Space Opera Fans discussion

Our READER and LIMITED challenges are, normally, monthly reads and will continue in that format. But alongside them I’m suggesting there will be a “Round the World in 80 (SF/Fantasy) Books” challenge.

The aim is that over the course of the next year each of us will read SF or Fantasy books from as many different countries as possible – 1 book per country.

Our own country counts.
Books can be translated to English, or read in their original language.
A book written in English by a foreign national counts for that country.

We’ll post to this thread the book title, author, language, and country represented of books as we read them, and I’ll maintain in post 1 of the thread lists of each of our achievements. At the end of 12 months the member with most countries to their name is the champion. (The figure of 80 is artistic licence!).

The United Kingdom will be regarded as four separate nations – England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
Authors from constituent countries of the Russian Empire before and during Communism may present challenges which we will treat as pragmatically as possible.
For complex cases the decisions of the moderator will be accepted. (Take the case of Michael Faber – Dutch born, raised and educated in Australia before moving to Scotland where he married, and raised his own family. So Scotland, where he lives, was primarily published, won most of his literary awards, claims him as Scottish. Australia claims him as Australian by upbringing and education, and the Dutch claim him by birth. He is naturalised British since 1993. (This Scottish moderator naturally regards him as Scottish!)

I’m sure the rules will evolve as the challenge progresses and remember that the aim is to have fun and to broaden our horizons.

Is anybody interested and willing to take part?

I'm not sure I always know if a book is from a different country, unless it's obviously a translation. Is there a quick and easy way to check?

Betsy wrote: "I'm not sure I always know if a book is from a different country, unless it's obviously a translation. Is there a quick and easy way to check?"

Good question Betsy - I can't think of a quick and easy way to check, but I'll look into it. Plus, our suggested rules allow flexiblity - eg The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi qualifies. He is Finnish, writes in both Finnish and English, and lives in California. "The Quantum Thief" was written in English but IMO it qualifies as Finnish in our challenge.

...and now that I've looked at The Quantum Thief, I must order it!

So fantasy counts too? I’ll try it, after I figure out how to look up the country when it’s not mentioned in an about the author somewhere.

Adrian Tchaikovsky and Glynn Stewart come to mind

Teresa wrote: "So fantasy counts too? I’ll try it, after I figure out how to look up the country when it’s not mentioned in an about the author somewhere."

Excellent Teresa. I suspect there will be more options in Fantasy than in SF.

Audrey wrote: "Adrian Tchaikovsky and Glynn Stewart come to mind"

Yes, Audrey - Tchaikovsky as English and Stewart as Canadian.

Some options might be -

R F Kuang - Chinese
Zeyn Joukhadar - Syrian
Xiran Jay Zhao - Canadian
Liu Cixin - Chinese
Lene Kaaberbol - Danish
Andrzej Sapkowski - Polish
Yoko Ogawa - Japanese
Emmi Itaranta - Finish

My Scottish choice will be Iain M Banks, my English choice will be China Mieville, possibly Jo Zebedee for Ireland and probably Alastair Reynolds for Wales.

If memory serves, Anne McCaffery and Diane Duane live(d) in Ireland, although probably not born there.

I'd forgotten about Anne McCaffery - I'm pretty sure she took out Irish citizenship so would certainly count as Irish.

So what are the official start and end dates for doing the reading? Do we want to start this today, Sept 1st, or January 1st? Or allow members to claim books that they have already read?

I suggest starts today and ends on 31/08/2026.

Books already read don't count (You'd probably lap the world twice!)

I'm looking forward to some multinational nominations in the READER and LIMITED threads in coming months, as we try to kill two birds with one stone.

For those reading the current choices, Suzanne Palmer counts as American while Miles Pheonix counts as Polish.

For each of our chosen books in the READER and LIMITED threads over the next year, I'll indicate how they can be counted towards this challenge (but guessing that 90% of them will be American).

NB Individual stories in anthologies like The Best of World SF: Volume 1" series will not count (but those anthologies might be a good source of suggestions.)

To clarify: per the remit of the group, these are all Space Opera/Planetary Adventure books, yes?

It’s the author we’re concerned with, not the Earth location the story takes place in.

The reason I ask is because Andrzej Sapkowski is listed, and he’s never written anything related to Space Opera. I think 99% of his work is just The Witcher.

