Space Opera Picks

Discover awesome space opera adventures!

Updated April 12, 2023
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Ultima
Baxter, Stephen.
Hailed as "one of the most inventive writers that science fiction has ever produced" (SF Site), Stephen Baxter builds on the massive success of Proxima with a career-defining novel of big ideas.... On the planet of Per Ardua, alien artifacts were discovered--hatches that...
The galaxy, and the ground within
Chambers, Becky
National Bestseller! Return to the sprawling, Hugo Award-winning universe of the Galactic Commons to explore another corner of the cosmos--one often mentioned, but not yet explored--in this absorbing entry in the Wayfarers series, which blends heart-warming characters and imaginative...
PSALM FOR THE WILL-BUILT
CHAMBERS, BECKY
Winner of the Hugo Award! In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, bestselling Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk and Robot series, gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools;...
Record of a spaceborn few
Chambers, Becky
National Bestseller! Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Series! Brimming with Chambers' signature blend of heart-warming character relationships and dazzling adventure, Record of a Spaceborn few is the third standalone installment of the Wayfarers series, set in the...
To be taught, if fortunate
Chambers, Becky
National Bestseller! A Hugo and Locus Award Nominee! "Extraordinary . . . A future sci-fi masterwork in a new and welcome tradition." -- Joanne Harris, author if Chocolat A stand-alone science fiction novella from the award-winning, bestselling, critically-acclaimed author of...
A closed and common orbit
Chambers, Becky
National Bestseller! Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Series! A Publishers Weekly "Best Books of 2017" pick! Nominated for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel! Shortlisted for the 2017 Arthur C. Clarke Award! Winner of the Prix Julia-Verlanger! Embark on...
The long way to a small, angry planet
Chambers, Becky
National Bestseller! The acclaimed modern science fiction masterpiece, Hugo Award winner for Best Series! Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space--and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe--in this...
Leviathan wakes
Corey, James S. A.
From a New York Times bestselling and Hugo award-winning author comes a modern masterwork of science fiction, introducing a captain, his crew, and a detective as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl. Now a Prime Original series....
Star wars : the force awakens
Foster, Alan Dean
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The official novelization of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the blockbuster film directed by J. J. Abrams, featuring an 8-page color photo insert of thrilling images from the hit movie.   More than thirty years ago,...
The temporal void
Hamilton, Peter F.
"Many of Peter F. Hamilton's novels, which offer startling perspectives on tomorrow's technological and cultural trends, are epic in scope, spanning vast stretches of space and time. And yet they are grounded in characters - human, alien, and other - who, for all their strangeness, are still able to...
Starship troopers
Heinlein, Robert A.
In one of Heinlein's most controversial bestsellers, a recruit in a future world is sent through the toughest boot camp in the Universe to join the Terran Mobile Infantry in battle against mankind's most alarming enemy. Juan Rico signed up with the Federal Reserve on a lark, but despite...
SPARE MAN
KOWAL, MARY BOINETTE
Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high-society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man. A 2023 Hugo Award Finalist!A 2022 Locus...
Ancillary mercy
Leckie, Ann, author.
Breq and her crew must stand against an old and powerful enemy and fight for their own destinies in the stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy. A must read for fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and James S. A. Corey. For a moment, things seemed...
Provenance
Leckie, Ann
An ambitious young woman has just one chance to secure her future and reclaim her family's priceless lost artifacts in this stand-alone novel set in the world of the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Imperial Radch trilogy. Though she knows...
Ninefox gambit
Lee, Yoon Ha
The first installment of the trilogy, Ninefox Gambit, centers on disgraced captain Kel Cheris, who must recapture the formidable Fortress of Scattered Needles in order to redeem herself in front of the Hexarchate. To win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a...
The chronicles of Pern : first fall
McCaffrey, Anne.
Let the queen of dragons herself take you back to the earliest days of Pernese history as Anne McCaffrey brings to life events that shaped one of the most popular worlds in all of science fiction, in this first-ever Pern short-story collection.
Redemption ark
Reynolds, Alastair
Late in the twenty-sixth century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors-alien-killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons-and a renegade named Clavain...
The collapsing empire
Scalzi, John
*2018 LOCUS AWARD WINNER OF BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL**2018 HUGO AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST NOVEL* "John Scalzi is the most entertaining, accessible writer working in SF today." --Joe Hill, author of The Fireman The first novel of a new...
Redshirts
Scalzi, John
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital ShipIntrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It's a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship's Xenobiology laboratory. Life couldn't be better.....
Space opera
Valente, Catherynne M.
2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets the joy and glamour of Eurovision in bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente's science fiction spectacle, where sentient races compete for glory in a galactic musical contest...and the...
A deepness in the sky
Vinge, Vernor.
After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds.The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap...
Network effect
Wells, Martha
WINNER of the 2021 Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards! The first full-length novel in Martha Wells' New York Times and USA Today bestselling Murderbot Diaries series. An Amazon Best of the Year So Far Pick Named a Best...
Artificial condition
Wells, Martha
A USA Today bestseller The "I love Murderbot!" --Ann Leckie Artificial Condition is the follow-up to Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times bestselling All Systems Red It has a...
Rogue Protocol
Wells, Martha
Rogue Protocol is the third entry in Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, The Murderbot Diaries. Starring a human-like android who keeps getting sucked back into adventure after...

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