Space Opera Fans discussion

This thread is for nominations for THEMED category for March 2018.

THEMED books need to be currently in print on at least one platform, and fit the theme for the month. If there is no spaceship involved, then it must take place on another planet with a technological society. If it is part of a series, it needs to be suitable to being read without having read other books in the series. Frequently books in this category will be those from major publishers that are no longer in print as paperback (or haven't yet made it to paperback), but Kindle Exclusive books are allowed too. It is perfectly fine to nominate a book here that would qualify for one of our other categories.

CURRENT THEME: Machines as Characters. At least one character in the story must be a machine/AI who has a personality and goes outside its programming at least once, making a significant plot point.

See the Machines as Characters discussion thread for examples.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

RULES:
* you may nominate one book on this thread.
* you may second as many nominations as you like on this thread.
* If a book you nominate or second is selected, you are expected to post at least one comment about it on the thread about the book.
* In about two weeks I will draw a book randomly, with each second being one raffle ticket for the book. That is, a book with three seconds (so four of us want it) will get three chances in the pool.

It is likely helpful if you know something about a book that has been nominated if you mention it in this thread, whether it is for or against the book.

My nomination is Hellspark by Janet Kagan.

The machine character in the story is Maggie, who controls the starship and acts as sidekick for the main character. She hasn't been sapient very long and comes across as a precocious child. I find her adorable.

This book has a lot of culture clashes. Most of the action takes place on a planet being surveyed for colonization, and the survey team includes members of several cultures. In addition, there is a native race that may or may not be sapient, and heated differences of opinion on that.

Availability note: recently reissued as ebook in all the usual formats. If you don't find it in your usual ebook store try Baen website. Out of print in paperback but there are used copies for sale and it might be available from your library.

I second Hellspark.

And I'd like to nominate The Silver Ships. An asteroid miner discovers a derelict ship and makes a daring move to rescue it. He's aided in this endeavor by the ship's AI, which is barely functional. As it recovers, we discover it has a rather endearing personality, including a sense of irony, but it's also not telling everything it knows.

I second Silver Ships. I'm currently reading the third in that series.

Available as audible, paperback, and Kindle ebook (including KU) but I'm not seeing it as ebook elsewhere.

Terminal Alliance has an AI character called 'Doc,' who I've become very fond of. Great story, with a fair few laughs.

Leonie wrote: "Terminal Alliance has an AI character called 'Doc,' who I've become very fond of. Great story, with a fair few laughs."
Available as hardback, ebook, and Audible, but not paperback yet. Traditional publisher, so paperback will likely appear this fall and the ebook price drop.

This is not a problem for the themed category, but mentioned for those considering seconding it. Hines can be very funny when I'm in the mood for a laugh.

I liked the Silver Ship and second it's nomination. I have read 9 books in the series. It is perfect for this theme.

I was going to nominate Bypass Gemini. But the AI isn't as central to the first book, although she does become so in the next one. For those of you who like stories in this theme you might want to look at the Big Sigma series by Joseph Lallo. There is an AI that runs the planet and manages the lab for a crazy scientist/ engineer. She is called Ma (mother). She repairs Lex' ship and extends herself in various ways throughout the series into the universe. She is my favorite Character. There is also a pet called Solby, who is A Funk. Part Biological, Part Technological. Cute Mix Of Fox And Skunk. Mobsters, News Reporter, Girlfriend, and Big Bad Corporation.

I nominate Ancillary Justice.

I'm afraid we have already read Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, as well as its sequel.

Lizzie, you can nominate Bypass Gemini on the INDIE thread if you like.

I nominate All Systems Red by Martha Wells. The main character is a SecBot for a corporation.

Availability for All Systems Red is good. Traditional publisher and recent. Ebook, paperback, Audible.

Book #2 in the series is due out this year too! It's a nice short book with a cracking pace!!

What about Fortune’s Rising (Outer Bounds Volume 1)? Dobie is a pretty fantastic machine character.

Fortune's Rising by Sara King, nominated by Anna.

Summary of nominations so far:
Hellspark by Janet Kagan, nominated by Teresa, seconded by Betsy
The Silver Ships by S.H. Jucha, nominated by Betsy, seconded by Teresa and Lizzie.
Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines, nominated by Leonie. Awaiting seconds.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, nominated by Kirsten. Awaiting seconds.
Fortune's Rising by Sara King, nominated by Anna. Awaiting seconds.

Nominations and seconds will remain open for about another week. Remember that you can second multiple books even if you nominated one, and books that don't get a second are dropped from consideration before drawing the random selection.

I’ll second “Silver Ships” as well

OK – in the past I have nominated my book under “Indie,” but this time I want to place it under “machines as characters.” I give you Penny – an A.I. that runs a secret weapons facility. She’s been created by drawing on all the kindness, compassion and empathy from all of human literature and given the job to arm all sides in interstellar conflicts. Her conflict is a key part of my book, Timberwolf – which I am sure you will find compelling for lots of other reasons. Here is a recent review




Penny coming to grips with the awful things she has done, and not truly being able to ingest the concepts she is infused with, makes for some very interesting reading.

Timberwolf

Aye, Robot by Robert Kroese. Comic adventures of the long-suffering robot Sasha with Rex Nihilo, interstellar con-man.

