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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-theme"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Space Opera </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 11 November 2024. Tagged: Theme.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=space_opera'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=space_opera'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=space_opera'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div> <p>A popular item of sf <a href="/entry/terminology">Terminology</a>, echoing the practice (dating from the 1920s) of referring to <a href="/entry/westerns">Westerns</a> as "horse operas", and more immediately the term "soap operas" (from 1938) for never-ending <a href="/entry/radio">Radio</a> series: when <a href="/entry/radio">Radio</a> was the principal medium of home entertainment in the USA, daytime serials intended for housewives were often sponsored by soap-powder companies, and hence the nickname. "Soap opera" was quickly generalized to refer to any corny domestic drama. The pattern was extended into sf nomenclature by Wilson <a href="/entry/tucker_wilson">Tucker</a>, who in 1941 proposed "space opera" as the appropriate term for the "hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn". It soon came to be applied instead to colourful action-adventure stories of interplanetary or interstellar conflict. Although the term still retains a faint pejorative implication, it is frequently used with nostalgic affection, applying to space-adventure stories which have a calculatedly romantic element. The description might be applied retrospectively to such early space adventures as Garrett P. <a href="/entry/serviss_garrett_p">Serviss</a>'s <i>Edison's Conquest of Mars</i> (12 January-10 February 1898 <i>New York Evening Journal</i> as "The Conquest of Mars"; <b>1947</b>) or Robert W <a href="/entry/cole_robert_w">Cole</a>'s <i>The Struggle for Empire</i> (<b>1900</b>), the former including perhaps the first space battle and the latter being a remarkable precursor of the interstellar war epic. But since "space opera" was coined as a complaint about <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a> <a href="/entry/cliches">Cliché</a>, it seems reasonable to limit its use to <a href="/entry/genre_sf">Genre SF</a>. An early practitioner to whose story the term can be more plausibly applied was Nictzin <a href="/entry/dyalhis_nictzin">Dyalhis</a> with "When the Green Star Waned" (April 1925 <a href="/entry/weird_tales">Weird Tales</a>).</p> <p>Five writers were principally involved in the development of space opera in the 1920s and 1930s. E E "Doc" <a href="/entry/smith_e_e">Smith</a> made his debut with the exuberant interstellar adventure <i>The Skylark of Space</i> (August-October 1928 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>; <b>1946</b>), and continued to write stories in a similar vein until the mid-1960s; two sequels, <i>Skylark Three</i> (August-October 1930 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>; <b>1948</b>) and <i>Skylark of Valeron</i> (August 1934-February 1935 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1949</b>), escalated the scale of the action before the <b>Lensman</b> series took over, the <a href="/entry/spaceships">Spaceships</a> growing ever-larger and the <a href="/entry/weapons">Weapons</a> more destructive until <a href="/entry/galactic_empires">Galactic Empires</a> were toppling like card-houses in <i>Children of the Lens</i> (November 1947-February 1948 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1954</b>); though sometime ludicrous in paraphrase, his sudden leaps in scale, usually conveyed with the good timing necessary for the effect, can convey a powerful <a href="/entry/sense_of_wonder">Sense of Wonder</a>, an affect often attempted in space opera. But once there was no greater scale of action to be employed, Smith had little more to offer, and his last novels – <i>The Galaxy Primes</i> (March-May 1959 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>; <b>1965</b>) and <i>Skylark DuQuesne</i> (June-October 1965 <a href="/entry/if">If</a>; <b>1966</b>) – are hardly more than exercises in recapitulation. In the 1970s, however, a reissue of the <b>Lensman</b> series enjoyed such success with readers that Smith's banner was picked up by William B <a href="/entry/ellern_william_b">Ellern</a>, David A <a href="/entry/kyle_david_a">Kyle</a> and Stephen <a href="/entry/goldin_stephen">Goldin</a> (see E E <a href="/entry/smith_e_e">Smith</a> for details).