#space opera romance

[elliottkay]

You ever wish your favorite sci-fi focused more on romance, comedy, and sexytimes than all that threats-to-the-galaxy stuff? Ever wanted a good boy-meets-robot alien polyamory story that still brings the space lasers and kicks a corporate CEO in the junk?

I did, so I wrote it. And now it's available in audio, narrated by the incredible Tess Irondale! (And ebook and paperback, of course!)

Riley Morgan desperately needs a reset on his life. Pit fights with aliens and illegal salvage jobs are barely enough to get by—until a salvage op turns up a beautiful stranger in a stasis pod and a clear case of kidnapping. Helping her means throwing away what’s left of his life. The trouble only gets deeper when the stranger turns out to be a wildly illegal artificial intelligence built for assassination.

Like Riley, Selene has been used and abused by her bosses… and like Riley, she longs for a life of her own choosing. Riley and Selene are ready for the struggle ahead. They aren’t ready for the dangerous and sexy aliens in their way, or the glitzy parties and corporate conspiracies, and they certainly aren’t ready for the spark between one another.

WARNING: HOT RESTART contains explicit violence, explicit sex, explicit language, polyamory, murder, kidnapping, assault, acrimony, perfidy, theft, numerous bisexuals, defenestrations, conspiracies, death and mourning, threesomes, space capitalism, interspecies hookup culture, surly co-workers, judgmental aliens, embarrassing humans, smuggling, stalking, strafing, lap-dancing, sexual promiscuity, self-discovery, self-defense, post-coital robo-violence, hedonism, exhibitionism, intimidation, surveillance, rejection, abrupt breakups, betrayals, ambushes, espionage, gang activity, false identities, pool hustling, alien/human sexytimes, questionable salvage practices, intended torture, destruction of private property, hallway foreplay, alien insectoid pseudo-anarcho-socialism, clueless appropriation of human culture for restaurant entrepreneurship, shooting, punching, kicking, flirting, taunting, aerial combat, abusive leadership, destruction of evidence, unsanitary transit through hotel ventilation, a CEO who isn’t trash, relationship boundary conversation during combat, outstanding man-ass, an amorphous alien gel-person looking for a good time, and protagonists dressed in their underwear or less for five consecutive chapters.

[betterbooksandthings]

"Romances in space are just out of this world. Love in the dangerous, endless expanse of space isn’t easy. Traveling far distances in ships that you often cannot leave is challenging in the best of conditions. In space, the door is locked and you have to make it work. Interplanetary travel, adventure, and romance are not for the faint of heart. Good thing I have some entertaining books to pick up instead of making the trip yourself.

My favorite romances in space involve a level of mystery, political intrigue, and danger. There is just something about a romantic pairing in trouble that really sells me on their mutual respect, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. When you are in space and in trouble, sometimes love is part of the answer, and I think that’s fun."

[ladyinbooks]

Tidying up the next RP chapter today. Small spoiler: there are two three characters I'm very excited for everyone to meet.

Unfortunately these characters have a whole bunch of backstory, and more-story, and hello yes I am also elbows-deep in plotting a book about them (it may be two books - you see the escalation problem I have here?!). And I thought 'given all the inevitable space politics and the length of this potential thing, maybe this would be better suited for actual, y'know, traditional publishing in the space opera genre? So people don't have to read quite so much politicking with their romance?'

And then I thought, 'Nah. AO3. Clearly I am meant to subject as many people as possible to free space politics, for fun'. 🤣

(And this thing already includes an arranged marriage, backstabbing, enemies to lovers, slow burn, politics, politics, politics, spying, tragedy, characters earning happy ending(s), feminisation kink, drama, gratuitous use of the word 'wife', betrayal, size kink, 'is it true love if I don't stab him at least once?', and as much fake mythology as I can cram into this bad boy. 😭)

I have... become a little carried away with this...

[charliejaneanders]

Marcus Aurelius crashed my attempt to make a cool tableau to let y'all know that my YA threequel PROMISES STRONGER THAN DARKNESS is out in paperback today 😹🚀🎉🎸⚡💕💃

[ettawritesnstudies]

Indie Book Review: Suspended in the Stars

Synopsis A girl in hiding. A boy on the run. The fate of the galaxy between them. When Talie Zarna is forced to hide rogue soldier, Renner Cartha, her life isn’t the only thing threatened. Living as the famed Soaring Staress on the circus spaceship Midway masks her true identity, but Renner’s very presence threatens to draw unwanted attention. As a former royal guard, Renner holds secrets of his…

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Principle of Moments

start of a scifi space opera series

a teen girl in the far future where humans are oppressed learns she has a destiny & a lost sister and escapes

and a young time traveler who’s given up trying to find his father through time, and is about to settle in 1812 with the prince he loves, but is unwillingly thrust into the future

they both learn their fates are entangled by a prophecy, and have to race across the galaxy, followed by a galactic emperor and the legacy of heroes from an ancient religion

[mysticstarlightduck]

🌹 Who's the flirty one and who gets shy and flustered?