Columbus Day by Craig Alanson introduces us to the smart-arse alien AI who comes to be lovingly dubbed 'Skippy'.

I'll second Fortune's Rising. I've had it on my to-read list for a while and recently bought the Audible for $2 after adding it to my Kindle Unlimited list.

Is The Caves of Steel too well known for this list? Or did the group read it recently? Or perhaps not really Space Opera?

Otherwise, I nominate that.

You can nominate Caves of Steel here yes. It wouldn't count as Space Opera for READER most likely, but THEMED uses a looser definition.

I'll second The Caves of Steel. I wish we could have had that story with Blade Runner's visual style made into a movie.

I've been meaning to read the rest of that series, I really enjoyed The Robots of Dawn

I will second All Systems Red

I will also second Timberwolf

ALA awarded All Systems Red an Alex Award on Monday. My daughter is a librarian and was in the room for the announcement.

Conal wrote: "I will also second Timberwolf"

thanks!

I’ll second terminal alliance. Love me some Heinz. I was going to read this anyway

I second Hellspark

BTW, Timberwolf was terrible. I couldn't finish it. :D

Dan wrote: "BTW, Timberwolf was terrible. I couldn't finish it. :D"

well - not everyone has great taste!

Dan wrote: "BTW, Timberwolf was terrible. I couldn't finish it. :D"

Actually maybe it would be interesting to have it as the BoTM. Discussions where nobody has any differences in opinion are always boring ;)

Dan wrote: "Dan wrote: "BTW, Timberwolf was terrible. I couldn't finish it. :D"

Actually maybe it would be interesting to have it as the BoTM. Discussions where nobody has any differences in opinion are alway..."

yeah - you would actually be forced to finish the whole thing, which would probably make your eyeballs melt out of boredom. how far did you actually get?

Tom wrote: "Dan wrote: "Dan wrote: "BTW, Timberwolf was terrible. I couldn't finish it. :D"

Actually maybe it would be interesting to have it as the BoTM. Discussions where nobody has any differences in opini..."

I'll second Timberwolf

Please, keep the discussion civil and on topic. Mentioning that a book has limited availability or that it has steamy sex scenes or excess violence is encouraged. Saying you didn't like it should be reserved for the book's discussion thread.

There are lots of perfectly good books that I didn't like, and even more that I didn't finish. That's not a reflection on the books but on my own tastes.

Summary of nominations so far:
Hellspark by Janet Kagan, nominated by Teresa, seconded by Betsy and Dan.
The Silver Ships by S.H. Jucha, nominated by Betsy, seconded by Teresa and Lizzie and Adrian.
Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines, nominated by Leonie. Seconded by Christian.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, nominated by Kirsten. Seconded by Conal.
Fortune's Rising by Sara King, nominated by Anna. Seconded by Mike.
Timberwolf by Tom Julian, nominated by Tom. Seconded by Conal and Chris.
Aye, Robot by Robert Kroese, nominated by Mary.
Columbus Day by Craig Alanson, nominated by Mike.
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, nominated by Laz. Seconded by Brandon.

Nominations and seconds will remain open until this weekend.

This is an impressive, complicated list. Please pick one book you care about and do a spot check that I got the right number of seconds, etc.

I would like it noted that Dan also seconded Timberwolf.

Actually maybe it would be interesting to have it as the BoTM. Discussions where nobody has any differences in opinion are alway..."

Seconds have to be more explicit than that to count. Dan?

I'd like to second The Silver Ships Cheers!

Sorry, Tom, I did not second Timberwolf.

I'm hoping we read Hellspark.

I was just making conversation. :P

Dan wrote: "Sorry, Tom, I did not second Timberwolf.

I'm hoping we read Hellspark.

I was just making conversation. :P" yeah - been such pleasant conversation so far!

Since we have so very many nominations here, and very few nominations on the READER and INDIE threads, I encourage all those nominating books that fit one of those other categories who have not yet nominated a book for the other category, to nominate there as well.

Rephrasing: it's perfectly fine to nominate the same book on two threads, and your book is more likely to be chosen on that other thread. I'll do the random drawing on the shortest list first, and if any of these nominees gets picked on the other thread, will drop it from this batch before drawing.

FINAL TALLIES
Summary of nominations so far:
Hellspark by Janet Kagan, nominated by Teresa, seconded by Betsy and Dan. 2
The Silver Ships by S.H. Jucha, nominated by Betsy, seconded by Teresa and Lizzie and Adrian and Imagination Hunter. 4
Terminal Alliance by Jim C. Hines, nominated by Leonie. Seconded by Christian. 1
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, nominated by Kirsten. Seconded by Conal. 1
Fortune's Rising by Sara King, nominated by Anna. Seconded by Mike. 1
Timberwolf by Tom Julian, nominated by Tom. Seconded by Conal and Chris. 2
Aye, Robot by Robert Kroese, nominated by Mary. 0
Columbus Day by Craig Alanson, nominated by Mike. 0
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, nominated by Laz. Seconded by Brandon. 1

And despite Silver Ship having the best odds, the winner is Timberwolf.

We will get Hellspark and Silver Ships in eventually I'm sure.