Space Opera Fans discussion
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What are you Reading right now? Part 2.
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Gaines
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Sep 06, 2020 04:42PM
Right on, thanks :-)
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I’m in the midst of a fantasy series right now, but next up is a brand new book in the series that started with Bob's Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd. Those books are always fun. Title is “Let’s Make a Deal.”
Currently reading thru Rogue Protocol - such a great series in small doses, which I feel is a great break from such epic operas we all read! Martha Wells writes very well imo and keeps short titles gripping and still manages world building on a compact scale.Next title for me will be Salvation Lost. Highly enjoyed Peter F. Hamilton's first novel of this series (Salvation). Read many critiques of Hamilton's later works all revolving around similar modes of travel and not have diverse enough worlds, but I have found them to be highly enjoyable and have not been discouraged by "wormhole travel" at all.
Looking forward to diving into more obscure titles after these! Finally picking reading back up after many years of hiatus.
I am a huge Peter Hamilton fan boy and the Salvation saga is quite good. Looking forward to reading book 3 “The Saints of Salvation” by the end of the year.
Just finished Traders Leap by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It was a two day marathon. So good I could not put it down. Action runs concurrently with Accepting the Lance. Ahhh the twists and turns.
At the end of last year, I read The Indigo Reports by Cameron Cooper. She is releasing it as a bookset next week for 9.99, which is 5 books and around 800 pages. I really enjoyed the series. I haven't read her Hammer series which came out this year, since it's not KU. Those who enjoy romance may know the author by another name, but I don't read romance. So, while I have no idea how her other works are, I really liked The Indigo Reports
and am just recommending it as a reader of space opera.In the meantime, my current read Aeon 14 Orion War book 13 by M.D. Cooper. Return to Sol - Star Rise.
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Let's Make a Deal by Jerry Boyd was fun, but you probably need to read at least some of the earlier books in the series. And you need to enjoy that particular type of humor.Now I’m looking for something that will hold my attention and hoping the nomination threads will suggest something interesting. There are books coming out on Tuesday and Friday that look good but I need something to read in the meantime.
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Finwell Bay by Nathan Lowell. Just out. This is the third book of the Shaman Tales. Not really space opera - set on a planet in the same universe as Quarter Share. I don’t reread the Shaman Tales books as often as the other books set in that universe but they are definitely worth reading.
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After that I read (mostly reread) several fantasy books. Now I’m rereading
Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey. I usually follow rereading it by the third in the trilogy, because I don’t like the second book as much. It’s not really space opera but does involve multiple planets and a few scenes in ships and space stations.
As far as Sci-Fi goes I am currently reading Ray Cummings'
. Also have a book on baseball in Canada going. That is for a reading challenge I am doing.
I just finished reading books 1 and 2 of Jury, Judge, and Executioner which combines space opera with some crazy legal stuff. They were fun and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series when I can get them through my next free KU.
. There are 10 books in the series and it's a co-author series by Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle. I am about to start on Layers of Force (Star Kingdom book 8),
which is the last one in this series written by Lindsay Buroker, which saddens me. (FYI - the 1st book in the series is currently free.)
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Crystal Line but got distracted by Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat by Johnny Marciano. That one was amusing until I got about halfway - I’m likely to give up on it. Currently reading the free preview of A Line in the Sand by Judith Moffitt. Too soon to tell if I’ll buy it. Mentioning it because the author is NOT the classic SF author Judith Moffett. The book is definitely space opera, including at least one alien. Indie author, first book.
Edit: bought A Line in the Sand. It’s feeling like a 3 star book. Multiple aliens on the merchant ship (yay), point of view jumps around a lot (boo) including to two characters so far that I detest (one evil, one just spoiled and selfish). A lot of the POV is a naval officer. Characterization is a bit heavy handed but at least it gives background to some of the characters to explain why they act the way they do. I’ll report later after I finish it.
Teresa wrote: "Finished Crystal Singer. Was going to follow it with rereading Crystal Line but got distracted by Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat by [auth..."Probably my age showing but I do find it hard to think of anyone who started writing roughly 20 years after I was born as classic.
