Space Opera Fans discussion

John mentioned that we haven’t discussed a YA book recently. Here are some that I have enjoyed reading. Can you suggest others?
Frontier Incursion by Leonie Rogers
Fledgling by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Balance of Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber

You could go way back to ERB or early Heinlein. Or Elizabeth Moon or Anne McCaffery. Most have books with young adults either as leads or important secondary characters.

I remember reading a number of Andre Norton science fiction books when i was in my early teens.

Audrey wrote: "I remember reading a number of Andre Norton science fiction books when i was in my early teens."

I'd never heard of her - but she seems to have written an astonishing number of books.

Andre Norton wrote a heckuva lot of books yes. The SF ones are fairly dated now. She wrote fantasy as Mary Norton, such as The Borrowers.

if I remember correctly, Norton was the first woman Grand Master of science fiction.

Laz wrote: "You could go way back to ERB or early Heinlein. Or Elizabeth Moon or Anne McCaffery. Most have books with young adults either as leads or important secondary characters."

It's taken me almost 24 hours to figure out who "ERB" was!

I recently read and liked Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders, which is definitely YA space opera (teen protagonist and several teen characters).

I'm just about to start The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey. Its YA SF rather than space opera (although the the third book in the trilogy apparently includes a spacecraft).

John wrote: "It's taken me almost 24 hours to figure out who "ERB" was!"

And now we know how old you aren't!

I'm about 20% of the way through The Book of Koli; its very imaginative and clever dystopian SF, but I'm not convinced its YA, other than the fact that the main protagonist is a teenager. (One review described it as "YA-adjacent" - whatever that's supposed to be).

One of the SF books I gave up on recently was marketed as YA. At the point I gave up, the only characters so far were in their 20s. Sheesh

Teresa, I'm getting to an age where 20 year-olds can be defined as "children"!

I finished The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey - a 4 star rating from me.

On balance I'd say its definitely YA (teenage protagonist, coming-of-age theme, discovery of hidden secrets, growing up in a dangerous environment) - but its also a complex story, with some great world-building. Sadly its not Space Opera, but its well-written SF, so I think I'll read the next two books in the trilogy.

I am on-and-off slogging through a rather silly, internally inconsistent, YA space opera/fantasy series by Michael Anderle. It got high ratings on Goodreads, but I am definitely not his target audience. However, I have read good YA space opera in the past so I am always hopeful.

I'd never heard of him Audrey so just had a quck search. He seems to churn out a self-published book per month, writes under his own name, "takes new authors under his wing" and co-writes with them, and lends his name to books written by other people. He also farms out spin-offs from some of his many, many series.

All in all, I personally wouldn't touch his books with a bargepole - but he seems to have a lot of loyal fans.

John wrote: "I'd never heard of him Audrey so just had a quck search. He seems to churn out a self-published book per month, writes under his own name, "takes new authors under his wing" and co-writes with them..."

I don't recommend him. I'm only still reading because I bought the series as a boxed set (yes, actually paid for it) when it was on sale one day. Light fluff.

Anderle is in my list of authors that I avoid. It’s theoretically possible that some of his books are good, but the few I tried I couldn’t finish. I’ve been avoiding his books for a bunch of years.

He seems to specialise in boxed sets.

As far as I can tell, “Michael Anderle” is a small publishing company consisting of himself plus numerous authors he has hired/mentored. None of his books have really appealed to me, and now that he’s gone the James Patterson route of co-authorship and commissioning ghostwritten works, it’s impossible to know which titles were written by him and which by his employees.

Once upon a time, an indy author who had found some success invited others to write stories in the world he'd created in exchange for a cut of the royalties they earned. This generous offer had the potential to help struggling authors gain some much needed recognition and exposure to readers. Although that offer came to an end, you can still find stories in the Wool/Silo universe that weren't written by the original creator. From what I remember, Michael Anderle made a similar offer soon after, which a number of authors readily took advantage of. I may have considered taking part in that myself, but his reader base seems to enjoy saltier language than I'm accustomed to writing. Anyway, things may have changed since then, but I hope this provides a little more insight.