#imperial radch is a space opera

[outerspace-iiinnerspace]

i need to stop looking at goodreads for book recs bc i want space opera and half the things on those lists are NOT space opera. and that's just the ones i've already read and can say from experience

[girl-and-her-cat]

Chapter One: Extended Contracts

The probe was dead.

I knew it the moment I lay eyes on the thing. And no, it wasn’t because of the layer of icy crust surrounding the shaft nor did it have anything to do with user error. I knew it the moment they told me what the issue was. The probe had been running non-stop for four months in a freezing cold vacuum. AKA; space. And they were using a standard run-of-the-mill type-13. No way could that handle a four month operating time with no breaks.

Dumbasses.

The two techs that had brought me out here were arguing through their helmets on the main channel; I could hear everything from the saliva smacking against their lips to their stuffed up noses they wouldn’t stop snorting through as if that would help them breathe any better.

Just use a goddamn tissue.

“What’s the application?” I asked again. I knew what it was, I just wanted them to stop barking at each other. The techs got nervous when I came up here. At first I thought it was because my job was to report back to HQ and let them know if the tech’s were doing their jobs; RJ told me it’s because I’m a woman.

One tech, the one that only had one front tooth and was clearly the follower of the other guy responded after snorting mucus down his throat. “Temp and pressure of the atmosphere surrounding the pipes. Gotta know how much they can handle before being blown to shit.”

He looked at his bro for approval and smirked at me after receiving a nod.

“Can you tell us what the problem is so we can get back down? Boss don’t like us being up here too long wasting oxygen.” Leader boy said this nonchalantly but I knew who his boss was and also knew that a guy had been fired last week for using more than the mediated level of oxygen for a site run like this one. Found out he had brought his girl up for some “sight seeing”.

Fucking idiot.

“It’s dead. You’ll need to get a new one. A Type- 15 to be exact if you want it to run longer than 4 months out here.”

Read More Here

[kimabutch]

Rereading Ann Leckie’s Provenance in preparation for the new Imperial Radch book coming out this summer, and I think part of what makes me enjoy her scifi writing so much is that it’s so physical. Characters get hungry. They get hangry. They have clothes that are uncomfortable or don’t stay put. They crave another person’s touch. They get sleepy and weird and loopy. All while part of these grand political space operas. All in service of building characters that feel so incredibly real and worldbuilding so juicy I wanna slurp it up with a giant spoon

[air-of-the-waterfall]

WHERE is Sievarden why is she barely in Ancillary Sword at all yet 😭

Watching Breq grieve her ancillaries and the companionship and comfort and touch they provided her, now being just one person so touch starved and heartbroken and stressed after tearing open her old wounds and remembering loving Awn and feeling that horror all over again… while also knowing full well how horrifying her past actions were and confronting that she’ll never be the same…

WHERE is Sievarden when you need her??

Also, the scene where Sievarden blatantly asks if Breq could hypothetically fuck her and Breq’s just like “I can but I won’t lol bye.” And then Sievarden with Ekalu instead just going “I would if she wanted me to” while KNOWING that Breq can hear everything onboard MoK is the funniest thing.

Please (well don’t actually spoil) tell me these two end up wrapped up in each other’s arms and holding on for dear life again

[peachdoxie]

I've been wanting to read another space opera book/series lately but ugh trying to find one that Hits The Mark is difficult

Edit: upon looking up what a space opera actually is I have decided that I am not actually looking for a space opera but idk what other subgenre beyond "space" I am looking for so yeah

[nicholas-the-paleomancer]

I say this with love. There are at least five sets of pronouns Leckie uses and I love it.

[madlovenovelist]

#bookporn #coverlove

After loving ‘Ancillary Justice‘ I went and purchased the rest of the books in this series and can’t wait to finish the franchise. What was a surprising read that hooked you?

[elexuscal]

Listen, I know that Imperial Radch and Temeraire are very different series... and yet...

(Full image ID below the read more)

[Image ID: A venn diagram on a background of a starry sky.

