Hey everyone, I hope you enjoy reading through the books on this list. There are SO many great space operas out there so this list certainly isn't exhaustive. I'll be looking at more space opera must reads soon... of which there are plenty. Thanks for watching.
If you're seriously examining space opera as a subgenre then start with its foundational works. Granted, EE "Doc" Smith's Lensmen and Skylark of Space series are going to feel outdated and awkward to some modern readers. But skipping on them while claiming to be a fan of space opera is like expressing a love of cosmic horror & the Cthulhu Mythos without ever having read Lovecraft, or delving into epic fantasy while studiously avoiding Tolkein. You're missing the roots that (for better or worse) influenced everything that came afterward in those subgenres. Smith's writing is a particularly good example of the kind of sharp ramp-up in the scale of conflict involved from one book to the next, something that's very much a signature of space opera as a whole. Your suggestions in this video are also rather light on the military elements of space opera, the Expanse being the major exception. You could counterbalance that by highlighting works like Weber's Honor Harrington novels, Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series, Moon's Familias Regnant series, and Campbell's Lost Fleet books. Those are probably more palatable to folks these days than Smith or his contemporaries, but you can still see the influence of the earlier era of pulp space opera stamped on them.
I came not expecting anything. But got one recommendation for a new book. Tau Zero. Not read any Poul Anderson in many years. :) Edit: you are looking for suggestions? Try the Heechee Saga by Frederick Pohl.
Great list! I've been meaning to re-read Foundation since I read the original trilogy as a teenager. I'll have to check out some of these others too. I would also recommend Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth/Void series as a must-read space opera series. Amazing, detailed world-building, great character-building that keeps you invested, and multiple complicated, interwoven plotlines make it fantastic to read.
While not a "space opera" per se, s.m. Stirling's draka novels are great. Think watching a train wreck but not being able to turn away. Having been into hard core s.f. for over thirty yrs, it's hard to pin down any one book.
If I was going to pick a series that I'd consider "The Canonical Space Opera" , it'd still be the Foundation Series. Thats not to say its the *best* (Its good, but Asimov was brilliant for his ideas, not his writing IMHO) just that it really did set the template for so much of what came after.
Niven needs Pournelle to rein in his weird, implausible technology and aliens (Broccoli anyone?). Writing together they have some excellent works of which "The Mote in God's eye" is probably the best.
Book List with timestamps: Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov 0:49 Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds 2:53 Tau Zero by Paul Anderson 4:17 Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey 6:14 Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks 8:04
I'd put the Familias Regnant books on the list alongside Vatta's War, although they are a bit less overtly space opera - less over the top action, slower power scaling. And certainly Bujold, can't talk space opera without Miles Vorkosigan, it'd be like not inviting the Kinnison family to the party. :)
I was at a con with Bujold a couple of decades ago. I asked how she could write such believable male characters complete with their pissing contests. She said male characters are easy to write because we are so simple. Believable female characters were far harder to write including for her.
Peter F. Hamilton's "Night Dawn" trilogy remains unbeatable. Joshua Calvert and Quinn Dexter are the ultimate of Good versus Evil. Each book is 1500 pages long, but they are magnificent examples of superb writing and plotting. I read all three books in six weeks. 10/10. Get your loved ones to buy the books for your birthday or Xmas.
My favorite Space Opera is David Weber's Honor Harrington series, the second book in the series "For The Honor Of The Queen" is fantastic and what got me hooked
@@hankyler4129 Could not agree more...picked up the series on Audible also. Was really well narrated and fun to listen to on long drives to and from work.
Lensman series by EE 'Doc' Smith, is I think the first sci fi story to describe inertialess flight, as well as hyperspace and a galactic civilisation. Real pageturners and great fun to read, the depictions of huge space battles and tactics are well thought through. Published in the 1930's !
