space opera on the rise?

Straka · Jan 2, 2010

I've noticed a lot more writers here post that they're working on a SO project.

Out of curiosity, for those writing SO, what inspired you to do so?

Shadow_Ferret · Jan 2, 2010

I'm awful with science.

Albedo · Jan 2, 2010

Space opera's just plain fun. Mind you I'm trying all kinds, from straight up fantasy in SPACE! to multiple works set across an attempted hyperrealistic future setting. There's been an explosion in quality space opera in recent years and I've gotten into reading this subgenre in a big way, I guess that's my direct inspiration, though I think my literary inspirations draw from a much wider field.

An' I'm pretty good with the sciencey stuffs.

khajidu · Jan 2, 2010

I have a space opera project with rather good science on the one hand (I'm a biologist) and some fantasy elements on the others (in fact it's the same universe as my fantasy, which concentrates on one planet)

sadron · Jan 2, 2010

I have space opera project also. Why I started writing, because I used to write fantasy before. I wanted some change and try if I can do it. Also, I got inspired after "Heroes die young" book.

Tho I don't know much of science.

Axler · Jan 2, 2010

I agree...space opera is just fun, as long as you don't go too stupid with it. I'm working on a couple of space opera projects...one is a graphic novel, featuring Gulliver Jones, arguably first space opera hero, set in the aftermath of HG Wells' War of the Worlds.

And of course, I'm putting together a graphic novel compiling the Star Rangers series by Jim Mooney and myself, which is about as space opera as you can get without Jabba the Hut singing tenor.

MumblingSage · Jan 2, 2010

khajidu said:
I have a space opera project with rather good science on the one hand (I'm a biologist) and some fantasy elements on the others (in fact it's the same universe as my fantasy, which concentrates on one planet)

I love this technique. I can get my sci fi and my fantasy all out of the same universe!

khajidu · Jan 2, 2010

Thanks. I also put some SF into my fantasy... my sentient sailing ships are AIs (although nobody on the planet knows) created by some aliens from my space opera.

Xelebes · Jan 2, 2010

I do it to challenge the norms of space opera. I like the idea of space opera but I don't like the execution in most cases. Trying to get as much hard sci-fi, with as little gratuitous romance and as straightforward vocabulary as I possibly can into the story for it to make sense and followable.

defcon6000 · Jan 2, 2010

I dunno if I would consider this one project a space opera. Yes, it's set in space, but it isn't all epic with over-the-top characters and scenes, although there will be action. Oh, and robot mages.

yttar · Jan 2, 2010

khajidu said:
I have a space opera project with rather good science on the one hand (I'm a biologist) and some fantasy elements on the others (in fact it's the same universe as my fantasy, which concentrates on one planet)

MumblingSage said:
I love this technique. I can get my sci fi and my fantasy all out of the same universe!

khajidu said:
Thanks. I also put some SF into my fantasy.

I also have my urban fantasies taking place in the same world as my sci fis. I like the idea of magic in space and would like to read more of it, which is probably why I'm writing it. I don't know if it's space opera or science fantasy or what, but I don't really care.

Yttar

Zoombie · Jan 2, 2010

I'm working on a Space Opera.

Its fun.

Fokker Aeroplanbau · Jan 2, 2010

I blame Muse. They finally got a hit and now everyone (even the NFL!) seems to be tilting that way.

Liosse de Velishaf · Jan 3, 2010

Xelebes said:
I do it to challenge the norms of space opera. I like the idea of space opera but I don't like the execution in most cases. Trying to get as much hard sci-fi, with as little gratuitous romance and as straightforward vocabulary as I possibly can into the story for it to make sense and followable.

I'm following this approach to an extent.

As to how I got started on the space opera projects that are running around my writing mind:

1. One came from a dream. I get lots of stories from a dream. The dream was too corny to use directly, but still created a nice mood and basic plot.

2. Sort of pulled itself together out ofmany inspirations. It's a little different than normal SO, in that it all takes place with human characters with a few lightyears from earth. (I don't think any of my space opera involves still living aliens. The one above has a dead race that humans steal FTL tech from.)

3. I wanted to write a sci-fi involving language and archaeology. A gaming geek thread snuck in from a near future project that's waiting its turn.

4. There was a story. It was supposed to be steampunk. Then it moved to science fantasy/steampunk. Then chimney-punk. From the required background, a space opera duology presented itself. Only notes on it, so far.

