Grrl Power #866 – Rooftop rally
This is one of those transitional pages that doesn’t by itself contribute a lot. It doesn’t really land any big jokes or develop any characters (we already know Cora is a bit cavalier when it comes to distribution of ordnance, for example) but is useful for general continuity.
I really wanted to include the first panel from the next page at the end of this one as an answer to Sydney’s question, but it just wouldn’t fit. At least not unless I made the panels tiny. I maybe could have put panels 4 and 5 on the same line, then scooted panel 6 over, but the panel 1 from 867 is visually a little complex, and would have been diminished by trying to cram it all in.
So, instead, let’s talk Space Opera. If you happen to have a series you adore, share it. I’ve been hankering for a new book to read lately, and there’s so many damned novels with space ships on the cover, there’s just no way to make an informed guess about what might be good or not. You guys know that I like Star Justice and Three Square Meals as I’ve recommended them quite a few times. I think the thing I like about them… well, they’re solid male power fantasy pulp. I don’t necessarily need a harem, but a decent romance subplot definitely doesn’t hurt a book. Really the thing I like is a main character that is mildly to wildly OP who goes around kicking a lot of ass for good reasons.
Wildly OP is really tough to get right though. TSM does it right IMO. I mean, without spoiling the MC’s origin story… he gets pretty fucking powerful – but there are always appropriate challenges waiting for him and his crew. Like fighting a literal dragon with a battleship level shield generator and plasma weapons strapped to its back. Yeah. TSM has dragons.
Honestly, a smaller cast helps too. I like a “cozy” book in that regard. I generally get lost when I’m reading about how the MC’s contact talked to the Subchancellor of Mission Comptrollers and there’s a 45 page chapter about the 90 people that work for that dude. A little politics is fine, but I want a book about a dude or chick righting wrongs with railguns and a spaceship that has a sexy AI that no one else knew about, because there’s always a sexy AI on the spaceship.
Allow me to recommend a book that is… well, not a space opera, but has some space stuff at the beginning. It’s called “Upon a Savage Shore” and it’s basically “Enemy Mine” but replace Louis Gosset Jr. with three alien catgirls. The author for some reason never collected it into a book and put it up at Amazon or elsewhere, so you can only find it at Literotica. It does have some sex in it, but the vast majority of the story is shipwreck survivors making it on an alien planet while the one human guy tries to navigate all the cultural pitfalls of his co-castaway’s society.
That’s another thing I like. Some good, hard xenoanthropology. I don’t know why, but it pushes all the right glands in my brain that squirt out the happy juice.
Oh, here’s a tip for you guys that do a lot of reading online. Get Calibre, then get a plugin called FanFicFare. It lets you paste in the first chapter of a story from a variety of sites, then the plugin rips all the chapters into an e-book. It does an excellent job 99% of the time. Then you can set up Calibre with your kindle’s email address and have it send those books to you without fiddling with USB cables. One warning though, since I’ve discovered this combo (along with another one creatively called “Generate Cover” my kindle has become littered with tons of “books” with shitty covers that came from various websites.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I strongly recommend the Daniel Black series by E. William Brown (also wrote a prior recommendation, Perilous Waif, superb far future way-post singularity hard scifi). In a magical alternate world, the Norse pantheon has conquered Europe, but Ragnarok is starting. Hecate makes a deal with a smart Earth man who’s had a run of awful luck, to bring him over and give him strong mage talents in exchange for defending her last remaining (hot) priestess and her (hot) best friend and helping them survive. He gets to pick the kind of talents he receives, chooses excellently, and proceeds to kick much ass while defending refugees, forming a harem, and building a massive citadel to ride out Fimbulwinter.
Definitely a must read now that i think of it im gonna go reread his books
I came to the comments to recommend Perilous Waif, but can also second the recommendation of the Daniel Black series. I would definitely say to read Perilous Waif first though. It has one of the best build-ups of an OP character who always faces level-appropriate challenges that I’ve ever read and there’s plenty of well-deserved, epic ass-kicking.
It’s not really a space opera per say, but definitely spacey sci fi opera.
I would highly recommend “The 3 body problem”
It has the same problem game of thrones does where the first book in the series has the better name.
The series is called “Remembrance of Earth’s Past”
It’s a trilogy, and it’s written by a Chinese guy named Cixin Liu.
I recommend not googling anything at all about it. As even googling the title and seeing the wikipedia page is a spoiler. Don’t even read the back.
