campbell), Saga of seven suns (Anderson), Mistborn (Sanderson)
Favorite genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy and some Physics stuff.
Favorite TV shows: I abandoned TV some 20 years ago. Still, I tend to favor Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek Enterprise (the 2001-2005 series) as well as Heroes. Game of Thrones suffers from too many producers to find me delighted.
Favorite movies: District 9, Inception, Gravity, Apollo 13, Lotr, and practically all of the Marvel movies; To name a few.
Favorite food: We cook all around the globe food. The only thing I would really, really miss is a loin steak.
Day job: Quality assurance
Hobbies: Bicycle riding (<<-audio books<<-Goodreads), Fireworks, Astronomy, Boardgames
Other: I actually make the boardgames myself. Good for my two kids who just love those cooperative strategy games that one can buy nowhere.
Mostlywater wrote: "I've been with goodreads for quite a while but, alas, I was always lagging behind concerning the whole space opera thing as in "keep your mouth shut if you don't know what you're talking about".N..."
Welcome Thorsten! By your reading list, I'd say you've dove into the deep end of the Space Opera -and- the Epic Fantasy gene pools :-) We space opera fans like to settle into a universe with characters we know well and stay awhile! We're just diving into all the Scalzi books as a series :-)
Betsy wrote: "I agree with you, Anna. I tell myself I'm not going to watch any of his movies, a..."I've seen the clips for Edge of Tomorrow and I must say I will probably go see it even though I don't like him personally. I love Emily Blount and, though I dislike Tom Cruise, he -is- a good actor. It just kinda runs that 'sink into the movie and forget about the outside world' thing when, every time you see the character on-screen, all you can think about is what a jerk-wad they are in real life instead of sinking into their character. :-(
Edge of Tomorrow is based on the book All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.The book is interesting.
Honestly, after the way the director butchered Jumper, I'm not sure I want to see the movie. He already stripped out the powered armor, from the previews.
Paul wrote: "Edge of Tomorrow is based on the book All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.The book is interesting.
Honestly, after the way the director butchered Jumper, I..."
Hah! Had to look that movie up (Jumper). It had a 16% viewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes!
So far Edge of Tomorrow is trending at 91% viewer approval on Rotten Tomatoes. So hopefully it will justify coughing up $20 for two tickets?
Tim wrote: "On the upside though everyone here can relate to being "US" by the nature of the genre we all appreciate, even though the odds are good that we won't all share the same political or religous views....or the same views on alcohol, drugs, sex, pets, the best colour, bands etc etc ..."Oh ... but we MUST all agree on the same bands ... who here doesn't love Two Steps From Hell???
[*crickets...*]
Alas ... I must indoctrinate people with it's epicness...
TSFH ... official epic movie trailer composer for Star Trek :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT-P5...
WOW that escalated quickly, i thought we where discussing sci fi, maybe im wrong
;)
Just had a listen to that Two steps from hell lot.... never heard of them before but quite cool....sounds like music I'd expect to hear in an Elder Srolls game...
Tim wrote: "Just had a listen to that Two steps from hell lot.... never heard of them before but quite cool....sounds like music I'd expect to hear in an Elder Srolls game..."If you like the Elder Scrolls, have you downloaded the free Malukah Skyrim fan-covers? All her free downloads are here...
http://malukah.com/free/
Two Steps From Hell is the cure for all creative blocks of any sort. Writer's block? Can't get your brain wrapped around that engineering project? Need to go beat up a guy 3x your size in karate class (okay, that last one is specific for ME). TSFH is the cure for all mundane blahs!
Name – Conal O’NeillFavorite Books/Authors – Lensman, Foundation, Dune, Ringworld. I am also a big fan of the SF authors of the 1970/80/90’s – Julian May, David Brin, Gordon Dickson, Anne McCaffrey, Steve Perry, Mike Resnick, Alan Dean Foster, Timothy Zahn, Jack Chalker, F.M. Busby, Michael McCollum and many more…
Favorite Genre’s – Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Favorite TV Show’s – Person of Interest, The Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds, original Star Trek, Warehouse 13
Favorite Movies – Marvel Universe, Superman (Christopher Reeve version), Star Wars
Favorite Foods – Prime Rib and a baked potato (raised in an Irish meat and potatos household)
Day Job – Random number generator (also known as a Pricing manager)
Hobbies – the 3 r’s and do watch some sporting activities. Photography
Hello all. I am a fan of space opera! (I assume I'm the right place.) Favourite modern author in the genre is probably Alastair Reynolds (I particularly liked Century Rain), while I grew up reading many of the greats, such as Arthur C Clarke, Ursula Le Guin, Robert Heinlein and others. Favourite space opera film is The Fifth Element...
