I’m a huge fan of space operas, and a big fan of kick-ass female protagonists, and a series that combines both is my favorite. I can gobble them up like potato chips. I especially like it when there are lots of space ship battles and no mushy stuff to get in the way.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of reading.
Honor Harrington by David Weber
There are 15 books in this series, which is a classic for a reason. It’s a Horatio Hornblower story about a military commander, Honor Harrington herself, rising up through the ranks to take on bigger and bigger challenges.
Start with On Basilisk Station, which came out in 2012.
The most recent book, Toll of Honor, came out this past April, so Weber is still writing them. That’s a good enough reason to re-read them all from scratch — or to start fresh if you haven’t read it yet.
To be honest, there’s quite a bit of political intrigue in this series and plenty of two-dimensional characters but I enjoyed the pacing and the space battles. And I don’t mind that the characters are two-dimensional and aren’t particularly distinctive. It’s a space opera, and that’s what I’m looking for.
This series one of the best there is in the genre — by many accounts, the best — and it’s gloriously readable. It didn’t make me think any particular deep thoughts, and Honor herself is a bit of an idealized character, but that’s what you want in a space opera hero. I’m good with it. If Weber writes twenty more books in the series, I’m going to read them all.
All the older books are $6.99 each, except for the latest one, which is $9.99. They’re not in Kindle Unlimited, but David Weber is popular enough that your local library might have the entire series. Mine does, and my public library is tiny. Also, the publisher, Baen, has a free online library and some of David Weber’s books are in it. Here’s the free Baen download page for On Basilisk Station.
If you like this series, you should also check out the spin-off series, Honor Harrington: Saganami Island, and the books of short stories set in the same universe and written by various authors, Honor Harrington – Worlds of Honor.
On an unrelated note, I also liked his ten-book Safehold series and his four-book March Upcountry series.
I don’t think I’ve read his Fury series, with In Fury Born and Path of the Fury, featuring ex-commando leader Alicia DeVries, but I plan to check it out next.
Vatta’s War and Vatta’s Peace by Elizabeth Moon
Ky Vatta is also rising up through the ranks, but not in the military — she was kicked out because of a political scandal. But there’s a war brewing and there are plenty of opportunities for her to show her mettle outside of the normal military channels.
I recently re-read the entire series, and I still love it.
Like the other series in this list, there are plenty of space battles, lots of political intrigue, and minimal romance.
And Elizabeth Moon actually served in the military — she was a first lieutenant on active duty in the Marine Corps before she retired.
There are five books in Vatta’s War and two more books in the Vatta’s Peace sequel series. The books are $3.99 to $8.99 each and they’re not in Kindle Unlimited. The most recent book was published in 2018.
And if you like this series, I suggest reading The Serrano Legacy next, a seven-book series about Heris Serrano, a fleet officer forced to resign her commission because of some nastiness. The last book in this series came out in 2000, so it’s probably fair to say that this series is complete.
Moon is also the author of one of my favorite epic fantasy series, the three-book Paksenarrion Series. I actually own the paper version of this series, but it’s so heavy — and the font is so small! — that the next time I re-read it, it will be on my ebook reader.
Valor and Peacekeeper by Tonya Huff
Torin Kerr is a staff sergeant fighting in an endless against an implacable enemy that takes no prisoners.
Her squad has humans on it as well as a couple of different alien species. And there are multiple different species fighting against them, as well. That makes for some very interesting strategic decisions.
Like all the space operas on this list, the space tech feels quaint. In some ways, the characters in these books have very advanced technology, such as cool space ships and weapons. But in other respects, their communications and computers are already starting to seem dated and limited.
Still, the reasons why these wars are fought with ground troops seem reasonable in the context of the story, even though the wars currently being fought on our planet are increasingly dominated by drones. And it certainly makes for an interesting story. I mean, I’m sure sci-fi authors can make an electronic war seem interesting, but then we wouldn’t have hand-to-hand combat. Okay, not hand-to-hand. What do you call the things that insects have? Hand-to-arthropod leg. Anyway, very fun read. I re-read all the books last week, and read them all one right after the other.