I can tell you it begins in the past in Mao’s revolution in China, and the whole story is from a Chinese(commoner’s point of view) perspective which is very interesting if you are used to only getting US perspectives.
The series spans many years overall and each book brings up very different philosophical and intellectual questions.
My rating of the books would say the first book is great. The second book is godlike, and the 3rd book is awesome.
There’s some quirky romance, and waifus in there, but mostly it’s told in a narrative style.
Great series there. well worth the reading. Got me to read all the rest of Cixin Liu’s novels i could find in english.
I don’t know how much of this is the “opera” part of “space opera,” but I have to recommend Old Man’s War by John Scalzi. The basic gist is that old people, retired and waiting to die, join the military for the promise of a new body and a homestead on Earth’s colony worlds. The catch is that all the the colonization by humans and other aliens are making the wars and counter-wars very nasty ones, and most recruits do not survive to retire. Expect a lot of battles, a lot of alien culture worldbuilding, and a lot of secrets.
Old Man’s War is gold. The rest of the series is pretty great too.
I was wondering if anyone was going to mention the Scalzi books.
Highly recommend ‘Old Mans war’ (and sequels. In fact just, read everything John Scalzi writes.)
Given this crew, they are going to look for a peeping tom in a dark outfit on a roof somewhere over there. It was even foreshadowed before. I just can’t find the page at this time.
The Miles Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is good space opera. The MC is crippled in utero but is still mildly OP. No anthropomorphisms per se, but lots of Genetech and its implications providing similar themes. A romantic subplot, non harem. Good fun.
You mean the page that also foreshadowed Verhemence and Deus or do you mean that one time Sydney hypothesizes about someone with localised freezing powers useing it to stiffen nipples.
I see a lot of folks recommending Lensmen. I would check out Ryk E Spoor’s Grand Central Arena.
In a post-scarcity future, humanity’s FTL experiments connect them to the meta-verse hiding behind reality, and its up to the crew of the ship to figure out how to survive in this new environment. The twist is humanity has in its darker past experimented with genetically creating heroes and villains from fiction, and one of the main characters has a connection to the Lensmen universe. Its a lot of fun, with just enough Scifi, and an slightly OP cast of humans.
the Liaden universe was recommended elsewhere, but I’ll second it.
If you have the money, or the time to read, Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler is a web comic with 20 years of story that just finished the original run, 15 books in print, more to come.
Don’t know if anyone else recommended it, but the Freehold series by Michael Z. Willamson has a bunch of books in it. Be aware that there is a … nasty war in the middle of the series, complete with some major atrocities on both sides.
Was going to recommend Schlock Mercenary as well, it’s got huge and intricate plotlines that thread together wonderfully, with a joke-a-day format. The science and characters are both excellent.
Anything by Peter F. Hamilton, but I strongly recommend the Night’s Dawn trilogy if you haven’t read it. Seriously, it is my all time favorite sci fi series. Space Opera with a neat twist. Hard to sell without going into spoiler territory.
Schlock Mercenary.
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2000-06-12
It’s very, very well done.
And done, as in just finished. And finished well, as well.
I cannot believe you dropped that link so causally. WARNING: That’s slightly more than 20 YEARS of highly-engaging daily strips with multi-month story arcs. DO NOT engage over a coffee break!
If you’re new to Schlock (don’t worry the art improves!), the author recommends in the archive intro that the prologue to Book 10 is a good place to start.
Yes, Schlock is really amazingly great… they just finished 2 weeks ago, and I still haven’t broken the habit of hitting Schlock first thing every day.
Yes, the artwork for the first year or so is… poor. To put it nicely. It really, really improves over time, though.
It’s a pretty entrenched habit – the author updated every. single. day. for 20 years. He’s taking a hiatus to get the remaining books printed, then sometime next year he’s going to start new stories in the same universe with new characters. Really excited to see what’s next.
I’ve got a pair of suggestions,
1) David Weber is often known for his work in the Honor Harrington series, but he does branch out a bit. There’s a trilogy he did that was collected under the title ‘Empire From the Ashes’. Ye old AI controlled ship from a precursor empire is stuck in a programming conflict and needs a tie breaker, and thus kidnaps the first human that comes along to help break the deadlock. I’d say hilarity ensues, but it’s more like gibbering panic, then followed by a Rocky montage, then ass kicking.
