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293 books
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399 voters
Space Opera Books
Showing 1-50 of 22,527
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
by (shelved 1464 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.31 — 332,868 ratings — published 2011
Dune (Dune, #1)
by (shelved 982 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.29 — 1,682,135 ratings — published 1965
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)
by (shelved 951 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.16 — 193,720 ratings — published 2014
Caliban’s War (The Expanse, #2)
by (shelved 890 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.39 — 190,456 ratings — published 2012
Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)
by (shelved 873 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.99 — 121,879 ratings — published 2013
Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, #3)
by (shelved 747 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.28 — 160,680 ratings — published 2013
Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)
by (shelved 733 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.23 — 231,243 ratings — published 2005
Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)
by (shelved 716 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.28 — 312,011 ratings — published 1989
Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)
by (shelved 677 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.85 — 102,994 ratings — published 1987
Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4)
by (shelved 653 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.24 — 132,931 ratings — published 2014
A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
by (shelved 625 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.10 — 75,506 ratings — published 2019
Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5)
by (shelved 598 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.45 — 119,729 ratings — published 2015
Revelation Space (The Inhibitor Sequence, #1)
by (shelved 589 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.99 — 63,357 ratings — published 2000
Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)
by (shelved 563 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.30 — 189,416 ratings — published 2015
Pandora's Star (Commonwealth Saga, #1)
by (shelved 562 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.22 — 54,732 ratings — published 2004
Shards of Honour (Vorkosigan Saga, #1)
by (shelved 559 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.06 — 41,101 ratings — published 1986
The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency, #1)
by (shelved 541 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.13 — 61,094 ratings — published 2017
Foundation (Foundation, #1)
by (shelved 533 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.17 — 609,375 ratings — published 1951
Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse, #6)
by (shelved 523 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.26 — 102,914 ratings — published 2016
A Fire Upon the Deep (Zones of Thought, #1)
by (shelved 497 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.13 — 67,989 ratings — published 1992
On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1)
by (shelved 489 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.14 — 49,357 ratings — published 1993
Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, #7)
by (shelved 460 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.38 — 90,923 ratings — published 2017
Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch #2)
by (shelved 444 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.09 — 61,806 ratings — published 2014
Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
by (shelved 416 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.31 — 1,494,585 ratings — published 1985
Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8)
by (shelved 404 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.57 — 85,475 ratings — published 2019
The Warrior's Apprentice (Vorkosigan Saga, #2)
by (shelved 396 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.27 — 30,893 ratings — published 1986
Dune Messiah (Dune #2)
by (shelved 387 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.90 — 430,643 ratings — published 1969
The Player of Games (Culture, #2)
by (shelved 374 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.28 — 82,922 ratings — published 1988
The Reality Dysfunction (Night's Dawn, #1)
by (shelved 365 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.12 — 38,508 ratings — published 1996
The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War, #2)
by (shelved 365 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.12 — 99,433 ratings — published 2006
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
by (shelved 364 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.11 — 397,094 ratings — published 2017
Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
by (shelved 361 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.27 — 910,477 ratings — published 2014
A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)
by (shelved 359 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.37 — 92,096 ratings — published 2016
The Fall of Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #2)
by (shelved 357 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.25 — 154,206 ratings — published 1990
Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch, #3)
by (shelved 351 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.22 — 51,190 ratings — published 2015
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1)
by (shelved 348 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.24 — 138,807 ratings — published 2016
Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)
by (shelved 344 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.79 — 21,871 ratings — published 2016
Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture, #1)
by (shelved 334 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.17 — 35,970 ratings — published 2021
Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater, #1)
by (shelved 331 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.93 — 61,774 ratings — published 2018
Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
by (shelved 331 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.51 — 563,880 ratings — published 2015
Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga #2)
by (shelved 322 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.30 — 41,121 ratings — published 2005
The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)
by (shelved 321 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.14 — 183,695 ratings — published 1974
Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)
by (shelved 319 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.55 — 458,635 ratings — published 2016
House of Suns (Paperback)
by (shelved 315 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.24 — 33,809 ratings — published 2008
Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)
by (shelved 311 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.22 — 231,540 ratings — published 1952
Leviathan Falls (The Expanse, #9)
by (shelved 306 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.54 — 74,175 ratings — published 2021
Fortune's Pawn (Paradox, #1)
by (shelved 306 times as space-opera)
avg rating 3.94 — 16,386 ratings — published 2013
Use of Weapons (Culture, #3)
by (shelved 306 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.16 — 53,845 ratings — published 1990
A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)
by (shelved 305 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.30 — 38,137 ratings — published 2021
The Vor Game (Vorkosigan Saga, #6)
by (shelved 304 times as space-opera)
avg rating 4.27 — 27,622 ratings — published 1990
“Brother Cavil:
In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova? ...
I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air. ...
I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!”
―
In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova? ...
I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air. ...
I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!”
―
“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
