Episode 010 - Space Opera

In this episode we discuss Space Opera and all the endless tangents. This is a LONG conversation (we almost split it in two, but we’re trying to catch up episodes to our current reading topic). We talk about losing our solid footing on genre definitions, defining the term “worldbuilding”, when re-reading books from your youth goes horribly wrong, wondering just what is up with those TV and movie tie-ins, misogyny infecting Sci-Fi classics (Oh, hello there Sad Puppies), the delight of scientists reading Sci-Fi, and so much more.

Your Hosts This Episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Amanda Wanner

Space Opera We Read (or kinda):

Recommended

• Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding (lukewarm recommendation by a reader who is deeply ambivalent about anything speculative, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy in nature)
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (not spectacular but a slow-burn, exploratory read)
• Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (difficult to like narrator warning)
• Ancillary Mercy (and the entire Ancillary Justice series) (HIGHLY recommended series)
• Accessing the Future: A Disability-Themed Anthology of Speculative Fiction edited by Kathryn Allan
• Lightless by C.A. Higgins

Read

• Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon
• Knights of Sidonia, Vol. 1 by Tsutomu Nihei, translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian
• Space Opera edited by Brian W. Aldiss (Features stories from 1900 (!) - 1972. Most are from the 1950s)
• More Adventures on Other Planets edited by Donald A. Wollheim
• Stitching Snow by R. C. Lewis (Not so much Space Opera and not enough girl mechanic)
• The Year’s Best Military SF & Space Opera 2015 edited by David Afsharirad

Did Not Finish

• Armada by Ernest Cline (read this Wikipedia article about a video game urban legend instead)
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown
• Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks (would try another one by this author)
• The Star Dancers by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson
• The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Michael Rubens
• A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (so long - for 900+ pages, would prefer to try the better known A Fire Upon the Deep, which was recommended by another group member)