Each book has something of a theme, the first is a covert sci-fi operations, the second is epic space navy warfare, and the third is split between murder mystery and an interesting take on old school war. There’s a touch of humor and romance, but it’s David Weber, so you’re here for the military/sci-fi stuff so powerful it’ll make a Space Marine blush.
2) The Republic Commando series of novels by Karen Traviss. She’s made a name for herself writing Video Game Novels for Halo and Gears of War, but these were where she got to play in Star Wars, and was (at the time) given free reign to write clone troopers and Mandalorians as human beings in a war outside of their control. Romance and gallows humour for entertainment, and plenty of sci-fi pew pew, with a plot that weaves around the source material. This is Pre Clone Wars cartoon, and pre Disney, so it doesn’t mesh with new!canon stuff, and at times it does come off as ‘who let the fanfic writer in here?’ for how far it goes into making Mando’s look great, but hey, we now have a tv show that does that, so why not?
I’m a huge fan of the Honor Harrington series, but it definitely falls into that category of having a massive cast and tons of politics that some people find hard to follow. Empire from the ashes is a decent choice to read Weber without that issue, but I’d actually recommend the Empire of Man series instead. It starts off with a useless fop of a prince who gets stranded on a dinosaur planet with hostile aliens and a small troop of marine bodyguards, and forces him to grow up into an ass-kicking leader double-time.
Already mentioned are of course the Honor Harrington series and its lite version Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet
Pretty much anything by C.J. Cherryh is a good read. Legacy of Chanur rightfully was mentioned several times!
I am a bit surprised that nobody recommended The Mri war (Faded Sun trilogy). It is an unusual read that will get you thinking. Not so much space opera and very different from most Sci Fi (as some mentioned, nobody does alien psychology as well as ms. Cherryh). I also strongly recommend Serpent’s Reach. Much of the story is a very slow road trip that upon conclusion makes you rethink the story in a very chilling light. I will not spoil it further. Just read it.
Elizabeth Moon has several space opera (like) series. Vatta’s war is probably the most space opera of them. The Serano series is a bit harder to qualify. It definitely has its space opera aspects in it, but also veers wildly off script at times (beware of old aunts ;) ) The writing is a bit uneven and the first of the series, Hunting Party, is not necessarly the best to start with. I would recommend trying Once A Hero first. You will not get all the names and all the references but the story reasonably stands on its own. If you like that you propbably will like reading the entire series in order.
Tanya Huff is better known for her fantasy novels (and I think she writes them better) but she has a sci fi series that touches on space opera in the Valor Confederation series, starting with Valor’s Choice
And if you do not want to restrict yourself to books, there’s always Firefly and Serenity
Craig Alanson’s “Expeditionary Force” series.
Earth’s introduction to a hostile universe comes on Columbus Day when aliens invade Earth. A different group of aliens show up to save the day. A group of human soldiers join our new allies to take the fight to the first aliens.
But who are our friends, really? The universe is a dangerous place and the survival of our planet is at stake. With the help of one of the most interesting AIs ever, a small band takes the fight to our enemies to free our planet and keep earth from being destroyed.
The first book is here: https://www.amazon.com/Columbus-Day-Expeditionary-Force-Book-ebook/dp/B01AIGC31E and if you have Kindle Unlimited they are free. It’s a great series.
“The Expanse” by the two writers known as James S. A. Corey.
“Once a Hero” by Elizabeth Moon (6 book series).
“A Soldier’s Duty” by Jean Johnson (5 book series).
“Kris Longknife – Unrelenting” (First 13 books are good and 3 books from a spin off. The rest are self published and dropped in quality)
“Grimspace” by Ann Aguirre (I’ve read 9 books of this series).
“Ancillary Justice” by Ann Leckie (Trilogy about intelligent ships, a bit of a harder read but still fascinating.)
Anything written by Asimov
The Expanse is super good, especially the audiobooks.
Loved OaH…but the artist asked for OP… She’s hardly that. Heck, the one group in that particular universe I would consider as such (The Guernesi Republic), deliberately limit themselves to not scare the begesus out of everyone else.
It’s an oldie, but one of my favorites – the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Military space opera, which seems like your beat, but leans more towards naval strategy than troop tactics (the MC’s name is an obvious nod to Horatio Hornblower). The tech’s a little odd by modern standards – Weber admits the story was conceived at a time when computers took up buildings, and much of their military tech is limited by this fact – but that just makes it more interesting to read, to me. The treecats are a nice touch, too.