Agreed. While I'd be one of the first to agree that the writing style might be difficult for today's readers, one of, if not the father of space opera should be at least mentioned. Though I wouldn't say the space battles were huge. Even today they have been dwarfed by very few other stories. Weapon systems that make the Death Star look like a toy and fleets so huge, that a specially build command ship can only command flotillas as single ships are too numerous to do so and even the largest battleship is insignificant within a flotilla. By the way, according to the GURPS Lensman RPG Doc got a letter after WWII, telling him that the way he described how he solved the problem of too much information coming in, how that data is being sorted was used in the Command and Control Centers of flagships in the Pacific theatre of WWII. Before that this wasn't necessary.
I have heard that E. E. Smith was the master of multi order waves and one dimensional characters. I read his books in my early teens, which was probably for the best.
Doc Smith's Lensmen is the basis of so much of space sci-fi today that it should never be ignored. The story is too good vs evil for many modern readers who need soiled heros, but the scope of the story is a canvas many have drawn from (most notably Babylon 5). He really put science (for the 1940's) into science fiction.
Agreed, but it’s a more literary sci-fi than any space opera, the first book is a riff on the Canterbury tales, the whole thing with poets (trying not to spoil it lol) etc, I’d put it with PKD or Le Guin
Nights Dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. The Forge of God and The Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear. A very scary idea taken right to the edge. All of Stephen Baxter's Books, or any of them that you can get your hands on, SPACE is the main one you want to find, truly epic in scope. Downbelow Station and the rest of the books in this series by C. J. Cherryh. Last but not least, The Dragonflight series by Anne McCaffery.
@@transient_ I suppose you're right, I should not have included it. I really liked them a lot as it's different & think the younger gen would get a kick out of reading the original books.
The Foundation trilogy began as short stories which were published starting in 1942, not 1950. They were compiled into the 3 books in 1951. It used to be common. Dune, eg, was first published in smaller pieces within magazines.
Yea especially since the sci-fi greats of the 40s 50s and 60s really grew up reading pulp fiction magazines so wrote their initial stories in the same manner.
Wow! For once I have every book/series in this list. The Nights Dawn and Commonwealth series by Peter F. Hamilton. Anything by Iain M. Banks. But my own absolute favourites are the Humanx Commonwealth books of Alan Dean Foster and especially the Flinx Novels. Sku September being one of my favourite characters. After collecting just over 800 books over the last 40 years (mainly from car boots, charity shops, market stalls etc.) there are just so many to choose from and we all have our favourites. Happy (and thoughtful) reading everyone 😎 Edit: EVERYTHING by Neal Asher!!!
The best long running "space opera" is David Webers "Honor Harrington" series. He has enormous character and political develpoments with great space battles. I agree with Peter Broom that E.E.Smiths "The Lensman" series is the classic and one I read as a teenager.
@@jasondrane8749 The series drops off steadily as Weber's editors have shown less and less willingness (or ability) to reign him in. Too many massive exposition dumps and political theorizing masquerading poorly as natural dialog these days, and none of the excellent pacing we saw in On Basilisk Station and the earlier sequels. What was an incredibly strong series has become a victim of its own success, or possibly just rampant incompetence in traditional publishing as a whole. I will give it this, it's arguably the best modern interpretation of the way Smith's Lensmen and Skylark books ramped up both the scale and stakes at a crazy pace, going from humble beginnings to galaxy-shaking events inside a single lifetime.
@@jasondrane8749 Yeah, you could also tell he wanted to wrap it up. The whole Solarian thing just ended with a whimper rather the massive space battles we have come to expect.
@@jasondrane8749 I think he got bored with that universe, but was contractually obligated to do so many more books. Only my speculation. But I have seen more than a few favorite series go totally into the garbage dump due to that. With the last few books looking like the author just tossed them together with no real plot or staying true to the character development for the first few books.
@@jasondrane8749 They're good until roughly Honor Among Enemies, then start going downhill. Pretty much as soon as command grows beyond task force size. His Safehold books have much the same problem, but it starts much earlier in the series. The tactical battles are lost in a political morass. It's not his strong point. I did finish the HH series, but it says something that I haven't taken the time to finish the side novels published after the main series finished.
