In the mood for a straight space opera

Seconding Fire Upon the Deep, it's absolute top tier space opera.

>this book is not so good
>maybe the next five will be better!

A Mote In God's Eye

Singularity Sky

The Honor Harrington books are a love letter to missiles.

>I hate subs.
Please state a reason why that doesn't include "but I don't wanna read"

Seconding Hyperion.

Beautiful worldbuilding, structured like a holy book, great characters, there is a Mary Sue, but she's the messiah and doesn't really appear until book 3.

Of course there's always the Culture series.

Screw reading, play this.

Just read Startide Rising and be happy.

I like putting things on the TV so I can do stuff on the computer while they play.

Yeah you are a retard that can't pay attention to things.

Seconding Mote, that's some hot shit right there.

>>Veeky Forums suggests Honor Harrington
Stop lying.

He literally just told you he does it so he can pay attention to two things, the computer and the TV.
Can't you pay attention to his messages?

It's called focus. He doesn't have it.

Are you saying you can't focus on two things? What are you? An untermensch?

Welcome to David Weber. We do this because we hate him almost as much as you.

Try Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet. Or Mike Resnick's Starship series.

I would rather watch a show with my full attention than passively watch it.

Amen.

Depends on the show really.

Yeah, it's just anime there. Why bother?

No it doesn't. If you aren't paying full attention to a show I'm sorry you are retarded.

If you need your full attention to understand American Dad you're going to have trouble in life.

Or better yet, Mike Resnick's Santiago.

>watching American Dad
There's your problem

>LoGH
>American Dad

Well this went hard retard very quickly.

Indeed, from post 1, when some retard talked about children cartoons in what was clearly a book thread.

I watch most shows while doing something else on a screen. Rare jewels like Stranger Things get my full attention. But mostly if something is hard to follow on the side I just watch it again. My attention span has gone to hell.

I still read a book sometimes. And I GM 10+ hour RPG sessions. But watching TV?... that's just too dumb to focus on.

That's because TV isn't interactive and is a pleb media.

Nice b8. Here's your (you).

What isn't?

I mean there's a lot of science and know how to read up on, but that isn't very relaxing.

>read starship troopers
>become a nazi
>mfw

...

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is great. Any setting where standard boarding equipment is a huge stonking axe and standard ship armament is literally as many guns as they can fit to a ship gets my approval.

I really need to finish that series.

>Dude is still kind of a weird mary sue as in everything goes right for him and everyone loves him
Seafort (and the series) at least has the decency to recognize that victory often comes with enormous cost, so the body count and the desperation in tense situations helps keep things grounded, although the angst does occasionally get a bit CRAAWWWWLING at times

>This is the most unlikable Mary Sue protagonist ever
She's based off of Horatio Hornblower, who is one of the great Mary Sues of literature. What did you expect?

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but can you really call her an "instant prodigy" when she's 41 years old at the start of the first book? That's quite some time for an officer to learn their trade.

Well, the first three Dresden Files were shit, but they got better...

I thought the first two were shit, but #3 was the turning point.

My famalam. Though I was always partial to Return of Santiago myself.

Yeah, she's 41 and most of her non-captaincy abilities can be put down to a combination of a life that's almost purely military service and training, combined with being a supersoldier biologically.

Doesn't really excuse a lot of the Mary-sueness, of course, but it at least explains most of the physical stuff.
People loving her is a bit different - as mentions, it's a thing Weber does, and it kind of sucks.

That said, tg never recommends things like Dresden or Harrington without mentioning their flaws as well

You can't multi-task by listening to English and doing whatever else it is you do while watching things.

All intelligent people mutli task, unless its a great movie that requires your utmost attention at all times. LOTGH is not that. there's a lot of down time.

If you can't pay attention to something while watching it then you don't deserve to be called an intelligent human being.

>arguing about how you enjoy your entertainment media

Never change, Veeky Forums.

You'd better have typed that on a tactile keyboard because if you used a touch screen you are a fucking faggot and deserve nothing but death.

If you hated Harrington you're probably going to love the Culture series.

I'm only reading that series to root for the antagonists, tragic heroes in a world inhabited by Sues.

(Not OP.) That might be. I sorta-enjoyed HH (initial books were OK, but as the series went on, I began supporting the antagonists more and more and the protagonists less and less), but loathed the Culture books. After reading Consider Phlebas, I had no intention of reading any of the others, because that was a completely bullshit Shaggy Dog story.

>A Mote In God's Eye

Have user accepted Admiral Kutuzov as his lord and savior yet?

Does Niven count as space opera? Because Ringworld is considered a classic for a reason.

Try Risen Empire by Scott Wesaterfeld instead.

Far superior to that mary sue fest.

>Space opera

The Ancillary series should have been called ‘Fascism Can’t Possibly Be This Cute.’ The whole trilogy is adorable.