Teresa wrote: "Finwell Bay was excellent. That’s going on my list of comfort reads.That's good to hear! Cape Grace and Finwell Bay have been on my radar for a while, but I loved South Coast so much I've been a little bit afraid to start them.
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Ancestral Night — spaceships and space pirates and relics of ancient civilizations. It’s not quite Space Opera but it’s not far off.
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Re Finwell Bay: tastes differ of course. Nathan Lowell books in particular have a lot of people who complain that nothing happens, and lots of readers who love those books where “nothing happens”.
I gave up on Klawde.
Finished A Line in the Sand. While far from perfect it held my attention nicely. At one point it even brought tears to my eyes and books hardly ever do that to me. Lots of action, multiple species of aliens, a minor AI character, several love interests, and while not a cliff hanger it definitely has a sequel that needs to be written. It needs editing - quite a few typos and out of order words. The characterization is a bit heavy handed. I’m unlikely to put this book into my regular rereading schedule because there are too many memorable plot points that would spoil the enjoyment. Will have to wait 3-4 years before rereading. But I’ll buy the sequel.
@Trike Im curious about “Ancestral Night”—there’s already a sequel out (or soon?) but the overall ratings are middling (3.5 range). I typically don’t try anything below 3.75.My reason is “life’s too short to read bad books!”
But I do know sometime someone’s 3/5 is my 5/5. So I’m curious—and I do love space opera and female protagonists...
MadProfessah wrote: "@Trike Im curious about “Ancestral Night”—there’s already a sequel out (or soon?) but the overall ratings are middling (3.5 range). I typically don’t try anything below 3.75.My reason is “life’s ..."
It’s a bit bloated so I’ve kinda stalled out, but it’s not bad per se. I’m not disliking it so much as I wish it were trimmed down. I’m on page 386 of 515 according to the iPad and I’ve paused to read a couple comics.
I like the story so far, I like the characters, and the multispecies universe she’s created. For me it sits somewhere in that David Brin to Becky Chambers range of space books.
I started
by Nathan Lowell. I have enjoyed every one of his books that I have read to date. Not space opera, but I recently also read his
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So that’s what I’ll be reading this evening and likely tomorrow too.
Elvians by S. H. Jucha.
Teresa wrote: "Auberon was good. I was debating whether to continue rereading that series or to start rereading A Beautiful Friendship for the October Themed read, when I noticed a new book out in the Silver Ship..."I haven't looked in the last 2 weeks. Glad the next Silver Ship book is out. Of course I now have several I want to borrow, but currently no KU free special for me.
I was, at least, on holidays in September so I read a lot. For SF:Joshua Dalzelle's "Expansion War" 1 and 2,
classical military SF.The Dispatcher by John Scalzy
(not space opera).Hugh Owey's Sand
(not space opera).Vostok by Laurent Kloetzer
(not space opera and French).Nathan Lowell's "Golden Age of the Solar Clipper" and the "Smuggler's Tales" and "The Seeker's Tale", very relaxing during holidays.
I just started Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series in chronological order
. Which is technically space opera as a human colonial ship crashed on an unknow planet ! I know the rest will be fantasy.
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Now I’m rereading
A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber and enjoying it very much. This is for the October Themed pick. I’m also trying to decide whether to send a copy of it to my not quite 11yo grandchild, who reads well above grade level but drives me bats for hardly ever giving me feedback about the books I send.
Forgot to mention this last week.For the second year in a row the book I chose for banned book week is SF.
My book for Banned Book Week 2020
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
I did not realize how widely it had been challenged and banned but when I first read it almost 40 years ago most of my reading friends read SF.
L J wrote: "Forgot to mention this last week.For the second year in a row the book I chose for banned book week is SF.
My book for Banned Book Week 2020
...">Banned? Really?? It never occurred to me that this was a book that had ever been banned. I've read it multiple times (laughing through most of it), seen the TV show and movie - and never an inkling. Horrors! LOL
Banned? Really?? It never occurred to me that this was a book that had ever been banned. Canada banned Hitchhiker's Guide. The USA, it was banned in some school and public libraries. It questioned religion and government, which always gets books banned somewhere in America's schools and libraries. It also was banned for inappropriate language. (one use of whore in 250 pages?) Guess it was the time period of the early 80s.
