u/Brakado

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!

I've been watching Chibidoki's videos playing it, and it made me think about the writer's experiences that must have led to the creation of the utterly unbearable protagonists. Judging by the way they act, I feel like they MUST have been like that back then. But the point of utter "break through the screen to strangle them" was the party scene where they party like there's no tomorrow-and for some of them, there WON'T be thanks to their reckless drinking and stunts. And then they refuse to put out the fire and one of them THREATENS TO COMMIT ARSON TO THEIR OWN F*#@ING FATHER!

Maybe it's just me, but being a teen in the 2020's was way less destructive-my peers are a lot more careful with these things, and I don't know anyone at my school who's done substances. (Granted, it's a private Catholic one, so that may explain it.) They were also not...sociopathic Chaotic Evil monsters, at least the ones I knew well enough. We spent most of our time at school sitting around, chatting, bantering, and just enjoying each other's company. Those guys are at least responsible with alcohol, and that makes me happy. Mixtape was just the equivalent of seeing an episode of Euphoria written by Ted Bundy.

We all talk about how self-inserts get made into boring invincible heroes, and I got around this my making the protagonist a wimpy coward a la Bilbo. But I also thought I'd make the villain a bit like me too, drawing from my past to create who I might have turned into in another timeline-a bitter, grudge-holding, short-tempered jerk who basically screwed himself over by getting hung up over the past. I have one concern-that it's gonna make everyone think I'm a whiny jackass IRL.

As a kid I always thought space opera was a left-wing genre, celebrating things like diversity, acceptance, multiculturalism, and empathy while criticizing stuff like imperialism, mono cultures, discrimination and nationalism-things like Star Wars, Star Trek, The Culture, Humanx Commonwealth, ect. And because I'm curious to the point of danger, I wanna find out if there's stuff that is the opposite. Not stuff which contained the commonplace views of the time, or more subtle stuff that isn't really intending to push politics, but things like "democracy sucks", "men are better", "unrestrained capitalism is good", ect. (I disagree with all 3 things I wrote, just wanting to give you an idea of what I'm thinking of.)

I often write two in particular:

Space opera: Spaceships, lasers, aliens and heroes-what's not to love?

Dark fantasy: I don't know exactly why, but I'm always drawn to this one-malevolent magicians, nefarious nobles, grotesque gods, and utterly horrific wars give a lot of opportunities for conflict.

I'm not a coward-I like films such as Alien and The Thing, but low-budget horror films feel like such a cliche thing to do. I get why-it's easy to spook people with z-list actors and a hidden threat, but I wanna do something different-action, comedy, sci-fi, drama, mystery, or something like that.

About 6 months ago, I read Princess Of Mars and really liked it. But there's barely anything else like the Barsoom books-I know there's other stuff out there, but there's rather slim pickings.

I've had a few issues with the "New Space Opera" style, but the biggest one is that it forgets the "opera" part. Hyperion, Ancillary Justice, Revelation Space-all of these felt short of my wants because they felt so mundane and quiet. When I read space opera, that's not what I want! Spectacular heroes! Bombastic space battles! Epic narratives! SAGAS OF A THOUSAND SUNS! Y'know, that sort of thing. So what are your suggestions?

Examples of what I'm looking for: Lensmen, anything Peter F Hamilton writes, Final Architecture, Sun Eater, Bobiverse, Deathstalker, Dune, and Edmond Hamilton's stuff like Star Kings and Battle For The Stars.

EDIT: Please read the full post before replying.