Charge your lasers, and prepare for lightspeed: The SPACE OPERA thread.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Charge your lasers, and prepare for lightspeed: The SPACE OPERA thread.

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I'll recommend Allen Steele's Coyote saga. It's got starships, jump gates, political intrigue, pioneers struggling against the elements, and all the other stuff a space opera buff likes.

When I got about halfway through the first novel, I immediately went out and bought the other two parts.

I've read the first trilogy and the related novel Spindrift. I'm currently reading Coyote Horizon.

Here's a fan-made site that will fill you in.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2009 23:37

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 22:32

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

FuSchnick posted:

From there it starts to go into Martian geology (actually arieology, of which the book will constantly remind you) with just as much excruciating detail.

That's what made me stop reading in the middle of Green Mars.

It was hurting my brain. I kept thinking, JUST GET ON WITH IT!

# ¿ Dec 31, 2011 23:20

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I've seen Ian Douglas' name mentioned here a few times. While in a thrift shop over the weekend, I found parts one and two of The Inheritance Trilogy for 50 cents each. Do I need to read his previous trilogies before tackling these?

# ¿ Jan 17, 2012 04:09

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

pentyne posted:

Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite authors, but if you read his novels in the order he published it eventually you start to realize the pattern his plots take and his stories become fairly predictable. The world building, insane detail to the technology and plot devices, and imaginative settings are all mind blowing, but he's in a bit of a thematic rut.

I bogged down about 1/4 of the way through Revelation Space because he just wouldn't get on with it. I like detailed worlds, but that was a bit much. Having said that, I did enjoy House of Suns.

# ¿ Feb 12, 2013 04:29

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

tonytheshoes posted:

I was looking for some opinions on the "Shoal Sequence" trilogy (Stealing Light, Nova War, and Empire of Light) by Gary Gibson... I know I shouldn't judge books by their covers, blah, blah, blah, but they highly resemble the Expanse trilogy, and that kinda makes me want to read them. Anybody else check them out?

It took me a few pages to get into it, but I'm really enjoying Stealing Light. So much so, that I went ahead and got the sequels.

# ¿ Sep 12, 2013 23:10

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I've just started The Vorkosigan Saga and starting with Falling Free (as recommended by the author).

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 01:14

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

chimz posted:

The Vorkosigan books make the most sense in (internal) chronological order as opposed to publication order. However, since there aren't actually any Vorkosigans in Falling Free (which is set 200 years or so before the rest of the series), you might want to jump ahead to the paired stories Shards of Honor/Barrayar or The Warrior's Apprentice/The Vor Game. I'd recommend reading Falling Free before Diplomatic Immunity instead.

The author recommends starting with Shards of Honor/Barrayar.
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/293438-the-vorkosigan-saga-reading-order-debate-the-chef-recommends

If nothing else, Falling Free will give a feel for the author's style. So far, so good.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 19:14

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I about finished with Shards of Honor. It's good, but not great. How does the rest of the saga stack up?

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 04:17

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Casimir Radon posted:

Everything is good except for A Civil Campaign.

Just finished Barrayar. Much better than Shards. I'm taking a break from the series and re-reading Asimov's The Caves of Steel and its sequels. It's been a while and I discovered I'd missed a couple of 80s sequels.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2014 00:21

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Sneaky Fast posted:

I've just gotten a kindle for my birthday. i have two questions.

1) What is the best place to get books for free in kindle format?

2) What are the books I have to have as a newbie to the genre?

Here's a site with a bunch of freebies.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2014 01:56

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

fookolt posted:

What else should I look for in terms of the major series in the space opera genre? There's a lot of recommendations here and I honestly have no idea what to go into next. I've already read The Culture, Hyperion, The Foundation, and Revelation Space and I really enjoyed all of them.

I'd love to avoid rape/sexism poo poo or right wing war fetishism (so I guess the Gap Cycle is out). My Tom Clancy days ended way back in middle school.

I enjoyed Allen Steele's Coyote saga. Five novels in the main series and three set in the same universe.

# ¿ May 8, 2014 22:25

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Chairman Capone posted:

This is what's stopped me from getting into the Coyote series despite the raves it gets...just how deeply conservative/libertarian is it? Or is it a spoof of conservative viewpoints? I know in later books the planet gets colonized by a second wave of South American socialists and that just made me really nervous since it seems like it could veer into the "immigrant race war against American Values!" Fox News echo chamber.

The primary government of Earth changes hands a few times and the immigration issues change with it. Once somebody blows up the starbridge and the original colonists rebel, things get better.

# ¿ May 10, 2014 23:50

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Miss-Bomarc posted:

Considering that the earlier government names its space shuttles "George Wallace" and "Jesse Helms" I don't think Steele is intending for anyone in contemporary politics to be taken seriously as a role model.

And the starship was hijacked by a descendant of Robert E. Lee.

# ¿ May 11, 2014 14:52

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

GENDERWEIRD GREEDO posted:

If 127 Hours worked as a movie why wouldn't The Martian?

As long as they don't try to throw in actual Martians or evidence of same.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2014 04:35

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I finished Hamilton's Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. The sex stuff didn't bother me so much as the detailed descriptions of the character's clothing.

Oh, and ENZYME-BONDED CONCRETE!

# ¿ Mar 5, 2015 00:57

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Here's some space opera news:

http://www.space.com/30262-syfy-channel-space-book-tv-adaptations.html

I can't believe they're going to try and make Hyperion.

It's one of my favorite sagas, but I don't how filmable it will be.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2015 03:31

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Guys? Do me a favor. If I ever attempt to buy another Peter F. Hamilton novel, take my Kindle, break it over my head and shove the pieces up my rear end.

I read Pandora's Star and bought Judas Unchained and The Void Trilogy based on that. It appears that they are actually all the same book with minor changes in characters and places.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2015 22:46

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

tribbledirigible posted:

And sex. Weird sex. Uncomfortable, vaguely illegal sex.

And enzyme-bonded concrete.

# ¿ Aug 28, 2015 23:49

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Just finished The Void Trilogy.

Yeah, that was a thing that happened.

# ¿ Sep 4, 2015 22:48

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

Kellanved posted:

What is this, a new Vorkosigan book in a few months? Aww yiss...
Bujold really is an incredible writer, can't wait to see where she's going with Cordelia. Aral

I just finished The Warrior's Apprentice and, well, it was okay.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2015 01:16

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I'm going to dive into the Foundation series. What's the general opinion on the non-Asimov books?

# ¿ Dec 14, 2015 23:13

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 22:32

Mister Kingdom: Dec 14, 2005; And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

I'm giving Margaret Weis' Star of the Guardians another shot. I remember trying to start it about 20 years ago and kept bogging down.

# ¿ May 11, 2017 23:09

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Charge your lasers, and prepare for lightspeed: The SPACE OPERA thread.