Space Opera Fans discussion

Hello, I am new to the site and group. I really like epic books from such authors as Peter F. Hamilton, Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Larry Niven, Karl Schroeder, Frank Herbert, Vernor Vinge and John Scalzi. The trick is to find new books in this sub genre, any suggestions would be most welcome.

Cheers,
BB

Hal Clement; "Mission of Gravity."
Or, my favorite..."Earthblood," by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown.
Welcome to the site
John (aka, the Creature")

Creature,
I liked Mission of gravity, a like minded book that I also enjoyed was Dragon's egg by Robert Forward, I be sure to check out Earthblood

BB

And I will check out Dragon's Egg.
Have a Great Day!!!
John (aka, the "Creature")

Hi, I am new to the Space Opera Group here at Goodreads. My most recent space opera is a book called Star Chosen. It just came out and I hope you like it at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0964432323?t...
Let me know.

Welcome to the group. Space Opera is one of my favorite sub-genres of Science Fiction.
Good Luck and...Have a Great Day!!!
John (aka, the "Creature")

I went and checked out the book on Amazon. I like the cover. It reminds me of DC comic's, "Space Cabby." Looks like a fun story. I like the charcter sketches down the middle of the pages. Nice Touch!
Have a Great Day!!!
John (aka, the "Creature")

Creature wrote: "I went and checked out the book on Amazon. I like the cover. It reminds me of DC comic's, "Space Cabby." Looks like a fun story. I like the character sketches down the middle of the pages. Nice..."
Thanks for the compliment, John!

Hey Joe:
You're welcome. It really does look like a fun story. As soon as I catch up on a couple projects I'm working on I'll probably check it out.
Have a Great day!!!
John (aka, the "Creature")

Hey John "the creature",
Do you fancy taking over the mods role for this group? As I notice that it is vacant.

Speaking of good space opera, I really liked This Alien Shore by C.S. Friedman really rich exciting story, reminded me of parts of Xenocide by Orson Scott Card & Vernor Vinge Fire in the Deep. I highly recommend it.

I guess it would all depend on what I need to do. The unfortunate thing is that I'm not a computer whiz so creating things would require me unscrewing my head, filling it with the tech know-how and then executing it. Other than that I guess I could consider it.
have a Great Day!!!
John (aka, the "Creature")

To answer the original question (bookbrow)... As I like the same kind of authors you have listed, you should try Dan Simmons. The Hyperion series is amazing with one of the best creature creations I have ever come across in the form of The Shrike. His Olympos and Ilium sequence is also worth a read... only Dan Simmons could meld some hard sci-fi with Homer's Iliad and succeed.

Also have a look at John C Wright's "Golden Age" trilogy. I just want that space ship and that suit of armour. Read it and you will see what I mean. Well written, creative story with some plausable far future science and inventions.

I also recommend Charles Stross. He has written quite a few books, but I would start with his debut novels "Singularity Sky" and "Iron Sunrise" and go from there...

Richard Morgans books with Takeshi Kovacs, starting with "Altered Carbon" are also up there. Feels like Peter F Hamiltons Nights Dawn Trilogy because of the technology levels and detailed creative violence. Exciting and nasty...

And finally for this update, anything by Neal Asher. Start with "Gridlinked" and then "The Skinner" and then progress in publication date order. Outstanding Stories, well crafted characters, and simply the best baddies you will come across. Oh and some really well fleshed out alien lifeforms too...lots of them.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Rob

Rob wrote: And finally for this update, anything by Neal Asher. Start with "Gridlinked" and then "The Skinner" and then progress in publication date order. Outstanding Stories, well crafted characters, and simply the best baddies you will come across. Oh and some really well fleshed out alien lifeforms too...lots of them.

"The Skinner" is a good example of an ecologically extreme world depiction and some equally extreme characters. Interesting read, for sure. For something similar with a little different viewpoint and some more sympathetic characters, I'd recommend "Crossfire" by Nancy Kress. A somewhat more benign world, but lots of intrigue and danger from alien sources. She just gets better with each published work.

Rob wrote: "To answer the original question (bookbrow)... As I like the same kind of authors you have listed, you should try Dan Simmons. The Hyperion series is amazing with one of the best creature creations ..."

Thanks Rob, I have read some of the Hyperion series ( although only the first two) Yes the Olympus and Iliad sequence looks very intriguing, I loved his world building, the wooden space ship, very cool indeed.

I will look into John C. Wright's Golden age trilogy based upon the words "I want that space ship and suit of armor" A nod to Fallen Dragon & Old Man's War regarding space suit envy.

I have both Stross novels you mentioned and I should crack them soon.

I thoroughly enjoyed Altered Carbon and I will read the next series by Morgan.

I have the Skinner on must acquire list for some time.

Jim, I will check out Crossfire, I just read Grass not to long ago, and while it does not classify as Space Opera per say, it is a very fine read.

Thanks again for the great suggestions.

To update my August post, I'm coming around to the idea that Nancy Kress is a vastly underrated space opera author. The sequel to "Crossfire", "Crucible" is also quite good. And I'm now well into her "Probability" series of "Probability Moon", Probability Sun" and "Probability Space". Great characters and believable space opera scenarios.

Moreover, one could do worse than to read some of the SF work of her late husband, physicist Charles Sheffield. In particular the "Heritage" series of novels, beginning with "Summertide" is well worth delving into. Very sad that he died an untimely death.

Very cool to hear of a husband and wife both writing sci-fi. I write scifi, but my wife writes mostly non-fiction.

Joe wrote: "Very cool to hear of a husband and wife both writing sci-fi. I write scifi, but my wife writes mostly non-fiction."

My wifee (Mary Mason) and I have collaborated on 2 (so far) novels in the Rehumanization of Jade Darcy series. Check out this other post of mine for more details.

Bookbrow wrote: "Hello, I am new to the site and group. I really like epic books from such authors as Peter F. Hamilton, Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Larry Niven, Karl Schroeder, Frank Herbert, Vernor Vinge a..."

One of the biggest stories I've encountered in many years is House of Suns. Mind-boggling in its scope. And a lot of fun, too.

Favorite space oprea series of the past decade, as I understand the definition, is the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.

Re: House of Suns, there is a novella in the Gardner Dozois edited One Million A.D. by Alastair Reynolds entitled "Thousandth Night" which serves as a prequel and is a very good yarn in its own right.

I'm very proud to announce that there's a new edition of my wife's and my classic science fiction adventure novel, , with a new cover designed by my wife/collaborator, Mary Mason. For those of you who aren't familiar with this series, I'll point out that Jade has earned a very devoted following over the years.

As a debut weekend special, there's a sale on the ebook edition at Smashwords. Just enter coupon code MJ27G when you buy it to get 50% off the normal list price. But hurry; the coupon expires 3/18.

Pleasant reading.