Welcome Conal! I'm a David Brin fan, too!Welcome Steph! Fifth Element ... awesome movie.
My introduction to space opera (as is typical with most kids of the post '77 generation) was Star Wars. As my family never had money to "waste" on books, most of the reading material I was exposed to came from class assignments and the paltry selection from my schools's libraries. There was also the trashy fantasy and comic books I siphoned off my friends. High school came and went and when I got a job and had my own money to spend I began reading mostly classic books I missed out on or the trashy fantasy for which I had developed a taste all throughout adolescence. In the mid aughts I watched Firefly at the behest of my cousin (well after it had come and died on television) and really dug it. Years later after the Star Wars prequels had left a foul taste in most people's mouths, a modest animated TV show aired on Cartoon Network and after a successful run found itself on Netflix. The Clone Wars was exciting and hearkened back to what made SW fun. The fan service was at times a tad heavy handed but did not detract from the show's spirit of adventure. Having binged watched the entirety of TCW I found myself jonesing for more space opera. I've taken up watching the Battlestar Galactica re-imagining and am currently plowing my way through the first entry in Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. But what next? Once I put The Rise of Endymion to bed, what spines should I crack? Oh, our dear hostess was kind enough to provide a survey. If you're still reading then perhaps I've taken up far too much of your good time. Time you could be using to read far worthy textual compositions. Ergo, I'll limit this last bit to as few words as possible.
Name: Lex
Favorite Book: The Alchemist
Favorite Genre: Anything challenging
Favorite TV show: Hee Haw
Favorite Movie: That one with that guy who does that one thing
Favorite Food: Tofu
Day Job: Menial Paper Pusher/Keyboard Jockey
Hobbies: Menial Paper Pushing, Keyboard Jockeying, Needlepoint
Other: Ya know... stuuufff
Alexander wrote: "But what next? Once I put The Rise of Endymion to bed, what spines should I crack?..."Welcome Alexander! Hyperion is a tough act to follow, but perhaps you might want to dive into one of the 80's-era classic Space Opera series?
Old Man's War by John Scalzi - this is more military space opera, but we're reading it as a group right now, so you'll find people you can discuss the series with as you read it, which is always fun.
The Foundation Trilogy - by Isaac Asimov - Asimov is one of the fathers of modern science fiction. I like the latter books in the series written in the 1980's (after the storyline merged with the I, Robot universe) but they're all great. A lot of space opera fans will refer back to Asimov when discussing space opera, so this will give you a good foundation.
Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card. I liked the later Ender books which are pure space opera (whereas Ender's Game itself is more traditional military sci-fi). Most space opera fans will have at least read Ender's Game (whether or not they agree with Orson Scott Card's politics).
We also have some really great Indie authors who are also members of the community. In addition to our monthly Book of the Month 'Indie Pick', if you keep an eye on the Self-Promotion folder and/or the We Found Free Ebooks folder, you can pick up a great indie read for free or dirt cheap for your kindle or .pdf for your desktop if you don't have an e-reader yet ... and ... pester them for insights into the reasons they wrote the book. Who knows, maybe an idea you toss out into a discussion thread might be immortalized in a future book?
Welcome to Space Opera Fans!
Name: Robert Lee WolfeFavorite Books: The Discworld Novels, The Coldfire Trilogy, Armor, Snow Crash, Decipher, The Sword of Shannara (first series), the Noble Dead Books, Song of Ice 7 Fire series, How Few Remain, all kinds of Bova, Heinlen, etc.
Favorite Genres: Sci Fi, Action/Adventure, Crime Drama, Anything Joss Whedon touches, Little House on the Prairie (that's its own genre, right?), Animated Sci Fi/Superheroes
Favorite TV shows: Babylon 5, Farscape, Firefly, Deep Space 9, ST:TNG, ST:TOS, SG1, SG:A, Doctor Who, Continuum, Now & Again (on DVD soon--can you believe it?!), NYPD Blue, 24, Little House, Buffy, Angel, Star Blazers, The Galaxy Rangers, Young Justice, The Justice League & JLU, Batman: The Animated Series, Game of Thrones . . . so many more (TV/animation junkie here)
Favorite Movies: Gran Torino, Crash, Blade Runner, Aliens, E.T., ST2:TWOK, Chronicles of Riddick, Superman I & II (actually recommend cutting off I and starting Donner Cut II at certain point to make 1 fantastic movie), Captain America, The Avengers, Serenity, The Black Hole, Space Battleship Yamato, The Flashpoint Paradox . . . you're not still reading this, are you?
