Classic vs NEW space opera

Up until the late 1950s one of the most popular types of science fiction was the pulp era space opera. These were often bombastic, galaxy-spanning space adventures that featured impossible science, colossal weapons, interstellar wars and galactic empires in a grandiose style adventure.

As always, thanks for watching!

#spaceopera #sciencefiction #booktube
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MY STUFF
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vvv MORE vvv

MY SCI-FI NOVELS

DELPHINE DESCENDS
After her family is killed and her homeworld occupied, young Kathreen Martin is sent to the distant world of Furoris for re-education. She will live the rest of her life as a serf – to be bought and sold as a commodity of the Imperial Network.

When her only chance of escape is ruined, a chance mistaken identity offers her a new life as the orphaned daughter of a First-Citizen Senator and heiress to a vast fortune.

She vows to claw her way into power to sit among the worlds’ elite. Then, with her own hands, she will reap bloody vengeance on them all.

But to beat them, she must play their game. And she must play it better than them all.

BLACK MILK
Prometheus has the chance to bring his wife back from the dead, but doing so will mean the destruction of Earth.

Spanning time, planets and dimensions, Black Milk draws to a climactic point in a post-apocalyptic future, where humanity, stranded with no planet to call home, fights to survive against a post-human digital entity that pursues them through the depths of space.

Five lives separated by aeons are inextricably linked by Prometheus’s actions:

Ystil.3 is an AI unit sent back in time from the distant future to investigate Prometheus’s discovery...

The mysterious Lydia has devoted her life to finding a planet that the last remaining humans can call home…

Tom Jones (he’s a HUGE fan!) is an AI trapped inside a digital subspace, lost and desperate to find his way back to his beloved in real-time…
Dr Norma Stanwyck is a neuroscientist from 24th Century Earth whose personal choices ripple throughout time...

Prometheus must learn the necessity of death or the entire universe will be swallowed by his grief.
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GOODREADS
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IMAGE USE
The images in my videos are mostly licensed stock photos. However, occasionally I will use images found online. I always seek to properly credit artists and offer a link back to their amazing work but sometimes it's hard to find the original source of the work. If I've used an image you own and I haven't credited you, please feel free to get in touch as I am always more than happy to do so.

[susantownsend]

I was born in 1950 and was subscribing to sci-fi magazines like Amazing Stories and Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine by the time I was 10. What a joy to grow up in the Golden Age of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and so many others. While I enjoy many of the more recent books I still go back to The Foundation series, The City and the Stars, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress from time to time.

[AllisonRoadWest]

You knocked this out of the park. I know it takes a lot of time and effort scripting what you want to say - but this will be a fantastic long tail / evergreen video for SCI-FI fans to forward to other potential readers for years (hopefully decades) to come.

This is quality reference material. Thank you so much.

[thedanielstraight]

This is brilliant work, Darrel... your videos always inspire me to read something new^^

[TheBrotherGrim]

I almost never see Olympos or Ilium mentioned. I've always enjoyed those two. I guess they get overshadowed by the Hyperion Cantos, which I do like more, but those are still a couple of great books.

[adamharris-batt]

Love your vids. Just started reading A Fire Upon the Deep, it's so good. Closest other book to The Culture series I've found yet...

[aliciacampos]

I greatly enjoy these videos. I always learn so much.

[Seven-Planets-Sci-Fi-Tuber]

Thank you Darell. I always learn something new.🤖

[LiamsLyceum]

Thanks for making this, it was educational and fun. I’ve been enjoying Sun Eater by Ruocchio and The Spiral Wars by Shepherd, which I think both count as space opera. I’m hoping to get to the Culture at some point, I tried Hyperion earlier this year and didn’t finish it.

[skeller]

Thanks for the overview! It’s interesting to note the timing of scientific discoveries with relation to the publication dates. It wasn’t until the 1920’s, for instance, that Hubble discovered that we were living in one galaxy out of many. Before that, the galaxy and the universe were synonymous.

I’m just starting to read sci-fi (at 62) and chose The Foundation trilogy as my first (though I did read The Andromeda Strain, 2001, and A Wrinkle in Time earlier in life). I’m planning to read Dune and Hyperion next, as they seem to be universally acknowledged as must-read classics. All three of these, from what I can gather, could be classified as space operas. I was surprised you didn’t mention any of them in this video. I’d be interested to know if you think they are space operas, and what features cause you to classify them.

Thanks a lot!

[jasperdoornbos]

I am always looking forward to your videos and suggestions. And I am never disappointed! Thank you so much!

[olesrensen]

Glad you mentioned Simmons Illium. Those 2 books are just incredible and deserve as much praise as the hyperion books.

[treefarm]

Thanks a lot! Terrific talk about a favourite topic. I am currently rereading the night's dawn trilogy, which I read as they came out.

[everrit]

Fabulous, touched on most of my current favorite writers and series. Thanks

[andreaslermen]

The books from Banks and Hamilton really got Space Opera to a new level. I loved the Edenist and Adamist cultures in the Nights Dawn trilogy and the Culture had put the idea of a civilization in space to a new level.

[andreasxanthros]

Awesome stuff Darrel, thanks! It's so nice to see someone mention M. John Harrison. He's an author that I think is sadly overlooked. Be well dude!

[autumnaticfly]

Great content as always. I'm trying to catch up to my Space Opera TBR, I'm going to tackle The Expanse this year. As I'm a slow reader, it'll take a while.

[jaimeosbourn]

Do you consider Vernor Vinge's three book series, starting with "A fire upon the deep"' to be space opera?

[askani]

Thanks Darrel! Always great to watch your ideas and reviews! I'm getting ready to dive into Greg Egan's Orthogonal trilogy... Hihihi my brain will hurt.

[TJH]

Yup, good stuff. I only stumbled across your channel a little while ago but I look forward to each video.

Is that on "old" Apple 27" Thunderbolt display on your desk?

[MagusMarquillin]

Your history videos are most well made and enjoyable - I thank you for making them. _I have so much Sci Fi to catch up on!_
I'm just wondering; surely Foundation and Dune (though I know you've other videos about them) are defined as Space Opera and factor in to this story as hugely influential? Somewhere between classic and modern. I think you were more interested in talking about newer, lesser known works and how they changed convention, but going through the history, it felt like a big omission - maybe Star Wars to, but it's not a book, and it wasn't changing story so much as leaning into older ones, so I can see it not being so relevant for a short comparison video.