Space Opera Fans discussion

This thread was inspired by Bracken’s comment on another thread. He said:
Hey! Just finished reading the Aurora Rising, the May book choice. I’d love to read a Soace Opera or Military book with a female lead, strong focus on tactics and maybe some romance, although that is an add on. It feels like I’ve exhausted the lists on here so if anyone knows where I could get some recommendations, please let me know?

Here are two to get us started:
Auberon by Blaze Ward
Hunting Party by Elizabeth Moon

Strong female military leaders like Honor Harrington, Kris Longknife, and Torin Kerr (Torin is my favorite).

+1 for several books by E Moon.

Space Opera-adjacent book I’m currently reading, Persephone Station, is an all-female (and non-gender, non-binary) sci-fi version of Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven.

Solidly Space Opera with a female lead is Chilling Effect. There is a sequel, too.

Likewise, Velocity Weapon (and I assume sequel Chaos Vector) features a female spaceship Captain as the lead character.

And of course the Star Wars comic book series Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Vol. 1: Aphra, which spawned a novel last month: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra.

@Trike. Nice list.

@Trike. Thanks for all the recommendations! Tried to post this before, but I'm new, and I think I did something wrong, so apologies if I double posted this. I read a fun book last year called Ella Rosa and the Song of the Seirenes. It had a female title character, a genderless captain and a bunch of female and non-binary characters. I think it would qualify as humorous space opera.

So far theres two main characters in The Last Watch , and one of them is female while the other is male.

The Aeon 14 universe by M.D. Cooper and has multiple series with strong female characters, AIs, battles, space ships and planets, non-binary characters, and so much more.

The Silver Ship series by J.H. Jucha is really a joint lead which involves a good man and a strong woman, along with an AI. Battles against others abound, but I don't recall how detailed the war scenes are.

Star Kingdom by Lindsay Bukoker has several strong female characters with one of the secondary leads being a female Captain and another being a female who was genetically modified. Huge space battles don't occur until a few books in, but it is a very good series with a geeky male robotocist and his female roommate who is "on the spectrum" and also a scientist. Romance ensues among different couples, but it's not the main focus and no hot and heavey stuff.

Jennifer Foehner Wells' Confluence series and M.C.A. Hogarth's Her Instruments series though neither is heavy on tactics and Her Instruments has more than a little romance.

Thank you so much 😍

lf a little above captain rank is OK, there is Scalzi's Collapsing Empire trilogy, she is just the Emperox of the Galaxy.

The Pride of Chanur by C. J. Cherryh has all-female crew, including the captain.

Another series from Moon which has a female captain as the main character is Trading in Danger.

There is a (somewhat dated) list on GoodReads called Best Science Fiction with a Female Protagonist (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...). Another list I saw is https://best-sci-fi-books.com/25-best....

I'm just slightly biased, but the book I wrote, Bound, also might be of interest. It has a strong female lead (actually two female identities in one body). It got a quite nice starred review from Kirkus. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...).

That list isn't too old, as it includes Ancillary Justice. Pretty good list, and not cluttered with the sequels, just book #1 (at least at the top of the list). It's got 1200+ listings!

I forgot Friday!

KKR's Diving series is excellent too. https://www.goodreads.com/series/5980...

lots of good stuff here, how could I forget the Chanur books and of course in Cherryh's other books of the Company Wars series (Downbelow Station) is perhaps the greatest female captain of all, Signy Mallory, though she is not the protagonist and only shows up occasionally. There is even fan music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuizy...

Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice is a stunning book.

@Dave - or Bet Yeager!

Also Mavra Chang of Jack Chalker’s Well World saga, featured prominently in the middle two books.

This theme seems popular, so we will have a Themed Nomination thread to suggest books for June.

Laz wrote: "KKR's Diving series is excellent too. https://www.goodreads.com/series/5980...."

+1 on The Diving Universe by KKR.
And you can't go wrong with Ann Leckie.

I just remembered The Price of the Stars and sequels feature a female protag with her own ship. The Mageworlds are essentially Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off and the main character is basically Princess Leia in the Han Solo role piloting her own version of the Falcon. (Looks like a crescent moon 🌜if I’m recalling correctly.) Co-author Debra Doyle recently passed away.

Trike wrote: "I just remembered The Price of the Stars and sequels feature a female protag with her own ship. The Mageworlds are essentially Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off and the main..."

That sounds interesting! Thanks for the recommend!

Just read Lindsay Buroker’s “Star Nomad,” first in a series and would love a good discussion.

Maureen wrote: "Just read Lindsay Buroker’s “Star Nomad,” first in a series and would love a good discussion."
We discussed Star Nomad in 2016, so it is fair game for nominating on one of the June nomination threads. Or you can just revive the old discussion thread if you prefer:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Teresa wrote: We discussed Star Nomad in 2016, so it is fair game for nominating on one of the June ..."

Darn. I’ll go with the flow. Any or all of the books on the other thread, which I think is the right one? Sorry, this is my first group on Goodreads so I’m a bit muddled up atm.

If it;s not too forward, I'd like to recommend a few of my ow books that fit these qualifications:

Assault on the Gods
Jade Darcy and the Affair of Honor
Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates