Space Opera Fans discussion

The July 2023 Reader Pick is A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber. Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Official description:
Stephanie Harrington absolutely hates being confined inside her family's compound on the pioneer planet of Sphinx, a frontier wilderness world populated by dangerous native animals that could easily tear a human to bits and pieces. Yet Stephanie is a young woman determined to make discoveries—and the biggest discovery of all awaits her: an intelligent alien species.

Treecats are creatures that resemble a cross between a bobcat and a lemur (but with six legs and much more deadly claws). Not only are they fully sentient, they are also telepathic, and able to bond with certain gifted humans such as the genetically-enhanced Stephanie. But Stephanie's find, and her first-of-its-kind bond with a treecat, brings on a new torrent of danger. An assortment of highly placed enemies with galactic-sized wealth at stake is determined to make sure that the planet of Sphinx remains entirely in human hands—even if this means the extermination of another thinking species.

I have read this book several times and plan to reread it in July. We have discussed this book twice before:
October 2020 https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

January 2015 https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I've started my re-read. The native intelligent species has been keeping a close eye on the alien invaders of the planet (the humans) and is currently debating their sapience. We get both human and native points of view. It is a nice change from the typical human-only POV.

I really like books where at least part of the time the POV character is an alien.

I like that kind of dual POV as well. A chance to undercut or reinforce themes (probably why I use it for AI versus human perspectives).

Well, I'm enjoying the alien POV. It's a lot of the rest that I find irritating. Is it supposed to be written for juveniles? I met this same info-dumping, and reveal of the antagonist's entire background, in other ya books I read earlier this year. Ruins a good story when the writer dumbs down their readers.
And do you class this as space opera?
But... I love treecats.

Jemima wrote: "Well, I'm enjoying the alien POV. It's a lot of the rest that I find irritating. Is it supposed to be written for juveniles? I met this same info-dumping, and reveal of the antagonist's entire back..."

Ah, the infodump! When I edit books for other authors it's one of the key things I work on if they're fairly new to writing. Occasionally it has its place, but only about 10% of the time. :-)

Jemima wrote: "Well, I'm enjoying the alien POV. It's a lot of the rest that I find irritating. Is it supposed to be written for juveniles? I met this same info-dumping, and reveal of the antagonist's entire back..."

I've always thought of this as a YA book. I really liked it, but it does have the kind of simplified plotting and world building that I associate with YA. However, if you think infodumps are restricted to juvenile fiction, then you haven't read any of Weber's adult sci-fi. He's the king of infodumps.

Honorverse: Star Kingdom series while aimed at the youth market has adult readers including me. Adventurous usually smart kids and their intelligent non-human companions make for a fun read.

As for infodumps, in many ways Weber writes old style SF where what are now considered infodumps were part of the genre.

I just got to the nod to Eric Flint. In this book, he is a cafe owner who came from a planet of 'socialists, anarchists, and levelers'; apt, considering the background of real-life Flint. The book may be aimed at YA, but I doubt many of the target audience would notice the references.

I plan to reread this book later this month. Yes it’s mostly YA, and it’s only marginally space opera. The action takes place on a planet, but it’s not Earth, the humans arrived on spaceships (or their ancestors did), and it is a technological society, so it falls within our loose definition.

I’ve started my reread. The book isn’t perfect but I enjoy it enough to find it worth rereading every few years. It gives me a vibe similar to Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper which I used to love but which is now dated enough that it’s hard to reread (smoking, cocktails, treatment of women).

About 40% into the book. At this point it’s extremely obvious that part of the story is missing. That missing part is a story in one of the Honorverse anthologies. I’ll have to dig that out later.

Aha! “Stray” is in Worlds of Honor. The short story was written by Linda Evans, which explains why it wasn’t placed fully in the middle of this book.

Teresa wrote: "About 40% into the book. At this point it’s extremely obvious that part of the story is missing. That missing part is a story in one of the Honorverse anthologies. I’ll have to dig that out later."
Thanks for the information! I was wondering what happened there. I just happen to own Worlds of Honor so will probably read that one next (still in my to-be-read pile).

About 80% through. The villain is even more despicable than I had remembered.

Teresa wrote: "About 80% through. The villain is even more despicable than I had remembered."

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? :-)

And finished! Not sure I’m ready to reread the rest of this story arc. There are three more novels, plus that Stray short story. All of them still have too many spoilers recalled, in my mind.

I think this is the best one of this series. The other three novels are just not as good. I can't help but wonder if it's because this is the only one of the series written solely by David Weber. And even though he's listed as co-author on the other three, I have to wonder how much he really contributed. They just have a different flavor.

Betsy wrote: "I think this is the best one of this series. The other three novels are just not as good. I can't help but wonder if it's because this is the only one of the series written solely by David Weber. A..."

agree!

Teresa wrote: "I really like books where at least part of the time the POV character is an alien."

is there a listopia or discussion thread with alien POV books?

Kay Dee (what is your storygraph name? wrote: "Teresa wrote: "I really like books where at least part of the time the POV character is an alien."

is there a listopia or discussion thread with alien POV books?"

Likely more than one. Here’s one I found quickly

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

Teresa wrote: "Kay Dee (what is your storygraph name? wrote: "Teresa wrote: "I really like books where at least part of the time the POV character is an alien."

is there a listopia or discussion thread with alie..."

thanks!