The best space opera books from Next Chapter [March 2023]
The space opera genre of science fiction is a beloved subgenre that focuses on epic adventures, often set in the far reaches of space. These stories typically feature larger-than-life characters, epic battles, and sweeping themes of good versus evil. Space opera often involves interstellar conflict, advanced technology, and intergalactic politics, creating a rich and complex fictional universe for readers to explore.
One of the defining features of space opera is its emphasis on spectacle and excitement. These stories are often action-packed and full of thrilling set pieces, from starship battles to daring escapes. The stakes are high, and the fate of entire worlds or civilizations may hang in the balance. At the same time, space opera often incorporates elements of romance, humor, and adventure, making it a genre that is both thrilling and entertaining.
Many space opera stories are part of larger series or franchises, allowing readers to immerse themselves in a fully-realized fictional universe. Some of the most iconic examples of space opera include Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dune. With its focus on adventure, action, and spectacle, space opera has become a beloved and enduring subgenre of science fiction that continues to captivate readers and viewers around the world.
Anyway, here you’ll find some of the best space opera books from Next Chapter as of March 2023. All of our books are available in eBook, paperback and (soon) audio. If you read eBooks, some of the titles below are completely free to download from Amazon, Apple Books, Rakuten Kobo, Barnes & Noble and Google Books.
Check out the links below for reviews and where to buy - and if you enjoy one of them, please don’t forget to leave a review! Don’t agree with our choices? Please comment and let us know your favorite :)
Books featured on this page
Savage World (Babel Series Book 1) by Jennifer Slusher and Linda Thackeray
Symbiosis (Justice Keepers Saga Book 1) by R.S. Penney
Savage World (Babel Series Book 1) by Jennifer Slusher and Linda Thackeray
Book excerpt
It was never wise to make hasty calculations even in the face of impending disaster.
Just being off by a fraction may seem insignificant, but in astrophysics, it was the difference between life and death. Instead of emerging from the Ribbon a little over a light year away from their destination, they’d overshot their exit point by seven light years. A journey intended to take four weeks now stretched into its sixth month. Never in the history of the world, were there such grave consequences for not carrying a zero.
Dr. Albert Nakamura stared at the faces before him, wishing it was anyone else but he who made it.
No one blamed him, of course, not the inventor of the Ribbon Drive responsible for saving humanity. His original prototype was being installed in a test flight ship given to him by his project funders, The Tiger Alliance (the federation of Asian nations). Albert had just been about to sign off on the installation when astronomers all over Sol flew into a panic.
Something very large had hit the sun, something with enough reactive material to destabilise its solar fission. Every instrument they possessed showed the core of the sun collapsing on itself and when critical mass was reached, it would go nova taking the entire solar system with it. It would happen fast and no science they possessed could stop it.
Extinction would happen, not in seven billion years, but in a matter of weeks.
Suddenly Nakamura's drive went from being a prototype to humanity's last hope for survival. Frantically re-designing the device and increasing its output by a thousand, he worked around the clock to develop a working model while across the solar system, the evacuation lottery to choose several thousand people out of ten billion began.
As luck would have it, critical mass arrived a week early. One final act of Murphy’s Law.
By that time, most of the people were already on board the ships and the military were on route to pick up final passengers. Nakamura made his calculations and rolled the dice, praying the Ribbon Drive would work as the solar system started to disintegrate and wipe out nearly ten billion people with it.
It did and humanity achieved the ability to fold space.
Twenty-five ships went through. For weeks before, smaller vessels not outfitted with a Ribbon drive had been leeched onto the larger ones with dry dock clamps and cables, like infant sharks pressed against their mother’s belly. Of those twenty-five capital ships, twenty survived the gravimetric turbulence. Some of the older models, simply not made for such travel, broke up in transit. Nakamura tried not to think about the people on board who were lost. The drive’s success was pyrrhic but at least they reached their destination on the far side of the spiral arm.
Symbiosis (Justice Keepers Saga Book 1) by R.S. Penney
Book excerpt
The little bar was lit by sunlight that streamed in through stained-glass windows, casting patterns of coloured light across the round tables that were spaced out on a black hardwood floor. Odd bits of paraphernalia were hung up on the walls: transit signs, news articles, pictures of famous athletes over a century old.
Jena Morane took a stool.
A tall woman in gray pants and a red t-shirt with a white diamond across the chest, she had the face of an eighteen-year-old girl and the hair of a twelve-year-old boy. “Lovely afternoon, Leras,” she said, accepting the bottle of beer that the bartender set down on the counter. “Wouldn't you say?”