I’ve done similar challenges before and they’re pretty easy if anything goes; limiting it to Space Opera certainly increases the degree of difficulty. But allowing books that aren’t in that category kind of dilutes the group’s focus.

John said above SF&F, so general science fiction and fantasy, not just space opera.

Trike wrote: "To clarify: per the remit of the group, these are all Space Opera/Planetary Adventure books, yes?

It’s the
author
we’re concerned with, not the Earth location the story takes place in.

The re..."

I do take your point, Trike and I'd originally planned to limit it to Space Opera, but concluded that the object was to have a fun challenge and encourage participation. I'd guess that most of us in this group enjoy general SF and Fantasy in addition to space opera.

However, if you're happy to take part and to limit your choices to Space Opera, I'd be delighted since as a group our focus remains Space Opera.

In the "Achievements" tables, I'll include a note of genre against each entry so that your focus purely on Space Opera would show up.

Yes, its the author that counts - Earth location of the story is irrelevant.

I hope you'll join the challenge?

I had already started a list of Space Opera books:

International Space Opera authors

Australia - Greg Egan - Schild’s Ladder
Brazil - Ataide Tartari - Amazon
China - Cixin Liu - The Three Body Problem
Cuba - Yoss - Red Dust
Finland - Hannu Rajaniemi - The Quantum Thief
France - Aliette de Bodard - On a Red Station, Drifting
Germany Frank Borsch - Perry Rhodan Lemuria: Star Ark
Israel - Lavie Tidhar - Central Station
Italy - Marco Guarda - Silver Arrow
Japan - Hiroyuki Morioka - Crest of the Stars
Korea - Bae Myung-hoon - The Proposal
Nigeria - Kemi Ashing-Giwa - The Splinter in the Sky
Philippines - Renato C. Tranquilino - Fate of a Distant Future
Poland - Stanislaw Lem - Solaris / Tales of Pirx the Pilot
Sweden - Harry Martinson - Aniara
Thailand - S.P. Somtow - Light on the Sound

Trike wrote: "I had already started a list of Space Opera books:

International Space Opera authors

Australia - Greg Egan - Schild’s Ladder
Brazil - Ataide Tartari - Amazon
China - Cixin Liu - The Three Body P..."

That's an impressive list Trike - you'll be able to nominate one every month for the READER thread!

Isaac Asimov might count as some kind of Russian, because he was born there, although his books were published in America. The Strugatsky brothers wrote their books in Russian, and they were translated. I remember back around 1980 really liking Monday Starts on Saturday or perhaps the translation I read was Monday Begins on Saturday. I should reread that book.

I think counting Asimov as Russian might be pushing it slightly, Teresa, but I love the Strugatsky brothers. I suspect that, like you, I'll probably re-read something of theirs.

SF and Fantasy readers are typically seen as being avid readers, willing to explore a wide range of authors, and international in our tastes, while many SF authors have global readerships.

But at the moment it appears that only Teresa and I are signing up for this "international' challenge, with Trike, Betsy and Audrey possibly participating but not yet committed.

I'm guessing that our group members are as global in our outlook as other SF & Fantasy readers, and that the lack of interest in this case is down to the challenge itself not being interesting enough (or not being challenging enough, as suggested by Trike).

So does anyone have any suggestions for improvements to this challenge, or ideas for an alternative that you would support? Or should we just abandon this for the moment?

Perhaps an easier challenge first? Read space opera books that start with the letters of the alphabet, and see how many we get. Or just reading books from authors living in each continent (well, skip Antarctica).

Good suggestions Teresa - I'd be happy to participate in either of those, and both sound like fun.

My problem is that I'm not willing to commit to reading anything every month. I like to read a variety of things: mysteries, nonfiction, scifi, occasional romantic suspense. But I also have other demands on my time. And I like to mostly be spontaneous in my reading choices rather than having to follow some one else's prescription. 😊

Betsy wrote: "My problem is that I'm not willing to commit to reading anything every month. I like to read a variety of things: mysteries, nonfiction, scifi, occasional romantic suspense. But I also have other d..."

I understand about the committent, Betsy and it was one of the reasons behind having a year-long challenge like the "International" challenge, where we could set whatever pace suits us. Having an extended time-span could equally apply to Teresa's suggestions.

