Space Opera Poll

Happy New Year, readers!
I hope you all transitioned smoothly into 2024 and had wonderful holidays, whatever those were to you.
I bring you our space opera poll, which was intimidating to research but ultimately very rewarding. My TBR pile has grown significantly. Thank you to those who gave me some recommendations! I also pulled a few from this Reddit post.
There were nine books in total that I wanted to include, and narrowing it down was not easy. In case you’re curious or want more in the genre, I left out Unconquerrable Sun, Leviathan Wakes, and Shards of Earth
Please give some thought to which genre you’d like us to read next!
Here are your options. You may vote for 2.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra — who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents — including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more — Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Notable review by chai

Not to be dramatic but I feel like I’ve just went through 9 different emotions within the last two minutes and at any given moment now, I’m going to explode and become an entire fucking solar system.

Anyway, I’m sorry this review is a mess but since I can’t even write bad poetry in an attempt to get my feelings outside of myself and until the universe sends me my next favorite person so I can unload all my emotional baggage on them…this hellsite will have to do.

“The universe owes you nothing, Kady. It has already given you everything, after all. It was here long before you, and it will go on long after you. The only way it will remember you is to do something worth remembrance.”

● First of all, I want you guys to know that the only thing that is constant in my life is my love for this series….and my ability to fall back on “sorry just got your text” but anyway
● with that being said, I feel like we should collectively admit how scary it is reading this book when you have no skills and no passions and when you want to Do something but mainly, you really just want to lie down… doing nothing
● like, I just realized that I’m not really adding anything to the universe or anyone’s individual experience, I’m basically just racking up the water bill
● but these kids? they know how to use missiles, fly rockets, hack computers and dezombie giant spaceships while also going through break ups and heartaches and all kind of interpersonal problems
● this is just my humble opinion but you guys are literally just 17 years old. Your life should only revolve around two things: 1) single-handedly sabotaging your social and academic life and 2) figuring out how to take naps without accidentally time travelling to 2025
● seriously, I have an unbecoming resentment towards anyone around my age who is doing something productive with their talents, fictional or not, and therefore I feel personally attacked by this book
● I mean explain this: it was basically the apocalypse, right? guess how many characters stopped to think, ‘you know what time it is? Time to steal clothes without worrying about the retail workers whose jobs I might be putting in jeopardy or small business owners’
● ZERO!! which makes me wonder….are you fucking kidding me??
● anyway, the moral of this story kids is: if you ever feel hopeless, go outside and lay in the grass and feel the coolness of the dew on your skin and look at the sky and breathe deeply… you are not alone…there’s a pink haired eighteen years old and her artificial intelligence best friend up there fighting a maniac organization that invaded her planet and I guarantee you they are IN DEEPER SHIT
●
● ok, the characters
● honestly, I love every single one of these characters and I am so sick of my weak disintegrating body I need to become strong enough to lift them, their family and potential pets with one hand and carry them across space……since you know, people tend to die in this book

-KADY GRANT:

“I am frequently underestimated. I think it’s because I’m short.”

● I want to be someone else but kady grant is already taken and I’m not creative enough to become my own person
● kady is… how do you say… beautiful strong amazing capable badass powerful gorgeous stunnig effervescent ethereal and an angel like being
● whenever I see a fanart/edit of her, I immediately die for two seconds before she gently floats down and revives me and softly wipes my gay tears while playing the lyre
● I just love her so much I wish we could get married so we can use glittery rose gold wax to seal our invites
● and honestly I wish I had the sheer will of force to be her because it was amazing how she got through everything she didn’t think she was strong enough for
● even though her bravery was bordering on insanity and half the time, I was just like, what is she doing!!! what is she attempting to accomplish!!! what is she coercing from her soul!!! why would she cosign on this spiritual monstrosity!! STOP HER!!!
● also, girls with pastel hair make me weak in the knees so I might be slightly biased

• EZRA MASON:

● alright, here’s the thing: I really can’t choose between wanting to punch him and wanting to cradle him in my arms and protect him from all harm. it’s like trying to decide whether to have pizza or pasta… you never turn down double carbs!!!
● I feel like if Ezra were a real life person, he’d be tragically undateable to the masses. You would go on a dinner date with him and get drunk and share a spaghetti strand but you would never want to see him again
● he’s the kind of person who would say ‘uuh one second has passed’ when you go ‘just give me a sec’
● you know exactly that type (aka, the type you need to avoid and sacrifice to the aztec gods)
● he is kind of annoying but I love him….. and if you think that I will forever look for any excuse, any opportunity to be as inconsistent as possible in all endeavors of my life always, you are most definitely correct

• AIDAN:

“Am I not merciful?”