There are five books in the Valor series and three books in Peacekeeper, but they’re all really part of the same continuous series. The action pretty much continues uninterrupted from one series to the next. The books range from $5.99 to $8.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited.
Huff also has an urban fantasy series, Blood Series, featuring private eye Vicki Nelson, that was made into a Lifetime television series. I plan to read that one next.
Kris Longknife by Mike Shepherd
At 19 books, this is the longest series on the list, and, in my opinion, the most action-packed, and the most over-the-top. Which, in my opinion, makes it fun.
The latest book, Stalwart, was published in 2019. The books range from $2.99 to $8.99 and are not in Kindle Unlimited, but the entire series is in Overdrive, so your library might have it.
And there are other related books, as well as two whole related series, Vicky Peterwald, which currently has five books in it, and the five-book Jump Universe series.
I’ve read all the books, most of them more than once, and will probably be re-reading the entire series again and soon as I forget what happens in it. Luckily, I’ve got a bad memory!
Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie
This is the most thought-provoking and literary of the series on this list, and which, deservedly, just won a Hugo.
These are not your typical spaceships-shooting-lasers-at-each-other-in-space kind of books, where the aliens, if there are any, are just people in different shapes.
There are actually five books set in this universe, but while the first three are awesome and epic., the last two, Translation State and Provenance are … well, they’re okay. Actually, they’re pretty good, they just pale in comparison to the first three books, which are galactic in scale and import.
I’ve read the first three books more than once, but I probably won’t re-read the last two.
All the books are $9.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited, but the entire series is in Overdrive and the author’s a pretty big name, so there’s a good chance you’ll find it in a library.
Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
This 16-book series features a number of different characters, most prominently Miles Vorkosigan, but the first book, and several others including the most recent one, are about space survey captain Cordelia Naismith. She finds hostile humans on a supposedly uninhabited planet — and falls in love with a bad guys known as the Butcher of Komarr. But I liked this series despite the love story.
Bujold has won a ton of awards for this series, which is amazingly fun to read. And Miles might not be a kick-ass woman, but he’s also a fun character, so I’m not holding his presence against the entire series.
The books are $6.99 to $7.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited, but, again, the entire series is in Overdrive and the author is pretty famous, so you should be able to find it. These are also older books, so you can find them in used bookstores as well.
Bujold has also written a ton of fantasy books, but her space opera series is my favorite.
Theirs Not to Reason Why by Jean Johnson
This is a five-book series about a woman from a distant, high-gravity world, who sees the future — and knows that in a few hundred years, the galaxy will be destroyed. Except there’s one, very narrow, path to survival.
Since she can see the future, she knows the odds of what will happen for pretty much any action she takes, or that anybody else takes, and pretty much can figure out what anyone anywhere in the galaxy is up to. That’s a hugely over-powered protagonist. But it’s still fun to see her leave her home planet and travel to Earth to join the military and rise up through the ranks in order to be in a position where she can affect the future. And there are plenty of fun space battles.
I just re-read the whole series a few days ago and loved it. I couldn’t put the books down.
The books are $3.99 to $7.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited, but the entire series is in Overdrive.
There’s also a prequel series set in the same universe, the three-book First Salik War series. I recently re-read that one, as well. It’s also readable and I pretty much read it in one big gulp. But, again, the protagonist is overpowered — she’s got psychic translation powers and can also levitate herself and other objects and read people’s minds and make people see things that aren’t there. But nothing much happens in these books. There are a couple of battles but for the most part they’re about politics and personal dynamics. Plus, since it’s a prequel, we know how it’s all going to end. If you like fast-paced action and lots of exploding spaceships, you might want to skip this one.
On Silver Wings by Evan Currie
This is a ten-book series written very much in the classic space opera style. The protagonist, Sorilla Aida, is a kick-ass soldier, the lone survivor of her team on a distant planet, protecting what’s left of the local human population against creepy alien invaders.
There’s a lot of action in this series. A lot. Currie writes some of the best hand-to-hand combat and some of the best space battles I’ve seen.