“ because there’s always a sexy AI on the spaceship“
I read the first part of a series of space-opera novelettes called Horizonte Rojo (Red Horizon, in English, I guess. I *think* it’s been published in English), by Rocio Vega.
Good action, good sex, bad sex, good interaction between characters… It’s a doozie, I *really* recommend it… if it has in fact been published in English, or if you know at least a bit of Spanish.
Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series. He did a comedy SF type series, Bill the Galactic Hero that I enjoyed too.
This is really good stuff, but it doesn’t fit the DaveB criteria in any respect. There is little or no romance, not to mention no harems, in any of the novels. The main character wins most of his victories with his mind rather than his muscles and a rail gun.
And when there is fighting it usually goes like this “I rolled the sleep gas grenades into the hallway and rolled into the next room, filling the air with tranc slivers from my handgun.” i.e. No killing, ever. The only killing is done by the Bad Girl™ who has her mind ‘fixed’ by the super-science psychology of this future age, turning her from a murder-happy kill machine into the loving, snuggly, adoring girlfriend of the main character who constantly mentions how easy it would be to get past some obstacle if only she was still into murder. And that’s the sole ‘romance’ in the series.
Come to think of it, this might be seen as a positive by DaveB. After all the harem story line often doesn’t appear to give a rat’s ass about free will or consent. The harem owner is almost always a poor, misunderstood pimp who manfully resists his urges to take advantage of all the hot, willing females who are throwing themselves at him because of his super pheromones/magic power/unconscious mind control/ancient curse/whatever. And then inevitably his resistance is overcome by the women, because of course it is.
Not sure it counts as Space Opera, but Jack Chalker’s Four Lords of the Diamond is a good scifi series from the early 80s. It’s four books about four worlds in the same system, all within the habitable range from the sun. The different worlds have varying degrees of technology do to properties of each planet. There is a onmibus and it looks like Amazon also has a audio book option for the individual books.
I wouldn’t call it space opera, but it’s a good series. Though Chalker does get weird at times…..well most times :)
“Return to the ROOT, Luke” E.E.Smith, Ph.d, and his Galactic Patrol, and also his Skylark series.
An unconventional suggestion, but my pick for a space opera would be To The Stars (https://archiveofourown.org/works/777002/chapters/1461984). A Madoka Magica fanfiction… of all things. It’s still enjoyable even if you haven’t seen the source material, but it does spoil the ending and several of the twists from the show. If you want MALE power fantasy, you might want to look elsewhere. The genre out split off from naturally leads to a disproportionately female cast, including our heroine and her girlfriend. There is quite a bit of politics, largely as a result of the ten thousand conspiracies going on at any one time. Battles are also often fought on for rather than in ships just because of more exciting action, and also the fact that a wrist mounted crossbow could match a flagship’s main cannon in destructive power. There is also world building. A LOT of world building. It’s incredible, but might not be for everyone. It’s currently finishing up the third volume and has been active for about 8 years.
“We are Legion, We are Bob”, Dennis E Taylor. Tech geek resurrected as virtual copy running a space ship. Very much “learn to be awesome”
The Exapnse, I guess everyone’s heard of now there’s a TV.
Less lit-rpg-y, more mainstream, but Honor Harrington, Miles Vorkosigan books are totally outstanding. Recently also check out Ancillary Justice and Ninefox Gambit.
A friend collected a series of “Trashy fiction recommendations” which fit the sort of things I think you like very well. https://www.drmaciver.com/2018/05/trashy-fiction-recommendations/
I’d also add, “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” which is ridiculous but very enjoyable (skim the first five chapters until it hits its stride). And https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5193644/1/Time-Braid very lit-rpg-y despite technically being a an extended ever-increasing groundhog day fanfiction of an anime (don’t worry about seeing the anime first, I enjoyed it very much without).
E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series: Golden Age high powered space opera. By the end they make settings like the Culture seem insignificant. FTL antimatter planets at one point become common weapons of war, for instance. And that’s nothing to the mental superpowers people develop.
I do not recommend the Republic Commando books apart from the first one (RC: Hard Contact). Short version, Traviss really likes to shit on the Jedi and wank her Mandalorians to the point where I – a fan of big burly dudes in heavy armor with big guns – find it unpleasant.
I’ve been wanting to buy a copy of the Lensman series, but the prices on Amazon are – pun not intended – astronomical.