The first circle is red and labelled 'Imperial Radch'. It contains:

First Person

Space Opera

Singing

Spaceships

Hive Minds

Aliens

The second circle is blue and labelled 'Temeraire'. It contains:

Third Person

Age of Sale

Alternate History

Dragons

Actual Historical Figure Napoleon Bonaparte

Supply Logistics

The overlap between the two circles is pink and contains:

Guilt

Sapient Ships

Colonialism

Slavery

Social Change

Cool Uniforms

Drug Addiction

Military Ships

War Crimes

Gender Roles

Inter-Species Relations

Awkward Dinner Parties

“A ship can love its captain”

Propriety

Found family

Slavery

Tea

/end ID]

[mulberry1104]

2023 Books/Series/Author of the year

1. Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch books. Very fun space opera, very good if you like space politics. Refreshingly minimal combat, even in the book where the main character is a professional soldier whose stated end goal is “kill the ruler of the largest interstellar civilisation in the known galaxy.” Also, the aesthetics and vibes of it is very unique in a very wonderful way, it doesn’t feel like any sci-fi I’ve seen or read, perhaps apart from a very small amount of Dune. Also, the presentation of gender identity in the books is very interesting, and the contrast between Hwaean and Radchaai gender identities is deeply interesting to me.

2. Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb books. This books put my brain through the wringer. Beautiful prose, beautiful story, compelling characters. Incredibly complex worldbuilding. Just. Mwah. Also they are gay and they are so gay and it’s just so gay, I love it. And women with swords.

3. Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries. Honestly, the only reason why these books are in third place is because the entries above are so damn good (this applies to all of them). The queer rep? Sublime. The autistic rep? Phenomenal. Even though I do sound insane when I say I relate with the character called “Murderbot”. Also ART and Murderbot have an amazing dynamic and, honestly, I just love them. Another thing! Books are nice and short, so you don’t have to fret too hard about reading them.

4. The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman. Some of the most immersive worldbuilding I’ve read since Discworld, and it is surprisingly deep without being presented in a way that’s overblown on the exposition. Additionally, the magic system, especially the tattoos, is something I’ve not seen really done before, and the world’s politics are fascinating. Also, one of the main characters is confirmed gay and she has a sword and cool ravens, need I say more?

5. Megan E. O’Keefe’s Bound Worlds. Good duology so far, maybe a bit too fast paced at times. The romance is sweet, but very fast, but I didn’t find myself really that put off by it. She doesn’t waste words. The queer rep is good as well, and is delightfully understated. They don’t make a big thing about some of the characters being non binary, it’s just, a thing that’s part of the world and no one cares.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

Imperial Radch series (Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword, Ancillary Mercy, Provenance, Translation State, and other stories) by Ann Leckie

Endorsement from submitter: "Breq/Justice of Toren is a ship AI and doesn't have a gender. The Radchaai language only has one pronoun for people, so (almost) everyone in the empire is she/her, to the point that they're infamous for failing to correctly guess which pronoun to use with outsiders."

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

Science fiction, space opera, far future, series, adult

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom with bleeding wrists that mutters of revenge.

As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble, letting in the phantom that hungers for him.

Fantasy, horror, southern gothic, thriller, mystery, dark academia, contemporary, adult

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: great, unique and creative worldbuilding in sci-fi

A note: most of the books on this list are ones I cherish very highly (some are on my all time favorites list!). A few had a lower overall rating for me personally but still stellar worldbuilding and are of what I'd consider good objective quality even if I subjectively didn’t super enjoy them.

For details on the books, continue under the readmore!

Other book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding

Mermaid books

Dark sapphic romances

Vampire books

Feed (Newsflesh series) by Mira Grant

Zombies and news bloggers and presidential elections, oh my! A look at the world post-post zombie apocalypse, when society has gotten back to its feet but the zombie virus is still very much active. Humanity as a whole has been forced to adapt to the ever-present threat. Largely political, character and worldbuilding focused. There is some zombie action, but it’s far from the central focus.

Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey series) by Jasper Fforde

Walking the very thin line of giving you just enough information to follow the plot and grasp the overall idea of the world, but not enough to create info dumps or hand you answers not yet earned, Shades of Grey presents a world in black and white, where your perception of color determines your place in society. Is it fantasy? Scifi? Post apocalypse? Who knows! I sure don’t! Occasionally it hands you a tidbit of information that seems like a remnant of our world and you feel like you're onto something, but then some pages later said tidbit is turned on its head and you're back to square one. It’s delightful.

This Alien Shore (Alien Shores series) by C.S. Friedman

Space opera in which humanity found a way to faster than light travel and began establishing colonies all over the galaxy, only to belatedly realize the method of FTL caused irreversible mutations and disabilities and leaving their nascent colonies to die. Much later, many of the colonies have survived and thrived, and one has found a new way of FTL travel, allowing an interconnected space society to grow. However, Earth is on the hunt for their method and is prepared to do anything to steal it. Aside from cool worldbuilding, This Alien Shore also features some interesting commentary on disability and accommodation. And there are extra-dimensional space dragons!