One crazy rollercoaster ride! I still remember most of the story, not to mention the awesome names of some of the characters: Morn Hyland, Min Donner, Warden Dios and Angus Thermopylae of course.. pretty good for a book i read 25 to 30 years ago. :)
@@BlackDiluvian Pretty good? I think it´s amazing that you can remember those names after so much time. And yes, the names are very well thought out; I find the name Hashi Lebwohl (the DA Director) particularly amusing. In fact, I think that the entire oeuvre is very well written, with lots of subtle twists. :D
"Consider Phlebas" is written like a D&D adventure. Then you begin "Use of Weapons" and it's almost impossible to understand it without some preparatory studying...
I've never gotten past the first volume, which I thought was stand-alone at the time. The side stories were good, but the whole trip down the river and the Shrike just annoyed the hell out of me. And then it just stopped with a complete nonsequitur.
"The Find" by Cliff Aleister (sorry, parts 2 and 3 still available only in German), the complete Honorverse setting by David Weber (including spin-offs and prequels), "We are Legion. We are Bob" by Dennis E. Taylor, are just my contributions to the must read-list. Many others have been listed below.
These choices are great, but let me share my favorite juvenile space opera - Ben Bova's "Star Conquerors". The description of how "the Masters" had almost wiped out humanity in the solar system during the first human star empire fired my very young imagination and turned me into a lifelong science fiction reader. That book was part of the Winston Science Fiction Series, which had Alex Schomburg's endpaper art - an amazing and beautiful depiction of space opera.
Oh yeah, I'd nearly forgotten that one. Definitely juvenile, but that just makes it a nice light read. Probably only space opera-adjacent in the literary sense, but Jameson's Bullard of the Space Patrol short stories are similarly solid juvenile fiction and certainly evoke a nice retro style.
And Retief has a run in with thinking office machines! AI before AI! Laumer was an Air Attache and a lot of the plots,were taken from his experience! State Department shenanigans- Meddle and Muddle! Plus they do things like that for real! Thank you 😇 😊!
@@gregmchurch Yeah always loved the series, he gets a bit misogynistic sometimes but overall a great series. I even liked the last one where he realises he's too old for it all anymore.
While people could argue for other space operas to be in a top 5, this is the first top whatever of any kind of sci-fi I’ve seen on RU-vid where the channel didn’t try to be a hipster and include books that clearly aren’t anywhere near any top list, but are obscure so make them look ‘cool’ or whatever. Problem is they keep choosing hack authors lol. Yours is a good solid list that can’t really be argued with except with personal taste, they’re objectively some of the best books by the best space opera authors ever
Thanks for the list! I've added Consider Phlebas and The Culture series to my list. I've also read, and really enjoyed, the Star of the Guardians series by Margaret Weis. It may not be as popular, but I thought the scale of the universe was fairly epic.
I highly recommended Arkady Martine's "Teixcalaan" Series. Its starts with a Memory Called Empire and then continues into "A Desolation Called Peace". Some interesting high concepts and science, along with political intrigue and deep space warfare (and a little bit of AI in there too). Currently its only these 2 books in the series.
I've read nearly all of these and agree with most of your comments. I was really pleased to see a copy of 'Darker than you think' on the bookshelf behind you. A book I really enjoyed.
It's a shame, I already read them all! The Xeelee sequence (Stephen Baxter), Old Man's War (John Scalzi), The Forever War (Joe Haldeman), The Hyperion Cantos (Dan Simmons), The Quiet War series (Paul McAuley), Queendom of Sol series (Wil McCarthy), the original Dune Chronicles (F. Herbert), Peter F. Hamilton's both Nights Dawn trilogy and the Commonwealth Saga, Children of Time series (Adrian Tchaikovsky), The Three Body Problem (Liu Cixin ... to suggest some Honorable Mentions. Lovely list by the way,
Great vid Darrel. Ha! I just started re-reading Revelation Space two days ago. And Tau Zero - man, I've read it twice but eons ago. I love Poul Anderson's work, good choice for sure.
