Space Opera (discussion January 9, 2007)
Compiled by Brenda O’Brien, Woodridge Public Library

Space opera is science fiction on a grand scale. Elements of space opera include adventure, interstellar travel, romance, and intrigue. Settings may include Earth, other planets or moons, space ships and space stations. Alien civilizations are often present. The stories tend to be fast-paced. Plot and character are more important than the technical details of how science works in the future. Series are common, and author of space opera often write other types of science fiction and fantasy. Most military science fiction is also space opera.

Asaro, Catherine.  The Last Hawk, 1997.
The Saga of the Skolian Empire continues as Kelric, heir to the Empire and a Jagernaut fighter, crash lands his spacecraft on the proscripted planet Coba.  Coba’s intricate matriarchal society is both held together and controlled by the playing of an extremely complex and intricate dice game, during which information is exchanged and strengths and weaknesses exposed.  The women in charge can never release Kelric for fear of the Empire’s destroying their culture, but Kelric’s influence in the game as he develops his strategic mastery may provoke massive cultural change from within.
Audience:  Adults and older Young Adults
Booktalked by Nancy Bent, La Grange Public Library

Bujold, Lois McMaster.  The Warrior’s Apprentice, 1986.
The saga of Miles Naismith Vorkosigan begins with this book.  Miles is the heir to the throne of Barrayar, a planet with a strict hierarchy of social classes that has recently lost an interstellar war.  Miles suffered birth defects in utero from his mother’s exposure to poison gas, and is left with stunted growth and extremely brittle bones – he must rely on brains, cunning, and his personality.  In this offering, 17 year-old Miles stops a war by inadvertently forming a mercenary space fleet and still manages to get home in time to thwart a plot against his father.  Rollicking good fun!
Audience:  Adults and Young Adults
Booktalked by Nancy Bent, La Grange Public Library

Card, Orson Scott.  Ender’s Game, 1985.
Ender Wiggin is six years old... and the planet’s best hope against the Formics, an insect-like alien race Earth has been fighting for the past hundred years.  He has been selected for training at Battle School where legions of child-soldiers are divided into armies and are taught tactical skills using war and strategy games, with the main game being a series of mock battles fought in zero-gravity.  Ender quickly rises through the ranks of students and becomes the youngest army commander in the history of the school.  However, when he graduates to Command School there is a new game to be played and its final outcome will impact his world forever.  This is the first in a series. 
Audience:  Adults and Young Adults
Booktalked by Joy McFadden, Orland Park Public Library

Card, Orson Scott.  Ender’s Game, 1985.
In a future where genetically-altered children are taken from their families and trained by the government for military purposes, six-year-old Ender Wiggin is considered to be the world’s great hope in the war against the Buggers.  Ender is cruelly, intentionally isolated from his peers while being trained in computer-simulated battles which could decide the fate of the universe.  Book 1 of a series. 
Audience: Adults and Young Adults
Booktalked by Debbie Darwine, LaGrange PL

Card, Orson Scott.  Speaker for the Dead,1986.
Book two in the Ender series finds the main character traveling through space three thousand years after the events in the first book due to the relativistic effects of light-speed travel on time.  He has become a figure vilified by history for the destruction of the Formic race and is now known as Ender the Xenocide.  Because of this, he travels under his actual name of Andrew Wiggin and tries to do good works to redeem himself in his own eyes, despite the fact that no one that he encounters realizes that he is the Ender from the Formic Wars.  While traveling, he acts as a “Speaker for the Dead,” which has developed into a non-religious way of honoring the dead by telling the true story of their lives.  Andrew is called to the planet Lusitania where human settlers are living alongside an alien race known as the Pequeninos or “Piggies” to study them.  He has been asked to act as Speaker after the head biologist was ritually murdered by a group of Piggies.  Suddenly humans are facing the possibility of another interspecies war and Andrew must go to discover the mystery of why the biologist died and try to avert another conflict between humans and an alien race.  Slower and more philosophical than the first book, Speaker for the Dead tells an intricately plotted story that will appeal to Adults fans of Ender’s Game.  Audience:  Adults
Booktalked by Joy McFadden, Orland Park Public Library

Cherryh, C. J.  The Pride of Chanur,  1981.
Pyanfar, hani captain of the merchant starship The Pride of Chanur, finds her all-female crew in deep trouble when they decide to harbor an Outsider fleeing from their enemies, the kif.  Tully, the pale, relatively hairless alien who calls himself “human”, is a prize the kif will do anything to regain—lie, cheat, even attack the ports of the hani and their allies.  Meanwhile, an insurrection within Pyanfar’s own family threatens the Chanur estates at home.  This is an exciting story, full of action and interspecies politics.  Book 1 of a series. 
Audience: Adults and Young Adults
Booktalked by Debbie Darwine, LaGrange PL

