Space Opera Fans discussion

Over on the discussion for A Beautiful Friendship, Trike asked:
Do you track your rereads? Is there a book that comes back around more than others?

I decided to answer that question separately, here. Please chime in with any books you reread frequently, no matter what your own definition of frequently might be,

How I got this list: took my Science Fiction shelf on Goodreads, sorted by most recently read, and noted which books I had read at least three times between Jan 2017 and now. These are not necessarily great reads (although some are), in fact some of them I can reread often simply because I tend to forget details of them quickly. Then I sorted that small list by number of times read 2017 to now. Before 2017 Goodreads didn’t track multiple read dates, and I’ve been reading a lot longer than I’ve been entering the books on goodreads so I’m not counting reads prior to 2017.

5 Take the Star Road by Peter Grant and at least some of the sequels. Reread it when I’m in the mood but can’t say it’s a great series.
4 Mirabile by Janet Kagan. Comfort read! Read at least once a year.
4 To Fire Called by Nathan Lowell. Excellent, just out in 2017. In Ashes Born comes before it but was published earlier and I haven’t reread it as many times since 2017.
3 A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber
3 Auberon by Blaze Ward and some of its sequels
3 Messinants by S.H. Jucha
3 Home Run, Suicide Run by Nathan Lowell. Milk Run was published earlier so didn’t get three reads in during the time period.
3 Quarter Share trilogy by Nathan Lowell.
3 Pandora's Legions by Christopher Anvil
3 The Cambridge Annex: The Trilogy by Peter Damon

For me, it's anything by Terry Pratchett, Narnia, LOTR, and Brandon Sanderson has now been added to my list.

I'm a prolific re-reader. The four above are probably my most frequent re-reads, but I always enjoy revisiting 'old friends,' particularly if I need a 'comfort read.'

Like Teresa, I'm basing this on Goodreads multiple read statistics, which just started in 2017. However, for many books, I was tracking multiple reads before that date, sometimes just with estimates, but sometimes with gerry-rigged tracking, so the numbers may be guesstimates. Anyway, these are from my "future" shelf:

5+ Hellspark by Janet Kagan. I've read this many more times than five, nearly every year since it came out.
5 Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell. Probably more than five, with the others in the series nearly as many.
5 On Basilisk Station by David Weber. Probably more than five, with the others in the mainline Honor Harrington series nearly as many times.
4 Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon, and the rest of the Vatta's War series.
4 Conflict of Honors by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and a few other of the Liaden Universe series
3 In Ashes Born by Nathan Lowell, and the rest of the Seeker's Tales series

It’s interesting that I reread a lot less now than in years earlier. Probably because there’s just so much more being written these days. Up to the mid-80s it felt like you could pretty much keep up with most of the SFF out there; nowadays I can’t even watch all the SF TV being made.

The only exceptions would be comics. Those are easy to revisit. Other than that, I can’t think of anything written this century that I’ve reread.

My most reread list:

10+ times:
Sten
Protector
Midnight at the Well of Souls
The White Dragon

5+ times:
The Forever War
Damnation Alley
Ringworld
Wild Seed
Dragon's Egg

I am with Trike. Prior to all the self-publishing and ebooks, when we had printed books we bought or library books we borrowed, I reread a lot of my collection - Dune, The Foundation Trilogy, Dragonriders of Pern, Miles Vorkosigan, Elizabeth Moon's Trading in Danger, F.M. Busby's Rissa series, James Blish Cities in Flight. I lost track of how many times I reread them. Now, there is so much more science fiction available that even though sometimes I think about rereading something, I think about the 500 plus books on my paperwhite awaiting me opening the cover.

I have the last 20 years reread Dragonriders, Trading in Danger, and Vorkosigan - the first because it's my comfort food, the latter 2 because new books came out after a long hiatus.

When I’m stressed or feeling ill I get cranky and find it much harder to get into a new book or even find one I care to read the free preview. That’s the time I reread something, either one of my comfort reads or something that is the start of a series so that I can hopefully just binge that series and not be stuck again with choosing a book too soon. I’m a lot pickier about what I enjoy now than I was even twenty years ago - and back in the 70s I could even enjoy books that severely oppressed or abused women.

