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Non-military space opera recomendations (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by yaroto98@lemmy.world to c/books@lemmy.ml

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I'm looking for some good space opera. I read a lot on royal road and KU. I love space opera, but I'm sick of military and AI tropes. Any good suggestions? The more ship to ship battles the better. I understand that may be counter-intuitive, but I've read several privateer/freighter/scrapper books that were amazing. Looking for more of the same.

Thanks!

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[–] johnwicksdog@aussie.zone 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My understanding is a space opera is where space serves as a backdrop or theme to the story, as opposed to hard sci-fi where the the science is more forthright. Space operas focus heavy on character development and adventure, that just happen to be in space.

[–] Arkhive@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah! I think the Firefly example dialed it in for me. I know Star Wars also get called that, but both get sorted under “space western” in my mind, so I was never really clear on the exact use of space opera. Would things like Enders Game or even Dune technically count?? Like those are political dramas at a point. Enders game is maybe a bit simplified, but Dune has heavy character development with the backdrop of Arrakis and the technology required for survival.

[–] johnwicksdog@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

I'm not 100% sure. I consider Dune closer to a space opera than Ender's Game. Dune is has a lot of soft fantastical elements over detailed physics. Enders game also has a few fantastical elements, like instant FTL, but it so neatly fits in military sci-fi and I would describe it that way. But these are mostly my own biases, rather than any deep considerations.