Space Opera Fans discussion

Now that Halloween is safely out the way, we can turn our thoughts to Christmas!

In a few days we’ll be opening nominations for our December picks – would anyone be interested in bending the rules slightly to allow us to nominate specifically Christmas-themed reads for December? (One problem is that while there are undoubtedly some SF and Fantasy Christmas options, I’m not sure how many space opera options there might be).

An alternative could be to keep to our normal rules for LIMITED and READER picks, but have a separate Christmas themed pick, with nominations and votes.

Any suggestions or comments? What have we done in the past?

But no Bah Humbugs!

Have any of the authors in our group had any of your stories published in any of the various Christmas SF anthologies? If you have - tell us about them.

In the past we have replaced the Limited Pick nominations thread by a Themed nominations thread. This usually was done by first having a discussion thread where we mention books that might fit the suggested theme, to see whether there’s enough interest in that theme, and sometimes to adjust the theme a bit.

For example, if we can’t find enough books for Christmas, we might do Holiday, or Winter.

I can think of one space opera novella and an old short story that would fit Christmas but they likely aren’t worth rereading.

The Christmas novella is Lost: A Christmas Novella by Jenny Schwartz. I gave it 3 stars. It’s set on a space station, where most of the characters are in transit.

The short story I think was called Christmas on Ganymede. Humans explained why they were celebrating to aliens, and the aliens insisted they get a Christmas too. Arguments about what a Ganymede year should be ensued.

Found it! Christmas on Ganymede and Other Stories by Martin H. Greenberg. The short story is apparently by Isaac Asimov.

Mindtouch by M.C.A. Hogarth includes a winter holiday with gifts. It has a sensible discussion of how a multi species society spread over a lot of planets manages scheduling of holidays. I think we have read that book before. It IS worth rereading, IMO.

There was a short story that I think was expanded to a novel, that featured the star that went nova that was the Star of Bethlehem. Does anyone know the title? It’s a real oldie.

Edit: Wikipedia says the short story “The Star” is by Arthur C Clarke. No mention of it being expanded. Does mention The Other Side Of The Sky by Arthur C. Clarke which includes the story.

Thanks Teresa - some great options there, and replacing the December Limited pick with a Themed thread sounds like a great idea.

What do others think - would you be interested in reading a Christmas-themed book?

I found several alien romance books with a Christmas theme but odds are high they are too spicy for my own tastes.

John wrote: "What do others think - would you be interested in reading a Christmas-themed book?"

No. I'm just not into Christmas.

No problem Betsy, lots of people (my wife included) find Christmas too over-the-top and stressful. A couple of days ago she was recalling that when she was a young girl, Christmas Day was largely just another day.

At the moment there doesn't seem to be much interest in the group for a Christmas-themed read. But if it doesn't happen, Teresa has made some good book suggestions for my TBR pile - I particularly like the look of Mindtouch by M.C.A. Hogarth.

Teresa wrote: "The Christmas novella is Lost: A Christmas Novella by Jenny Schwartz. I gave it 3 stars. It’s set on a space station, where most of the characters are in transit.
..."

I've read Lost: A Christmas Novella Teresa - and like you I gave it 3 stars. From memory I thought it was just too short - it was more a short story than a novella.

The group has NOT discussed Mindtouch before. We can of course nominate it on the Reader thread next week.

I found an old thread trying out a Holiday theme and there wasn’t enough traction for it, but it did suggest Hellspark by Janet Kagan as a book that discussed holidays. We have definitely discussed Hellspark before.

It's not a book, but there is a Star Wars album called Christmas in the Stars. It's readily available on YouTube. It includes such classics as "What Can You Get a Wookiee for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb)?" and "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas," and a very young Jon Bon Jovi is one of the vocal performers.

Teresa wrote: "The group has NOT discussed Mindtouch before. We can of course nominate it on the Reader thread next week.

I found an old thread trying out a Holiday theme and there wasn’t enough traction for it,..."

I've just started reading one of the books mentioned by Teresa - Hellspark by Janet Kagan.

John wrote: "I've just started reading one of the books mentioned by Teresa - Hellspark by Janet Kagan."

Oh, goody! That's one of my very favorite books. I hope you enjoy it.

Betsy wrote: "John wrote: "I've just started reading one of the books mentioned by Teresa - Hellspark by Janet Kagan."

Oh, goody! That's one of my very favorite books. I hope you enjoy it."

Thanks Betsy - it looks very interesting and I'm looking foward to reading it. Its been sitting on my kindle for a while - I think I'd just forgotten about it.