5. The final one sprang from reading a review of a story about a dying race, and then taking one of my favorite SF titles of all time (Hoshi no Koe, but the english translation) and imagining a more appropriate story for it.

FOTSGreg · Jan 3, 2010

My game system is unabashed space opera. The best game that I ever ran was so darned much fun, so memorable for me and the players that we still talk about "the good old days", and left so many different plot threads unresolved or unexplained I just had to sit down and write about it. In the meantime I've gone through and revised and reworked and re-envisioned so many things to make everything reasonably scientifically plausible and yet still retaining the original "space opera" feel of the story. I've talked over various aspects of the universe with professional SF writers over at the Analog forum and with folks here. I've devised ways for the drive systems to work and for the FTL systems to wor that do not arbitrarily defy physics aside from a few fudge factors here or there (like the basic assumption that FTL is possible at all) and even devised a system to essentially bypass the light-speed limitation while keeping space travel inside a star system within real physical space.

The game universe began unfolding itself before me. There are trillions of stars out there. For every one of those stars there's a story set in my space opera universe.

My first novel, which has yet to see the light of day anywhere, is a sweeping space opera tale of war, intrigue, betrayal, and personal heroism in a universe which is scientifically plausible and internally consistent - yet at the same time so darned much fun to write about.

Zoombie · Jan 4, 2010

Heck, my space opera is based entirely off of bad world building tropes taken to their absurd extreme.

You know how a monolithic culture tends to be unrealistic? That in real life, nations and societies and races have a broad sweep? So, just saying, "This is a warrior race" is bad world building...cause...no race is just a "warrior race"

You could have a war LIKE race, or a militaristic one, but even then, there will be dissent within.

So, I took the idea of monolithic races and built an entire universe around it. In this universe of mine, the end result of technological evolution is a society that dedicated itself ENTIRELY into one Aspect: Warrior, Workers, Thinkers. And in the Empire (There's got to be an Empire) you have the Primes for each race, who are on the top, and the Vassal races who are way way down at the bottom. Enslaved, basically.

And so the Empire finds humanity. And no, its not what you think. Everyone always guesses that humanity didn't gain an Aspect. Well, they are WRONG. Its just that our Aspect has never been tried before.

We're really...really...really pretty.

Our entire culture is focused entirely around being as gorgeous as humanly possible. And as we are the only race that does this, we are instantly vaulted through arcane and ancient Imperial law to the status of Prime, completely upsetting the political balance of the galaxy.

Hehehehe.

Oh, also, my story is about archeology too. the main character, Zap Quicklaser, is an archeologist who travels to dead alien worlds to find their artwork and ways of expressing beauty. Its his personal quest.

Liosse de Velishaf · Jan 4, 2010

Zoombie said:
Heck, my space opera is based entirely off of bad world building tropes taken to their absurd extreme.

You know how a monolithic culture tends to be unrealistic? That in real life, nations and societies and races have a broad sweep? So, just saying, "This is a warrior race" is bad world building...cause...no race is just a "warrior race"

You could have a war LIKE race, or a militaristic one, but even then, there will be dissent within.

So, I took the idea of monolithic races and built an entire universe around it. In this universe of mine, the end result of technological evolution is a society that dedicated itself ENTIRELY into one Aspect: Warrior, Workers, Thinkers. And in the Empire (There's got to be an Empire) you have the Primes for each race, who are on the top, and the Vassal races who are way way down at the bottom. Enslaved, basically.

And so the Empire finds humanity. And no, its not what you think. Everyone always guesses that humanity didn't gain an Aspect. Well, they are WRONG. Its just that our Aspect has never been tried before.

We're really...really...really pretty.

Our entire culture is focused entirely around being as gorgeous as humanly possible. And as we are the only race that does this, we are instantly vaulted through arcane and ancient Imperial law to the status of Prime, completely upsetting the political balance of the galaxy.

Hehehehe.

Oh, also, my story is about archeology too. the main character, Zap Quicklaser, is an archeologist who travels to dead alien worlds to find their artwork and ways of expressing beauty. Its his personal quest.

Reminds me of the Uplift Saga, where humanity is the only race without a Patron, but become Patrons because they have already "uplifted" two races.