So I saw your post with reference to FanFic and it kicked the self-schill button. I have been writing Worm fanfic since 2016, the more recent being “Blanket aka The Diaper Changer” https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/worm-blanket-aka-the-diaper-changer.48434/#post-10880596 Welcome any critique. The setting is kind of grungy SuperHero (the original was Grim Derp) with a lot of puns –crack as they call it. SufficientVelocity is a great site, lots to recommend there in general for getting your ‘read’ on. The Original Worm is on WordPress search for “Worm Wildbow” should spot it quick 1 mill words plus and complete. Blanket is not complete –yet– but I have three others on the site that are, links in the footer of any of my posts. Enjoy or not, but you’ve given content so this is a return gift.
In a Non Schill post, I would recommend Phule’s Company by Robert L Asprin.
Gust Front (series) by John Ringo, also “Live Free or Die –The Maple Syrup War” by same.
I’ve read most of the books/series mentioned, and I intend to check out the ones that I haven’t, but I decided to chime in to support the recommendation for the E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith ‘Lensman’ series. It’s the father of the space opera genre, and they were so original for their time that the Combat information center designs used in WW2 were specifically based on the descriptions in the books. The Wikipedia article on the subject refernces this. It definately meets the male power fantasy with the OP protagonist criteria, and not a huge cast to get lost in. The protagonist has a love interest, but these books were published in the 40s and 50s, so don’t expect sex scenes.
Well, the best sci-fi I have EVAR read is Pierce Brown’s Red Rising trilogy, and the ongoing sequel trilogy is just as good. It’s set around 700 years from now, some centuries after humans colonized the solar system, and the Martians realized that their energy and resources funded the expansion, and rebelled. Eventually, Earth lost and the winners set up a regime on the Moon. Nowadays, humans are divided into ten or so genetically manipulated subgroups, each with their own subculture(s), where some groups rule the others and the government is becoming increasingly corrupt.
It has everything. Amazingly badass characters, combat that is a mix of Tarantino-violence and Michael Bay-action, huge spaceships, explosions, treachery, swords, cyborgs that fly spaceships with their minds, huge armor, orbital troop drops, politics, heroism, genetically designed animals (griffins! sea serpents! creepy nightmarish things!), wolves, space vikings, a roman/greek society, another that is very english, terrorists, swordmasters, mercenaries, badass villains, manipulations, commando strikes, rebels, tragedy, lunatic anti-heroes … and interplanetary marines that are just as tough as it sounds.
Srsly, you have to read this!
Also, thank you very much. I love your comic!
Coming late to the party as usual, I am surprised that no-one has mentioned Ian M. Banks’ Culture series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks). My personal favourite is Against a Dark Background, but they are all excellent.
Apologies if I’ve missed a post where he is recommended.
Regards,
Oh. And they have a fox.
Immensely readable if a little middle school-er power trip fantasy-ish, John Ringo’s Posleen war series. Start with “A Hymn Before Battle”. Also his latest zombie apocalypse series. Maybe his softcore miltary-porn-ish Kildar series. But especially the Troy Rising series – Live Free or Die. Also not space opera, but go read the Dresden Files now. Jim Butcher – Storm Front is the place to start. Also +1 4 Weber.
Well, if we’re recommending not-space-opera, just let me toss out this quote:
“For months we have been making triumphant retreats before a demoralized enemy who is advancing in utter disorder.”
― Eric Frank Russell, Wasp
I recommend The Last Praetorian (First book in the Redemption Trilogy) by Mike Smith, Mutineers Moon (First book in the Dahak Trilogy) by David Webber, Edge of Reality (book 1 of the Phantom Server [it is space opera, just read through book 2 to find out how]) by Michael Atamanov, A Galaxy Unknown (First book int he Galaxy unknown series with 9 books) by Thomas DePrima, and The Lost Fleet: Fearless (Book 1 of the lost fleet series) by Jack Campbell.
Didn’t see anyone list this yet: The Kurtherian Gambit series by Michael Anderle. Not exactly space opera, but it does have some serious badasses kicking ass in space. It won’t seem like that’s what you get when you start, but by the end of the first book you will have a good idea where it is all headed.
It’s been a while since I read proper space opera space opera, so instead I’m gonna recommend my favorite scifi of recent memory.
“A Memory Called Empire” by Arkady Martine — an ambassador from a small station is spent to the sprawling star empire approaching them. She gets wrapped up in a murder mystery and palace politics; this book brought me to tears at the end.