</p> <p>Contemporary with Smith's first interstellar epic was a series of stories written by Edmond <a href="/entry/hamilton_edmond">Hamilton</a> for <a href="/entry/weird_tales">Weird Tales</a>, beginning with "Crashing Suns" (August-September 1928 <a href="/entry/weird_tales">Weird Tales</a>) and ultimately collected as <i>Crashing Suns</i> (stories August 1928-November 1930 <a href="/entry/weird_tales">Weird Tales</a>; coll <b>1965</b>) and <i>Outside the Universe</i> (July-October 1929 <a href="/entry/weird_tales">Weird Tales</a>; <b>1964</b>). Although he was a more versatile writer than Smith, Hamilton took great delight in wrecking worlds and destroying suns, and his name was made with space opera (he too continued to write it until the 1960s), other early examples being "The Universe Wreckers" (May-July 1930 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>) and the <a href="/entry/captain_future">Captain Future</a> series. In the late 1940s Hamilton wrote <i>The Star of Life</i> (January 1947 <a href="/entry/startling_stories">Startling</a>; <b>1959</b>) and the memorable <i>The Star Kings</i> (September 1947 <a href="/entry/amazing">Amazing</a>; <b>1949</b>; vt <i>Beyond the Moon</i> <b>1950</b>), an sf version of <i>The Prisoner of Zenda</i> (<b>1894</b>) by Anthony <a href="/entry/hope_anthony">Hope</a>. The last of Hamilton's works in this vein were <i>Doomstar</i> (<b>1966</b>) and the <b>Starwolf</b> trilogy (<b>1967-1968</b>). Even before Smith and Hamilton made their debuts, Ray <a href="/entry/cummings_ray">Cummings</a> was writing interplanetary novels for the general-fiction pulps and for Hugo <a href="/entry/gernsback_hugo">Gernsback</a>'s <a href="/entry/science_and_invention">Science and Invention</a>. His principal space operas were <i>Tarrano the Conqueror</i> (July 1925-August 1926 <a href="/entry/science_and_invention">Science and Invention</a>; <b>1930</b>), <i>A Brand New World</i> (22 September-27 October 1928 <a href="/entry/argosy_the">Argosy</a> <i>All-Story Weekly</i>; <b>1964</b>), <i>Brigands of the Moon</i> (March-June 1930 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1931</b>) and its sequel <i>Wandl, the Invader</i> (February-May 1932 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1961</b>), but his reputation was made by his microcosmic romances (see <a href="/entry/great_and_small">Great and Small</a>), and it was to such adventures that he reverted when he turned to self-plagiarism in later years. The two most important writers who carried space opera forward in the wake of Smith and Hamilton were John W <a href="/entry/campbell_john_w_jr">Campbell</a> Jr and Jack <a href="/entry/williamson_jack">Williamson</a>. Campbell made his first impact with the novelettes collected in <i>The Black Star Passes</i> (coll of linked stories <b>1953</b>), and he went on to write Galaxy-spanning adventures like <i>Islands of Space</i> (Spring 1931 <a href="/entry/amazing_stories_quarterly">Amazing Stories Quarterly</a>; <b>1957</b>), <i>Invaders from the Infinite</i> (Spring 1932 <a href="/entry/amazing_stories_quarterly">Amazing Stories Quarterly</a>; <b>1961</b>) and <i>The Mightiest Machine</i> (December 1934-April 1935 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; <b>1947</b>). Campbell had a better command of scientific jargon than his contemporaries, and a slicker line in superscientific wizardry, but he began writing a different kind of sf as Don A Stuart and subsequently abandoned writing altogether when it clashed with his duties as editor of <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding Science-Fiction</a>. Williamson flavoured space opera with a more ancient brand of romanticism, basing characters in <i>The Legion of Space</i> (April-September 1934 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; rev <b>1947</b>) on the Three Musketeers and Falstaff; although he soon moved on to more sophisticated varieties of exotic adventure, he never quite abandoned space opera: <i>Bright New Universe</i> (<b>1967</b>) and <i>Lifeburst</i> (<b>1984</b>) carry forward the tradition, and his collaborations with Frederik <a href="/entry/pohl_frederik">Pohl</a>, such as <i>The Singers of Time</i> (<b>1991</b>), retain a deliberate but deft romanticism which places them among the best later examples of the species. Another notable space opera from the 1930s is Clifford D <a href="/entry/simak_clifford_d">Simak</a>'s <i>Cosmic Engineers</i> (February-April 1939 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; rev <b>1950</b>).