● ah yes, the arrogant mass-murdering psychopathic part time tortured poet giant calculator… how I’ve missed it
● so arrogant in fact that he would give Julius Caesar a run for his money
● you know Julius Caesar…the same dude who was kidnapped by the cicilian pirates and when they demanded a ransom of 620 kgs of silver, he got really angry because he thought he was worth more than that and actually made them raise it to 1550 kg??
● uh-uh
● so hey, @scientists who are actively trying to make computers learn human behavior and generally scream in existential horror, this is why you need to Stop.
● I mean as appealing as it is to have an artificial intelligence software in the form of like, a really smooth orb for company, or even… saaay uploading your consciousness into a computer…that shit is too dangerous to mess with (refer to the ‘mass-murdering’ part)
● now back to fiction, AIDAN is the kind of character you love to hate but also…hate that you…lowkey…love them
● you know they’re Bad, and even if sometimes that little light escapes the darkness of their heart…they catch it again
● meaning: god is he messed up
● but you know what? the smell of burnt toast is so good sometimes… guess things are better when charred beyond recognition of their ideals

• KADY & AIDAN:

“Are you afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Energy never stops, remember. It just changes forms.”
“I am still afraid.”

● lbr, this duo is even more iconic than if dwayne “the rock” johnson was cast as sherlock holmes and vin diesel as watson
● they’re like… a fairy queen and a princess who work together to save a magical tree or something
● they are such a power couple I cannot wait for them to bring about world peace and destroy the beitech killing squad
● I mean, personally, I know I’d have way more self esteem if I had an artificial intelligence for a best friend that’s for sure

• KADY & EZRA:

“She is catalyst.
She is chaos.
I can see why he loves her.”

● no offense but if my partner doesn’t sacrifice themselves to save me from Zombie Island, do we even need these rings??
● I feel like ez and kady are that kind of couple where person A sends healthy relationship memes to person B who makes fun of them for being lame for but secretly saves to their phone
● you know… that disgustingly cute couple you cannot stand but also lowkey wanna have what they have??
● anyway, romantic love is fake but lowers my reading glasses I’m willing to admit I ship them for a million dollars…just saying

• JIMMY:

‘I just want to be me at the end, you know?’

● LISTEN
● james mcnulty is my favorite everything in this book and NO, this has nothing to do with the fact that I sometimes choose the least popular characters as my favorites because my borderline ass can’t handle the idea of other people liking them as much as I do
● it’s like being a proud mother at a school play and cheering every time your kid comes on stage even though they’re playing the part of tree number 4
● ok yeah maybe it has a little something to do with it but LISTEN
● I love jimmy so much, even the mention of his name feels like someone’s actively scraping out my insides with a melon baller
● uuuh…shit…I fear my tears may drown some of the front row again
● but you know, they always say to Be Yourself, I guess I came into this world crying and I am never too far from my roots
● also, JIMMY!! DESERVED!! BETTER!!

sooo, I take it I’m right in assuming we all agree that re-reading the illuminae files was the best AND worst representation of a GREAT idea. yes? good? okay

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

The first novel of a new space-opera sequence set in an all-new universe by the Hugo Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Redshirts and Old Man’s War.

Our universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible — until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars.

Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It’s a hedge against interstellar war — and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.

The Flow is eternal — but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it’s discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals — a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency — are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

Notable review by Bradley

A big thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

This novel marks a very strong return to Space Opera for Scalzi and I’ll admit that I felt slightly trepidatious about it, after all, these tomes usually require a fairly substantial investment of time and energy, especially when contemplating an extensive book deal for him running to 2027! (Congrats, by the way!)

However, I should just go ahead and trust that my favorite authors, Scalzi included, can pull off these kinds of really ambitious undertakings. He’s done it before and he has serious writing chops. Where’s your faith, man?