Andreas Xanthros Yes Tau Zero blew me away. Never read any Poul Anderson before but I sure will again. Will do a review soon. Let me know how you get on with RS. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.
Haven't read Tau Zero, but the plot description reminded me of a book by AE van Vogt called Rogue Ship. Same idea - arc ship bound for distant stars at sub-luminal speed. Things go wrong, time and space dilation effects, generational changes. Great concept and well-executed. Stuck with me.
I cannot argue with any of these choices - they're all great. Kudos to you for including Tau Zero by Paul Anderson. Not all classic sci-fi stands up so well these days, but Tau Zero does.
The greatest space opera ever written, has to be the commonwealth saga by Peter F Hamilton. Start with Pandoras star and Judas unchained, and then read the void trilogies. So good!
Terrific. I loved the Foundation series and The Expanse. Will try the others. Might even try the Leviathan to see how it is different from the television series. Book marking this page partially for the great comments.
Nice that someone mention the Culture books by Ian Banks. Most of them are real good read. While Consider Phlebas is an excellent book, Player of Games and Use of Weapons are better. What makes him so great, is the way he tells stories. You are always up for a suprise. The best example is Use of Weapons, where he tells one chapter from "now" and the next one from the future. But you still need to finish the book to understand whatand why things are happening. Unfortunally, he died far to young.
Disappointed that the father of space opera, E. E. “Doc” Smith, author of the Skylark and Lensmen series didn’t make your list. Your choices were all good, but Doc deserves some love too.
My first ever series of sci fi was "The Lensman" and while I appreciate that it may be somewhat stilted and cliched to modern readers, I feel that all sci fi fans should have this in their reading history. The 'Doc" was the man. Grey lensman was my fav. I still mourn the loss of I.M.Banks.
@@massivereader That's an excellent example of Smith's style condensed into a single short book. Modern readers who aren't sure about trying Lensmen or Skylark because of concerns about a writing style that's the better part of a century old at this point would do well to try Spacehounds as a sample. If you can get through it, or better yet enjoy how over the top it is, you're good to go on anything Smith wrote. The "Subspace" duology might work for that too, particularly as a "light" version of the overall style you see in the Skylark books.
I found Doc Smith old fashioned back in the 60s, although I only read him in the magazines. I watched a good TV interview with Hugo Gernsback in 1967 which renewed my interest in reading sci-fi, which had waned due to the poor quality of a lot of the writing. You had to read the whole magazine, and a lot of it was terrible. Ace books were good value though, as they had two novels back to back, really good value for 35 cents.
@@treefarm3288 Yes, Smith grew up in the Edwardian Era, so compared to a lot of the stuff in the sixties I'm sure he seemed old fashoned to you. I only stumbled upon him in the seventies when a guy on my floor at university had an extensive SF library of older works in his dorm room. He was a collector. By the time I got to Smith I had been through just about everything I could lay my hands on in my school and city town librarys and the librarys of two adjoinng cities as well. I'd probably read most of the stuff, at least the notable works in SF&F wrtten prior to the fifties by then. Compared to a lot of the early authors, even Verne and Shelley, Smith was not so bad. I have a couple dozen of the Ace Doubles in a box in the basement. IIRC most of them were novellas, and a lot were reprints from the magazines, but not necessarily the domestic ones. I only ever subscribed to Analog and Asimov's so most of them were new to me. I did run across a few double full novels in the Ace Doubles series. Generally, it was easy to tell since the ones that had two full length novels were much thicker, and IIRC more expensive. As to the poor quality of the writing... see Sturgeon's Law.