Ninefox Gambit (Machineries of Empire trilogy) by Yoon Ha Lee

Military space opera where belief and culture shape the laws of reality, causing all kinds of atrocities as empires do everything in their power to force as many people as possible to conform to their way of life to strengthen their technology and weapons. It’s also very queer, with gay, lesbian and trans major characters, albeit little to no romance.

Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch series) by Ann Leckie

Another space opera, in which sentient spaceships can walk the ground in stolen human bodies, so called ancillaries. One of these ancillaries, the sole survivor after the complete destruction of her ship and crew, is one the hunt for revenge. This series also does very cool things with gender!

The Quantum Thief (Jean le Flambeur series) by Hannu Rajaniemi

Place this one in the category of 'accept that you're gonna be confused as hell and just let the world wash over you'. The singularity has come and gone and humans can now easily upload, download and copy themselves into new bodies, not all of them human and not always willingly. Consciousnesses and time has become something close to currency. Follows a murder mystery on Mars.

Stray (Touchstone trilogy) by Andrea K. Höst

Young Adult. Cassandra accidentally walks through a wormhole and ends up on another planet, where she tries to survive in the abandoned ruins of a long since gone civilization. When rescue finally arrives, she soon finds her troubles are far from over as she gets embroiled in a war between her rescuers and monstrous creatures from dreamlike other dimensions. Mixes scifi elements such as space travel, vr and nanomachinery with fantasy tropes such as psychic powers, monsters, and interdimensional portals.

The Peacekeeper (The Good Lands series) by B.L. Blanchard

Alternate history in which Europe never colonized the Americas. Follow Ojibwe detective Chibenashi as he travels from his small home village to a city of living skyscrapers to solve a murder. While I found the mystery somewhat lacking, the worldbuilding and look at a contemporary North America never touched by European colonization is absolutely aces.

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

South African-set scifi featuring gods ancient and new, robots, dik-diks, and a gay teen with mind control abilities. An ancient goddess seeks to return to her true power no matter how many humans she has to sacrifice to get there. A little bit all over the place but very creative and fresh.

Leech by Hiron Ennes

I mean, this is probably scifi? Like Shades of Grey it hands you only just enough information to get by, and whether its historical fantasy, an alternate timeline, or futuristic post apocalypse is hard to determine. A sentient hive mind have taken over the entire medical profession to ensure the health of their host species. One of their doctors is sent off to an isolated location where they’re cut off from the rest of the hive mind, only to realize they’re faced with a rivaling parasitic entity.

Children of Time (Children of Time series) by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of an empire, a planet once part of a project to uplift other species to sentience is left to develop on its own, resulting not in the intelligent monkeys once intended but in sentient giant spiders. Millenia later, what remains of humanity arrives looking for a new home.

Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre

A classic following a healer as she travels a post apocalyptic Earth with an alien dreamsnake to help people. When her snake dies, she must go on a journey to find a new one. The worldbuilding feels fairly vague, but not in an annoying way but in one that makes the world feel vast and mysterious and lived in. Just like in the real world you won’t get all the answers, but you do get the feeling of the world as a whole being much larger than the character and her quest.

The Outside (The Outside trilogy) by Ada Hoffman

AKA the book the put me in an existenial crisis. Souls are real, and they are used to feed AI gods in this lovecraftian inspired scifi where reality is warped and artifical gods stand against real, unfathomable ones. Autistic scientist Yasira is accused of heresy and, to save her eternal soul, is recruited by post-human cybernetic 'angels' to help hunt down her own former mentor, who is threatening to tear reality itself apart.

The Three-Body Problem (The Three-Body Problem series) Cixin Liu

While I felt the characters could’ve been better developed, this is undeniably a well-written novel featuring an alien race and culture developed on a planet vastly different from ours. Firmly in the realm of hard scifi, this is a realistic, fascinating and slightly terrifying look at how first contact may look.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Eurovision in space! If you lose, humanity is doomed! Good luck! The sentient species of the galaxy have chosen to face each other not in war but in a musical contest, and now humanity is invited to partake. The problem? If we lose, our species as a whole will be exterminated. While I found this book as a whole slightly gimmicky, it’s a fun and flashy experience with some wild and creative alien species.

Escaping Exodus (Escaping Exodus series) by Nicky Drayden

Seske is the heir to the leader of a clan living inside a gigantic, spacefaring beast, of which they frequently need to catch a new one to reside in as their presence slowly kills the beast from the inside. While I found the ending rushed with regards to plot and character, the worldbuilding is very fresh and the overall plot of survival and class struggle an interesting one.

