# Recommend me some space opera **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 28, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581 "2013-01-28T02:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/81 "2013-01-29T20:53:36Z")
Spoiler alert: > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And still preserving the SS as an organization? What’s the point of the SS without its antisemitism, etc? The SS was also an elite military force. In the book Germany is at the edge of destruction, and they are pulling out all of the stops in an attempt (ultimately futile) to save the nation…including putting a lot of their old, WWII era soldiers through a process that makes them young and strong again. One of the groups they bring back is the SS, though they are clear that no one who was convicted of any of the genocide stuff would be allowed back. Still, some of those types do make it through and back into the ranks of the SS…and, pretty much universally those folks all meet with a bad end in the book. Of course, so does just about everyone else, since German is essentially wiped out in the end, though they manage to hold out in the mountains and eventually rebuild as a people. The book is really more about redemption than it is about some sort of neo-Nazi SS hero worship or whatever it was Der Trihs was getting at…I suspect he never actually read the book. Or Troy Rising either. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/82 "2013-01-29T21:01:06Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Keith Laumer’s _Retief_ series is another good choice. Retief is an intergalactic diplomat surrounded by a department of dunces. Retief is great (well, early Retief, stay away from the late ones published by Baen where he is going through the motions) but hardly space opera. I heard Laumer talk about his experience as a military attache in Burma, and Retief is diplomatic satire transported to space. From his eyes, back when he was there, Burma was more alien than anyplace he made up. > [@](#): > > Philip Jose Farmer penned a fantastic opening to a series on _River World_, called _To Your Scattered Bodies Go_. Be warned, however, that the series just gets worse and worse, to the point where I wondered Farmer was playing some kind of elaborate joke to jerk around his fans. Not even close to space opera. _The Fabulous Riverboat_ was pretty good, but it is hard to end a series build around a big mystery well - see _Lost._ Cordwainer Smith might qualify as space opera, especially **Scanners Live in Vain** but it is so far from the space opera tradition that it is really pushing any reasonable definition. But he is definitely worth reading, no doubt about it. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/83 "2013-01-29T21:11:26Z")
What I’ve read of Ben Bova has been good. AFAIK, his books are stand alone. I really enjoyed **Mars**. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/84 "2013-01-29T21:14:49Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > What I’ve read of Ben Bova has been good. AFAIK, his books are stand alone. I really enjoyed **Mars**. > ~VOW Actually, his (IIRC) Grand Tour story line is a loosely connected series of books that are all part of the same story arc. Also, Mars has 1 or 2 sequels to it if you haven’t read them. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/85 "2013-01-29T23:56:55Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Actually, his (IIRC) Grand Tour story line is a loosely connected series of books that are all part of the same story arc. Also, Mars has 1 or 2 sequels to it if you haven’t read them. But, the [Grand Tour](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour_(novel_series)) series is really too serious and sophisticated to be space opera. Too much science, too much character development, not enough fighting. Besides, it’s entirely intra-Solar-System; **real** space opera is interstellar at the very least! ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/86 "2013-01-30T03:13:02Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > But, the [Grand Tour](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour_(novel_series)) series is really too serious and sophisticated to be space opera. Too much science, too much character development, not enough fighting. Besides, it’s entirely intra-Solar-System; **real** space opera is interstellar at the very least! Sure, that’s why I didn’t recommend it. 😉 Was just saying that not all of Ben’s stuff is standalone…and that there are sequels to even the Mars series (which I liked btw). Personally, my favorite as I said earlier is the Honor Harrington series, though it’s gotten a bit wild and wooly with the latest books and the spin off series. Still, for space opera it doesn’t get much more opera like than HH. If you liked Forester’s HH (Horatio Hornblower), then you’d like Weber’s HH, as they are very similar in feel…though, sadly, Honor never says the classic ‘beat to quarters, Mr. Bush!’… ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/87 "2013-01-30T04:10:01Z")
[The Stars at War](http://www.amazon.com/Stars-at-War-Starfire/dp/B000VYAN5W) series (you can also get it from Baen) is pretty much all-out fleet vs fleet combat. [The Lost Fleet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Fleet#The_Lost_Fleet) is worth a look. If you want to try David Weber without getting bogged down in the _Harrington_ universe [Mutineers’ Moon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutineers'_Moon) is not a bad start. Second on John Scalzi’s [Old Mans War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Mans_War) series. I love the _Lensman_ series, sometimes all that purple-prose is just fun reading. If ground combat is more your thing, David Drake’s _Hammer’s Slammers_ series and _Redliners_ or Keith Laumer’s [Bolo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_(tank)#Books) books will give you all you need. ---
**Author:** ![Reepicheep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/88 "2013-01-30T04:19:52Z")
P. M. Griffin has the Star Commando series. A little romancy, but nice space opera all the same. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2013, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581/89 "2013-01-30T07:42:52Z")
Not exactly space opera in the sense it is being discussed here but Jack Vance wrote a light-hearted confection called **Space Opera** involving an intergalactic opera troup presenting works of famous earth operas to quite alien worlds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-space-opera/648581.md?page=4)