</p> <p>During the 1940s some of the naive charm of space opera was lost as standards of writing rose and plots became somewhat more complicated, and the trend was towards a more vivid and lush romanticism. Notable examples are <i>Judgment Night</i> (August-September 1943 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; title story of coll <b>1952</b>; separate publication <b>1965</b>) by C L <a href="/entry/moore_c_l">Moore</a> and several works by A E <a href="/entry/van_vogt_a_e">van Vogt</a>, including <i>The Mixed Men</i> (stories September 1943-January 1945 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; fixup <b>1952</b>; cut vt <i>Mission to the Stars</i>) and <i>Earth's Last Fortress</i> (March 1942 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a> as "Recruiting Station"; vt as title story of <i>Masters of Time</i> coll <b>1950</b>; <b>1960</b> dos). By this time the <a href="/entry/galactic_empires">Galactic-Empire</a> scenario was being used for other purposes, most effectively by Isaac <a href="/entry/asimov_isaac">Asimov</a> in the <b>Foundation</b> series (stories May 1942-January 1950 <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>; fixups <b>1951-1953</b>); by the 1950s it had become a standardized framework available for use in entirely serious sf. Once this happened, the impression of vast scale so important to space opera was no longer the sole prerogative of straightforward adventure stories, and the day of the "classical" space opera was done. But Asimov, like many others, retained a deep affection for old-fashioned romanticism, deploying it conscientiously in <i>The Stars Like Dust</i> (<b>1951</b>). Many of the more "realistic" space adventures of the 1950s incorporate space-operatic flourishes, including James <a href="/entry/blish_james">Blish</a>'s <i>Earthman, Come Home</i> (April 1950-November 1953 var mags; fixup <b>1955</b>; cut <b>1958</b>), which features space battles between star-travelling <a href="/entry/cities">Cities</a> – although the other novels in the <b>Okie</b> series have rather different priorities. The old-style space opera seemed rather juvenile by this time, but it remained an important component of the fiction published by the more downmarket pulps while they were still being published, especially <a href="/entry/planet_stories">Planet Stories</a> and <a href="/entry/tws">Thrilling Wonder Stories</a>. New life could still be breathed into it by the better writers associated with those magazines; prominent were Leigh <a href="/entry/brackett_leigh">Brackett</a>, as in <i>The Starmen</i> (<b>1952</b>), and Jack <a href="/entry/vance_jack">Vance</a>, as in <i>The Space Pirate</i> (<b>1953</b>; cut vt <i>The Five Gold Bands</i> <b>1963</b>; text restored <b>1980</b>). There were <a href="/entry/digest">Digest</a> magazines which specialized in exotic adventure stories, including space operas – notably <a href="/entry/imagination">Imagination</a> and the second of the two US magazines entitled <a href="/entry/science_fiction_adventures">Science Fiction Adventures</a> (which survived as a UK magazine for some years after its death in the USA) – but they did not long outlast the pulps. When it was abandoned by the magazines, space opera found a new home in the <a href="/entry/ace_books">Ace Books</a> Doubles edited by Donald A <a href="/entry/wollheim_donald_a">Wollheim</a> (see also <a href="/entry/dos-a-dos">Dos</a>). Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a> published a good deal of colourful material in this format, including the trilogy assembled as <i>Lest We Forget Thee, Earth</i> (fixup <b>1958</b>) as by Calvin M Knox, while Kenneth <a href="/entry/bulmer_kenneth">Bulmer</a>, John <a href="/entry/brunner_john">Brunner</a> and E C <a href="/entry/tubb_e_c">Tubb</a> became UK recruits to this largely US tradition, the last-named labouring to preserve it with his long-running <b>Dumarest</b> series.