Space Opera: Group Reads, Challenges and General Discussion

This thread is all about space opera! It was created primarily for the following purposes:

• Continuation of the 2014 Vorkosigan group read.
  
• Advance planning for the Liaden group read in August. (Note that there will be a separate thread created for the group read itself.)
  
• General discussion of your favourite space opera series or standalone books.
  

Useful links related to the Liaden group read:

• Year-long Liaden group read, hosted by ronincats in the 75 Books group
  
• August SFFCAT thread

Some useful links related to the Vorkosigan group read:

• Wiki page for this group read
  
• The original 2014 group read thread
  
• Bujold's own recommendations regarding reading order.
  
• The list of books in publication order
  
• The list of books in chronological order

The following threads are from the 2014 group:

• Cordelia's Honor group read
  
• Young Miles group read
  
• Miles, Mutants and Microbes group read
  
• Miles, Mystery and Mayhem group read
  
• Miles Errant group read

Yes! I'm excited that this is continuing since I've so enjoyed (and sadly, failed) reading the Vorkosigan series in 2014! Thanks very much!!!

Paulina you are the best! Thank you for organizing us.

Thanks for creating this. I'll sign up here :0)

Personally I'm an Ivan fan rather than on Team Miles, but I'm here nonetheless. ;)

Glad to see you all here! What are your plans for the year?

I have 4 more Vorkosigan books to read: Falling Free, Memory, Cryoburn and Mirror Dance.

I'll also be participating in the Liaden challenge. I might read one or two books from the series ahead of time but I'll be going all out in August.

I finished Memory and it is my favorite so far. I'm glad I took Roni's advice to read it on the heels of Mirror Dance. Not easy because Mirror Dance is long but they are very linked. Actually, I listen rather than read. I am going to rotate the audios with the Dresden Files and when I'm done with Vorkosigan then I'll get started on the Liaden books.

I did request the audio of The Martian from the library so that will be in my mix somewhere too.

3. Shards of Honor was one of my Christmas presents, so if you want to do a tandem read, let me know.

I've updated my books read on the Vor wiki.

I ended up missing out on the Vorkosigan group read last year but hopefully will get it started this time around. I have gone with a space opera book for my first read of the year but it's not a Vorkosigan. I've had The Risen Empire (the omnibus edition containing both books) by Scott Westerfeld on my tbr for a while and weighing in at over 700 pages fits my chunksters criteria. Just over a couple of hundred pages in so far and quite enjoying it.

>8 luvamystery65: I'll keep this order in mind. Both Mirror Dance and Memory are on my TBR list for 2015. I've listened to a couple of the Vorkosigan books on audio and thought the narrator was very good. Unfortunately, the audio versions are not easily available to me through the library system, and as I already have the ebooks, it's hard to justify the purchase of more.

>9 BookLizard: Nice Christmas present! I enjoyed that book very much.

>10 humouress: Thanks for doing that. This is a good time to remind everyone that, although the title of the Wiki page says 2014, we can continue using this into 2015:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2014_Group_Read:The_Vorkosigan_Saga

>11 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks for the recommendation. I loved Westerfeld's Leviathan series and have been wanting to read more of his work. I have a "Fantasy Doorstoppers" category this year for those chunksters. Maybe I should change it to "SFF Doorstoppers".

Thanks for continuing this along into 2015, Paulina. I have really enjoyed every Vorkosigan book that I have read so far and hope to continue with a few more this year. My next one will be Brothers In Arms.

Finished and reviewed The Risen Empire which you can see here if you're so inclined. Very different to his YA books that I'd read and would be very interested if he decided to write some more like it.

I've finished Labyrinth and will review it ... sometime.

Now to work out if I have the next in the series, and if not, how to acquire it. (Buy more books?!)

Miles Errant is next in the Vorkosigan series for me but probably not until Feb.

There's a new Vorkosigan book coming out in 2016! Featuring Cordelia! *dances around the room in excitement*

Link: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/8046824-new-book

Woohoo!!!

Excellent!

>17 kgodey: Fantastic news!!

I am going to start Komarr tomorrow morning on my commute to work. Love these audios and I am fortunate enough to get them on Hoopla via my local library system.

Next Vorkosigan book for me is Memory but I probably won't get to it this month.

>22 leslie.98: So far Memory has been my favorite!

I finished Pandora's Star an excellent space opera.

Hey, y'all, thought some of you might be interested in this. It certainly fits into this category.

Let me advertise the latest project. Last year during the year-long read of Bujold's Vorkosigan series, the possibility of a similar year-long read of Lee and Miller's Liaden Universe series was bruited about for this year. What with all the issues with my brother's cancer the first part of the year, I never followed up on it, but I'm now looking for people who might want to participate in a July through June format. This would be for people currently reading in the Universe, people who want to give it a try for the first time, and those who are up for a reread or simply love to talk about the books. There is no "schedule"--you simply post when you are reading a book and invite discussion about it if you wish. It's really just an excuse to add a bit of impetus to reading these books. Suggested reading order on my thread (http://www.librarything.com/topic/191746)--let me know if any of you might be interested.