As a Canadian I would be interested to know the circumstances of its banning. We do have books removed from school curriculum, which means it won't be taught but it is still available in the school library for anyone who wants to read it. Actually given how it actually goes against the theory of evolution I can see some people wanting it removed on that basis.
Most common reasons for it to be banned is the word whore and its questioning of religion.
Lizzie wrote: "Banned? Really?? It never occurred to me that this was a book that had ever been banned. Canada banned Hitchhiker's Guide. The USA, it was banned in some school and public libraries. It questione..."
Wow, it had a cult following here. Not to mention the TV series.
Wow you banned books !?!The only completly banned book that I know of, in France, is Hitler’s one.
Freedom of speech in France means you can talk and criticized everything (including religion, that’s why we get terrorist attack on a newspaper).
The only things forbiden is to try to trigger hate toward a group of people and deny past genocide.
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Jatouche by S.H. Jucha because I needed a dose of aliens. This book is in the middle of his Pyreans series, and takes place hundreds of years before The Silver Ships. The first book of the Pyreans series is Empaths
Ally wrote: "Wow you banned books !?!The only completly banned book that I know of, in France, is Hitler’s one.
Freedom of speech in France means you can talk and criticized everything (including religion, tha..."
The books aren't banned nationwide; just in some places and especially in some school districts.
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood, Harry Potter, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Huckleberry Finn have all been on the banned lists in various places at various times. We have Banned Book Week in which public libraries bring to light some of the banned books. Lately, there have been many banned because of LGBTQ and transgender issues in books for the young (ages 4 and up).\
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Teresa wrote: "I’ve been rereading fantasy for a while, but yesterday I started rereading Jatouche by S.H. Jucha because I needed a dose of aliens. ..."I thought that was a great series and it showed Jucha's ability to really create individuals and alien cultures/races on a different level from Silver Ships.
Lizzie wrote: "Ally wrote: "Wow you banned books !?!The only completly banned book that I know of, in France, is Hitler’s one.
Freedom of speech in France means you can talk and criticized everything (including religion...
...We have Banned Book Week in which public libraries bring to light some of the banned books. Lately, there have been many banned because of LGBTQ and transgender issues in books for the young..."
Every banned book list I've seen has SF books on it.
I try to read books each year that most people would not suspect were banned or challenged.
A couple of years ago I did Winnie the Pooh books for banned books week. Now that I think of it a year before that I did Fahrenheit 451. Maybe I do tend to do SF.
Not all the books on the list are banned, some are simply often challenged. Some Christian groups in the US challenge Winnie the Pooh and other books because they deem any representation of talking animals as offensive and an insult to God. Evidently their Bibles don't contain Numbers chapter 22 or maybe they are just missing verses 28-30.
In other parts of the world Winnie the Pooh books have been banned for various reason.
For all that the US pays lip service to freedom of speech and freedom of the press we live in a very litigious society which means the threat of a lawsuit over the presence of a book is taken seriously.
I did some researches about banned books in France. There is a law to protect kids and teens under age if the book has sex, violence, drugs, hate, but nothing concerning criticism of religion or the state !It's the state that can ban a book not the school.
And there used to be a law allowing the government to banned a foreign book (mostly for the political content).
The only books banned during the last decades were violating private life, triggering hate or the manual to commit suicide (I remember this one !).
Thank you for raising the topic.
I guess you heard about the teacher beheaded in the street because he illustrated freedom of speech in class by showing a caricature of the prophet, the same one that trigger the terrorist attack on a newspaper 5 years ago.
Yeah, hard time for freedom of speech ...
Ally wrote: "I did some researches about banned books in France. There is a law to protect kids and teens under age if the book has sex, violence, drugs, hate, but nothing concerning criticism of religion or the state..."Yes, I heard about the teacher. Such a tragic thing to happen.