Thanks for the ask, @kaylinalexanderbooks!

I'll go with some of the couples from Supernova Initiative!

🌹 Who's the flirty one and who gets shy and flustered?

SUPERNOVA INITIATIVE

Jack & Lyorna

Flustered/Shy One - Jack. Despite being very extroverted and outspoken, Jack is incredibly awkward and shy when it comes to matters of romance. It is partly due to the fact that he is a strongly sex-repulsed asexual who feels too uncomfortable to try and flirt, but also because his self-esteem isn't the best so he doesn't even consider himself flirting with someone as a plausible course of action. He is also, despite his adventurous lifestyle, completely inexperienced (not naive though, he probably knows more than he should lol) when it comes to matters of sex and romance.

Flirty One - Lyorna. But in like a sweet and endearing way. She is aware of Jack's shyness when it comes to flirting and romance, and so her "flirts" with him are generally on the more wholesome, cutesy side, y'know. Like, she loves showing him that she appreciates the things he does and always tries to lift up his self-esteem when she can through subtle ways, so her flirting mostly comes through as a supportive friendship with romantic moments, and Jack rather likes it as it is, even though he was initially clueless to her advances at first. Now, he has gotten to the point where he himself engages in this form of "flirting" with Lyorna, something he would have never have considered possible.

Relationship Song - La Da Dee - Cody Simpson

Vesper & Deimos

Flustered/Shy One - Both (most of the time). Both Deimos and Vesper are pretty emotionally stunted young adults with painfully introverted personalities who often come across as either too harsh, awkward, or strange to strangers. When they first met and had to work together, they weren't even friends, they had a rivalry (like, "I don't like you cause I don't want to" type of rivalry), but begrudgingly realized they had started to care for each other and had no idea what to do with that information for a long, long while lol.

Flirty One - Vesper (on rare occasions lol). She was the first one to verbalize/act out her feelings towards Deimos, though her first attempt was pretty harsh/unromantic (it was very much a "shut up you idiot I fucking love you!" moment, because she hadn't meant to say it, and he didn't know how to react cause he realized he felt like that too). After that she was also the first one to try and be a bit more flirty, though both of them continued equally awkward in their own ways.

Relationship Song - I'm a Mess - Bebe Rexha

Noctus & Aleks

Flustered/Shy One - Noctus. He is very much a serious, "by the book" secret agent who has spent his entire life (that he remembers of) following orders and being the Junction's perfect soldier. He had never considered love and romance as a factor he desired in his life, and when he first met Aleks he considered the bubbly troublemaker as unbearable, but grumpily found himself falling for him regardless. And later, much to his own surprise, found himself breaking protocol for the first time in his life in order to side with and save the love of his life and his friends.

Flirty One - Aleks. He is a very forward, funny kind of guy who is rather vocal about his feelings. Being a "prankster" type, Aleks is more than definitely the kind of young adult who makes suggestive jokes that often come across as the stupidest things in the world (deez nuts kind of jokes, for reference). This is part of the reason why the secret agent was often so exasperated by him and found him so insufferable. Aleks made his attraction to Noctus pretty clear from week one, though initially, he was actually just joking with the "uptight secret agent babysitting the crew" but later found himself actually meaning it.

Pax & Tarah

Flustered/Shy One - Pax. He is a young space cadet who has never dated before in his life and though he is very much up for "breaking the rules" and getting into trouble, Pax is also very much not ready for the level of recklessness and sheer dangerous excitement Gabi has to offer, which makes some of their interactions pretty interesting. Pax does try to be flirty on occasion but those attempts mostly come across as endearingly awkward.

Flirty One -Tarah. She is a very blunt, "speak things as they are" kind of girl, having been raised to be no-nonsense and generally direct. Though her attempts at flirting were initially as awkward as Pax's she quickly got better at it and now is the most forwardly romantic one of the duo - she also is the one who has the most "date ideas", though those ideas often involve at least some form of danger for her to consider them "thrilling enough" lol.