Heinlein, Robert A.  The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 1966.
Luna, originally designed as a penal colony, now provides cheap labor and agricultural products to Earth.  An unlikely group of rebels led by computer repairman Manny, with the help of Mike, a sentient computer, battles to free Luna from Earth’s tyranny and to enable the Loonies to pursue their own governmental and economic destiny. 
Audience: Adults and Young Adults
Booktalked by Debbie Darwine, LaGrange PL

Huff, Tanya. Valor’s Choice, 2000.
In the far distant future, Earth gains admission into the Confederation of Planets, and in return humans must serve as part of the military in the war against the “Others”.  Marine Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr must regroup her battle weary platoon to serve as the honor guard during a visit to a new reptilian species interested in joining the Confederation, before they are approached by the Others. When her platoon becomes stranded on the planet, they must do everything they can to survive.  This is a fast paced and action-packed story with a no-nonsense heroine.
Audience: Adults and older Young Adults
Booktalked by Nicole S., Downers Grove Public Library

Martin, Michael A. Star Trek Titan: Taking Wing, 2005.
William T. Riker, former First Officer of the U.S.S Enterprise, has just assumed his first command of the newly built Luna-class starship U.S.S Titan.  Eager to begin the mission of exploration with an extremely diverse crew and his wife, Deanna Troi, as the ship’s diplomatic officer, Captain Riker is dismayed when the Titan is diverted to prevent a civil war from breaking out in the Romulan Empire. Gaining control of the unstable situation is a daunting first assignment for Captain Riker. 
Audience: Adults and Young Adults familiar with the Star Trek universe.
Booktalked by Nicole S., Downers Grove Public Library

McDevitt, Jack.  Polaris, 2004. Antiquarian Alex Benedict and pilot Chase Kolpath buy rare artifacts from Polaris, a yacht whose crew and passengers vanished after watching a spectacular solar event several decades back; only to find that another buyer will do anything to get the artifacts back, endangering Alex, Chase, and their customers. An engaging mix of space opera and mystery, in the sequel to A Talent for War.
Audience: Adults
Booktalked by Brenda O’Brien, Woodridge Public Library

Reynolds, Alastair.  Century Rain, 2004.
Some 300 years in the future the Earth has become uninhabitable due to the Nanocaust – the period when nanotechnology escaped its human inventors.  The surviving humans, who live in habitats in space surrounding the frozen planet, are divided into two factions based on the level of nanotechnology they will still use.  When a perfect replica of Earth, but following a different timeline, is discovered at the terminus of a wormhole, the race is on to determine which faction will control the destiny of this alternate earth.  Told from the points of view of characters from both Earths, this is not only a fantastic thriller but also a look at what makes a person “real.”
Audience:  Adults and older Young Adults
Booktalked by Nancy Bent, La Grange Public Library.

Russell, Mary Doria. The Sparrow, 1996.
When a scientist in the year 2019 discovers radio broadcasts originating from Rakhat, a planet near Alpha Centauri, mankind is suddenly faced with the fact that life truly exists on other planets.  A delegation comprised of scientists, priests and civilians is organized by the Jesuit Order and sent to make first contact with the alien life forms.  Existence on Rakhat is not what was expected and the missionaries are faced with unexplainable illnesses, accidents and even deaths.  There are two species of intelligent life on the planet, one of which is a peaceful and subservient group who work for the benefit of the other group, those who control business and government.  When the missionaries are eventually caught up in a deadly conflict between the species the only survivor from the group is Emilio Sandoz, one of the priests.  He remains on Rakhat until a second group from Earth arrives and finds him in desperate health, living in a brothel.  They send him back to Earth alone on a ship but also send a message about the living condition in which they found him.  After arriving home, Emilio must then try to defend and explain the acts of the missionaries.  The story is told through multiple viewpoints and simultaneously explores the events leading to the mission, the mission itself, and its tragic aftermath.  Despite the fact that the reader knows from the beginning how the story will end, it still manages to be surprising in its execution.  There is a sequel titled Children of God. 
Audience:  Adults
Booktalked by Joy McFadden, Orland Park Public Library

Scalzi, John. The Android’s Dream, 2006.
Robin Baker, mild mannered pet-store owner, is a key to preventing war with the Nidu. After Lars-win-Getag is killed in an insulting flatulence incident during a trade delegation meeting, the Nidu demand that the State Department produce a sheep for their coronation ceremony; a sheep of the rare, electric-blue, Android’s Dream breed. State Department flunky Harry Creek, who just happens to be a war hero and a computer genius, finds Robin and tries to keep one step ahead of assassins, with some fancy footwork in a mall, and then on a veteran’s cruise to alien battlefields.
Audience: Adults and Young Adults
Booktalked by Brenda O’Brien, Woodridge Public Library