With a quick twist of the wrist, Jena popped the cap and watched thin mist rise from the skinny blue bottle. Chilled to perfection, as always. There were reasons why she came to this establishment.
The woman behind the bar was tall and slender, dressed in a black skirt and t-shirt that matched her long dark hair. Her face was breathtaking with smooth copper skin and large dark eyes. There were reasons why she came to this establishment.
Jena brought the bottle to her lips. She closed her eyes and took a long swig, tilting her head back. “Now, that was heavenly,” she said, setting her bottle on the counter. “Just got in from the Outer Systems.”
“Trouble?” Leras inquired.
Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, Jena winced. “Rounded up a few Flash dealers,” she muttered. “Three deaths before the locals even thought to call us.”
Leras pursed her lips as she studied Jena. She arched a thin, dark eyebrow. “It took them that long?” she asked, her voice laced with incredulity. “Haven't they received the information packets the government sent out on that substance?”
Jena bit her lip as she stared down at the counter. She shook her head with a heavy sigh. “They've got it,” she said, snatching up her bottle. “They just don't want to believe any of it.”
“I know they'd rather be independent,” Leras said with a skeptical expression. “But surely not at the cost of lives.”
It was all Jena could do not to sigh. That was the problem with Core Worlders: they had grown so used to the comfortable lifestyle they had developed, they never thought to wonder why settlers on the Fringe would crave independence. Gentle, loving Leyria – the caring home world. If the government had its way, it would round up all the colonists who had gone into space and bring them home to “take care of them.”
Leras, just like everyone else on this planet, had grown up with plenty, and so she understood little of the frontier spirit. Of course, the homeworld had a valid point; far too often, the colonies tried to tackle problems that were just too big for them.
“Why wouldn't they call for assistance?”
Jena grinned into her lap, a touch of heat singeing her cheeks. “Politics,” she muttered. “Keepers have a tendency to ride in on a white horse and micromanage the entire situation.”
“But…”
Jena frowned, then looked up to fix her gaze on the other woman. She blinked in confusion. “You still see us as the guardians of truth and justice,” she said. “Maybe the Nassai see it that way too. But we have our faults.”
“Sometimes,” a man's voice proclaimed. “I think you might be a little too focused on those faults, Operative Morane.”
Having dimmed the spatial awareness that came with a Nassai bond – there were times when you didn't want eyes in the back of your head – Jena had failed to notice the man who had slipped in through the front door.
Children Of The White Star by Linda Thackeray
Book excerpt
Justin!
Where are you, Justin?
Surrounded by the fiery remains of golden stalks, she called out once more, but no answer came, only the braying of dying animals over the crackle of fire. Tears ran down her cheeks, either from smoke or anguish. Frantic, she continued to run like a rat caught in a maze with no exit.
What are you looking for? He wanted to ask her, but he was only a phantom in this dreamscape. Despite numerous visits to this place, he'd never found anyone but her. She was alone in this field, with only the exotic creatures around her for company. White birds, herds of large docile bovines and ludicrous animals that bounced across the landscape on powerful hind legs.
Justin!
She cried out again. She slipped past the edges of panic and ran headlong into hysteria. Terror gripped her, although he suspected she did not fear for herself. Whatever she sought with such desperation made any thoughts of self-preservation secondary. Even when the smoke overwhelmed her, she stumbled forward doggedly, determine to keep searching.
Once she crested the hilltop, she paused to catch her breath and wiped the sweat from her brow. Surveying the terrain, she glimpsed something that made her eyes widen and her expression flood with relief.
Justin, stay where you are!
Justin. The word exploded within his skull almost as loudly as the explosions from the assault above.
To his shock, he realised he understood her. For the first time, he knew what she was saying!
She sprinted quickly down the incline towards him. A reservoir of hidden strength surfaced inside her, now that she had reason to hope. She bolted forward like some powerful preternatural creature emerging from the fires of the world. She had never appeared more magnificent.
The explosion came with a deafening roar.
Once more, time froze in a terrible instant. The blast lifted her off her feet and flung her backwards, like a marionette being dragged off the stage. She hit the ground hard. The weight of her body made a sickening crunch as it landed. Her torso became a charred mess of sizzling bone and cooked flesh while her eyes stared vacantly into the sky, seeing nothing. A trickle of blood traced a thin crimson line from the corner of her lip.
Cube Rube by Scott Michael Decker
Book excerpt
They walked the long avenue leading into the city of Perth on the garbage planet Corolla Tertius in the constellation Coronis Australis. On either side of the avenue stood slatted fences, little obscuring what lay beyond them. Mountains of junk soared in haphazard profusion, eclipsing any sight of the horizon. The gray, sultry sky seemed inadequate to contain the voluminous discard, the detritus of a hundred thousand occupied worlds.
