My wife and I are playing tourist in Seattle. Near the Space Needle is the EMP museum which has a Music + SciFi exhibit going on. (Think Daliaks next to Jimmy Hendricks - strange).
In the book store they had several racks of SciFi books with labels on each shelf describing the books. One of the racks held "Space Opera" and several titles my wife did not recognize.
"What is a Space Opera?" she asked me. To my shame, I could not honestly define it. I guessed it might mean a story that involves sweeping epic events or a story involving saving the universe.
The next morning I brought up Google and asked: "What is a space opera". I got several results but this first one bothered me:
Quote:
space op·er·a
noun NORTH AMERICAN informal
a novel, movie, or television program set in outer space, typically of a simplistic and melodramatic nature.
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I was a bit offended at the term "simplistic", but I kept digging.
I found this page that I cheerfully read to my wife until she laughed so hard she snorted her Starbucks out her nose (did I mention we are in Seattle?)
http://io9.com/5965187/top-ten-rules-of-space-opera
(Can someone tell me what story they were thinking of when saying a sassy stowaway is needed?)
The page was fun and included movie and TV show pictures, but did not include titles. But kept mentioning "melodrama". Perhaps I do not understand "melodrama" but I still cannot define what books are space operas (Ok, "Star Wars", "Foundation", are epics but too obvious.)
Please: List your favorite one or two space operas and tell me what makes them space operas. Feel free to use the "ten rules" page if you want.