Viehl, S.L.   Stardoc, 2000.
Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil flees Terra when she discovers that her own father has knowingly violated ethics of the medical field.  Afraid for her life, Cherijo escapes to the remote planet, Kevarzanga Two.  On this planet where humans are in the minority, she accepts a position at a free clinic, treating patients from over 200 different species.  Cherijo must prove herself and overcome hostility, not only from her patients, but from her coworkers as well.  This novel blends elements of science fiction, medical suspense, and even romance. 
Audience: Adults and older Young Adults
Booktalked by Nicole S., Downers Grove Public Library

 Williamson, Jack.  Terraforming Earth, 2001.
Small groups of children, clones of survivors of a meteor impact on Earth, are raised by robots on the Moon and educated by holograms of their parents. Their job is to learn Earth’s history and help in terraforming Earth and restoring human life there. Each group is a new generation of clones, sometimes born millenia after the last generation whose adventures on the ever changing Earth were transmitted to the Moon to help the next generation.
Audience: Adults and Young Adults
Booktalked by Brenda O’Brien, Woodridge Public Library

Space Opera authors to know:

Iain M. Banks – writes about The Culture, a humanistic, technologically advanced civilization that often intervenes to advance or retard the development of other civilizations through fair means and foul.  Banks also wins critical praise for the quality of his writing and the depth of his ideas, but he ties them together with action-filled storylines.  Starts with Consider Phlebas.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

David Brin – a pair of galaxy- and century-spanning series – The Uplift Trilogy and The New Uplift Trilogy – sees multiple alien encounters, with some races given the ability to ‘uplift’ or genetically improve another species, which sometimes leads to slavery.  Strong writing, vast imagination, and a huge cast of characters.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

Lois McMaster Bujold – stories that examines culture clashes, relationships, and other broad themes.  Best known for the Vorkosigan Series, which follows the career of Miles Vorkosigan, a undersized, hunchbacked genius with a can-do attitude.  Publication order starts with The Warrior’s Apprentice, but chronological order starts with Falling Free.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

C. J. Cherryh – a prolific author who spends a great deal of time imagining and creating worlds and cultures, then putting them into conflict.  A long-running storyline is found in the Company Wars series, which becomes the Alliance/Union Series, then the Unionside Novels.  The near-future of spaceflight is her starting place in this storyline, but it expands to encompass all the standards of interstellar flight and alien civilizations.  Cherryh writes tightly plotted stories, often involving mysteries, and always provides insight into her developing characters.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

John Clute – a newer author but a long-standing and well-regarded SF critic (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction), Clute writes complex prose that echoes literary traditions from the Bible to pulp space operas.  Appleseed starts his War Against God series, in which God who is a self-eating alien excreting a disease called plaque.  His flawed main character and imaginative creations (including an artificial intelligence with multiple personalities) come across more as tools than characters, but the final work is more than the sum of its parts.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

Peter F. Hamilton – The Reality Dysfunction, Hamilton’s main contribution to SF, is a sprawling examination of conflicts between genetically advanced and relatively unsophisticated humans.  Hamilton creates a large cast of complex characters, multiple plotlines, and small details that have large consequences.  He ties all of these together in a single package that almost requires multiple readings.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

M. John Harrison – Light explores the quantum universe of potential futures with a trio of seemingly disconnected characters who all wind up at a wormhole where time and space becomes interchangeable.  The fact that one is a 20th century serial killer, one is a sentient spacecraft, and one a virtual reality junkie allows Harrison to play with all kinds of ideas.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

Dan Simmons – the Hyperion series, which begins with the book of the same name, has echoes of Simmons’ horror novels and of Chaucer, while creating a Web of human worlds threatened by an outside horde of human barbarians.  Characters are dark, highly individual (captured in the very different voices Simmons uses as they tell their backstories), and fully realized as they journey together to confront a brooding, and unknowable alien creature who may hold the future of humankind in its lair.  A good introduction for the ‘literary’ reader who wants to try SF.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library

David Weber – military SF centered on Honor Harrington (On Basilisk Station) a young, politically unconnected but militarily superior commander who rises through the ranks on her merits.  Weber dedicated On Basilisk Station to C.S. Forester, and the parallels to the Horatio Hornblower series are unmistakable.
Recommended by Annabelle Mortensen, Hinsdale Public Library