For Christmas my daughter has requested humorous space opera, but in paperback form. (She and her sister read horrible cozy mysteries in ebook formats, so she has used up her ebook allotment on them.)
She has read the Murderbot books and Becky Chambers already.
I’m going to give her some early Retief books from my collection. The ones available from Amazon are scarce and expensive. Also, the Harry Harrison satires, Bill the Galactic Hero and the first “Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers,” which to my surprise became a series. I think she has some Stainless Steel Rat books, but I’m not sure I’d call them space opera.
Any ideas for more recent books, or even some older stuff?
Will I look like a total neophyte if I suggest Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
I didn’t even think to say she’s read that also. She grew up in a house with thousands of sf books, so she has the basics.
I figured, but hey, doesn’t hurt to cover the bases. I don’t think I have anything that could be called “Humorous Space Opera” on my shelf that isn’t Larry Niven, Douglass Adams, or (at a stretch) Terry Pratchett. I imagine those all fall under “the basics” so I’m not likely to be of any help.
It probably wouldn’t be considered a true space opera (but almost certainly close enough), but I’d heartily suggest the Vorkosigan novels of Lois McMaster Bujold. Lots of humor, a good bit of romance (not very explicit sex, but enough so that I’d want to know the daughter’s age), plenty of thrilling space battles but much more strategy, and quite a lot of fun politics.
Redshirts - John Scalzi
How Much For Just the Planet? - John M. Ford
The Reluctant Adventures of Fletcher Connolly On the Interstellar Railroad, Vol. 1 - 4 - Felix Savage
Illegal Aliens - Phil Foglio/Nick Polotta
I enjoyed Yahtzee Croshaw’s (he of Zero Punctuation fame) books.
They’re not astounding, but they’re enjoyable. The premise is also really clever. The hero is a pulp-style scifi space hero who - like all of his colleagues - was put out of work several years prior when mankind invented instantaneous FTL travel.
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
The Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor - A guy dies and wakes up centuries later as the AI for a self-replicating space probe. He embraces this new life with humor and pragmatism.
Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. - A cybernetic security bot develops a rogue personality, but this personality just wants the people it’s protecting to stay safe so it can watch soap operas in peace.
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente - A human glam rock star is kidnapped from earth to put on a show proving that Earth is worthy of continued existence. Wears its Hitchhiker’s Guide influence on its sleeve.
Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley - A man from Earth wins the galactic sweepstakes by mistake and is whisked into a bizarrely humorous galaxy he struggles to understand. Notably, came out several years before Hitchhiker’s Guide but Douglas Adams had never heard of it.
I love this, although it’s a good bit dated now, and am always happy to see someone else who enjoys it! I didn’t consider it because last time I checked, it couldn’t be had in a paperback format outside of a serious scouring of used book stores, but I see it’s available at only a slightly silly price point of 15.99 US - which is why I replaced my old falling apart copy with the kindle version.
But it’s a double thumbs up for a humorous space Opera (I would say more a loving treatment of all the tropes nearly verging on parody).
Thanks for reminding me. This I have, I have much of Sheckley. I can give her a bunch of the good ones.
As for others.She gave me a Bobiverse book. I’ll check out the Foglio. Ahh - looks good.
Man, Illegal Aliens is a book I haven’t heard of for a long time. Published by TSR originally, IIRC.
Beware the Great Golden Ones!!
I was going to suggest Sheckley after I read the OP. I recommend the early Sheckley (50s and 60s). You can find his stuff on used book sites and probably on e-book. NESFA press published collections of his short stories and novels
You might also try Fredric Brown – his stuff is short and generally humorous and he made several forays into Space Opera.
Eric FRank Russell wrote a lot of space opera and a lot of humorous stuff. Del Rey published a collection The Best of Eric Frank Russell. And NESFA, of course, published a collection.
You might try Theodore Cogswell for some humorous stuff, too.
I have pretty much all the Sheckley story collections. I loved them when I was a teenager, though Damon Knight didn’t think much of the stories. I’m not sure I want to lend out my old Bantam collections quite yet. I have the Russell stuff I think you’re referring to, but they are a bit too Campbellian “we humans are smarter than you dumb aliens” for her.
I don’t remember any humorous Cogswell, I’ll need to look through what I have.
Hmm, not exactly space opera but maybe some Kuttner and Moore…
Maybe Robert Asprin’s Phule’s Company series? I haven’t read them myself so don’t know if they’re appropriate (or whether they’re still available in paperback), but I remember enjoying his Myth-Adventures series when I was younger.
Seconding Eric Frank Russell books, especially Next of Kin.
But these days, even Doc Smith’s Lensman books I find pretty humorous.
Seconded. The dinner scene in A Civil Campaign made me laugh so hard, I fell off the couch.
Most of the books in the series have their fair share of serious stuff as well, mixed with moments of brilliant comedy. (Full disclosure: I have an actual child named after one of the characters. I look forward to the day he asks where his name came from, and I can dump seventeen books on his bed in response.)
I just read the first of those, myself, and all I can say is, it’s awfully dated, especially in regards to gender relations. And the central premise, that Phule is so hypercompetent as a leader, fell kind of flat for me: He says and does basically ordinary stuff, to which everyone responds by being inspired, even though it really didn’t seem all that inspiring.
I’ve read Phule’s Company and I’d call it appropriate for teens, with the possible exception of the chapter in which three female characters pose nude for the media. All are adults and it’s their idea.