A ReadOrbit guide
Move from immediate adventure toward the political and philosophical scale that makes space opera distinctive.
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2021
by Anthony Doerr
"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of perhaps the most bestselling and beloved literary fiction of our time comes a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring novel about children on the cusp of adulthood in a broken world, who find resilience, hope, and story. The her…
2016
by Eric Flint
"A new novel in New York Times best seller Eric Flint's science fiction Jao Empire series. It has become clear to both the Jao and their human and Lleix partners that if they are going to defeat the Ekhat who have been terrorizing the galaxy for eons, they need more allies. To th…
2014
by Toby Whaymand
Susan Atkins, Captain of Starship NOVA, is on a special mission to transport prisoner CX589 to the planet Troidon. It is Earth Year 2288, and she and her crew must ride a wormhole in order to propel themselves into the future to reach Troidon. While time travel is impossible, The…
2014
by Ryk E. Spoor
"In a world of data manipulation and cyberspying, an investigative journalist find that the supernatural lurks! A major revision of Spoor's first novel, Digital Knight, with all new material. Being an expert in information searches, image processing and enhancement, pattern match…
2013
by David Weber
Wrong number? There are two sides to any quarrel . . . unless there are more. Queen Elizabeth of Manticore's first cousin and Honor Harrington's best friend, Michelle Henke, has just handed the "invincible" Solarian League Navy the most humiliating, one sided defeat in its entire…
2012
by Lois McMaster Bujold
"Book Fourteen in the best-selling Vorkosigan series. Captain Ivan Vorpatril is happy with his relatively uneventful bachelor's life of a staff officer to a Barrayaran admiral. Ivan, cousin to Imperial troubleshooter Miles Vorkosigan, is not far down the hereditary list for the e…
2007
by Peter David
Some say the line between good and evil is narrower than we imagine – a divide as subtle as a mirror, and perhaps just as deep. To peer into its black, reflective glass is to know the dark potential we each possess, and we cross that obsidian boundary at our peril… into a world w…
2007
by David Gunn
Set in a chillingly realistic far-future world, and featuring a gritty antihero even more frightening than the evil empire he serves as soldier and assassin, Death's Head is sure to be one of the most talked-about novels of the year. David Gunn is loaded--and he shoots to kill.At…
2006
by Aaron Allston
This is the era of Luke Skywalker's legacy: the Jedi Master has unified the order into a cohesive group of powerful Jedi Knights. But as the new era begins, planetary interests threaten to disrupt this time of relative peace, and Luke is plagued with visions of an approaching dar…
2005
by Steven Barnes
Ord Cestus, a planet mostly barren and inhospitable to life, was first colonized as a prison world—until a handful of hardy pioneers discovered its rich ore deposits and managed to build up a successful droid-manufacturing industry. But when the Clone Wars erupted, bringing sever…
2005
by Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter's gripping page-turners are feats of bold speculation and big ideas that, for all their time-and-space-spanning grandeur, remain firmly rooted in scientific fact and cutting-edge theory. Now Baxter is back with the final volume in his monumental Destiny's Children…
2004
by C. J. Cherryh
One of today's bestselling and most critically acclaimed writers of science fiction and fantasy, C. J. Cherryh has been entertaining readers for more than thirty years with beautifully imagined, complex novels of intrigue and adventure. With Hammerfall she began an entirely new u…
2004
by Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur C. Clarke is a living legend, a writer whose name has been synonymous with science fiction for more than fifty years. An indomitable believer in human and scientific potential, Clarke is a genuine visionary. If Clarke has an heir among today's science fiction writers,…
2004
by Julie E. Czerneda
Herself a biologist, Julie E. Czerneda has earned a reputation in science fiction circles for her ability to create beautifully crafted, imaginative, yet believably realized alien races. In Survival, the first novel in her new series, Species Imperative, she draws upon this talen…
2004
by Stephen Baxter