Favorite Food: A handful of beef jerky and some string cheese will do me any day
Day Job: Public School Teacher, 5th Grade Math & Science
Hobbies: Drawing or painting or creating digital artwork, writing and playing music (mostly heavy metal), writing science fiction
Other: Am a Goodreads author (one novel self-published so far)
Robert wrote: "Name: Robert Lee WolfeFavorite Books: The Discworld Novels, The Coldfire Trilogy, Armor, Snow Crash, Decipher, The Sword of Shannara (first series), the Noble Dead Books, Song of Ice 7 Fire series..."
Another Little House fan! Amazing!
Anyway, this was really odd to see when about ten minutes before I'd finally realized that the best way to describe a story idea I'd had was Little House, but in an intergalactic culture.
Funny! How awesome is Little House on Blu Ray??? Got the first 2 seasons on Blu that came out recently, and they look phenomenal, plus, they have uncut versions the old DVD's don't have! My kids are experiencing Little House for the first time, and I am so excited to share it with them!
-Rob
Robert wrote: "Name: Robert Lee WolfeFavorite Books: The Discworld Novels, The Coldfire Trilogy, Armor, Snow Crash, Decipher, The Sword of Shannara (first series), the Noble Dead Books, Song of Ice 7 Fire series..."
Welcome Robert! Another Sword of Shannara series fan :-)
Have you read the Avengers/Guardians of the Galaxy prequel comic omnibus where they introduce the Avengers to the Guardians for the first time? There's this hilarious snub about 'General Whedon.'
Welcome to Space Opera Fans! It sounds like you're in the right place :-)
Hello! Yes, Terry Brooks greatly influenced me as a youth, I'm sure. I remember the Elfstones and the Wishsong most fondly--really, Brooks was my introduction to reading outside of what was in my elementary school's library as a youth. That was when I realized I really liked reading big, epic stories--the longer, the better--of course with those heroic, underdog characters that had no business taking on the world.I have not read the Guardians prequel, but you've piqued my interest; now I'll have to get it.
-Rob
Hi everyone, I'm James, and I'm a bit of a lapsed space opera fan so I thought this looked like a good group to join to see what was going on these days.Favorite Books: Mostly classics when it comes to Sci-Fi. Dune, Enders Game, Gateway, The Stars My Destination, Hyperion, Iain M. Banks, but I'm also partial to a bit of Hammer's Slammers, though tbh I've been reading (and writing) fantasy more these days.
Favourite TV shows: I appear to be the only one NOT watching Game of Thrones. Star Trek, Firefly, Morse. Prefer episodic things to sagas (same goes for books, really).
Favourite Movies: Blade Runner, 39 Steps, Yojimbo.
James wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm James, and I'm a bit of a lapsed space opera fan so I thought this looked like a good group to join to see what was going on these days.Favorite Books: Mostly classics when it co..."
Hi James,
Don't worry, you're not the only one NOT watching Games of Thrones. Wasn't interested in the books, less so of the TV series.
Nice to see another fan of Bester. I think Psychoshop may be my favorite, although The Stars My Destination is right up there.
Welcome James! I've read the book-version of Game of Thrones, but don't watch television so all I've seen of the series is bits and clips other people post on YouTube :-) I like both classic and modern space opera.
Hi, I'm Christian Packi, and I've loved science fiction all my life! I started out with the Battletech books in the early 90s, which were pretty good even for my rather high standards today. After a decade of non-reading, I refreshed my love for scifi again after reading the masterful Blindsight by Peter Watts, admittedly not a space opera. When searching for other books I found this cool place here, and hope to share thoughts on books, maybe get inspired to right some stuff myself! :)Favorite Books: The Stars my Destination, Ender's Game, I am Legend, Blindsight
Favorite Genres: Space Opera, Hard Scifi (but not Rendevouz with Rama, that thing just stuck in my throat), First Contact
Favorite TV shows: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, True Detective, The Newsroom, Luther
Favorite Movies: Shawshank Redemption, Bladerunner, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. , 12 Angry Men, Inherit the Wind, Forrest Gump, Léon, Se7en, Memento
Favorite Food: Don't have any, really. I'll eat just about anything that tastes good.
Day Job: Engineer
Hobbies: Chess, Football tactics, Poker
Packi wrote: "After a decade of non-reading, I refreshed my love for scifi again..."Welcome Christian! I too was a hardcore scifi fan (both hard and space opera) most of my life, that and epic fantasy, but I took a little detour for a couple of years into the paranormal romance genre (I am, after all, a girl :-) ) before heading back into my first love of space opera again. Feel free to hop into any discussion thread which sparks your interest :-) We've got a lot of interesting people here.
