868 books
—
1,143 voters
Space Opera Books
Showing 1-50 of 22,592
Leviathan Wakes (Paperback)
by (shelved 1481 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.31 — 334,394 ratings — published 2011
Dune (Dune, #1)
by (shelved 986 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.29 — 1,688,430 ratings — published 1965
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
by (shelved 954 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.16 — 194,785 ratings — published 2014
Caliban’s War (The Expanse, #2)
by (shelved 893 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.39 — 191,333 ratings — published 2012
Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)
by (shelved 874 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.99 — 122,277 ratings — published 2013
Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, #3)
by (shelved 748 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.28 — 161,392 ratings — published 2013
Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)
by (shelved 734 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.23 — 232,062 ratings — published 2005
Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)
by (shelved 720 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.28 — 313,658 ratings — published 1989
Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)
by (shelved 678 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.85 — 103,291 ratings — published 1987
Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4)
by (shelved 655 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.24 — 133,520 ratings — published 2014
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
by (shelved 629 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.10 — 76,044 ratings — published 2019
Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5)
by (shelved 599 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.45 — 120,288 ratings — published 2015
Revelation Space (The Inhibitor Sequence, #1)
by (shelved 589 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.99 — 63,521 ratings — published 2000
Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)
by (shelved 565 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.30 — 191,360 ratings — published 2015
Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga, #1)
by (shelved 561 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.22 — 54,828 ratings — published 2004
Shards of Honour (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)
by (shelved 559 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.06 — 41,193 ratings — published 1986
The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency, #1)
by (shelved 544 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.13 — 61,255 ratings — published 2017
Foundation (Foundation, #1)
by (shelved 534 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.17 — 610,886 ratings — published 1951
Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse, #6)
by (shelved 527 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.26 — 103,395 ratings — published 2016
A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought, #1)
by (shelved 500 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.13 — 68,135 ratings — published 1992
On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1)
by (shelved 490 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.14 — 49,388 ratings — published 1993
Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)
by (shelved 463 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.38 — 91,349 ratings — published 2017
Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch #2)
by (shelved 446 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.09 — 61,971 ratings — published 2014
Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
by (shelved 416 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.31 — 1,496,936 ratings — published 1985
Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8)
by (shelved 409 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.57 — 85,922 ratings — published 2019
The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga, #2)
by (shelved 397 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.27 — 30,961 ratings — published 1986
Dune Messiah (Dune #2)
by (shelved 387 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.90 — 433,901 ratings — published 1969
The Player of Games (Culture, #2)
by (shelved 375 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.28 — 83,207 ratings — published 1988
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
by (shelved 366 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.11 — 400,581 ratings — published 2017
The Reality Dysfunction (Night's Dawn, #1)
by (shelved 366 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.12 — 38,547 ratings — published 1996
Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
by (shelved 365 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.27 — 928,383 ratings — published 2014
The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, #2)
by (shelved 364 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.12 — 99,723 ratings — published 2006
A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)
by (shelved 360 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.37 — 92,516 ratings — published 2016
The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2)
by (shelved 358 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.25 — 154,977 ratings — published 1990
Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch, #3)
by (shelved 352 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.22 — 51,362 ratings — published 2015
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1)
by (shelved 350 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.24 — 140,544 ratings — published 2016
Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)
by (shelved 344 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.79 — 21,906 ratings — published 2016
Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture, #1)
by (shelved 335 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.17 — 36,221 ratings — published 2021
Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater, #1)
by (shelved 335 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.93 — 63,310 ratings — published 2018
Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
by (shelved 333 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.51 — 575,129 ratings — published 2015
Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga #2)
by (shelved 322 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.30 — 41,178 ratings — published 2005
Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)
by (shelved 322 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.55 — 467,494 ratings — published 2016
The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)
by (shelved 320 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.14 — 184,214 ratings — published 1974
House of Suns (Paperback)
by (shelved 315 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.24 — 33,954 ratings — published 2008
Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)
by (shelved 308 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.22 — 232,114 ratings — published 1952
Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9)
by (shelved 307 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.54 — 74,637 ratings — published 2021
Fortune's Pawn (Paradox, #1)
by (shelved 307 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.94 — 16,401 ratings — published 2013
A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)
by (shelved 306 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.30 — 38,359 ratings — published 2021
The Vor Game (Vorkosigan Saga, #6)
by (shelved 305 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.27 — 27,670 ratings — published 1990
Use of Weapons (Culture, #3)
by (shelved 305 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.16 — 54,015 ratings — published 1990
“I saw the Earth, yes. I saw the colors so magnificent, so vivid, so real. It was hope so large and round, green and blue.”
― Unbreathable
― Unbreathable
“Space opera, as every reader doubtless knows, is a pejorative term often applied to a story that has an element of adventure. Over the decades, brilliant and talented new writers appear, receiving great acclaim, and each and every one of them can be expected to write at least one article stating flatly that the day of space opera is over and done, thank goodness, and that henceforth these crude tales of interplanetary nonsense will be replaced by whatever type of story that writer happens to favor — closet dramas, psychological dramas, sex dramas, etc., but by God important dramas, containing nothing but Big Thinks. Ten years late, the writer in question may or may not still be around, but the space opera can be found right where it always was, sturdily driving its dark trade in heroes.”
― The Best of Planet Stories 1
― The Best of Planet Stories 1










