A lot of stories by Jack Vance (The Demon Princes saga, the Giant Planet, the Tschai Cycle, ...) are space opera but nothing about spaceship and battles in the stories
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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I heartily recommend Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series. I don't think I've read something by Reynolds that I haven't liked
oh yeah these are pretty good
Pushing Ice was my first and still favorite of his.
I'd second this. The perfect dryfus books are set in the same world/ of the series, but are also great standalones
I'm gonna look further into this.
Oh, this looks great! Thanks!
Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is great. Really any of his are great.
You recommend me a book! I'm into privateer freighter scrapper books!
I have this issue where I see a book of his and just buy without reading the description lol
Added to list, thanks!
The avsolute best that I've read is Phantom Star by Seras on RR. Unfortunately they haven't finished the story. (there is ai, but it's a dumb ai)
2nd place is Quarter Share (Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper) by Nathan Lowell.
3rd place is Bobiverse.
Honorable Mention is Rookie Privateer (Privateer Tales Book 1) by Jamie McFarlane. This one would be higher, but as the series went on they became more and more militaristic.
I would recommend "The mote in God's eye".
Fantastic premise with one of the most convincing and fascinating alien races (don't look it up, there are some plot-twists!) as well as some action parts and space battles.
AI free and the military is kind of a quaint feudalistic kind of style.
Looks promising, added to list, thanks!
My grandfather gave me this book when I was 13. One of my first ever sci-fi novels. One of my favorites.
Can't go wrong with some Culture books from Iain M Banks - Consider Phlebas , Excession and Hydrogen Sonata (and probably others I'm forgetting) definitely have some big space battles without the overhead of military tropes.
IIRC, Excession is a novel about AI spaceships thwarting an existential threat involving tens of thousands of warships. It’s a great read, but arguably about AI & military, though Banks doesn’t rely on common tropes.
Came here to recommend that, but then realized that AIs often play major roles in this books...
So while definitely one of the greatest space opera books series, it does not quite fit OPs preference.
Thanks for the warning!
Stanisław Lem. He wrote a lot of novels & short story compilations, including Solaris, The Futurological Congress, A Perfect Vacuum, and Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.
Adrian Tchaikovsky
"Shards Of the Earth" Scrappy band of outsiders are trying to fight giant, mysterious machines [?] that destroy entire systems, apparently for fun.
He's probably the best of the new.
Poul Anderson.
"War Of The Wingmen." A fat, lazy space trader is marooned on a plaent where all the food is poison. He'd got to overthrown a few kingdoms to survive. SF classic from an old master
Added, thanks!
Enjoy!
Shards Of the Earth was a great series, I really enjoyed the subtle horror aspect of it too.
Here is a deep pull from an OG space opera author: E E Doc Smith’s Skylark series:
check out the OG space operas, the Lensman and Skylark series by E.E. 'doc' Smith if you haven't already. He also has a bunch of other rollicking adventure tales that are pretty great. You just need to bear in mind the time period they were written in (1920s-1950s)..
How close to Fantasy as a genre do you mind getting, compared to Sci-Fi?
Absolutely adore fantasy too. Everything from classic, swords and sorcery to litrpg and cultivation. You got something space opera with fantasy? I'm excited.
You can try the Salvagers series by Alex White. It's fun space fantasy that starts with A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe.
Another light read that is more space drama than space fantasy and has lower "stakes" is... a book whose name I'm blanking on and definitely won't remember until I get home to look on my shelf for it.
Hah! Thanks for the recommendation. I hope you remember the other one too.
I’m not super clear on what genre space opera is exactly, but The Locked Tomb trilogy might fit the bill??
Star Wars, Firefly, and The Expanse are examples.
I feel like firefly and expanse put to much into realism to be properly space opera.
My understanding is a space opera is where space serves as a backdrop or theme to the story, as opposed to hard sci-fi where the the science is more forthright. Space operas focus heavy on character development and adventure, that just happen to be in space.
Yeah! I think the Firefly example dialed it in for me. I know Star Wars also get called that, but both get sorted under “space western” in my mind, so I was never really clear on the exact use of space opera. Would things like Enders Game or even Dune technically count?? Like those are political dramas at a point. Enders game is maybe a bit simplified, but Dune has heavy character development with the backdrop of Arrakis and the technology required for survival.
I'm not 100% sure. I consider Dune closer to a space opera than Ender's Game. Dune is has a lot of soft fantastical elements over detailed physics. Enders game also has a few fantastical elements, like instant FTL, but it so neatly fits in military sci-fi and I would describe it that way. But these are mostly my own biases, rather than any deep considerations.
Ah, I tried reading the first one and couldn't get past the first few chapters.
Space Opera, think Firefly.
Ah yes, Firefly, that does clarify the genre well. I’d say the series “technically” counts, but the writing style is definitely not for everyone.
The Gap cycle by Stephen Donaldson. First book is hard to read but it's short and necessary. The rest is incredible.
Hmmmm.... Neal Asher books can be good. Also Peter F Hamilton. Charles Stross Laundry series is good too.
I’ve read several privateer/freighter/scrapper books that were amazing. Looking for more of the same.
Try the first books of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga—it centers around a backwoods aristocrat moonlighting as an interstellar mercenary captain.
It's great but absolutely military though.
Revelation Space is a great series if you haven't read it.
Wolfhounds by John Van Stry
It does have ai characters but they don't dominate the story at all which is odd given the premise.
Also Theft of Fire by Devon Erikson. Not a space Opera at all, but a very enjoyable read.