Space Opera

Into the unknown we go into epic tales of adventures in space! Space Opera, the genre of sci-fi we know best for Star Wars and Forbidden Planet. For this week in Space Opera I re-read Ender’s Game and Stranger in a Strange Land. Both their own forms of Space Opera. Ender’s Game takes place in a future where humans are at a war against insect like aliens. The book is quite interesting in using children, instead of the usual adults being soldiers. The psychological effects on what it does to the children, reflect what really happens to a lot of soldiers in war. But putting from a child’s perspective makes the whole idea all the more perverse. The books that follow this series, you can see the aftermath of what the war caused and its repercussions that effect the adult Ender. Re-reading the book allowed me to have a better understanding on the politics in the book.

Continuing onto Stranger in a Strange Land, I enjoyed the beginning of the book but once it started pushing the female characters to just sexual objects, it was harder to continue on. Though the portrayal of women was a bit better than some portrayals at the time. But overall the overall theme became lost once it became a male fantasy about having a harem. Both books follow the tropes of Space Opera in characters learning about new cultures and explore new planets, both take us to new realms but leave us in themes that can be still applied to today. War can be just a big miscommunication and often time the answer is talking and love and freedom of expression can break down societal barriers.