Teresa wrote: "Perhaps an easier challenge first? Read space opera books that start with the letters of the alphabet, and see how many we get. Or just reading books from authors living in each continent (well, sk..."

I did an annual alphabet challenge every year, setting myself the task of reading two books that started with each letter. That works out to a book a week: 26 letters times 2 = 52 books.

It took me about 30 years to finally accomplish the task. For many years I got super close, usually missing a title with J, Q, or X. (I didn’t want to use comics so no X-Men titles.) In 2017 I stumbled across a slim non-fiction book about WWII, The X-Craft Raid, which finally put me over the top. (It helps that it’s an amazing true story, so it was all positive vibes upon completing that task.)

Looking at my Space Opera list, I don’t yet have any starting with J, X, Y or Z. Maybe we should start some lists for challenges or maybe something like the annual Fantasy Reading Bingo that circulates on Reddit every year.

Looking at my science fiction shelf on Goodreads I found these books that start with J that fit our loose definition of space opera:

Janissaries by Jerry Pournelle (well there’s a scene or two in a flying saucer and they get dumped on another planet)

Jatouche by S.H. Jucha. This is third in his series that starts with Empath.

Jenna Starborne by Sharon Shinn. This is a SF retelling of Jane Eyre

Joy to the Squirrels by Jerry Boyd. #35 of Bob and Nikki

Just Whose Ball Is It Anyway by Peter Damon. #4 of the Cambridge Annex series. First of that series isn’t really out in space yet but going by memory by the third book they are in the asteroid belt.

If I'm reading this correctly we have 4 suggested challenges -

1. Round the world
2. Alphabet
3. Continental
4. Bingo Card

Anybody want to add any before we put it to a vote? And do we have at least a (human) handful of people willing to participate?

It is down to individual choice whether to complete the chosen challenge as space opera, SF, fantasy, or any combination thereof.

...and I'm drinking no more gin this evening or - inspired by Teresa's last post - I'll be tempted to add a challenge for SF/SO/Fantasy re-tellings of world classic literature.

I like the idea of your original Around the World theme, John. Like Betsy, I don’t think I could commit to reading something for it every month, but I would dip in and out.

For me it would be a good way to finally tackle some authors I’ve wanted to read (Sapkowski and Liu, for instance - I’m 2/3 of the way through the Three-Body Problem trilogy) and discover some new ones beyond the often-insular landscape of English-language publishing.

I also read a variety of genres, sometimes with 3 or more books in progress. And have a lot more going on in life than just reading, even though i do enjoy reading. i like the idea of reading a greater variety of authors from different backgrounds, especially if i can find them at my library. Probably not every month though.

If we go with Continents then that would be six books for a year. Seven if someone writes a book while living in Antarctica. And any of these challenges could be done as “hey, let’s see if we as a group can do this” or as a competition “who can the most”, rather than making a commitment to do 26 books that fit a rule.

I like that suggestion, Teresa.

It sounds like the consensus is that we have a group challenge to read SF, Space Opera, or Fantasy novels written by authors from the different continents. Its a collaboration, not a competition - read as much or as little as you prefer, and make it at easy or as difficult as you choose.

I'll set up a thread for this tomorrow, and look forward to picking up some great new suggestions for future reads.

Vaguely related rambling:

Well Monday Begins on Saturday was a NOGO. I can understand why I liked it while working on my master’s in computer science, but I’m not going to force myself to reread it. I imagine that Garden on the Moon by Pierre Boulle (French) will be even more disappointing; I vaguely remember reading it in junior high or high school. When we officially start the continents challenge if I don’t find a European author in my more recently enjoyed books that I’d want to reread, I’ll probably go with The Mouse on the Moon by Leonard Wibberley (Irish). Googling says both Diane Duane and Anne McCaffery are American authors, though the moved to Ireland quite some time ago.

AI says that "Anne McCaffrey was an Irish citizen through her parents' backgrounds and by moving to and living in Ireland from 1970 until her death. Born in Massachusetts, USA, she had deep ancestral ties to Ireland and emigrated there in 1970, where she built a home and lived the rest of her life. Most references describe her as "Irish-American"." I would say you could justifiably count her as European.

Although I like the Strugatsky's, I only rated Monday Begins on Saturday as 2 stars; I can understand your reaction to your re-read.

This thread has been superseded by our "Exploring the Continents" thread, and is now closed - thank you to everybody who participated.