u/Brakado

I do have a few concerns about the new books (omission of slavery, trying to soften up the fucked up bits when THEY ARE THE BLOODY POINT) but I'm fine with the gore. This is a setting with slavery, ecocide, dictatorships, cannibalism, and genocide-if anything I EXPECT there to be guts all over the place.

I'm a little biased (born in 2007) but people who miss those years look INSANE to me-it's like "I miss the days when we were in Iraq, led by a paranoid moron and everyone was a selfish asshole!"

With a growing cynicism towards the USA, many people have begun to believe that democracy is bad, a scam, ect. But what most people don't realize is that America (as it is now, at least) isn't actually a democracy. Sure it has elections, but that's the only democratic thing about it. I'm from New Zealand, an actual democracy where the government (at least when smart people are in charge) actually DOES stuff for the people. Jacinda Ardern, god bless that woman, wasn't trying to please a bunch of rich guys who got in by being the descendants of politicians or rich people (or both), but rather serve the people well. American presidents are either elected CEOs or are held back by said rich people.

Capitalism is so entrenched in society that it's impossible to remove it overnight. A lot of other leftists often act like socdems think capitalism can be "reformed", but not me-I believe it should be restrained until a better solution can be found.

I really hate how they believe people like me are neo-liberals wearing a mask of socialism. In reality, I just can't think of a better idea, and if I'm going to support an idea that tries to change the economy for the better, I'd rather choose one that actually fucking works.

I always do my best to respect women's personal space and privacy, but there's ALWAYS a little nagging voice in my head that tells me I'm not good enough even though a hug is the most intimate I've ever gotten. It's just so annoying-I feel like I'm doing a good job deep down, but my brain is always saying I've messed up.

Has space opera changed again? What happened to the genre after The Expanse? And what does it look like today? These questions have dogged my mind for a while now, and I figured what better way to answer them than put keyboard to screen? So if you're wondering what I'm yammering about, come along with me to explore this genre and see how it's changed beyond the 2000's.

Alright, so a bit of background for those unaware-during the late 20th century, several new authors created was was dubbed the "New Space Opera", which was basically an update of the space yarns of yore, adding more maturity, moral complexity, and literary sensibilities. This type of writing was utilized to high praise and sales by authors including Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, Dan Simmons, Peter F Hamilton and Iain M Banks, creating some much-loved sagas. But around the time of the mid-2010s, this began to change, and the New Space Opera slowly began to fade away. Not for a lack of success, but simply because of several things.

Part 1: What Happened?

There were several factors that were involved in this decline, but two in particular had the biggest impact. The first one was rather simple-a change in audiences.

The New Space Opera was a largely literary movement, in contrast to what was happening with movies, TV shows, and video games. Many of these authors did not necessarily ignore these mediums, but rather focused more on the literature side. Banks, for example, was quite a fan of Ursula K LeGuin, which can definitely be seen in his Culture novels.

However, as space opera began to become a much more accepted mainstay in popular culture- the legacies of Star Wars and Star Trek became much less niche, Battlestar Galactica sweeped up a few Emmy awards, and Mass Effect bringing the space opera epics to consoles-more and more people began buying space opera books-which I would attribute to the success of these authors. And while some did become fans of them, others instead chose works such as Lost Fleet, Old Man's War, and Saga Of Seven Suns-works that weren't less intelligent or dumbed down, but certainly more digestible for those that desired a more simple read akin to the shows and films they were familiar with. This shift, while a bit less noticeable in the 2000's, became harder and harder to ignore until around the early 2010's-

The second reason was that by the 2020's, the big names had changed. Banks has been dead for 13 years, Simmons would embrace his inner Bush administration before dying a few months ago, and Reynolds and Baxter would gradually become more and more niche-I haven't heard of any major successes from these guys since the 2010's. As for Peter F Hamilton, he'd eventually get hired to write for the Exodus universe, which compared to the other guys I listed, is frankly quite impressive.

But who replaced them? Well they would be:

James S.A Corey: The pen name of Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham, their Expanse series took all of the hard science from Revelation Space and employed it in their action-packed series that would eventually get a TV adaption.

Adrian Tchaikovsky: While already famous for the Children Of Time novels, his Final Architecture trilogy embraced the tropes of old-strange aliens, laser-spewing spaceships, and a dramatic, interstellar scale-and would receive critical acclaim and sales numbers in the millions.

Christopher Rucchio: His Sun Eater series, which eschewed any hard science in favor of a more 40K-eqse universe, was a sleeper hit, going from cult classic to mainstream masterpiece in 2023.

Pierce Brown: The Red Rising books, set in a feudalized solar system, took the world by storm with its characters and revolutionary themes (quite literally).

Part 2: Why did it change?

Here's where it gets more simpler: Asides from the audience change, New Space Opera was not suited for the mass-media "popcorn lit" surge of stories that would come. Escapism has become an increasingly valuable trait of modern-day pop culture, particularly during the 2020's. People didn't have the patience for "proper writing" and stuff like that-they just wanted to turn on the FTL and have fun. New Space Opera wasn't what they were looking for, and as the political and social landscapes became increasingly unstable many fiction-finders lost the headspace for deep, complex thinking and began resting their minds on good-old fashioned space sagas.

TDLR: Space opera has gone back to basics, embracing a mix of modern day sensibilities with pulpy space action.

(I'm not promoting anything, Reddit!)

EDIT: I don't mean the end of the space opera genre, I mean the end of a certain style of space opera.

I love this stuff. Barsoom, Lensmen, Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon, Captain Future, all those cheesy, action packed adventures with ray guns, brave heroes. cool aliens and illustrious planets-but alas, they seem to be a relic of an era gone by a long time ago. Science fiction, it seems, stopped trying to fun. Who cares about creating engaging stories when you can lecture someone about your cool ideas? But I know it's still out there-but I can't find it! Help me, dear friends, and guide this bored space traveler to the sector of swashbuckling in space!