Packi wrote: "I refreshed my love for scifi again after reading the masterful Blindsight by Peter WattsBrilliant book
Rion wrote: "It hasn't been until recent that I became completely bored with science fiction in other formats and decided to get to their source..."Welcome Tim! The sci-fi tv/movie/video game/comics are all cool, but with an old-fashioned book -your- mind fills in many of the details, gently guided by the author who spends more time developing the internal ruminations of the character instead of just what's going on externally. All formats are great, but books are really the only format which will enable you to crawl inside a character's head. Be sure to scope out our 'group reads' and whatever good geeky topic people are rag-chewing about in the threads, and if you don't find a topic that interests you, feel free to start your own topic to discuss. :-)
Hi, I'm Ken Doggett, I just joined, and I love to both read and write Science Fiction. In fact, most of what I've written probably qualifies as Space Opera. I grew up reading Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, John W. Campbell, and went on to new favorites, Harlan Ellison, Larry Niven, James P. Hogan. I like Star Trek better than Star Wars, but My favorite SF movie of all time is "The Day The Earth Stood Still," from 1950.
I noticed a discussion of Orson Scott Card, and by coincidence I recently read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I liked the former, but the latter discouraged me from reading any more of the series. I was amazed at the writing, and the sheer detail and believability of the book, but found it somewhat slow and pedantic in places. I filed a book review on both.
I also like the work of mystery writer Archer Mayor, in addition to Historical Fiction.
I look forward to joining the discussions in this group, and maybe I'll be able to contribute something as well.
I noticed a discussion of Orson Scott Card, and by coincidence I recently read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I liked the former, but the latter discouraged me from reading any more of the series. I was amazed at the writing, and the sheer detail and believability of the book, but found it somewhat slow and pedantic in places. I filed a book review on both.
I also like the work of mystery writer Archer Mayor, in addition to Historical Fiction.
I look forward to joining the discussions in this group, and maybe I'll be able to contribute something as well.
Welcome Ken! I liked Speaker for the Dead because I was fascinated with the alien queen and the piggies, but I think I liked Xenocide even better. Orson Scott Card tends to get bogged down sometimes in his minutia, though, so I know what you mean.You're the second person who's recommended Archer Mayor. One of these days I'll see it at a used book sale and snag one of his books :-)
Welcome to Space Opera Fans. Feel free to jump in on any discussion thread and talk about good geeky stuff, or feel free to start your own thread.
Hi Ken, I'm new to the group as well and I already have a question for you. I noticed you mentioned Harlan Ellison and am looking for a strategy to read and or listen to his works. I've found a few options with quick researching. Some reading options I see are The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective which seems huge and to incorporate most of his work? I'll also mention that this option is a little expensive. A cheaper option appears to be grabbing his Edgework compilations? Of which I've only seen 3 offered on Amazon at first glance so that is probably missing many of his writings. Another approach I saw was his own audio releases The Voice From the Edge series. Any help in approaching Mr. Ellison's work would be appreciated. So far I was just thinking of grabbing his recordings and 50 year retrospective to fill in some of the gaps. Please let me know if you think that's a good strategy.
Ken wrote: "I noticed a discussion of Orson Scott Card, and by coincidence I recently read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I liked the former, but the latter discouraged me from reading any more of the series. I was amazed at the writing, and the sheer detail and believability of the book, but found it somewhat slow and pedantic in places. I filed a book review on both."
I agree, Ken. I slogged through Xenophobe and got half way into Children when I thought, why am I torturing myself like this? Some kind of masochist tendency? and promptly stopped. It's almost like the Chinese OCD character in Children was affecting my need to read... Every. Word. On. Every. Line. LOL! If you are familiar with this terrible book you'll get it.. If not, don't punish yourself by trying.
Rion wrote: "Hi Ken, I'm new to the group as well and I already have a question for you. I noticed you mentioned Harlan Ellison and am looking for a strategy to read and or listen to his works. I've found a few..."
I'm not an expert on Harlan Ellison's work, but I do remember liking Deathbird Stories a lot. I also read other stories of his in the SF magazines I used to read at the time. It has been a few years, though; I read them when they were new.
I'm not an expert on Harlan Ellison's work, but I do remember liking Deathbird Stories a lot. I also read other stories of his in the SF magazines I used to read at the time. It has been a few years, though; I read them when they were new.
Jon wrote: "Ken wrote: "I noticed a discussion of Orson Scott Card, and by coincidence I recently read Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. I liked the former, but the latter discouraged me from reading any ..."The books after Ender's Game do rather lessen the fine esteem in which I hold the original book....I found them turgid and more than a little preachy
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They've been digging out all sorts of interesting SciFi and Space Opera series scripts, trying to repeat the success of BSG and GOT, so maybe at some point they WILL dig Ulysses out of mothballs?