Aida has a lot of grit, and skill, and an almost super-human ability to face any challenge
There isn’t much politics or personal nuance or character growth in this series, it’s just straight-out action. There’s also no romance, which I also liked. Aida never has to worry about her emotions getting in the way of her killing someone.
The pace does slow down a bit in the last couple of books, but I enjoyed reading this series very much and look forward to anything similar that the author puts out. And if he writes more books in this series, I’ll read them as well.
The books are $2.99 to $4.99 each, and are also all in Kindle Unlimited, which makes up a bit for the fact that they are not in Overdrive. Some of the author’s other books are, however.
A Galaxy Unknown by Thomas DePrima
This eleven-book series is the most cartoonish of the lot. The protagonist, Jenetta Carver, starts out as a military academy student who’s good at math but bad at anything that requires making decisions under pressure. She’s considered unsuitable for command of a space ship, but might make a good science officer. On her first assignment, the ship she’s on blows up for unexplained reasons, and she’s the last to an escape pod because she struggles getting out of her nightgown. The explosion not only damages her escape pod but sends it off at an unexpected speed, so that rescue teams can’t find her.
After three months in the pod she gives up on any hope of rescue and locks herself into stasis. Her pod is found eleven years later by a cargo ship and she’s brought back to life. Then the crazy stuff begins. They’re attacked by pirates, and Jenetta suddenly develops nearly-magical abilities for military strategy, tactics, and command that nobody would have ever expected her to have. And things just get more and more insane.
The enemies are cartoonish, unrealistic, unredeemable bad guys. Her allies are cartoonish, one-dimensional characters who love everything about her and follow her every command. She takes insane risks and they always pay off. And even though the protagonist is female, there are some very… old-school… choices about plot points related to the her gender, and that of her enemies, allies, and the civilians she rescues. To take just one example, when she rescues a bunch of captives from pirates, the men all help her take and run a space ship, but the women are all brainwashed passive slaves who require baby-ing and plenty of therapy. Also, Jenetta can go from being a super-humanly focused and capable officer to an insecure crybaby in a flash. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being able to show your emotions, but none of the male officers around her do the same. And let’s not even get into the outfits the pirates make her wear when they take her prisoner.
All that said? I’ve read the whole series. And I’m re-reading it again. It’s stupid, but it’s a lot of fun, so who cares?
Over the course of the series, Jenetta takes on bigger and bigger enemies, both human pirates and giant alien fleets, and rises rapidly through the ranks. Maybe some people can get annoyed about how she’s able to pull a rabbit of the hat at every turn, especially when situations seem the most dire. But me? I enjoyed it. It’s exactly the kind of stuff I want from a space opera. Also, the author is very, very, very good at making space battle tactics seem both clever and understandable. Some of them seem to be based on historical battles that the Greeks and Romans fought. I also like the fact that military technology keeps evolving, and Jenetta has to keep adapting her tactics and inventing new ploys to win battles.
The books are $3.99 to $5.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited but some of them are in Overdrive and you might be able to get them from your local library.
Haven’t read yet, but plan to next
Now, the reason that I started this whole article was that I was looking for my next new space opera to read, and was hunting around online, and was reminded of all my favorite series.
But there’s plenty more female-led space operas where those came from!
- Loralynn Kennakris by Jordan Leah Hunter and Owen R. O’Neill (5 book series) (in Kindle Unlimited)
- Duchy of Terra by Glynn Stewart (9 book series) (in Kindle Unlimited)
- Alexis Carew by J.A. Sutherland (7 book series) (in Kindle Unlimited)
- Evergence by Sean Williams and Shane Dix (3 book series)
- Legion of the Damned by William C. Dietz (3 book series)
- Paradox by Rachel Bach (3 book series)
- Ziva Payvan by EJ Fisch (5 book series)
- Company Wars by C. J. Cherryh (7 book series)
- Mageworlds by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald (7 book series)
MetaStellar editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist, writing stories set in a future virtual world. And, during the day, she is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and check out her latest videos on the Maria Korolov YouTube channel. Email her at maria@metastellar.com. She is also the editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business, one of the top global sites covering virtual reality.