The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley

More fucked up biological spaceships, this time all women edition! It’s weird, it's gross, there’s So Much Viscera, it has biotech but in the most horrific way imaginable. Had I to categorize it I would call it grimdark military sf. It’s an experience but not necessarily a pleasant one. Features a mass of slowly dying world-ships, and the conflicts arising between them as they struggle to survive. It’s also sapphic but not what I'd call romantic.

Isle of Broken Years by Jane Fletcher

Young spanish noblewoman Catalina thinks she’s done for when the ship she’s traveling on is attacked by pirates and she’s captured. Things gets worse when the entire crew is stranded on an inhospitable island where time works strangely, dangerous monsters terrorize the woods and something alien stops them from leaving. Strong Lost vibes. Lesbian romance. Admittedly quite indulgent but very fun and creative.

Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang

Slow and long and literary, Vagabonds presents a world a hundred years post a war of independence between Earth and Mars, after which two vastly different societies have grown. A close look at the impossibility of a utopia and how different circumstances allow for different cultures to grow, and how the two aren’t always compatible while neither is necessarily better or worse than the other.

Mortal Engines (Mortal Engines quartet) by Philip Reeve

Young Adult. On a barely survivable Earth humanity has taken to living on great wandering cities, hunting each other across the plains for resources. Tom lives in London, but when he intervenes to stop a murder, he falls off the city alongside a strange and hostile girl on the hunt for revenge. Aside from excellent worldbuilding this also features one of my most favorit female characters ever in Hester Shaw. If you’ve seen the movie, forget about it and read the book instead.

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota series) by Ada Palmer

Centuries in the future, humanity has deliberatly engineered society to be as utopian as possible, politically, socially, sexually, religiously. Written in an enlightenment style and featuring questions of human nature and whether it’s possible to change it, and what price we're prepared to pay for peace, this book is simultaneously very heavy and very funny, and written in a very unique style. While still human, the society presented often feels starkly alien.

A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan duology) by Arkady Martine

Mahit, ambassador of a small station nation, arrives at the heart of the Teixcalaanli Empire, ready to battle for the continued independence of her people. In her head she carries part of the personality of her predecessor, there to guide her. A look at imperialism and the conflicting feelings of hate, fear and even admiration one can have towards empire. Also features a sapphic romance!

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb series) by Tamsyn Muir

I mean, you're on tumblr, you probably already know about this one. Trust me when I say it's exactly as good as people claim. There are indeed lesbian necromancers is space (quite a lot of them, actually), but also incredible worldbuilding that keeps growing with every new installment, interesting political commentary, morally complex characters with fucked up dynamics, and well-thought out plot that keeps you guessing until the last.

Railhead (Railhead trilogy) by Philip Reeve

Young Adult. Listen, Philip Reeve is so good at absolutely wild worldbuilding, I nearly included a third series of his on this list (hey go look up Larklight okay!). In a future where humanity travel between the stars using not spaceships but a portal-connected system of sentient trains, a young thief and street urchin is hired to steal something off of the Emperor's train.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

More AI gods!

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

Magic in space!

The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang

Angels in space!

[iris-of-the-lambs]

your imperial radch art has changed my brain chemistry on a fundamental level. i just wanted to thank you for introducing me to ann leckie! are there other books you'd recommend? (i really liked her fantasy standalone, the raven tower. i'd also recommend the murderbot diaries (cyborg just wants to watch tv but must do sci-fi nonsense) and the splinter in the sky (which certainly has its flaws but is also a fun anti-colonial tea-laden space opera))

Ouuuughh thank you!! I love imperial radch so much and I am very happy that I've managed to convince anyone else to read it >:) I am also big into the murderbot books, but have not heard of The Splinter in the Sky - I'll add it to my list!

As for my own recommendations.. hmm.. anyone who scrolls thru my blog can see that I'm a big Locked Tomb fan, but I'd definitely only recommend it if you're down for weird campy lesbian drama science fantasy. I really liked Space Opera, which is very goofy and is basically Eurovision in space. I'm currently reading She Who Became the Sun (historical fantasy set in Yuan dynasty China) and I'm enjoying it a lot - though I don't know if I ought to recommend it if I haven't finished it yet :P

[servantofclio]

Favorite books I read in 2023

I saw @asaara-writes missing my book posts, and looked back through my tags, and indeed I haven't done any in a while.

