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The quotation starts on line 8 from the bottom in this image of Le Zombie no. There are lots of opinions and the 'space-opera' term itself has been lost in these classifications and rules. As for me, I consider the best 'space-opera' explanation, that was by Wilson Tucker, who defined space opera in The words are harsh but true.
The clear difference between 'Sci-Fi and space-opera' the same as the difference between 'BBC's or Discovery's documentary and never-possible but scenaric reality-show made for fun'. Sci-Fi gives ideas - HOW the things made, they are based on scientific and logical suggestions of 'how there could be'. At the same time space is just a decoration for the space-opera. Perhaps a good litmus test would be to examine a work and take out all of the science fiction elements. If what you have left resemble recognizable archetypes and premises, you have space opera.
The best indicator of space opera is when you have a more mundane genre dressed up in futuristic clothing. On the other hand, if you take out the sci-fi elements and are left with little in the way of story or premise, you have science fiction.
If you take away the sci-fi elements from your space adventure and see that it's a Hero Myth Cycle, political melodrama, or Wagon Train, then you have space opera. If you can imagine the scruffy space pilot behind the wheel of a big rig, you have space opera. On the other hand, if you are exploring a giant megastructure full of inexplicable alien artifacts, then you have science fiction. Stories like Ringworld , the Space Odyssey series, and Rendezvous with Rama can't have their sci-fi elements swapped with mundane elements and still be the same story, simply because they don't have more mundane counterparts they may have counterparts in fantasy but that isn't any less mundane.
The black monoliths that influence human evolution in and the trip to Jupiter are crucial to the story. If you took those out or perhaps put them in the background and just focused on the characters and their relationships or personalities, then you simply have no story. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep requires androids artificially created humans. You can't swap them with something more mundane and have the same story.
To clarify hopefully , space opera transposes westerns, quest adventures, war epics, ect As I said, Han Solo your scruffy cowboy type could easily be put behind the wheels of a big rig or a bum trawler boat and be the same character. Boba Fett is a gunslinging bounty hunter Lando Calrissian could be put on a Riverboat casino in the Mississipi and still be the same character. J from the unmemorable Last Jedi is every bum hacker or con-man you've ever seen The Empire and it's successor First Order are the Nazis Obi-Wan is the wise old mentor that gives the young hero his call to adventure Captain Kirk is Horatio Hornblower Science fiction depends on the SF elements.
The monoliths' plan for mankind and Dave Bowman's journey through the Jupiter monolith and becoming the Starchild has no counterpart in other fictional genres. You can't do that story in the same way, unless you are Hence the name Space Odyssey. Science fiction also realizes that a real galactic empire will not be anything like the Roman Empire, Nazi Germany, or even the good ol' U.
SF might actually decide that a galactic empire is impossible due to time dilation resulting from space travel many SF writers frown on things like warp speed or instantaneous, convienent and cheap hyperdrive. Science Fiction may speculate that by the time the space gestapo got to a planet to bust any resistance cells, hundreds of years passed back in the Planetary Fatherland.
This means that the Resistance has had plenty of time to prepare for the arrival of these Space-Facist thugs. Not to mention the fact that anybody back at headquarters would be long dead and the leadership would have turned over dozens of times provided that it's still the same government at all. Therefore, SF would speculate like I just did on what a real interstellar community would be like based, not on handwavium, but on accepted real science theories.
By clicking "Post Your Answer", you acknowledge that you have read our updated terms of service , privacy policy and cookie policy , and that your continued use of the website is subject to these policies. Home Questions Tags Users Unanswered. Difference between Space Opera and Science Fiction? Although the term still retains a pejorative implication, it is frequently used with nostalgic affection, applying to space-adventure stories which have a calculatedly romantic element. Five writers were principally involved in the development of space opera in the s and s.
E E "Doc" Smith made his debut with the exuberant interstellar adventure The Skylark of Space August-October Amazing ; , and continued to write stories in a similar vein until the mids; two sequels, Skylark Three August-October Amazing ; and Skylark of Valeron August February Astounding ; , escalated the scale of the action before the Lensman series took over, the Spaceships growing ever-larger and the Weapons more destructive until Galactic Empires were toppling like card-houses in Children of the Lens November February Astounding ; Once there was no greater scale of action to be employed, Smith had little more to offer, and his last novels — The Galaxy Primes March-May Amazing ; and Skylark DuQuesne June-October If ; — are hardly more than exercises in recapitulation.
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 s , other early examples being "The Universe Wreckers" May-July Amazing and the Captain Future series.
The last of Hamilton's works in this vein were Doomstar and the Starwolf trilogy Even before Smith and Hamilton made their debuts, Ray Cummings was writing interplanetary novels for the general-fiction pulps and for Hugo Gernsback 's Science and Invention. His principal space operas were Tarrano the Conqueror July August Science and Invention ; , A Brand New World 22 September October Argosy All-Story Weekly ; , Brigands of the Moon March-June Astounding ; and its sequel Wandl, the Invader February-May Astounding ; , but his reputation was made by his microcosmic romances see Great and Small , and it was to such adventures that he reverted when he turned to self-plagiarism in later years.
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 Astounding Science-Fiction.
Williamson flavoured space opera with a more ancient brand of romanticism, basing characters in The Legion of Space April-September Astounding ; rev on the Three Musketeers and Falstaff; although he soon moved on to more sophisticated varieties of exotic adventure, he never quite abandoned space opera: At other times, space opera can concur with hard science fiction and differ from soft science fiction by instead focusing on scientific accuracy such as The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld.
Other space opera works may be defined as a balance between both or simultaneously hard and soft science fiction such as the Dune prequel series by Kevin J. Several subsets of space opera overlap with military science fiction , concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons. In such stories, the military tone and weapon system technology may be taken very seriously.
At one extreme, the genre is used to speculate about future wars involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other, it consists of the use of military fiction plots with superficial science-fiction trappings. The term "military space opera" is occasionally used to denote this subgenre, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold 's Vorkosigan Saga.
The key distinction of space opera from military science fiction is that the principal characters in a space opera are not military personnel, but civilians or paramilitary.
Military science fiction also does not necessarily always include an outer space or multi-planetary setting like space opera. Fredric Brown 's What Mad Universe has as its protagonist a sober-headed science fiction magazine editor who suddenly finds himself transported to an alternative history timeline where all the space opera elements a larger-than-life space hero fighting evil aliens who are totally bent on humanity's destruction, etc.
Jack Vance 's Space Opera has an opera company go on tour into space. The comedy film Spaceballs , directed and co-written by Mel Brooks , is a science fiction parody with many space opera characteristics. The anime Space Dandy by Studio Bones often parodies other science fiction works and the space opera subgenre.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Space Opera disambiguation. Space operas and planetary romances feature adventures in exotic, mostly extra-terrestrial settings. The Frontier Theme in Science Fiction.
A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. The Space Opera Renaissance 1st ed. The Australian TV Book. Leonards, New South Wales: The Sex Column and Other Misprints. Retrieved 24 March The Frontier Theme in Science Fiction 1st ed. The New Space Opera 1st ed. An Anthology of Essential Writings. Retrieved 30 June Science-fiction, the Early Years: Kent State University Press.
The First Main Phase, ".
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, chivalric romance, and risk-taking . The following is a list of space opera media. Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer define as "colorful, dramatic.
Retrieved 28 November The Overlook Film Encyclopedia 3rd ed.