“Barbary Station” by R. E. Stearns — the closest thing to space opera on this list. Two women become space pirates to pay off their student loans (it’s less “haha funny premise” and more “oh god unregulated capitalism is a nightmare”) in this single-system future, but instead find themselves in a battle of wits with an AI much, *much* smarter than them.
“Gideon the Ninth” by Tamsin Muir. This is my favorite book. This is my favorite book ever. It’s weird science fantasy about lesbian space necromancers solving a puzzle dungeon in a crumbling gothic temple to seek ultimate power while also dealing with a locked room murder mystery. It’s clever, funny, and a really interesting balance of gruesome gothic horror with emotional truth and simple levity. Also space necromancer lesbians with swords, I really don’t know how to sell it harder.
If you can find the common thread in all these books, you get a prize.
Yeah so can I just go ahead and second Gideon the Ninth? That book was so well written makes me angry. The author is basically a combination walking thesaurus and meme factory though, so be ready for that. Also Gideon is basically the most lovable protagonist I’ve ever come across.
The sequel for it just dropped a few days ago by the by, though I’m not quite emotionally ready to pick it up, given I just finished Gideon a couple days ago.
Poul Anderson. The Polisotechnic League books with Nickolas van Rijn and his protege, David Falkayn, which translate to the rise and fall of the Terran Empire starring (mostly) Dominic Flandry.
Jerry Pournelle. First Empire books, leading to The Mote in God’s Eye and its sequel, The Gripping Hand.
Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy.
I see you already commented on listening to the early Harrington by Weber and not being impressed by the later books. Good call. The only good Weber books of late are the ones where he has a co-author.
Bujold and Vorkosigans. Gotta love them.
In terms of sci-fi, I can most thoroughly recommend the Chanur series by C.J. Cherryh.
The major protagonists are a crew of merchants – somewhat more law-abiding than Han Solo, but no strangers to his sort of neighbourhood – who run across al alien of a previously undiscovered species and have to deal with the problems caused by the discovery of this new species in their already multi-species political arena. Included among which is the problem of the guys who actually originally discovered him (and his species) and who now want him back, and are quite willing to kill to get him back.
Oh, and this alien they’ve discovered? He’s a human, and he would rather like to go home… if anyone can figure out where it is…
Ooo looking for a new sci-fi series eh. My new all time favorite series i recently came across is Star Force,
it starts with a guide discovering a giant underground pyramid in Antarctica and after putting it under wraps the head of the expedition cracks it open and discovers that humans are not actually native to earth, we were actually a slave race to a myriad of very large races for all the nook and cranny work. Something happened [trying not to spoiler to much] and the masters all left but forgot a few humans and they do not like foreign colonies of the conquered races and will kill everyone. So the head of the expedition using the tech that he is very slowly able to reverse engineer creates an unaging supersoldier program to get ready for the time when they will come back and kill everyone.
All in all the world building is amazing, the main dudes kick ass but get their ass kicked in turn and have to rely on clever tricks more often then not against superior enemies, a good amount of strategy when it comes to space wars and i always love when they try and explain how the sci-fi tech works but they don’t dally on it too long each time.
I honestly really love this series and it’s my new all time fave, the books are pretty cheap as well with it being 5$ a 4 pack and highly recommend it to anyone who is into action sci-fi with plenty of world building. Since it’s so cheap as well for the first 4 books i definitely reccomend checking it out, each book is relatively small (70-100pgs) so is equal to a decently sized novel. But it all follows the same guys through the future of the human race along with some random chapters sprinkled in about the civilians or maybe a guard when an event happens.
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Force-Origin-Universe-Book-ebook/dp/B01APTZM12/
“Your mission: Build an empire to defend Earth.
Your assets: Alien pyramid battlestation discovered in Antarctica with database of advanced galactic knowledge. Star Force corporate holdings. Earth’s current anonymity.
Your team: 100 of the best and brightest recruits Earth can muster.
Allies: None.
Timeframe: Unknown. Earth is currently off the map. Time until rediscovery is impossible to determine.
Background Info: Earth is a lost colony of the dominant empire in the galaxy. Humans are their primary slave race, and should have been evacuated from Earth when it was abandoned. Something went wrong and some were left behind. If our unauthorized existence is discovered, the V’kit’no’sat will return and eradicate us without hesitation. Negotiation is impossible.
