Five Space Operas

Everyone knows what space opera is. Right? It's the public face of science fiction, for starters: spaceships and space battles, exotic planets and alien peoples. Star Wars and A Fire Upon The Deep. In short, it's one of the most traditional forms the genre can take. In the past couple of years, though, there has been some fuss about something called 'new space opera'.

( definitions )

( farscape: the peacekeeper war )

( iron sunrise by charles stross )

( exultant by stephen baxter )

( the algebraist by iain m banks )

( battlestar galactica: the mini-series )

( conclusions )

Some people eat ice-cream as displacement activity, you know. Me, I write four and a half thousand words about space opera. Go figure.