In the Radch everyone is referred to as ‘she’ and ‘her.’ The AIs that run the ships can control multiple human bodies, and when they get upset they have the bodies hug one another to feel better. The ships also give relationship advice to their human crewmembers, such as when it’s appropriate to sleep with your subordinates, or how to apologize properly for hurting your girlfriend’s feelings. The soldiers are constantly fussing over their officers, dressing them, bathing them, making them tea, tucking them into bed, and crying or panicking when they get separated on missions. On ships living space is cramped, so it’s also normal for the soldiers to sleep bunched up together in big heaps. Giving and receiving gifts holds vital importance, meaning everyone is constantly obsessing over tea sets, memorial pins, jewelry and clothing. Everyone wears gloves all the time, so getting to touch someone’s bare hand (or god forbid, hold it) is a huge deal.

It creates the impression that the feudal space empire is run by anxious, insecure, perpetually feuding anime schoolgirls. On one page they say something about exterminating solar systems or putting whole planets in storage to thaw the population out as slave labor, and on the next one of the lieutenants interrupts a dinner party to give the captain news, when in reality it’s because she’s 17 years old and wanted to see if she could get any leftovers. Later she cries because she had a crush on the horticulturalist and the Fleet Captain forbid her from speaking to her. The protagonist is able to win partially because she’s a legendary badass, and partially because most of the time she seems like one of a few adults in a room full of squabbling, loveable children.

10/10 series, would recommend

...

Yup. If Scalzi likes it, it can't possibly be good.

I've heard the Vorkosigan Saga's good from friends. I haven't read it myself.

Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet is also pretty good, but it's on the more military sci-fi end of the spectrum. I'd only call it that because the series begins to increase in scope, going from a purely human war to involving alien conspiracies and solar system wide explosions eventually. And the melodrama seems almost out of place among the rest of the story. Love triangles, star crossed lovers on opposite sides of a century's old war, spouses who were thought dead but were really just in a POW camp and meanwhile the character has moved on but not really, and all that. I swear, it ends up having one of the more amusingly convoluted character relationship subplots I've ever read in the spin-off series. The basic premise of the hero being a comparative tactical genius to everyone because he got Buck Rogers'd for a century while everyone else got their asses killed in the war so hard everyone forgot how to fight good sort of edges it further and further from a straight up military sci-fi too. Meanwhile, his last stand against the surprise attack that started the war has made him a god to his fellow soldiers, much to his dismay. The whole series ends up reading like a Space Opera, except the battles are all actually military stuff. I'd actually say it was an anime rip-off, if it hadn't been started years before LN adaptations made that particular plot point popular.

I usually detest this character drama, but Campbell makes it work somehow. Perhaps because, for all the endless war and relationship drama, it ends up being a very feel good series in the end. A lot of people get to end up happy, and a lot of the messy relationships end up getting very soundly, and positively, sorted out. And it's rare for people to be frustratingly stupid about it all. They get thrown into these cheesy situations and sometimes make a mistake, but they largely end up being level headed about it all.

>read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
>become a gommie
>mfw

Like Space Raptor Butt Invasion? :^)

It hasn't won yet!

Vorkosigan Saga is insane, it's just so good. It's not really pew pew space opera, it's mostly just Miles having adventures all over the galaxy.

Also, in Lost Fleet, Geary was a god to them long before the battle, they had started revering him long ago. Winning the first just confirmed he was, well, himself and living up the legend. Seeing Black Jack Geary interact with all the people who worship the ground he walks on is hilarious in itself.
"Oh no, it's bad. Black Jack help us."
"Well, I'll try."
"No, you can't do that! Black Jack Geary would never-oh uh."

>>shrill harder

It'll win because LOVE IS REAL

Ok kid, it's past your bedtime. Remember to take the dildo out of your ass before going to sleep.

>Also, in Lost Fleet, Geary was a god to them long before the battle, they had started revering him long ago
That's what I was talking about, I apologize for not making that clear. Yeah, he wakes up to a people who revered him as a god for fighting a fairly standard defense to an ambush a century ago when he got frozen. Just a standard captain who wakes up to realize he's the only person who remembers how to fight, and how to fight in a way completely opposite of how people have mythologized him acting. Some things got cut when I hit the character limit.

Like qualifying that the drama may not be as prominent as I implied. It just sticks out because of the aforementioned "really reads like a military sci-fi until the hero ends up making eyes with his head captain but not before he ends up sleeping with the ambassador who hated him at first. And then stargates start exploding." When I type it all out, it sounds pretty lame. But again, it's actually quite a blast to read. The premise sounds incredibly anime self insert, except the premise is fully fleshed out and the other characters aren't stupid, just inexperienced. The enemy wises up properly, the MC isn't the be-all-end-all hero, and the people who disagree with him aren't dismissed out of hand.

And also again, the series just feels good. It's quite clear the author doesn't like to wallow in drama or the scale of the problems the characters face. There's a good amount of shockingly silly humor for a series about a war so bloody they couldn't train officers properly before all the good ones died and everyone started resorting to throwing rocks at civilian planets. Often inserted right in the middle of an otherwise serious situation.