Supernova Initiative Taglist (-/+): @ray-writes-n-shit, @sarandipitywrites, @lassiesandiego, @smol-feralgremlin, @kaylinalexanderbooks,

@diabolical-blue @oh-no-another-idea

@cakeinthevoid, @clairelsonao3, @sleepy-night-child

@thepeculiarbird

@the-golden-comet, @urnumber1star

Let me know if you'd like to be added!

[grayrazor]

One thing I really like about C.S. Lewis' "Out of the Silent Planet" is how it tears apart the common sci-fi idea of "we've got to preserve the legacy of human history and culture forever and forever."

The Earth's all we've got, and it won't be around forever. Even if we move to another planet, our descendants won't be human forever, just as our ancestors weren't. Eventually the universe will forget us, but new life will take our place and live on.

[housebaylor]

2023 Books. ⋙ Only Bad Options by Jennifer Estep

“Once again, I was in a situation where I had only bad options. Sometimes I thought that was the sad story of my life. No good, easy, simple choices, only those that ranged from bad to worse to catastrophic.”

[coffeeangelinabox]

Whumpril #21: Just Hold On

“Just hold on.”

He looks up at her, blinded by tears, confusion; mind teetering on the very edge of insanity and catatonia. She’s the third?fourth?ninth? Jemma he’s seen. He’s seen her die again and again, shot and gutted, poisoned and choking, strangled and mutilated and murdered, sputtering in dirty water, gagging on her own blood. 

Then there’s another and another and another. 

All killed and dying and he useless to do anything but stand witness. 

“Just hold on,” she says again and drags him, stumbling down another hallway. It’s all he can do to keep his feet, weakness and grief and looming hysteria robbing him of both strength and coordination. The only thing that feels real is her hand in his, warm and sure (but then, so had the last Jemma’s and the one before that, and the one who had kissed him and tasted of desperation and fear).

He staggers to a knee and she jerks his grip hard, then spins and delivers a kick to his thigh. “Come on, Gene. Just a little further, a little more.” 

The words could be for either of them. He lurches up and follows. 

If it’s Jemma…he would follow her to the end of the world. If it’s the Domain…he doesn’t suppose refusing to play along with their twisted torture will actually work. 

She hesitates at a T junction. “Detention block,” she mutters. “The others are probably down there,” she half turns to the left. 

For the first time in three five?ten?eighteen? Jemmas, Gene speaks to her. “No.” His voice is rough, low, a mere whisper. 

“Gene?” She is instantly in front of him, all of her incisive focus on his face. The hand not crushed in his on his face. He can see the flicker of panic at the edges of her gaze, beneath the rock solid dependable strength he relies on.

“No,” he says again, a hair louder. “I can’t- can’t-” 

Can’t lose you again.

Can’t take the risk of seeing you interrogated because it really will drive me mad.

Can’t risk the others looking at you and telling me it’s someone…something else. 

“Are you hurt?” her eyes sharpen a little and the hand drops from his face to his chest then his ribs. 

That’s not exactly what he meant. He’s not wounded. He just…can’t.

Still, he nods. Darrow had left the first Jemma to die slowly on that cold floor instead of giving up any of his precious rebellion. Leave him. Gene has this Jemma and (for this lunatic moment at least) that is enough. 

She hesitates another second, the resolute loyalty he loves her for in his eyes. “Alright. We’ll get you aboard a ship and healed up and come back.” Then she’s tugging him forward again, down the right hand fork. “Just hold on.

[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

[just-an-enby-lemon]

I'm on the third mechs album and Iphis just solidifield to me that everytime a couple appears in this show they are going to have a tragic end somehow (and yes I'm still bitter over Red Rose and Cinders [Elisium made me cry and is just beatifull so Penelope and Odisseus can have their tragedy]).

[charliejaneanders]

Just a heads up: voting for the Hugo Awards is now open!

We've decided to make all three books in the Unstoppable trilogy available in the Hugo voters packet. So if you haven't gotten to these books yet, and you want to read about queer joy, space battles, defeating fascism, and serious debates about the ethics of violence, then now is your chance!!!

[outerspace-iiinnerspace]

i try so hard to be chill and not let things get to me if they arent actually causing harm but people getting the definitions of literary genres wrong makes it so difficult

[beedokwrites]

Update for my dark space opera, another chapter with our vampiric main character suffering the miseries of a failed coup attempt.

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads

Winter’s Orbit

standalone space opera/romance

when his cousin dies, an imperial prince is rushed into marrying the widower - an ambassador from a planet they have a tenuous treaty with - to control rising political hostilities

neither thinks the other is happy with the circumstances, but they have to put on appearances for the public - and when they find out the death might have been murder and they’re implicated, they start to uncover a web of treason within the court and empire

arranged marriage, politcs, set on a wintery planet