Also I seem to have kind of gotten out of the habit of posting on tumblr at all? I'm not sure what's up with that, I am definitely here pretty much every day!

It looks like I talked about books in some meme responses at Christmas, so let's go with:

THINGS CLIO READ: 2023 EDITION

Here are brief notes on things I read and enjoyed (not a complete list of things I have read this year):

Fonda Lee, Jade Legacy: Sequel to Jade City and Jade War and concludes the trilogy, and what a conclusion! The world and timeframe of the series just keeps expanding and delivers character arcs and an ending I found immensely satisfying.

T. Kingfisher, Illuminations: The author in young-adult mode, featuring a family who create magic through painted images. When a long-hidden family secret gets out, it could mess up everything, unless they can put their heads together and figure out a solution. Charmingly quirky and lovable characters, highly enjoyable.

Max Gladstone, Dead Country: I am totally here for more Craft Sequence always. This book takes our original heroine Tara Abernathy home again, older and more experienced. Really interesting to return to her close first-person perspective after several multi-perspective books, and very cool to see her now in a mentoring role.

Fonda Lee, The Jade Setter of Janloon: Novella set in the Green Bone universe, this gives us a great look at the world from the point of view of someone on the edges of the Green Bones' conflicts.

Kate Elliott, Furious Heaven: The second volume of her "gender-flipped Alexander the Great in space" series. I feel like I never see anyone talking about this, and I think she's doing great things with the characters and a sprawling space opera setting. This book left me really curious how far she's going to follow Alexander's historical career.

R. F. Kuang, Babel: This book is incredible. Magic here revolves around translation, and so a young Chinese boy is adopted by a British scholar and raised to be fluently bilingual; eventually he is sent to the great translation center in 19th-century Oxford. Here he and his peers, however, find themselves at the core engine of British imperialism, with all the ethical dilemmas that come with it. The book really captures the joy and camaraderie that can come through scholarship, but also has very sharp things to say about imperialism and exploitation. Intensely emotional, I'm happy to provide warnings/spoilers if desired.

Ann Leckie, Translation State: A much lighter take on translation, this is set in the Imperial Radch universe and, to my delight, explores what's up with the incredibly weird Presger translators. I don't really want to give anything more away; this was a really fun ride.

Arkady Martine, Rose/House: Super creepy novella involving a famous architect's AI-controlled house. Tons of mood and atmosphere.

Katherine Addison, The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones: Two books picking up one of the side characters from The Goblin Emperor (which is also wonderful) and following his new routine. Thara Celehar's ability to touch a dead person and see their memories puts him in a role of problem-solver and sometime-investigator. These books are wonderfully humane and surround the protagonist with an array of compelling friends, colleagues, and clients.

All of these are recommended!

[theygotbitchesinmedia]

the imperial radch books are some of my favorites of all time!! i think in a way ann leckie kind of laid down the architecture that a lot of the past decade or so of sf has built on?? im not good at being eloquent about books but i feel like there’s like an entire subgenre of space opera that’s like. if not actually a response to ancillary justice then u can at least tell it’s downstream of it. it’s in the water. the series does a lot of interesting stuff with colonialism and gender and what it means to be a part of the (literal) machinery of empire & whether you can separate yourself from it. also raises several important questions such as: can you do yuri with a spaceship? and: what if you were far far from home and ran into the ghost of everything you’ve lost? and what if that person fucking sucked?

also is obviously in conversation with the left hand of darkness! which manifests in some fun ways imo

this is a really good pitch. i hope the answer to the spaceship yuri question is 'yes'. I haven't read left hand of darkness, or much space opera in general. frankly at the end of the day i feel like i haven't really read much of anything, which is why i'm trying to focus on reading proper books right now. so i wont have much for frame of reference for comparison yet, but thats its own kind of fun

[gideonisms]

the thing about the imperial radch books is like. The second two are cozy science fiction focusing on activism and finding your people. And the first one is a morally grey space opera with a harrowing exploration of grief, optimism, and the ways an empire constrains the free will of its citizens. Like I appreciate the second two for what they are I also have seen and loved many episodes of star trek but you have to admit the first one was messy and dramatic in a way that appeals to the htn enjoyers among us

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

Provenance

Space opera standalone set in the world of the Imperial Radch trilogy

a young woman who wants to gain her foster-mother’s favour to have a chance at being named heir, frees a thief from a prison planet to get information about a priceless artifact

But things immediately go wrong and when she arrived home there’s a murder and an escalating political conflict