Book #350 of 2021: Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson (Skyward #3) [Disclaimer: I am Facebook friends with this author.] I love author Brandon Sanderson’s work in general, and I’ve been enjoying this YA space opera, but I have to admit to finding this latest volume a bit perfunctory. There are big worldbuilding reveals of the kind …
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Book #236 of 2021: The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Gap Cycle #2) This sequel is a major improvement over its predecessor, deepening the worldbuilding of the space opera setting and populating it beyond a simple archetypal trio. We also switch our focal protagonist from the rapist lowlife Angus Thermopyle …
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Book #112 of 2021: Provenance by Ann Leckie This space-opera comedy of manners takes place in the same broad continuity as author Ann Leckie’s earlier Imperial Radch trilogy, but it largely stands apart from that narrative, focusing instead on a few civilizations along the periphery of Radchian influence. It’s also a new tone for the …
Book #207 of 2020: Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente (Space Opera #1) I love the concept for this novel, which is basically Eurovision meets The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In fact, that Douglas Adams series seems to be the exact model for author Catherynne M. Valente, from the zany screwball comedy to the …
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Book #194 of 2020: Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio (The Sun Eater #1) This feudal space opera reads like a sci-fi version of The Kingkiller Chronicle, in which a dreaded figure of whispered legend recounts his humble beginnings (including a lengthy sojourn reduced to a street urchin — the parallels are at times so …
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Book #225 of 2019: Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza (Empress of a Thousand Skies #1) This YA space opera unfortunately doesn’t work for me. The setting feels nowhere near as expansive as that great title implies, and the character relations aren’t built up enough for any of the plot twists to land …
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Book #107 of 2019: Defy the Worlds by Claudia Gray (Constellation #2) I’m enjoying the blandly-titled Constellation series overall, but this sequel is nowhere near as fun as the YA space opera’s propulsive debut. The second novel is more than half over before its two protagonists are reunited, and the new stakes don’t seem particularly …
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Book #154 of 2018: The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #4) The Vorkosigan series is fun enough that I keep coming back to it, but I’ve yet to be really blown away by any single title. This one is yet another solid space opera romp, with our returning hero Miles Vorkosigan wildly …
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Book #131 of 2018: Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan Saga #6) The first few Vorkosigan books haven’t really gripped me, so I decided to jump forward to this one (which was the third to be published, anyway — these books are all out of chronological order). It’s more of a spinoff, sharing …
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Book #116 of 2018: The Planet Thieves by Dan Krokos (The Planet Thieves #1) This is a solid middle-grade space opera, capably balancing the terrors of war with the inherently goofy concept of moving an entire planet to a different solar system. I like that the whole book is basically one long adrenaline rush of …
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