This is my OTHER favorite space opera series, so if you are interested, let me know. I'll set up a thread if I get enough interest.

>25 ronincats: We already have a month-long Liaden group read planned for August, to coincide with the August SFFCAT theme, which is Space Opera. However, that is no reason for you not to go ahead with a year-long Liaden read. I would love to participate in it! (I might wait until August to start myself, though, as my June and July reads are already lined up, and I'll be lucky to get through all of those!)

I had planned to hold the August discussion here, but if you're creating a separate thread, we can ask people to post there instead.

If you'd be willing to consider starting in August, that could be a good "launching off" point. Some of those who had expressed interest are new to Liaden and maybe they will find the books compelling enough to stay around. However, if you and others are eager to get going in July, then I see no problem with that either. :)

>26 mathgirl40: I thought Roni was doing a June - July read and asked her to extend to August on her thread. Either way I'll participate in the group or both threads if that ends up being the case.

I didn't know about the Category Challenge group read, as this thread and individuals are all I usually keep in touch with over here. Yes, my schedule was going to be July 2015 through June 2016 since there are 18 books plus short stories, similar in structure to the Vorkosigan read last year.

Paulina, I'd love to work together on this with you. I was thinking of setting the thread up July 1, with some discussions of reading order and the like, but we could make the big push to get every one to commit to reading at least their first book by the end of August? Then if people wanted to get a head start on it, they could, and those who wished to continue reading in the series would still have a venue after August.

This came to the top of my mind, recalling the idea of the year-long read, after gorging myself on Dragon in Exile on Tuesday and Wednesday, very satisfying but definitely not the place for a newbie to start.

>28 ronincats: This sounds very promising Ro and Paulina. I was getting depressed because I am winding down on my Vorkosigan books but now I have Liaden to look forward to!

>28 ronincats: That sounds perfect! If you can set up the thread for July 1, we'll add a link to it from here. I think early discussion, especially of reading order, would be very useful, and people who are eager to get reading can start. In August, when the SFFCAT thread is up, we'll let people there know where they can find the discussion. Many thanks for offering to set up this group read, Roni!

>29 luvamystery65: I'm not quite finished with my Vorkosigan reading but I'm getting near the end. I'm halfway through Mirror Dance now, and after that, I just have Memory, Cryoburn and Falling Free to go. I had read the Miles in Love works earlier. I would love to reread those one day but I'll spend some time with the Liaden series first.

You are further along than I am >30 mathgirl40:! I just started Memory but still have Miles, Mutants and Microbes and Miles in Love to go in addition to Cryoburn & Captain Vorpatril's Alliance...

I have a number of Vorkosigan books still to read and am planning on one in August, but I think I will be able to squeeze in the first in the Liaden series then as well. Looking forward to exploring another space opera series!

someday I hope to sample Liaden but I'm hardly making a dent in my read/re-read of Bujold and there are several other space operas on my horizon that I want to sample as well. I've kept my eyes open for Liaden books but they are rare birds. I've only found two used in various places in the last two years. My library system does have four of the most recent but I know I need to start somewhere near the beginning. Hope everyone has fun on the Liaden read.

Let me point out to everyone that both Agent of Change and Fledgling are free for the Kindle and, I presume, other ebooks, and that you can read them on your computer with a free application if you don't have an e-reader. Also, you can get the first two books (IMHO Agent of Change and Conflict of Honors) used for $4 even including postage.

ETA I think most of them are available through Audible as well.

>34 ronincats: thanks for mentioning that Roni. I don't have a kindle but I added Agent of Change about a year ago in case I eventually did get one or else I can use the kindle reader for PC. I have read a very few books that way but they take me forever. I just added Fledgling thanks to you!

If you go directly to Baen Ebooks, you'll find the Liaden books at this link.

Agent of Change and Fledgling are free of charge, in a variety of formats. The older books are reasonably priced, at 6.99 USD each, and some are available in collections.

I stayed up way too late listening to Grover Gardner narrating Memory! Seems to be a pivotal book in the Vorkosigan series as it wrapped up several story arcs; now I am curious to see what comes next!

The Liaden Universe thread is up!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/192715

>38 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I suggest that we all do our August Liaden group read planning and discussion there. I'll mention this in the August SFFCAT thread when it's up. I hope we'll also talk about the Liaden books in that thread, so that we can encourage more people to try the books.

ETA: I've added the link to the second message in this thread so it will be easier to find.

I'm intro'ing the August SFFCAT and will do my best to highlight this. I'd planned on highlighting the Liaden universe so this will definitely be fitting. And, I'm in!

I am still working my way through the Vorkosigan series from last year! Don't think I can pick up another series just yet.

I have progressed to Bujold's omnibus Miles in Love, which I am enjoying very much. About halfway through (in the early part of A Civil Campaign)...

I just wanted to mention that majkia has started the August SFFCAT thread, and this month's theme includes space opera, so I encourage you to discuss your August reads there too.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/193511

Also, don't forget that we'll be holding our discussions for the August Liaden group read in this thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/192715