Most books challenges in the US originate with what is often called the Christian right. Right wing domestic terrorist groups members often self identify as Christian.
Ally wrote: "I did some researches about banned books in France. There is a law to protect kids and teens under age if the book has sex, violence, drugs, hate, but nothing concerning criticism of religion or the state !It's the state that can ban a book not the school."
America has a long history of being resistant to control from a central government, which creates an uneasy give-and-take when it comes to laws.
That translates into States often going their own way in defiance of the federal government. California refusing to comply with the Trump administration’s relaxing of vehicle fuel and pollution standards, for example, negotiating their own deal with car companies, something California can get away with by being the 5th largest economy in the world.
But it also means that counties and cities defy states, as well. Staying with the California example, some cities have rejected the state’s mandatory COVID lockdown. (Which was dumb and has come back to bite them, but that’s beside the point.)
So the US has a hodgepodge of laws that grant varying degrees of self-determination, and that includes local town councils and school districts deciding on an individual basis what’s good for their community, which includes banning books.
The only real weapon the federal government has against states is money, which they use as both carrot and stick. Richer states and more independently-minded states often ignore such tactics, as Cali did with cars, but it works most of the time. The states then turn around and use the same tactic against wayward municipalities, as Cali is now punishing the anti-lockdown towns.
But when it comes to banning books, most governments are hands off, allowing local communities to sort it out for themselves. Crunching the numbers, the government has largely decided that upholding our cherished First Amendment right to freedom of speech isn’t worth the effort most of the time.
Trike wrote: "...But when it comes to banning books, most governments are hands off, allowing local communities to sort it out for themselves. Crunching the numbers, the government has largely decided that upholding our cherished First Amendment right to freedom of speech isn’t worth the effort most of the time."Good points. Since the First Amendment specifies that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." it's left to other government entities, state and local governments, school districts, libraries, businesses, etc. to decide what is allowed.
It's becoming more difficult for me to find banned SF books to read, not because fewer are banned but because I've read the adult books I care to read or re-read. If there isn't something new maybe next I'll go for a children's book from the lists such as The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.
Next on my SF list
Bob's Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd. I doubt it's banned anywhere but I've ceased to be surprised about which books are challenged and why.
Trike wrote: "Ally wrote: "I did some researches about banned books in France. There is a law to protect kids and teens under age if the book has sex, violence, drugs, hate, but nothing concerning criticism of r..."The situation here in Canada can get weird at times. Who is responsible for what is detailed in our constitution. Marriage for instance is a provincial responsibility but divorce is a federal matter. Health and education happen to fall under the provincial wing of the government. Up here most book banning is at the school level either the school board or individual school, Most challenges in the local library systems are to do with hate literature. Last one I can think of was when it was discovered that the Toronto Public Library System had a copy of Mein Kampf. That stirred the pot a bit.
Mentioning the Toronto reminded me. If any of our group live or move to Toronto if you haven't already check out the Judith Merrill Collection, formerly known as the Spaced Out Library. It is devoted to SF. Personally I prefer the second name but that may be because I have no used for Ms. Merrill, even if she donated a lot of the material in the collection.
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I read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini which I can’t recommend but I didn’t actively hate it.My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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The Cambridge Annex: The Trilogy by Peter Damon. The first book of the series isn’t space opera but by the second the main characters are out in space. Near future SF where a couple of grad students discover antigravity, and once word leaks out all kinds of government agencies and corporations are out to steal the secret.
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Betsy wrote: "I've started reading Haraken, the fourth book in the Silver Ships series. I read the first three books right after they came out, but for some reason didn't pursue the series. I'm h..."Can appreciate that. Your election campaigns last a long time. At least here in Canada ours are usually short.
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Space Opera Fans
Books mentioned in this topic
Frontier Incursion (other topics)The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (other topics)
To the Bitter End (other topics)
A Line in the Sand (other topics)
Recruit (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Leonie Rogers (other topics)Becky Chambers (other topics)
Judith Moffitt (other topics)
Jonathan P. Brazee (other topics)
David Weber (other topics)
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