When it comes to cutting-edge science fiction, Stephen Baxter is in a league of his own. His mastery of hard science, his fearlessly speculative imagination, and his ability to combine grand philosophical questions with tales of rousing adventure make him essential reading for an…
2004
by Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey
Beginning with the classic Dragonriders of Pern, Anne McCaffrey has created a complex, endlessly fascinating world uniting humans and great telepathic dragons. Millions of devoted readers have soared on the glittering wings of Anne's imagination, following book by book the evolut…
2004
by Timothy Zahn
Sometimes it seems a Jedi’s work is never done and Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker know this only too well. Despite the bond they share in the Force, after three years of marriage the Jedi Master and his wife are still learning the ropes of being a couple—and struggling to find time…
2000
by William Shatner
For three full decades, on television and in film, actor William Shatner has portrayed one of the legendary heroes of science fiction: James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the starship Enterprise. Although Kirk was believed to have perished at the conclusion of Star Trek Generations,…
1999
by R. A. Salvatore
For the first time Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore is available in eBook format!This special eBook edition of Vector Prime includes: The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime by R. A. Salvatore Origins of the New Jedi Order - An interview with some of the ke…
1998
by William Shatner
For three full decades, on television and in film, actor William Shatner has portrayed one of the most thrilling heroes of science fiction: James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the starship Enterprise. Although Kirk was believed to have perished at the conclusion of Star Trek: Generat…
1997
by William Shatner
For three full decades, on television and in film, actor William Shatner has portrayed one of the most dynamic heroes of science fiction: James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the Starship Enterprise. Although Kirk appeared to perish at the conclusion of Star Trek Generations, the big…
1997
by Robert A. Heinlein
Starship Troopers takes place in the midst of an interstellar war between the Terran Federation of Earth and the Arachnids (referred to as "The Bugs") of Klendathu. It is narrated as a series of flashbacks by Juan Rico, and is one of only a few Heinlein novels set out in this fas…
1992
by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, Joseph D. Olander, Donald Franson, Norman E. Hartman, Jack Ritchie, Charles E. Fritch, Phyllis Eisenstein, Fredric Brown, Robert Mattingly, Barry N. Malzberg, Jack Dann, George Zebrowski, Charles Sheffield, George H. Smith, Robert F. Decker, Harry Harrison, Richard Wilson, T. E. D. Klein, Richard K. Lyon, Arthur C. Clarke, Patricia Matthews, Alan Brennert, James Tiptree, Jr., Anthony Boucher, Bob Shaw, Walt Liebscher, Mack Reynolds, A. E. van Vogt, Paul Dellinger, Harlan Ellison, Henry Slesar, Ron Montana, Joanna Russ, Theodore Cogswell, Marcia Martin, Eric Vinicoff, Edward Bryant, Garen Drussaï, William F. Nolan, Helen M. Urban, Robert Silverberg, Alice Laurance, Robert Sheckley, Charles A. Spano Jr., Craig Strete, Rick Conley, Manly Wade Wellman, Dennis R. Caro, Eric Frank Russell, Robert Payes, Fritz Leiber, Ray Russell, Roberta Ghidalia, Sherwood Springer, Joseph F. Patrouch, Roland J. Green, H. L. Gold, Jan Howard Finder, Ruth Berman, James E. Gunn, Philip José Farmer, Bill Pronzini, Arthur Tofte, F. M. Busby, Paul J. Nahin, James A. Stevens, Rachel Cosgrove Payes, Juleen Brantingham, Maggie Nadler, Lester del Rey, Larry Niven, Edward Wellen
The Last Answer - short story by Isaac Asimov Package Deal - short story by Donald Franson Lycanthrope - short story by Norm Hartman [as by Norman E. Hartman] Gemini 74 - short story by Jack Ritchie Geever's Flight - short story by Charles E. Fritch Lost and Found - short story b…
1991
by Ellen Datlow, Leigh Kennedy, Rick Wilber, Harlan Ellison, Scott Baker, Larry Niven, K. W. Jeter, Philip José Farmer, Lisa Tuttle, Bruce McAllister, Edward Bryant, Pat Cadigan, Geoff Ryman, Connie Willis, Richard Christian Matheson, Lewis Shiner, Roberta Lannes, James Tiptree, Jr., Michaela Roessner, Pat Murphy
From Bernie Goutley's review: 1.) Her Furry Face by Leigh Kennedy A primate handler who is in a waning marriage falls for one of his super-intelligent orangutan students. 2.) War Bride by Rick Wilbur The world is going to end tomorrow unless you’ve been taken as a pet by one of t…