It's a nice reminder that it's bad writing, not bad sounding ideas, that make or break stories. Some ideas are really dumb, no matter what, but some writers take what's appealing about cliche or bad ideas and make them work not just acceptably, but well.

>reading Hyperion beyond 'Hyperion Falls'
You did it wrong.

I thought this was Veeky Forums, not /garbagetaste/

Fuck yes, I love this series, AIs can make such interesting characters

I can heartily recommend it, (especially the audio book which is narrated brilliantly)

All the fleet politics were fascinating and enjoyable, The space battles are not all edge of your seat action, most of them are slow windups, firing run, slow windup.

Focusing heavily on strategy and 3d combat formations that when you picture in your head you understand (or gloss over and enjoy the mind games involved)

Once they "Win" take a look at the spin off broken shield, its fun too

>>says the bought shill.

I bet you typed this on a membrane keyboard. Oh God, I fucking hate you.

>Any setting where standard boarding equipment is a huge stonking axe

EE "Doc" Smith, is that you?

I don't know how are the books, but the tv series is good.

I'd actually tell people to just skip the first two Dresden books. Each book basically does a recap anyway, so it's not that big a deal for plot comprehension.

I watch MST3K while playing games all the time.

I like the HH series, and see nothing wrong with appealing to honour and perfection in this day and age where all we do is get exposed to violence and bad guys winning constantly...

John Ringo's Troy Rising trilogy is one of the best space operas ever, also loosly inspired by schlock mercenary

You should say you are interested in reading superhero stuff next, then someone can go an suggest Worm to you

Horatio Hornblower as an officer in the space navy.

There, budding writers, is a billion dollar idea.

The other books aren't completely bullshit Shaggy Dog stories, mostly. Consider Phlebas is the weakest of the series in a lot of ways, I'd recommend starting off with Use of Weapons.

>All intelligent people mutli task
t. Child who does not know the difference between multitasking and having no attention span

The books are far, far superior to the series, and the series was damn good. Seriously, read them.

The books are good, would recommend.

Do keep in mind that by saying 'HH' a decent number of us might have thought you meant Horus Heresy, especially with the description of good at the beginning.

Try this.

I watched an AMV for that once mistake.

It was set to Queen's Princes of the Universe.

youtu.be/I5_J6QX3pqQ

[Spoiler/]I love it

agreed EXCEPT for two things:

I thought the first three had pacing issues

and

jesus fuck it's cool to reflect on people just being apes deep down once or twice, but every time theres a social interaction? cmon man. Shit was cringey.

otherwise hell yeah motherfucker

I'll add to this:

I don't know how the TV series is, I heard it smoothed out some of the character perspective problems, but there's about two POVs per book, with one POV continuing through through all of them.

This POV is always the worst. The MC is an idiot who spends the first book getting played by everyone and nothing really happens to make them reflect on this or get any sort of comeuppance for it. It's not that the people doing it are so smart, the MC literally keeps making the same mistake that triggers large scale conflicts because he doesn't think for a single second about what he's doing. He doesn't get much better and most of his continued importance is purely on him stumbling into the plot in the first book. And lucking out and getting a super slick space ship.

On the topic of "people are just apes deep down," there's the constant irritation of everyone not on the side of the MC's being total assholes who are bad and do bad things. It's not even a joke. Up until the third book, if the character has a vaguely bad feeling about someone, over absolutely minor shit, it's a guarantee they're a total fucking asshole and actively malicious. It gets really, really tiresome. It's not even big stuff. The second book has a tall woman getting eyes from some random guy, never seen again, and her response is to think "probably has weird mommy and femdom issues, they always do" and then the scenes just moves on as if this wasn't some bizarre aside serving no purpose. There's a continuous feeling of "everyone is dumb. Everyone but me" in these books that admittedly seemed to lessen as they went on but never quite disappeared.

But I rarely see other people complain about it, so I assume it's just a tolerance problem on my end. The setting is fun and there's little else like it at the moment. The first book really didn't need two scenes back to back of the MC's putting the mean old bureaucrats in their place by being super smooth, though.

I should qualify that the not-MC POV's can be pretty stellar. Even the one with bizarre tall woman. Their tendency to shit on the dumb MC also increases as the book number does, which is a nice salve but unfortunately not better than just making the MC not intolerable.

yeah, I didn't harp on the MC just because i figured i was already taking the piss out of the series, but you're right. It's amazing how interesting all the other characters can be and just how weird and badly written/designed Holden is.

Very much preferred any and all chapters with Miller

m8, if you got an hour just watch the fucking prequel. If you don't like this, then you're straight up impossible to please and should kill yourself.

youtube.com/watch?v=DtrL-WWLU3s

Holy shit these recommendations are bad. OP avoid everything put out by baen as a publisher. In fact avoid most modern Sci do if you haven't read all of the classics first - they're cheaper, the good ones are well known, and you avoid tg's shit taste

>This cobber gets it

If you're watching disgusting liberal propaganda at all, you will have problems later in life.