I must be a big space opera fan! Apart from Tau Zero I have read all of these, not only the books mentioned but everything almost. I have read everything Asimov wrote including the FOUNDATION SERIES even some books wrote by other authors within the series universe. FOUNDATION is fantastic. I have also read most of there Expanse, I think I am up to book 8, great series, benefitting from being recently penned, very accessible, excellent stuff. I have also read almost everything Alistair Reynolds has wrote including everything in the Revelation Space sequence. These are really mind blowing, great imagination and solid science. I have read all the culture novels too, these are funny which is not that common in SF, very humorous apart from CONSIDER PHLEBAS this is more serious, all the other culture novels are lighter and easier to read, really enjoyable. I must get Tau Zero on order!
Well, I was very happy to read your 5 best Space Opera, but I did not write anything. My favorite when I was younger was Foundation. Then I discover A. Reynolds (Ph.D.) that I was always waiting for the French Translation, but I finally read his books in English. Then I just start the Culture that I did know that Consider Pl was book no. 3. James S Corey, from someone who watches B5, I like it a lot. I am reading book 7 right that just came out in French in December 2019.
Re the term "Space Opera", it wasnt from "Soap Opera", it came from the term "Horse Operas" which was a popular description of the pulp westerns of the early 1900s. I'm fairly sure Horse Opera predates Soap Opera too, (The "Soap" in "Soap Opera" refers to the fact many of these early 1940s dramas where sponsored by soap manufacturers on radio)
Series: Merchanter/Alliance and Mri Wars: C.J. Cherryh, Dorsai : Gordon Dickson, Berserker : Fred Saberhagen, Known Space: Larry Niven, Coyote : Allen Steele, Northwest Smith: C.L. Moore, Conqueror , Cobra, and Galactic Railroad : Timothy Zahn, Retief: Keith Laumer,, The Praxis: Walter Jon Williams, Skylark and Family D'Alembert : E.E. "Doc" Smith, Ler : M.A. Foster, Lucky Starr: Isaac Asimov, Fall of Worlds: Francine Mezo, Ghoster: Lee McKeone.
The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson is a pretty epic Space Opera covering about 250 years of Martian colonization covering in depths politics, betrayals, subterfuge, tech advances and rebellions
I mentioned it in my list with others. My only problem with KSR books,while good on the whole must have some wierd sex stuf in it somewere, that I have to ignor or skim past to enjoy the rest of the story. I have read about 3 others of his as well including a 4th mars book stand alone. The mixed genitals fad in one making people both male and female in one is when I stopped reading his stuff since.
Impossible to pick only five. But you have hit on five of my favorites and favorite authors. I could add a few more. A number of works from Peter F Hamilton, in particular the nights dawn and void trilogies. Ringworld. Orphans trilogy by Shane Dix and Sean Williams. Golden Age trilogy by John c Wright.
A series not mentioned but worthy is the Cassandra Kresnov series of six books by Joel Shepherd. The main character (Kresnov) is a sentient human like android designed for combat but which decides to 'crossover' (book 1 title) after peace is negotiated. The politics of this world is as complex perhaps more so than 'The Expanse' series with layers of causal connections that get revealed as the plot naturally unfolds. Great character development and plenty of twists right through the last of the six books. I love the expanse books and its TV adaptation, and, if I was to pick another SF to bring to TV, this would be it.
In my opinion, a prime example of space opera is James H. Schmitz's The Witches of Karres. As the title indicates, it incorporates a good deal of fantasy. But there are also plenty of spaceships and robots. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read. And speaking of space opera, the Berserker series of novels by Fred Saberhagen certainly deserves a mention.
I haven't read any of these books, but I can't wait to start! Which one would you recommend to begin with? By the way, an excellent and intelligent video. Enjoyed it very much. Best regards, Gerard Denza Author of THE EDWARD MENDEZ, P. I. series.
I read one of Asimov's book End of Eternity and everything about it was amazing. It is hard to believe that he wrote that in the 50s, crazy. However, I hated the MC, he was so irritating. BTW got yourself a new Sub. Hopefully your channel will gain more attention.
So many good ones! Hyperion by Dan Simmons Bio of a Space Tyrant by Piers Anthony Eon / The Way series by Greg Bear The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein others by Ben Bova, Peter Hamilton, Vernor Vinge, Valmore Daniels…. It is endless!