Corolla Tertius had been Jack's first stop after stowing away on the garbage scow from Alpha Tuscana when he was twelve years old. Undeniably, the garbage planet held a comforting familiarity for him.
The mountains of refuse on either side of the avenue appeared to be moving. Upon closer inspection, the refuse itself wasn't actually moving, but hordes of scavengers were. The gleaners, they were called, picking through recently-dumped scow-loads of garbage for materials that might be recycled or reused.
Jack had been among them when he'd first arrived on Corolla Tertius, happy to explore what had been dumped here as garbage. One person's junk …
"How come we're walking?" Misty asked, flitters whizzing past both ways on the avenue.
"'Cause Jack can't even afford a taxi, much less all the gowns, jewels, staff, and what-not that an arriving princess will be expected to wear, not to mention the fuel needed to get to Torgas Prime." The stench of garbage on either side was nearly overpowering.
She glared at him from under her brow.
"I said I'd get you there, right?" he asked, annoyed.
"Yeah?" Her voice looped upward, the question audible.
"So you can trust me to do that, Princess Misty Circi, or you can ask someone else." He didn't expect her to understand all the variables and hurdles, but he did expect her to have some patience.
"All right, I just might."
He raised an eyebrow at her, stepping around what was clearly a gear casing for a landing strut. Must've fallen over the fence, he thought, the fence bulging precariously from the weight of junk it tried to contain. "Just might what?"
"Trust you," she said, smiling with that perfect, classic face.
A face that opened the joy in his heart. He didn't know why, but just looking at her gave him hope and instilled in him a sense of redemption and purpose.
He'd had little enough of all three in his life.
Ahead was a warefront—the front of a warehouse—whose shoddy appearance lent itself to the idea that it might have grown out of the junk behind it. The smell wasn't any better inside than out.
A weather-beaten, toothless derelict looked up from a glasma counter in better shape that he was. "That you, Jack?"
"Sure is, Busby. Look at you, workin' the counter. Moving up in the galaxy!"
The two men embraced. "What brings you back, boy?" He threw his working eye toward the girl, the glasma one remaining fixed to Jack's face.
Ten Light-Years To Insanity by C.M. Dancha
Book excerpt
“Sir, you better come down to the communications chamber.”
“Have you made contact with Officer Morg?”
“No, sir.”
“Then, what’s the problem?”
“The transport is…. has vanished.”
“What? I’ll be right there.”
The Lead Trifect left his office and waddled through the palace hallways to the communications chamber. Yandan were not known for being fleet of foot. Their eight-toed feet with sharp spurs protruding from each heel prevented a full stride. Otherwise, their legs were perfect for running. Large, muscular thighs plus long and tight calves were an ideal combination for speed. The only way a Yandan could take advantage of his well-developed legs for running was to have the spurs surgically removed. The trade-off was that he wouldn't have them to use in hand-to-hand combat. Also, they grew back in six months, requiring another costly surgery.
The palace was huge and getting to the communications chamber took over thirty minutes. As he saluted to underlings and swerved to avoid hitting others, the Lead Trifect wondered, “What the hell do all these Yandans do?” There were thousands of them filtering in and out of offices and scurrying though the hallways. Certainly, many of them were the rear echelon for military operations. They made sure the soldiers had the equipment and provisions needed to kill the enemy and stay alive. They were an absolute necessity considering Yanda's business was war. A sizable number of the others ran the government's assistance programs. The average, non-military Yandan was a ward of the State relying on the government for all the basic necessities of life. That accounted for many of these beings, but he couldn’t shake the question. “Does it really take this many Yandans to run the planet?”
As he turned the last corner into the communication chamber, he made a mental note to look into this question. It was about time to have a committee evaluate the government’s payroll budget. It needed to answer some simple questions. Was there a duplication or triplication of work by different government departments? Had some jobs outlived their need or usefulness? Were new jobs created for good or frivolous reasons? He suspected that too many employees was one reason why the planet had a tough time making ends meet.
There were five Yandans in the communication chamber. The other two Trifect stood in a corner whispering to each other. They had sheepish and dour expressions on their faces. The three communications experts sat at the control panels pretending to play with the digital dials. All of them tried to avoid the Lead Trifect’s piercing stare. It didn't take a genius to know he wasn’t going to like the impending conversation topic.
“Brothers, what the hell is going on?”
Well, there you have it - the best space opera books from Next Chapter in 03/2023. We hope you enjoy the stories - and if you do, please leave a comment below or a review in Goodreads or your favorite store. It would mean a lot to us!
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