</p> <p>Space-operatic romanticism is still widely evident, usually cleverly combined with other elements. Twentieth-century examples include Gordon R <a href="/entry/dickson_gordon_r">Dickson</a>'s long-running <b>Dorsai</b> series, Poul <a href="/entry/anderson_poul">Anderson</a>'s <b>Ensign Flandry</b> series, H Beam <a href="/entry/piper_h_beam">Piper</a>'s <i>Space Viking</i> (<b>1963</b>), Michael <a href="/entry/moorcock_michael">Moorcock</a>'s <i>The Sundered Worlds</i> (fixup <b>1965</b>; vt <i>The Blood Red Game</i>), Ian <a href="/entry/wallace_ian">Wallace</a>'s <i>Croyd</i> (<b>1967</b>) and <i>Dr Orpheus</i> (<b>1968</b>), Samuel R <a href="/entry/delany_samuel_r">Delany</a>'s <i>Nova</i> (<b>1968</b>), Alan Dean <a href="/entry/foster_alan_dean">Foster</a>'s <i>The Tar-Aiym Krang</i> (<b>1972</b>) and its sequels, Barrington J <a href="/entry/bayley_barrington_j">Bayley</a>'s <i>Star Winds</i> (<b>1978</b>), Philip José <a href="/entry/farmer_philip_jose">Farmer</a>'s <i>The Unreasoning Mask</i> (<b>1981</b>), S P <a href="/entry/somtow_s_p">Somtow</a>'s <i>Light on the Sound</i> (<b>1982</b>) and its sequels, F M <a href="/entry/busby_f_m">Busby</a>'s <i>Star Rebel</i> (<b>1984</b>) and its sequels, Ben <a href="/entry/bova_ben">Bova</a>'s <i>Privateers</i> (<b>1985</b>), Mike <a href="/entry/resnick_mike">Resnick</a>'s <i>Santiago</i> (<b>1986</b>), Iain M <a href="/entry/banks_iain_m">Banks</a>'s <i>Consider Phlebas</i> (<b>1987</b>) and other <b>Culture</b> novels, Colin <a href="/entry/greenland_colin">Greenland</a>'s <i>Take Back Plenty</i> (<b>1990</b>), Stephen R <a href="/entry/donaldson_stephen_r">Donaldson</a>'s <b>Gap</b> series, begun with <i>The Gap into Conflict: The Real Story</i> (<b>1990</b>) – which transfigures Wagner's Ring Cycle of <i>real</i> operas – Simon R <a href="/entry/green_simon_r">Green</a>'s light-hearted <b>Deathstalker</b> sequence beginning with <i>Deathstalker</i> (<b>1995</b>), and Linda <a href="/entry/nagata_linda">Nagata</a>'s <i>Vast</i> (<b>1998</b>). The tradition continues in the present century with Alastair <a href="/entry/reynolds_alastair">Reynolds</a>'s <b>Inhibitors</b> sequence opening with <i>Revelation Space</i> (<b>2000</b>), Charles <a href="/entry/stross_charles">Stross</a>'s <i>Singularity Sky</i> (<b>2003</b>), Neal <a href="/entry/asher_neal">Asher</a>'s <i>Orbus</i> (<b>2009</b>), further popular <b>Culture</b> novels by Iain M <a href="/entry/banks_iain_m">Banks</a> such as <i>Surface Detail</i> (<b>2010</b>), Michael <a href="/entry/cobley_michael">Cobley</a>'s <b>Humanity's Fire</b> sequence opening with <i>Seeds of Earth</i> (<b>2009</b>), Ann <a href="/entry/leckie_ann">Leckie</a>'s <b>Imperial Radch</b> sequence beginning with <i>Ancillary Justice</i> (<b>2013</b>), and many more. A romantic, feelgood approach to space opera informs Becky <a href="/entry/chambers_becky">Chambers</a>'s <i>The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet</i> (<b>2014</b>).</p> <p>The subgenre seems in no danger of losing its popularity, given the winning of <a href="/entry/hugo">Hugo</a> awards by space operas like C J <a href="/entry/cherryh_c_j">Cherryh</a>'s <i>Downbelow Station</i> (<b>1981</b>), David <a href="/entry/brin_david">Brin</a>'s <i>Startide Rising</i> (<b>1983</b>), Lois McMaster <a href="/entry/bujold_lois_mcmaster">Bujold</a>'s <i>The Vor Game</i> (<b>1990</b>), <i>Barrayar</i> (<b>1991</b>) and <i>Mirror Dance</i> (<b>1994</b>), Vernor <a href="/entry/vinge_vernor">Vinge</a>'s <i>A Fire Upon the Deep</i> (<b>1992</b>) and <i>A Deepness in the Sky</i> (<b>1999</b>), and Ann <a href="/entry/leckie_ann">Leckie</a>'s <i>Ancillary Justice</i> (<b>2013</b>). Relevant <a href="/entry/nebula">Nebula</a> winners include David <a href="/entry/brin_david">Brin</a>'s <i>Startide Rising</i> again, Greg <a href="/entry/bear_greg">Bear</a>'s <i>Moving Mars</i> (<b>1993</b>) and Catherine <a href="/entry/asaro_catherine">Asaro</a>'s <i>The Quantum Rose</i> (<b>2000</b>).