What about the Honorverse Series? Based on the British-French Napoleanic wars, sprinkled with sentient aliens and liberal doses of tongue in cheek humor. It traces the career of an astoundingly capable female hero, Honor Harrington. This is pure entertainment with little aspirations to greatness, but a joy to read.
Hey Darrel (sorry if I botched your name...), cool list and done to subscribe to your channel. I had never heard about Tau Zero but you got me interested for sure, I love myself some hard sci-fi so I'll definitely have a look. The other one I didn't read in your list is Consider Phlebas, it's one of the two in the Culture series alongside Player of Games that I never got to read for some reason but I read the rest of Iain M Banks' sci-fi books and really loved every minute of it. In case you want to do a follow-up one day, I'm just finishing the Commonwealth saga by Peter F Hamilton and it's definitely in my top 10 sci-fi books (I consider Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained to be a single book, makes more sense that way). Also maybe the Hyperion Cantos, although it's difficult to classify it for sure as a space opera... Cheers,
Jack Vance fits some Space Opera definitions and he is such a fun writer. James Blish' Cities in Flight is a decent older one, the Pohl/Williamson Starchild trilogy has it's points, and Stablefords Dies Irae trilogy is classic. And of course theres Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality stories, Gordy Dickson's Childe cycle, a whole series of writers before the genre petered out to be revived by Iain Banks. Chip Delany's Stars in my Pocket, unfinished as the project is, must be the nearest Space Opera gets to great literature. Frank Herbert's Destination Void and Whipping Star series are closer to space opera than Dune, and maybe the better for it. Lots of people like Hyperion but I don't see it as a great series, just loaded with pointless references that give an impression of substance but can't really be engaged with. Zindell's Neverness series actually has some real ideas and is always the one I recommend to people who like Simmons, generally with the result that they don't go back. Anne Leckie is fine but maybe weak on the hard sf side, Kameron Hurley is simply wonderful,and Peter Hamilton could be good if he had a decent editor to cut down the verbiage. Bujold and Cherryh write good but not exactly inspiring space opera. Decent thriller space operas I'd probably include Neil Asher and the deeply underrated Christopher Hinz' Paratwa novels. Neil Jones Professor Jameson stories predated EE doc Smith but apart from the unintentional humour, which Flash Gordon does better, chiefly only of interest to the sf archeologist looking at the unpromising beginnings of space opera. A personal favourite, not necessarily a recommendation because his style is so unique, would be Lafferty's Space Chantey, the Odyssey transferred to space as told by the cranky old man from Tulsa. Of the 5 choices here would agree with Reynolds and Banks ; maybe Foundation too but strictly only the original 3 books.
While I'm a fan of the Foundation series, I must disagree with the claim that it's the first depiction of a galactic spannig empire. The lensman Series, from the 1940s, was set in a galactic federation of sovereign star systems (yes, the reference was put there on purpose. It's still true), protect by a multigovernment military force, the Galactic Patrol. By the end of the series, they had expanded into a second galaxy. While not an Empire (while never stated plainly, I always understood that the government was chosen by elections), I do believe it was the blueprint for all galactic civilizations ever seen after that in any media, and Asimov's Galactic Empire owed as much to it as to the Roman Empire.
Robinson Crusoe meets Space Opera: Safehold series by David Weber... mankind runs from killer aliens as they destroy humanity's galactic civilization, humans go hide on distant planet to rebuild.... story starts a thousand years later on medieval Earth 2 that's forgotten the aliens.
Read them all including everything else those authors have written. I'd include Neal Asher alongside Reynolds and Banks as the premier British authors. There is also Hamilton of cause, but he is a bit harder to place.
I don't think Foundation is space opera. It's pretty much hard science, theoretically Psychohistory is a possibility, it is pretty much the same as meteorology. You don't need to know the states of the specific air molecules to predict the state of the entire system.
