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  • Re: =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9CTop?= 10 Space Opera Books and =?UTF-8?Q?Series=

    From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to Lynn McGuire on Sun Jun 2 19:35:46 2024
    On 2024-05-31, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

    “Top 10 Space Opera Books and Series” https://discoverscifi.com/the-top-10-space-opera-books-and-series-of-all-time/

    8. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - I have never read the series

    We both should read it. :-)

    6. The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks - I have never read the series

    You should rectify that.

    4. Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith - this is on my reread list

    You can't talk about space opera without Doc Smith, but this is an
    odd choice. Why a single novel and not the whole Lensman series?
    And if you select an exemplary novel, _Galactic Patrol_ would be
    my pick.

    1A. The Foundation Series by Issac Asimov - yes

    Whut!?? That's no space opera.

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

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  • From Chris Buckley@21:1/5 to Michael F. Stemper on Mon Jun 3 13:46:33 2024
    On 2024-06-03, Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 02/06/2024 10.55, Paul S Person wrote:
    On Sat, 1 Jun 2024 14:58:38 -0500, "Michael F. Stemper"
    <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 31/05/2024 16.28, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
    In article <v3dc4d$2cmed$1@dont-email.me>,
    Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
    “Top 10 Space Opera Books and Series”

    I would swap The Foundation Series and The Vorkosigan series.

    I would say that Foundation is *not* Space Opera. In fact it makes some >>>> fun of Space Opera.

    _Triplanetary_ definitely is, but how can you be aware of Doc Smith and >>>> leave a) the Lensman series proper & b) the Skylark series off of a
    Space Opera list?

    100% agreed. I'm not too convinced that _Hyperion_ (or the four-novel series
    that it kicks off) or the Culture qualify as Space Opera, either. I briefly >>> perused the page and some of its links, but was unable to find what they >>> were using as a definition of "space opera".

    I think I've mostly regarded "space opera" as a formation based on
    "horse opera". FWIW. YMMV.

    I have no doubt about that being the etymology of the term. But, it's hardly a definition. And I was wondering specifically about the definition used by the folks setting up the poll; the definition that viewed Hyperion and Foundation as "space opera".

    My guess is that the pollsters had no criteria, and this poll was really "what science fiction do you like?" With serious sampling issues.

    Wikipedia has a nice article on "space opera"; a very major focus of
    it is how the definition has changed over the years, and how many
    different definitions of it there are.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_opera
    I pretty definitely agree with the older definitions more than how
    it is apparently currently used.

    I agree that I don't consider either _Hyperion_ or _Foundation_ to be
    space opera. But I think both of them are closer than novels like
    _Dune_ and _Ender's Game_ that were considered space opera the first time
    this group tried a top 10 space opera list.

    My personal entry for a top 10 space opera would include Cook's
    _The Dragon Never Sleeps_ (a strong Favorite of mine). I like the suggestion of William's Praxis series, but it doesn't quite reach top 10 for me.
    I also like Westerfeld's _The Risen Empire_ duology.

    Chris

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