Space Opera Fans discussion

I’ve read several interesting books where an experimental space drive plays a crucial part. Some genius or serendipitous inventor builds it, and in most cases a small group that is NOT the government uses it in a space ship.

The April series by Mackey Chandler includes more than one of these, as well as other new technology.

The Cambridge Annex: The Trilogy by Peter Damon has a couple of grad students discovering one, and the first book is their struggle to get into space before someone else steals it or kidnaps them and locks them away for life, to prevent the entire transportation industry from collapsing - because this new tech works on planet too.

Have you read a good book that has one?

Another good one:
The Mouse on the Moon by Leonard Wibberley

And Methuselah's Children by Robert A. Heinlein

Good one E.C.! I wouldn’t call it any sillier than the one from Mouse on the Moon though.

Triplanetary

Oh wow, I can't believe that made me think of the inertialess drive used in the Lensman series, introduced in Triplanetary, first book in the series. I haven't thought about those books in like … forever!

There's an experimental starship in Toby Frost's A Game of Battleships which has an experimental drive based on, err... Alice Through the Looking Glass. The Space Captain Smith books are very funny.

The bloater drive in Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero is military, but one of the silliest outside of the Hitch-Hiker's books.