I have a few comfort books that I reread when I get mentally tired. Most of Sharon Lee/Steve Miller's books are in that category. Also, Kristine Katheryn Rusch (Retrieval Artist series) and Lois McMaster Bujold (Vorkosigan). Now that I have discovered Nathan Lowell (and purchased most of his books), I expect those will be added to my list.

There are books I have that I can't begin to count how many times I have read them and others I know. Basically I have two reasons for rereading a book. One is because it is a book I enjoy and decide to reread it. The second is because I want to do a review of all the books in my Goodreads library so some books have to be reread so I can do a satisfactory review. I was in the midst of rereading, some for the umpteenth time I think, the entire series of Perry Rhodan from Ace, and a few from the later publisher. Unfortunately that has been put off a bit due to the box containing all but one of them being in storage right now.

I don't re-read as much now as I did years ago probably because I have so much more available to me now than when I was mostly dependent on the hardback, paperback, and audio books I owned.

I do still re-read but often instead of re-reading whole series I re-read my favorites. My favorite David Weber books are on my list for 2021 as are all the Vorkosigans.

Teresa, I’m surprised not to see any Liaden’universe book in your list. You are such a big fan !

I do reread the Liaden books, but I haven’t read one of them three times in 2017-2020. Twice, yes, but not three times. And some I’ve read a dozen times total going back to the 80s.

Anything by Nathan Lowell and Star Kingdom by Lindsay Buroker.

Ellen wrote: "Anything by Nathan Lowell and Star Kingdom by Lindsay Buroker."

I like Lindsay Star Kingdom and even have read some of her fantasy type stuff because of it.

I generally reread Dragonriders in December, as part of my stress-relief routine during the holidays. This year, I just ended up with another 2 months of free Kindle so I feel like I have to use my reading time to take advantage of it.

A lot of Buroker’s SF is on sale on Amazon now.

I would love to re-read Hospital Station series by James White

Kirsten "keep calm there are only 28 days left" wrote: "I would love to re-read Hospital Station series by James White"

All I could find was an omnibus volume for the Kindle on Amazon. I typed in James White and got lots of books by one James R. White who is a conservative Christian theologian.

For Hospital Station series, search for Sector General. Omnibuses are:
Beginning Operations
Alien Emergencies
General Practice
and possibly more.

Unfortunately I don't have a Kindle and never will, but not because eBooks are not my preferred way to read.

They are old stories so I’m sure they are out of print in paperback but there may be used ones floating around. I’d be surprised if they aren’t available in other ebook formats. This isn’t an indie author.

Interesting. I checked Indigo/Chapters and they actually have two of them in stock now in paperback and eReader (Kobo). Oddly the paperbacks are three times the price, roughly, of the eBooks. Wonder if the retail price is the same as the price for libraries.

C. John wrote: "Interesting. I checked Indigo/Chapters and they actually have two of them in stock now in paperback and eReader (Kobo). Oddly the paperbacks are three times the price, roughly, of the eBooks. Wonde..."

I don’t know if shipping to Canada is prohibitive, but there are quite a few of White’s collections on abebooks.com for just a few dollars, plus shipping, but some of them say free shipping.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...

Shipping to Canada is $50 for the first book and $25 for each subsequent book. Two of the three books I noticed on Chapters are over the minimum for free shipping from them. The other one is a few dollars under that minimum. All are now on my wish list so I can find them again. On another note, a lot of Poul Anderson's stuff is on the site it paperback form, so I may be getting lucky now. Of course none of it is available in store, but we can't have everything these days, can we.

Hello!
thanks to my ignorance, I still have many pleasant books to read, so re-reading is in stand-by :-)

Anyway, the only one SciFi saga I re-read in my life is:

The Robot & Empire & Foundation Trilogy by Asimov, which I re-read 2 times over the past 30 years. So I decided to re-read the entire Asimov saga only after waiting about 10 years from now, even because just few days ago I re-started from the Robot cycle with The Caves of Steel, that is the beginning of the 3rd time.

Actually I planned to re-read the fantasy saga The Wheel of Time for a second time, but I will wait 5 years before to re-start the saga, it's quite challenging. and the reading of A Memory of Light goes back few month ago...