It’s here! It’s here! Sorry I required proof! It won’t happen again! I swear! (Pre-orders the next in this series.)

So what is so special about this new Space Opera? Is it the basic concept behind “the Flow” which bypasses natural physics and allows a river-like network to be maintained between all the human settlements? Is it the social setup that requires each human settlement to maintain and support each of the others?

Partially, but these great ideas, however deeply realized and explored by the author, of course, has their own little conflicts. And when I say little, I mean absolutely huge. Brilliant drill-down. 🙂

But of course no tale can be complete without great characters, too, and we mainly get in deep with the new leader of the empire, Cardenia, who actually charms my pants off with her constant need to pee and the constantly bribing or bribable Kiva who merchants or fails to merchant her way across the galaxy, and of course there’s Ghreni. Trust me. He’s quite interesting, too. 🙂

We get all kinds of cross sections of the populace, and even if I may have felt like some of the sections were kinda slow, all of the characters eventually grew on me and kept me glued to the page until the next great reveal or action or twist. Like I said, Scalzi is a man with serious writing chops. This is a very ambitious beginning of a series and two whole planets, in particular, are now firmly rooted in my consciousness. This is not the End. Or rather, the End is going to be really, really big. (For those in the know, End is a backwater planet that no one really cares about. Reversals!) 🙂

I’m hooked and seriously looking forward to every new installment. 🙂

And just for fun, one by Will Wheaton

As delightful and easy to read as Scalzi at his best (Redshirts, Old Man’s War), with characters who are going to stay with you whenever you have to put the book down … which you aren’t going to want to do.

I won’t discuss plot, at all, but I will say this much: like all great SF, and like the SF that has become accepted as classic, The Collapsing Empire works as a wonderful SF tale … but it also has important allegory, metaphor, and commentary on some things that are going on right now, for readers who are open to that sort of thing. For those who aren’t, it doesn’t beat you over the head with it, which is a pretty neat trick.

DISCLOSURE: I am very good friends with the author, and I am the narrator of the audiobook.

Seven Devils by L.R. Lam

When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy’s most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire’s voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray.

Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated.

When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire’s inner workings.

Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire’s continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can’t, millions may die.

Notable review by Justine

Have you ever picked up a Star Wars universe book and thought it sounded so great, but after reading it you felt like it just wasn’t at all what you were hoping for? I definitely understand that feeling. I approached Seven Devils with mildly low expectations because it seemed exactly like those Star Wars books.

As it turned out, Seven Devils delivered in all the ways I always wish those others would. The story is fast-moving and progresses smoothly from scene to scene. The four POV characters – that many often tends to be a dice throw for me – were not only all interesting to follow, but were distinct enough that I never lost track of whose chapter I was reading. The story is not incredibly original, but it is told in such an engaging manner that it never felt like things were dragging.

A few reviewers have mentioned the queer representation, but for me what made it so good was that it did not feel like rep for representation’s sake. Everything felt organic and very much part of the world Lam and May created.

The bottom line is that Seven Devils was so much better than I expected it to be in almost every respect. It is definitely recommended for all of you who love stories about seemingly outmatched rebels and crews that are randomly thrown together but somehow just make everything golden.

Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio

Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.

It was not his war.

On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders.

But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.

Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fighting a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

Notable review by Petros Triantafyllou

The Name of the Wind but in space.

Hadrian is the first son of Lord Alistair, destined to succeed him as the head of the House Marlowe and Archon of Meidua Prefecture on Delos, and to live a relatively easy life with a several centuries life-span. Or at least that’s what he thinks. He ends up destroying a Sun, snuffing billions of lives (humans and aliens alike) and obliterating an entire race instead.

“The light of that murdered sun still burns me. I see it through my eyelids, blazing out of history from that bloody day, hinting at fires indescribable. It is like something holy, as if it were the light of God’s own heaven that burned the world and billions of lives with it. I carry that light always, seared into the back of my mind. I make no excuses, no denials, no apologies for what I have done. I know what I am.”