Zoombie · Jan 4, 2010

Well, we're not the only unique Aspect. The three common Aspects are Warrior, Worker and Thinker...but it wasn't until a race of Leaders arose and knitted them together into an Empire that things really got going.

Leaders are unique. That's their claim to the absolute throne...and they can make it, being a hive mind as well, so its really just one person sitting on the throne. One person made up of several trillion minds, but still.

Of course, the big conspiracy that my hero uncovers is all related to how the Leaders have been secretly knocking off developing races that were on the route to becoming Leaders and could challenge their authority.

Hence the title of the story: Zap Quicklaser and the Cosmic Conspiracy.

Stellan · Jan 4, 2010

I'm not currently working on a space opera, but it's one of my favourite genres to write in. I just like the tropes and settings that it gives me to play with.

Dave.C.Robinson · Jan 4, 2010

I have one that needs editing - I have all the classic tropes - space battles, lost heirs to the empire - and of course reality TV.

Oh and really big FTL warships that can destroy planets.

astonwest · Jan 5, 2010

I love writing space opera because it introduces space travel and science-fiction-like stories to the masses. In fact, that's why when people ask me to describe space opera, I refer to it as "science fiction for the rest of us."

I'm a rather scientific person, but huge technical explanations and descriptions are tremendously boring, even to me. Space opera tosses all of that out in place of character and story driving the boat.

veinglory · Jan 5, 2010

I love space opera, but it seems to me to be on the wane in terms of what was on the shelves now, versus 20 years ago.

Ruv Draba · Jan 5, 2010

Space Opera used to be technofascist melodrama in space-gear (or put another way, boys in too much leather having fun with ray guns). It was rich with themes of humanosupremacism, technosupremacism, modernism and warring empire.

I think our appetite for that sort of writing has waned. The so-called 'New' Space Opera tends to be much more about big-R Romance in space-gear on the one hand, and explorations of society and ethics on the other. So as Romance has taken over Fantasy (and Urban Fantasy, and Horror and half the Crime shelves), it's eaten at Space Opera too (not hard to do, since it's always been a small-'r' romantic form). But the 'intellectual' space opera pioneered by the likes of Niven etc... seems to have merged somewhat with what's previously been called social science fiction.

knight_tour · Jan 5, 2010

I don't know if my story will work for others, but I am loving it. I have a huge generation ship that was privately funded by a religious group arriving at a Tolkienesque planet (there is a good reason why it is so, though I won't go into it here), only to find that a smaller, faster ship from earth made it to this planet first. Also, over the five centuries it took for the ship to travel to the planet, a civil war has broken out on the ship, with each side controlling some critical resources.

The physics of the planet works differently from everything we have come to expect, such that things like electricity, gunpowder, etc. don't work properly. Thus the first shuttles trying to land crash instead. Time also flows differently, so the scientists that arrived first have been on the planet now for more than 6,000 years (and have become the planets only wizards), though earth time has only seen a couple of centuries pass in that time. There's a ton more to it, and I am having a blast.

My first novel was written on this world as a stand-alone fantasy with no clear mention of the sci-fi aspect, only a few subtle hints here and there. I am also writing a third novel that takes place in Moscow in 2137 as the scientists are preparing their ship for the journey and the huge generation ship is still under construction in orbit around earth.

Liosse de Velishaf · Jan 5, 2010

knight_tour said:
I don't know if my story will work for others, but I am loving it. I have a huge generation ship that was privately funded by a religious group arriving at a Tolkienesque planet (there is a good reason why it is so, though I won't go into it here), only to find that a smaller, faster ship from earth made it to this planet first. Also, over the five centuries it took for the ship to travel to the planet, a civil war has broken out on the ship, with each side controlling some critical resources.

The physics of the planet works differently from everything we have come to expect, such that things like electricity, gunpowder, etc. don't work properly. Thus the first shuttles trying to land crash instead. Time also flows differently, so the scientists that arrived first have been on the planet now for more than 6,000 years (and have become the planets only wizards), though earth time has only seen a couple of centuries pass in that time. There's a ton more to it, and I am having a blast.

My first novel was written on this world as a stand-alone fantasy with no real mentions of the sci-fi aspect, only a few vague hints here and there.

Crap, I had an alternate time-flow story set as a sci-fantasy post-apocalyptic novel with a space opera backdrop. Now I’ve got competition. Better get to work.

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