Space Opera Recommendations?
October 11, 2020 9:39 AM   Subscribe

I was something simple, entertaining, and a single volume (not part of a series).

Thanks! Doesn’t have to be super recent. But I’m looking for a fairly straightforward space opera with some action, that isn’t part of a series. I’d pick up Old Mans War by John Scalzi, but don’t want to start a new series. But that’s the style I’m looking for. Thanks!!
posted by MisantropicPainforest to Media & Arts (26 answers total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
starship troopers?
um, stross' singularity sky might work (though there is a sort of a sequel in iron sunrise).
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:56 AM on October 11, 2020


With yucks:
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers by Harry Harrison, and Venus on the Half-Shell by 'Kilgore Trout.'
posted by Rash at 10:01 AM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


"Space Opera" by Cat Valente is really good.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:14 AM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


Iain M Banks wrote absolutely cracking space opera. Against A Dark Background is a completely standalone novel, and is a great sci-fi adventure I have read and reread with great enjoyment.
posted by vincebowdren at 10:26 AM on October 11, 2020 [7 favorites]


I'll second Space Opera by Cat Valente. Also, maybe Vernor Vinge? A Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky are set in the same universe, but are standalones.

If you're looking for Scalzi's tone, maybe another of his books would work. Redshirts or Fuzzy Nation, maybe.
posted by hought20 at 10:41 AM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

The Algebraist by Iain M Banks
posted by nickggully at 10:46 AM on October 11, 2020 [6 favorites]


also note that The Forever War was a big influence on Old Man's War, and for me, I prefer it.
posted by ovvl at 11:30 AM on October 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Seconding Vernor Vinge and Alastair Reynolds. Both are arguably parts of series, but also work well as stand-alone books that have solid conclusions and don't assume you've read earlier books. (Reynolds may require some care. Revelation Space and Chasm City are fine books to read alone. The latter books in the series are serial in a way you might not like. If you try Vinge, you'll want to skip the Bobble/Realtime books and Tata Grimm.)

On preview, Fuzzy Nation is a whole lot better than the title, blurb, or reviews suggested.
posted by eotvos at 11:35 AM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


... and you can get the original on Project Gutenberg.
posted by Rash at 12:17 PM on October 11, 2020


Nthing a fire upon the deep by Verner Vinge. You don't really get more 'space opera' than that book... It's pretty epic.. a desperate flight across the galaxy fleeing a threat re-emerged after aeons that threatens all intelligent (and even super-intelligent) life in the milky way. And so many aliens! There's even ones that share a collective intelligence, among 'packs' of creatures. It's wildly good.
posted by sexyrobot at 12:41 PM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]




Technically Banks' Consider Phlebas is part of the Culture series but it's very standalone, if I remember correctly. Use of Weapons as well. I've only read those two and the only overlaps are some tech and the general setting. Plenty operatic.

I thought Reynolds' Revelation Space was pretty good, as others have noted.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 2:21 PM on October 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


Technically Banks' Consider Phlebas is part of the Culture series but it's very standalone, if I remember correctly. Use of Weapons as well.

Player of Games also works as a standalone, IMO.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:27 PM on October 11, 2020


I’d pick up Old Mans War by John Scalzi, but don’t want to start a new series.

Old Man's War works as a standalone book.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:28 PM on October 11, 2020 [4 favorites]


(side discussion on Iain M Banks, feel free to ignore this)

IMO the Culture books are nearly all standalones, and there's no good reason to treat them as a series. Only one of them has a plot which is related closely to any of the others; but in none of them do you need to have read any other to understand and enjoy the one you're reading.

Getting really off-topic now: there's a fannish tendency to upgrade sets of cultural items to "series" or even more hyperbolically "cycles". There's nothing cyclical about Ursula K Le Guin's Hainish-universe stories, nor Beethoven's symphonies.
posted by vincebowdren at 2:39 PM on October 11, 2020 [3 favorites]


The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
posted by Rash at 3:08 PM on October 11, 2020 [2 favorites]


> The Forever War was a big influence on Old Man's War, and for me, I prefer it.

I remember reading somewhere -- the intro to a recent edition of The Forever War, maybe? -- that it was a coincidence, and Scalzi wasn't familiar with The Forever War when he wrote Old Man's War. They're both enjoyable, each in their own way.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:12 PM on October 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


I think The Stars are Legion may qualify.
posted by chiefthe at 3:16 PM on October 11, 2020


IMO the Culture books are nearly all standalones, and there's no good reason to treat them as a series. Only one of them has a plot which is related closely to any of the others

Look to Windward is sort of a response to Consider Phlebas, and Surface Detail has bits that are references to Use of Weapons.

You don't need to have read CP to get everything out of LtW, but if you haven't read UoW you'll wonder why some details matter in SD.

None of this helps if "no series!" means "$ADVISOR will whup me if I get sucked into a good series right about now."
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:04 PM on October 11, 2020


Reynolds' Pushing Ice is standalone, but I'm gonna disagree about his Revelation Space books.

If you just read Revelation Space, you'll think it makes a perfectly good standalone book, but what Reynolds does with the characters in later books means you'll be wrong about that.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:10 PM on October 11, 2020


Can't get more operatic than Time Enough For Love. Damn thing is positively Wagnerian. And none of the sequels are worth a pinch of shit, so it's best appreciated stand-alone.
posted by flabdablet at 5:12 PM on October 11, 2020


Hyperion

Kiiiind of part of a series but it can stand alone in my opinion
posted by christiehawk at 12:25 AM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Dune is also the first part of a series, but having read the other 5 parts once, I never reread them, whereas I reread Dune at least 6 times, and for me it is the perfect space opera. The sequels are strictly optional and I didin't find them anywhere near as engaging as the first book.
posted by SweetLiesOfBokonon at 3:18 AM on October 12, 2020 [2 favorites]


"The Rolling Stone" by Robert Heinlein.
posted by james33 at 5:50 AM on October 12, 2020


Nova by Samuel R. Delany would seem to fit this bill too.
posted by Chairboy at 6:27 AM on October 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Space Opera by Jack Vance is a space opera at least tangentially about opera which is now a musical if not outright opera.
posted by y2karl at 9:31 PM on December 17, 2020


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