Christopher Ruocchio’s debut is an exhilarating read full of intrigue, tension, exciting action sequences and impossible situations. It’s a story about love and hate, survival and absolution, ideas and values. Αn autobiography of someone bigger than life. The rise and fall (or fall and rise?) of a God amongst mortal men.

Empire of Silence is a nicely crafted novel with an intricate and well-thought-out plot, a propulsive narrative, and a smooth-as-silk prose with lovely and lavish descriptions. While it’s a hefty book, Ruocchio has made use of every single page either to explore and expand his universe or to develop and flesh-out his characters when he doesn’t move the story forwards. The story itself is original, gritty, grim and intimate, with a steady pace that keeps building momentum up until the very finale.

All in all, Empire of Silence is an excellent SF story and a book to look out for.
This is another review. It’s very long but an excellent read if you want more info about the book.

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

When Cordelia Naismith and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member. Aral and Cordelia survive countless mishaps while their mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge.

Notable review by mark monday

Cordelia Naismith is the captain of an astronomical survey ship from the peaceful Beta Colony. Lord Aral Vorkosigan is the leader of a secret military mission from the warlike planet Barrayar. the title “Shards of Honor” no doubt refers to the small bits of honor that Aral must cling to as he finds himself a central figure in a massive undertaking that will sacrifice thousands of innocents for the greater good; it also may refer to the honor that Cordelia herself gains and loses and gains again as her fate becomes increasingly intertwined with that of the unjustly infamous Aral – also known as “The Butcher of Komarr”. this excellent novel is the first in the massive Vorkosigan Saga, which currently numbers over 25 novels and short stories. it is also Bujold’s first full-length work – an impressive achievement.

the novel is a chamber piece with a galactic background. space opera boiled down to two major characters and several intriguing supporting characters, with acts of policy and war that become palpable moral and ethical conflicts for those characters. it is space opera made intimate and personal; space opera where the psychology of its characters is writ as large and made as important as the various exciting twists and turns of the narrative. it is also a romance – one that is by turns surprising and moving and life-affirming. there are no ridiculously giddy or angsty moments that made me roll my eyes. Cordelia and Aral are decidedly adults, with a whole lifetime of pain and experience behind them. watching them matter-of-factly fall in love was key to my enjoyment.

it is a novel with some teeth as well. its issues are timely and timeless… is a terrible sacrifice worth all of those lives to stop the deaths of even more lives? should nationalism be a thing that we live and die for, a thing that defines our lives’ trajectories? and what is “honor” anyway – a personal thing? a public thing? the thing that we cling to that gives our lives some kind of meaning, some sense of purpose? all are interesting questions to contemplate.

the prose is smart, clean, unfussy. our heroes veer towards the nonchalant rather than towards the melodramatic – they are life-sized, not larger-than-life – and so the prose is a perfect match for the characterization. the whole novel is excellent and thoroughly entertaining, but my favorite part may be the opening third – which is basically a two-person trek across an unknown planet. the reader gets to enjoy interesting bits of xenobiology (not delivered via massive world-building infodumps) while Cordelia and Aral’s intriguing and entirely sympathetic personalities slowly unfold, to the reader and to each other. it was lovely. “lovely” may be an odd word to use for a novel that encompasses war, assassination, depraved villains, forced drug use, attempted rape, the children of rape, a mental breakdown, and the abandonment of one’s home… but Shards of Honor is indeed a lovely thing – a quietly moving experience.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

Notable review by Bradley

And we’re back. I loved the Martian and I was pretty okay with Artemis, but Project Hail Mary is a slam dunk. Weir kills it here.

This is a callback to all the best science porn we love in SF. Clear descriptions, great discoveries, and plenty of normal disorientation to go along with the numerous setbacks surrounding these crazy-cool characters.

I suppose I like the snark best of all, but the science, from an extinction-level event, massive resources being thrown at the problem, and then the outright adventure of traveling far away on a suicide mission to save the whole human race, just does it for me.

The stakes are damn cool, but the steady path of examination and discovery and getting to make a new friend (no spoilers) is about the best thing that I could have hoped for. Optimism is a dying breed in SF these days, and I’m very happy to have one again.

Of course, it’s all in the name. And it’s a bazillion to one chance.

The novel is pretty much perfect. Fun, smart, and heartwarming. Totally recommended.

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