</p> <p>The traditional crudities of space opera – generally abandoned by modern practitioners – are easily parodied by such comedies as Harry <a href="/entry/harrison_m_john">Harrison</a>'s <i>Bill, the Galactic Hero</i> (December 1964 <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy</a> as "The Starsloggers"; exp August-October 1965 <a href="/entry/new_worlds">New Worlds</a>; <b>1965</b>) and <i>Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers</i> (<b>1973</b>), M John <a href="/entry/harrison_m_john">Harrison</a>'s darkly sardonic <i>The Centauri Device</i> (<b>1974</b>) and Douglas <a href="/entry/adams_douglas">Adams</a>'s <b>Hitch-Hiker</b> books, but the affection in which it is held defies total deflation – as evidenced by the later (though greatly inferior) <b>Bill, the Galactic Hero</b> series of <a href="/entry/shared_worlds">Shared-World</a> adventures. The television series <a href="/entry/star_trek">Star Trek</a> has given rise to a long-running series of spinoff novels, many of which are more space-operatic than the studio budget ever permitted the television scripts to be; the <a href="/entry/star_wars_franchise">Star Wars</a> franchise, also hugely productive of novelizations, established space opera as a major contender in late twentieth-century cinema.</p> <p>An excellent theme anthology is <i>Space Opera</i> (anth <b>1974</b>) edited by Brian W <a href="/entry/aldiss_brian_w">Aldiss</a>; his <i>Galactic Empires</i> (anth <b>1976</b> 2vols) is also relevant. Later assemblies from the huge number of space operas published over the years include Gardner <a href="/entry/dozois_gardner">Dozois</a>'s <i>The Good Old Stuff: Adventure Sf in the Grand Tradition</i> (anth <b>1998</b>) and <i>The Good New Stuff: Adventure Sf in the Grand Tradition</i> (anth <b>1999</b>), both assembled as <i>The Good Stuff</i> (omni <b>1999</b>); <i>The New Space Opera</i> (anth <b>2007</b>) edited by Gardner <a href="/entry/dozois_gardner">Dozois</a> and Jonathan <a href="/entry/strahan_jonathan">Strahan</a> is an <a href="/entry/original_anthologies">Original Anthology</a> containing material of interest, as does a second volume, <i>New Adventures in Space Opera</i> (anth <b>2024</b>), edited by Strahan alone. <i>Infinite Stars</i> (anth <b>2017</b>) edited by Bryan Thomas <a href="/entry/schmidt_bryan_thomas">Schmidt</a> is another recent survey.</p> <p>Jack <a href="/entry/vance_jack">Vance</a> borrowed the term for <i>Space Opera</i> (<b>1965</b>), but with tongue in cheek: the novel records the adventures of a literal spacefaring opera company. Catherynne M <a href="/entry/valente_catherynne_m">Valente</a> comedy <i>Space Opera</i> (<b>2018</b>) also centres on <a href="/entry/music">Music</a> as Valente recasts the sf trope of humanity applying for admission to galactic society, with the entrance challenge here being to win a vast spoof version of the Eurovision Song Contest. [BS/DRL]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/fantastic_voyages">Fantastic Voyages</a>; <a href="/entry/homeworld">Homeworld</a>; <a href="/entry/mass_effect">Mass Effect</a>; <a href="/entry/space_flight">Space Flight</a>; <a href="/entry/star_control">Star Control</a>; <a href="/entry/starflight">Starflight</a>; <a href="/entry/traveller">Traveller</a>.</p> <p><b>further reading</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li>Jerome Winter. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Science+Fiction+New+Space+Opera+and+Neoliberal&field-author=Jerome+Winter" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Science Fiction, New Space Opera, and Neoliberal Globalism: Nostalgia for Infinity</a></em> (Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press, <b>2016</b>) [nonfiction: pb/]</li> <li>Jim <a href="/entry/emerson_jim">Emerson</a>. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Futures+Past+1928+Space+Opera&field-author=Emerson+Jim" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Futures Past: 1928: Space Opera</a></em> (Indianapolis, Indiana: www.sfhistory.net/The Write Answer, <b>2023</b>) [nonfiction: coll: <b>Futures Past</b>: illus/pb/various images]</li> </ul> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/space_opera' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; 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