Space Opera Fans discussion
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What are you Reading right now? Part 2.
M. wrote: "I am now reading RISE OF THE GLADIATOR by Cheree Alsop. This is pure silly escape and don't think about anything. A true Space Opera. Hey someone from SFWA sent me a breakdown list of the sub-tit..."
I can't believe the none of Turtledove's works were cited as examples of alternate history.
The Titles listed are just examples so there are hundreds of thousands of titles under that genre that are not listed. Don't worry Turtledove's works are under that if you study the different types of SciFi.
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Not something that fits my current mood, but thanks.
Decided to reread Hellspark by Janet Kagan.
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I just started Trader's Leap by Sharon Lee. I also have The Collected Kagan by Janet Kagan waiting in the pile to be read soon.
Mmm I had never heard of Kagan before but Hellspark looks good. I’m a sucker dii out r mixed genre books (mystery+sci-fi).
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It's really good.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Aliens, weird biology, machine character, culture clashes.
Professor if you like SciFi and Mystery you must read The Art (Children of a Dead Earth Book 1) by Patrick S. Tomlinson. What a kick.
I just started the most recent Expeditionary Force novel. So great to get back into that universe.
Yes I love all 3 books in the Children of a Dead Earth trilogy by Patrick Tomlinson. They are EXCELLENT examples of sci-fi/mystery genre hybrids.If people are looking for other suggestions I tell them about Ben Winters THE LOST POLICEMAN trilogy, which is even better!!
Anyway, I’ll add Kagan’s HELLSPARK to my TBR pile...
Have you tried the Lord D'Arcy series. Randall Garrett wrote the first stories in the series back in the sixties and ten picked it up again in the seventies. There are two collections and a novel that were published in the late seventies, and a later volume that contained all the material from those volumes as well as a few uncollected stories. Michael Kurland then wrote two novels in the eighties. They are set in an alternate universe where the Plantagenets still rule the British Empire and whose main enemy is the Polish Kingdom. As well magic not science is the basis for this world.
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Teresa wrote: "Dark Knight Station: Origins was excellent. It’s a good thing I’m off work today because I stayed up waaaayyyyyy too late to finish it. For those unfamiliar with [author:Nathan Lowe..."Next on my reading list
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Quote from this book:
With any luck, tonight will be an easy run, out and back. Despite going through the cargo on this vessel several times, we have yet to find a single box of luck.
Sorry but whenever I see the words Captain Caveman my mind conjures up an image of the character from the T V series of that name.
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I just finished Trader's Leap - any book by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is never a mistake; this book wrapped up a few running plotlines. In progress are Wool and The Collected Kagan. Next up is To Fire Called for the January 2021 group read (OK, I admit it - I already started this one).
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Currently reading a new SF (genetic engineering, near future, not space opera): Domesticating Dragons by Dan Koboldt. Got a new YA fantasy to read after that one. Haven’t spotted any tempting new space opera yet.
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I’m at 33% on Domesticating Dragons by Dan Koboldt. It’s readable but something I can be distracted from easily. Near future SF, genetic engineering, not space opera.
I like the “1980s Del Rey” vibe of that Domesticating Dragons cover. Very Rowena. (https://parlorofhorror.wordpress.com/...)
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I’m currently close to halfway through the latest Silver Ships book: Q-Gates by S.H. Jucha. It hasn’t reached a point where I can’t put it down yet. His books do often get there, but particularly the ones that switch between multiple story lines don’t usually suck me in until the story lines merge so any POV switching is at least immediately relevant to the main storyline at that point.
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Agreed. It’s easier when they are characters in the same storyline rather than two or more storylines that appear completely separate, which may eventually merge. Just plain having too many different characters to keep track of can put me off as well.
Betsy wrote: "I get really annoyed with too much POV switching. I want one or two people that I can really get to know and identify with."Multiple POVs can lend to a more epic feel, though. I’m thinking of the Well World saga where Chalker has three or four major factions clashing, but switches between one or two characters in each faction, so you get to see plans by different groups.
Teresa wrote: "Agreed. It’s easier when they are characters in the same storyline rather than two or more storylines that appear completely separate, which may eventually merge. Just plain having too many different characters to keep track of can put me off as well."
Star Wars is top of mind because I’ve been rewatching Rebels after watching Mandalorian, and those movies and TV shows tend to switch among three groups as they intersect and split apart.
What’s the upper limit for you guys?
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I also prefer single points of view, but not in first person. Two or three is okay in most cases, I just prefer one. I recently read a book with three POV characters, with occasional overlap between their three storylines. I was really only interested in one of those three stories, but I had to plow through 2/3 of the content just so I wasn't missing something important relating to the 1/3 of the book I cared about. A book with a single POV lets me either enjoy the book completely or hate it enough that I wouldn't feel like I'm missing something if I abandoned it.
