Space Opera Fans discussion

Hi all,

New user here. I like pretty much all things sci fi but Star Trek is and always shall be my favorite. I was wondering what books you have enjoyed that you’ve found similar to Trek.

Obviously any books about exploring strange new worlds fit the bill but also anything with that same optimistic moral outlook. Also novels with large starship crews, like Mote in Gods Eye, come to mind.

Personally I found Gordon R Dickson’s Mission to Universe to be kind of a darker version of Star Trek. Also Anne McAffrey’s Ship Who Sang scratched the episodic exploration itch.

So what all have you found as suitable substitutes?

The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet by Mackey Chandler explores multiple new planets and meets several new races. It’s second in the Family Law series but it can be read first (but has spoilers for the first book). There’s some exploration in Family Law but most of that first book is either Lee on Earth and trying to get back to space or Gordon and Red Tree fighting a war against USNA for taking Lee.

There’s more exploration in book 3 Secrets in the Stars but you need to have read book 2 first. The rest of the series isn’t really exploration. There’s a related series set a hundred or so years earlier but doesn’t do much exploring new worlds: April.

Hmmmmm…. Another great book that explores an alien planet is Hellspark by Janet Kagan. You might also like Mirabile also by Janet Kagan, which isn’t first exploration but rather a colony still struggling.

You might enjoy the series that starts with Bob's Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd. The first (two?) books stay in our solar system but after that they do a lot of exploring and meeting new races.

I’ll add more comments as I think of more.

Teresa wrote: "The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet by Mackey Chandler explores multiple new planets and meets several new races. It’s second in the Family Law seri..."

I wanted more time with Lee!

Well the more recent books in the Family Law series have a lot more of Lee than Gordon, if that helps.

Memoirs of a Spacewoman by Naomi Mitchison (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...) may also fit the bill. It’s a collection of several episodes of space exploration and alien contact across the main character’s career and the world has a Star Trek-like philosophy in many ways.

Of course there are a lot of Star Trek novels, some of which aren’t based on episodes.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet comes to mind.

The Tour of the Merrimack series by R.M. Meluch skews more toward the space battle end of Space Opera but is quite good. The Myriad is the first one.

If you like comics, Galaxion 1: The Jump definitely has Trek vibes.