My Favorite Space Opera Books of the 21st Century… So Far!
M.G. HerronLast time, we did the Best Space Opera Books of the 20th Century. Any best-of list is a subjective opinion, and I make no claim to objectivity—I‘m a reader and writer of space opera, not an omniscient Inquisitor or some Holy Emperor of Mankind.
For last century, at least, I had the benefit of time: awards, critical reception, staying power. Those books are backlist now, some of them still carrying real weight for their publishers.
Making that same call about books published in this century? I‘m not going there yet. But I‘ve read a lot of space opera this century, and I have plenty to say about them.
Here are my favorite space opera novels published since the year 2000.
So far. More great space opera gets published every year, and this list will keep evolving.
7. Star Nomad (2016) by Lindsay Buroker
Alisa Marchenko flew fighters for an empire that lost. Now she runs cargo on a ship held together with debt and stubbornness, until a job goes sideways and drags her back into the war she thought she‘d walked away from.
Why it‘s here: A captain, a crew, and a war that isn‘t over just because the treaty got signed—indie space opera doing what it does best.
If you like this, what to read next:
- Republic by Lindsay Buroker
- Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos
- Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell
6. Planetside (2018) by Michael Mammay
Colonel Carl Butler gets pulled out of retirement to find a general's son, MIA and presumed dead on a planet the war supposedly left behind. Nothing about the case adds up, and the deeper Butler digs, the more it looks like the official story was written to keep him from asking questions.
Why it‘s here: Military SF with a mystery's spine—Mammay keeps the war in the background and the investigation in front, and the tension never lets up.
If you like this, what to read next:
- Armor by John Steakley
- Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
- Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach
5. Leviathan Wakes (2011) by James S.A. Corey
An ice hauler answers a distress call and gets destroyed for it. Jim Holden survives with a scratch crew and a grudge; detective Miller is looking for a missing woman who turns out to be carrying something that isn‘t supposed to exist. Their two cases collide, and so does the solar system.
Why it‘s here: The noir plot and a political scheme stretching across the solar system pull equally hard; it never lets up.
If you like this, what to read next:
- Caliban's War by James S.A. Corey
- Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
4. Empire of Silence (2018) by Christopher Ruocchio
Hadrian Marlowe opens his own story by telling you he‘s the man who annihilated a sun and everyone on it. Then he backs up to his childhood in a Dune-shaped empire of palatine nobles, and makes you wait six hundred pages to find out if he‘s telling the truth.
Why it‘s here: A narrator who tells you upfront he destroyed a star, then spends the whole book making you believe it.
If you like this, what to read next:
- Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
3. Starship's Mage (2014) by Glynn Stewart
Damien Montgomery can fold space with his mind—an ability so rare it makes him property before it makes him useful. He signs onto a smuggling ship to survive, and the book runs jump magic through a smuggler‘s economy instead of a wizard‘s tower.
Why it‘s here: Jump magic instead of jump drives. It works and it's wicked fun.
If you like this, what to read next:
- Mage-Provocateur by Glynn Stewart
- The Lost Fleet: Dauntless by Jack Campbell
- We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
2. Children of Time (2015) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A terraforming experiment goes wrong on a planet called Kern‘s World: the nanovirus meant to accelerate monkeys into intelligence lands on spiders instead. Generations later, their civilization is thriving. A generation ship full of the last humans, fleeing a dead Earth, is on its way to claim the planet for themselves.
Why it's here: A story about intelligence evolving on its own terms and handling the passage of time in units that work on an evolutionary scale
If you like this, what to read next:
- Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Blindsight by Peter Watts
- The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
1. Old Man's War (2005) by John Scalzi
John Perry visits his wife‘s grave on his 75th birthday. Then he signs up for the army.
That‘s the hook of Old Man‘s War: the Colonial Defense Force only recruits senior citizens, on the theory that a life already lived makes a better soldier and why not, if you‘re going to die anyway?
The CDF transplants you into a new body—young, green-skinned, engineered for combat—and ships you off to fight for habitable worlds against a long roster of aliens who want the same real estate humanity does. Perry brings seventy-five years of dry wit with him.
Why it's here: Scalzi took the Heinlein boot-camp structure and made it funny, heartfelt, and with really cool warlike aliens I still think about
If you like this, what to read next:
- The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
- Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
- The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
If you like space opera novels, check out Relics of the Ancients, a military space opera series with killer xenos, intrepid starfighter pilots, and more alien relics than you can handle.
Save big with the exclusive book bundle—in ebook, audiobook or print.
If you like space opera novels, I’ve got a deal for you. Check out my series Relics of the Ancients—and save big with the book bundle in all formats.
