Re: “Top 10 Space Opera Books and Series”

In article <20240607a@crcomp.net>, Don  <g@crcomp.net> wrote:

Ted Nolan wrote:

Lynn McGuire wrote:

Christian Weisgerber wrote:

Lynn McGuire wrote:
>

???Top 10 Space Opera Books and Series???
>

https://discoverscifi.com/the-top-10-space-opera-books-and-series-of-all-time/

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8. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - I have never read the series

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We both should read it. :-)
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6. The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks - I have never read the series

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You should rectify that.
>

4. Triplanetary by E.E. "Doc" Smith - this is on my reread list

>
You can't talk about space opera without Doc Smith, but this is an
odd choice.  Why a single novel and not the whole Lensman series?
And if you select an exemplary novel, _Galactic Patrol_ would be
my pick.
>

1A. The Foundation Series by Issac Asimov - yes

>
Whut!??  That's no space opera.

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What genre is Foundation then ?

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SF?

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"What's seen can not be unseen"
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"What's done can not be undone" - _Macbeth_ (1606)
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"Things done can not be undone"
 - Francis Bacon's Promus of Formularies and Elegancies (1596)
>

>
   [Foundation] is a story about social engineering. A mathematician
   and a group of academic intellectuals decide to save civilization
   by manipulating history, and their plan leads to a Second Empire.
   The idea of giving votes to plebeians simply never comes up.
>
   _Transhuman and Subhuman_ (Wright)
>
Did Asimov and Campbell create _Foundation_'s psychohistory as an
allegory for Kenesian economics and Baconian scientism, without
realizing it?
>

Well to be fair, Seldon and the initial Foundation settlers were products
of an Imperial system, so they were never going to be democrats.
I think Foundation had settled down into some sort of oligarchy by the time
the Mule put paid to the Plan, but my memory is hazy.

Of course later Asimov's Lucky Starr series seemed to have rule by "Science
Council" posited as a Good Thing iirc..
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