Probability of success: Negligible.
Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No”
Yee Gawds!… 72 books!… and the first 25 of them are boxed sets of multiple books each… aargh! that’ll be a big hit to the wallet to follow up completely…
I know a good sci/fi & military story called: Poor Man’s Fight by Elliot Kay (It has a very slight romantic sub-plot.)
What! No love for David Brin? The Uplift series are excellent involving interstellar war with powerful alien fleets (humans are a puny ‘power’ , but have some friends), as well as alien occupation of a human colony world with an alien girl leading the resistance.
First trilogy: Sundiver, Startide Rising, and The Uplift War
Second trilogy: Brightness Reef, Infinity’s Shore, and Heaven’s Reach
Im sure a lot of these have already been mentioned
Depending on if you want old or new writers
OLD
Sector General Series by James White Doctors in a huge multispecies hospital in space.
Chanur Series by CJ Cherryh also Downbelow station is a great read.
Known Space Books By Larry Nivin not only ring world but the Gil Hamilton books as well.
Riverworld by Phillip Jose Farmer all of humanity resurrected on a planet spanning river.
Paratime novels by HB Piper time/space police.
Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson a post apocalyptic masterpiece
NEW
Anything by Cixin Liu ,although i didn’t care much for Supernova Era, the Remembrance of earths Past is very well done.
N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Series is spectacular.
The Wind up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi Hugo winner about a world were global warming has destroyed most of the environment and food is controlled by huge agro companies who use bio weapons to enforce their market shares. There are several other novels and short stories set in this world as well. The Water Knife i have not read yet though.
Enjoy
If you want Wildly OP Done Right, try Jean Johnson’s military scifi series, Theirs Not To Reason Why. It’s 5 books about a woman who has psychic abilities, the strongest of which is precognition, and though she can see all the many possible futures for our galaxy, in all but one of them, the galaxy will be destroyed a couple centuries down the road. The only way she can foresee to stop it is to go into the military and fight 4 different wars, some of them happening in her era, some of them happening long after she’ll be dead & gone, fighting those battles via prophecies.
Everyone agrees the author did a great job of showing that even a near-omniscient level precognitive still has vulnerabilities, such as “getting shot on a less than 3% chance”…and if you want a little romance, well, there’s a little bit of that in there, too, though it’s mostly a milSF story. Lots of kickass characters, (over half of which are not white, including the MC & other persons in positions of power!), great world-building, and enough military know-how to have earned the praise of service personnel, along with people accusing the author of having served, though she insists she has not.
Ahe first book is A Soldier’s Duty, and it was one of the nominees for the Philip K Dick award back in 2011.
*The, not Ahe…new keyboard, fingers keep slipping on the keys.
DaveB, just realized Sydney’s hair is braided, and you did a fantastic job on the braid! I remember you were worried about getting that right, way back when, the last time she tried braiding her hair.
I analyse Sydney to be a lowly recruit/cadet and still be included in this mission. All the other cases were justified with necessity. Here it doesn’t seem the case. What will this mean? Sydney bubbles herself and the other recruits and observes the battle from a safe distance to learn/all recruits tag along and learn through experience/Sydney drops the real soldiers and goes back to get Arc-light and Arc-Spark/Sydney drops the full personal and gets pulled into the battle/Sydney is fully qualified and currently a soldier of Arc-Swat.
*crew
The most obvious reason is that some feature of her power set is believed to be required for the mission. Unlike with a conventional military, ARC’s members are very much not interchangeable.
Also, we don’t know how many days have passed since the last operation, and how far Syd is on with her training. There’s been a deliberate time skip a few pages back (it was mentioned in the notes) because, apparently, the training isn’t really that interesting to draw or read.
Well, I don’t know if it’s considered a Space Opera, but the Star Force: Origins series is interesting, though to be honest It drags on and on. It’s basically a world/Empire building Saga. It starts out with an unusual discovery in the ice at Antarctica, which not only challenges the origins of Life on Earth, but ‘our’ understanding of the universe. It details the spread of mankind through the stars, into a Galaxy spanning Empire in order to prepare humanity for the return of the ‘big bad’.
Each ‘book’ is 4 in one, and I think the Origins story line goes up to 100, before switching over to another ‘version’ which details (I believe) the conflict that was set up in the Origins series. I’m on Origins Book 36-40 (I believe-I’ve taken a break to read something else, as a palate cleanser per se.