I plan to read the first Well World book soon, though, so thanks for preparing me for that, Trike.
Interesting points. I’m agnostic about the number of POVs unless it breaks the story somehow. For instance, in Every Heart a Doorway, the story follows a single POV except for one chapter. The change adds nothing and is disruptive.Looking at my all-time favorites shelf, I have both single and multi POV stories, and some which are mostly single but do side POVs. My wife loooves multiple POV stories; the more complicated and involved, the better. Multigenerational multifamily tales are right in her wheelhouse.
The Joy of Erudition wrote: "I plan to read the first Well World book soon, though, so thanks for preparing me for that, Trike."
The first one is a standalone, so if it’s not your jam you have a complete story. Books 2 & 3 are a single story, and books 4 & 5 are a single story. Decades later he wrote another series that he admitted was just for the money, and it shows. Not worth the time.
In one of the books he mentions in the preface that each chapter should be considered as occurring at the same time as the previous ones until the first POV comes around again. I thought that was a clever way to avoid having to micromanage time zones and such on a global conflict.
So it would be like:
Chapter 1: Teresa (Day One)
Chapter 2: Betsy
Chapter 3: Trike
Chapter 4: Teresa (Day Two)
Chapter 5: Betsy
Chapter 6: Teresa (Day Three)
Chapter 7: Trike
Chapter 8: Joy of Erudition
Here's another thing, specific to ones where the POV characters are in different areas or following different storylines -- even when I like all of the characters and am interested in all of their storylines, let's say something really good or interesting is happening with one of them, and that's when the author decides to cut away and switch to one of the other characters. Now I'm impatient to get this other one out of the way so I can get back to the one that left off at a really interesting spot. Ending a chapter at an exciting point like that is never a problem when it's a single POV, because it picks up again immediately on the next page with the next chapter, instead of making me want to skip or rush through part of the book.I just finished Every Heart a Doorway a couple of days ago, but I don't remember the POV switch you're talking about, unless it was the exposition part at the beginning with Eleanor West.
Some books require multiple point of views. Thinking here of some of Turtledove's books. His trilogy set in an alternate WWI for instance covers pretty much the entire North American theatre of operations so it requires multiple POVs because on person can't be everywhere. Mind you, though I enjoyed the first book and read the others my father didn't because it kept switching characters and didn't read the rest.
Now that I think of it my 17 year old son is a fan or Rick Riordan's books. Those are often told from multiple POVs but if I recall the title of a chapter is the name of the main character of that chapter, so it isn't too hard to keep track of. If it says Percy at the beginning of the chapter you know it is going to from his point of view.
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Sounds reasonable to me, especially as I thought at first it was a different thread.
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I tried the free preview of Escape by Blaze Ward. It didn’t grab me enough to pay the $6 or whatever to see what happens next, particularly since I’ve given up on some of his recent books.
I’m currently rereading Common Ground and Other Stories by Mackey Chandler. I don’t usually get in the mood for short stories, but several in this collection are worth rereading. The first story is one of them. It’s a first contact yarn.
Not really space opera but I finally finished Ray Cummings novel
.
Currently reading Rogue Squadron, which has long been praised as a great Space Opera, but I’m 20% in and they still haven’t left the hangar.
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I have seen non indie books that appeared to have needed a copy editor as well. Either that or the one the publisher used for that particular book was having a bad day,
Intended to read on of Doc Smith's books but am reading
instead. This a reread of a favourite.
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Me too. And it’s not a new phenomenon either, particularly with books that were paperback only, decades ago (pulp fiction). At least these days we can use an automated spell checker to catch some of them.
Hang in there, Trike. The first part is getting to know Wedge, Corran, and the gang, but there are definitely space and ground battles coming.
I just finished the first of the Skyward series. I'm enjoying this author's foray into both scifi and YA.
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Next is the latest book in the series that starts with Bob's Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd: Deadbot. This is bound to be fun, since the entire series is littered with puns, pop culture references, and silliness as well as aliens, machines as characters, and Frisbees.
Started Skylark of Valeron
having finished Too Many Magicians. I will read "Doc" Smith over Judith Merrill any day of the week.
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Space Opera Fans
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Hey someone from SFWA sent me a breakdown list of the sub-titles of SciFi genre and there are 33 categories that fall under the heading from Hard SciFi to Soft SciFi. If you want to read all of them that includes Space Opera as one here is the link:
https://www.servicescape.com/blog/144...