Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse

Ancillary Mercy

Ann Leckie2015

A former warship in a human body protects a space station from an imperial civil war. It is the final book in the Imperial Radch trilogy.

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The Collapsing Empire

John Scalzi2017

An interstellar empire relies on a dimension called the Flow that is beginning to disappear. Three people race to manage the impending collapse.

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The State of the Art

Iain M. Banks1989

A collection of short stories and a novella. In the title story, an advanced spacefaring society visits Earth in 1977 to decide its fate.

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Expendable

James Alan Gardner1997

In a future where only 'expendable' people are sent to dangerous planets, an explorer investigates a high-fatality mission. It is a space opera.

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Radiance

Catherynne M. Valente2015

A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

wry → dreamlike, still space opera

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Perhaps the Stars

Ada Palmer2021

A global war between ideological factions reaches its conclusion. The story is told through a dense, 18th-century style narrative voice.

wry → meditative, still space opera

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All Systems Red

Martha Wells2017

A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

Same wry register, still space opera

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Vampires Are Forever

Lynsay Sands2008

A woman suspects her business partner is a vampire after he attempts to bite her. He tries to convince her they are fated mates.

wry → playful

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All Systems Red

Martha Wells2017

A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

Same wry register, still space opera

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The Star Wars Trilogy

George Lucas2018

A farm boy joins a rebellion against a galactic empire. He learns to use a mystical force under the guidance of an exiled knight.

wry → earnest, still space opera

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Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delany1975

An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

wry → dreamlike

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Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino1972

Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.

wry → meditative

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Consider Phlebas

Iain Banks1987

A shape-shifting mercenary works for an alien empire to retrieve a rogue AI during a galactic war. He faces a series of deadly set-pieces.

wry → bleak, still space opera

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An Exchange of Hostages

Susan R. Matthews1997

A surgeon is drafted into a space empire's corps of torturers. He tries to maintain his ethics while being trained to inflict pain.

wry → clinical, still space opera

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