SciFi and Fantasy eBook Club discussion

The February Science Fiction Theme: Space Opera is open for Nominations.

Now, Space Opera can mean different things to different people and it has meant different things over the decades since the term was coined. I stole this description from Wikipedia and think it's a good one to work with for our purposes:

"It was only in the early 1990s that the term space opera began to be recognized as a legitimate genre of science fiction. Hartwell and Cramer define space opera as "colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes."

Of course, us being the geeks we are, we can splice and dice that definition many ways that can be fun too ...


Remember our few rules:
1. They must be available as an ebook
2. One nomination and one seconding per person
3. No nominating your own book and
4. Mods can veto a nomination if they decide the book doesn't fit ... :-)


And, as always, authors selected in the past 12 months may not be nominated. For a list, you may check here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...




Nominated and Seconded
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin
Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey


Nominated
Mutineer by Mike Shepherd
Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey
Into the Black: Odyssey One by Evan C. Currie
In Death Ground by David Weber

Hannu Rajaniemi -- The Quantum Thief

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

I'll second The Quantum Thief.

I'll nominate Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Christine wrote: "Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie"

The book seems like the hot new debut that everyone is reading lately.

Quantum Thief sounds good.

Seconding Ancillary Justice, seems like it's worth a read.

I always think of Space Opera as the light fun reads where the space adventure is the most important part. Vs the Big Idea, Serious Sci-fi where I would put Quantum Thief and Ancillary Justice. Which is still different to me than Hard Sc-fi. I'm probably wrong, because most put the Serious Sci-fi ones in Space Opera. I always thought of Space Opera as the equivalent of "Beach Reads" in Lit or "Cosy Mysteries" in Mystery sections

The The Helmsman by Bill Baldwin always comes to mind, but I believe it's out of print.

A fun modern one is Mutineer Kris Longknife: Mutineer
By Mike Shepherd so I'll nominate that

If I could recommend 2 I would add Elizabeth Moon's Trading in Danger

Does Dark Dragons by Kevin Leffingwell count as a space opera? I would like to nominate it.

I'm going to nominate Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. It's a bit of an off-beat version of Space Opera in that there is no big space battles but it's good reading....

I'll second Quarter Share, I loved those books, a great change of pace from the military versions

Ciara1973 wrote: "Does Dark Dragons by Kevin Leffingwell count as a space opera? I would like to nominate it."

That reads more like an alien invasion of contemporary earth than a Space Opera to me ...

Second for Revelation Space

I'll nominate Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin.

I'm excited about Ancillary Justice as well, though!

Second for Tuf Voyaging

Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon is my nomination.

Revelation Space or Tuf Voyaging

I'd like to nominate Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton.

Emily wrote: "I'd like to nominate Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton."

I'm afraid we read that a bit over a year ago.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

Emily wrote: "I'd like to nominate Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton."

You could nominate the sequel, Judas Unchained.

I am very fascinated with artificial intelligence. I would like to read Ancillary Justice.
I'm interested in all of these though, so I'm excited to see which will win.

Ripley wrote: "The Heart of Matter by Evan Currie"

I put this on the list, but shouldn't Into the Black: Odyssey One really be the nominee as it's first in the series or do these read well as stand alone books?

I'll nominate In Death Ground

Craig wrote: "I'll nominate In Death Ground"

This is book 3 in Starfire. Does it work as a stand alone or do you want to go with book 1 in the series?

Geoffrey wrote: "Craig wrote: "I'll nominate In Death Ground"

This is book 3 in Starfire. Does it work as a stand alone or do you want to go with book 1 in the series?"

It can be be read as a stand alone novel.

Oh, good. :-)

I'll nominate Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey.

John wrote: "I'll nominate Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey."

I enjoyed when we read Leviathan Wakes so I'll second this one.

I've gone ahead and opened the poll:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/9...