Space Opera


There’s an unusual combination of pulpy fun and humanity found in many examples of space operas. The week for class I read some of Shards of Honor.

I think no matter how seriously some stories in this genre try to make themselves they won’t be able to escape the hokey feel that seems to famously come along with this genre. While Shards of Honor opens up with an immersive syfy story of Captain Cordelia discovering a new planet, getting attacked, then getting stranded it seems fall victim to this genres clichés and with the amount of detail coming off with that of a flash Gordon vive. Finding a new planet and having something go terribly wrong seems to be getting a tad old. I wanna clarify that this doesn’t make the story bad by any means, just gives it a tone that I don’t think was originally anticipated. There is an interesting character dynamic between the Captain and Vorkosigan as there five day long hike goes underway. She finds that he’s not as terrible as he was made out to be and their interactions provide for some real character depth.

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