A fun SO I enjoyed reading is the Spinward Fringe by Randolph Lalonde written in a clifhanger tv type style so good.

Thanks for these recommendations. I've read _The Icarus Hunt_ and _A Fire upon the Deep, and own _Fallen Dragon_, but not yet read it. I will have to examine Asher's Polity series. Sorry, but with _Light,_ you lost me with one of the main characgters being a "serial killer."

Number 1 should be farscape by far better than any of your picks

I read "The Icarus Hunt" as a random read several years ago, and I loved it!

Very compelling recommendations

!(: COOL, THANKS ;)!

WOW 😮♥♥♥♥♥

My list would have to include Tiger Tiger - Alfred Bester (still heavily ripped off by everyone haha including Gibson, the Expanse guys and Banks) Nova - Sam Delaney The Instrumentality of Man books - Cordwainer Smith (completely mad and wonderful) And here’s an obscure one - I remember loving The Star Child trilogy by Fred Pohl and Jack Williamson. Good luck tracking that down haha. It’s probably rubbish. But I liked it when I was 15 My parents book collection was a trip

House of Suns by Alistair Reynolds is brilliant. Fallen Dragon and a Fire apon the Deep were amazing too. I'll check out the other 3

I think Currently Underrated might be a better title for this list, I remember all of these titles and have read 4 out of 5 them. We have to remember these books were published 20+ years ago now and the filter of time is setting in for books of this age, after 15-20 years even the award winners fall off. Thinking back, it may be my personal golden age of reading 1990 - 2010ish, with so many mid-list writers and a strong short story market. * personal Favorite: Pandora's Star by Peter F Hamilton, well maybe the whole Common Wealth series

If you look at our own history when we gained the ability to destroy ourselves, communication lag almost lead to WW3. Chain of suspicion can be seen as an extention of mutually assured destruction during the cold war, a glitch in a satellite suggested one side launched nukes, in space the communication lag could be great enough so that firing first means the target can't detect their impending doom until it's too late, like getting word of nukes launching minutes before they land

I can think of one book series that introduces a new idea: Grand Central Arena by Ryk E. Spoor. The premise is that humanity, in a future where technology has rendered the need for work, war, and everything else but entertainment largely obsolete. It is in this setting that humanity's first faster than light engine is developed. A racing pilot is recruited to be Earth's first captain, as the skillset she possesses is the closest thing humanity still has to experience with commanding and flying a vessel in space. The drive is activated, and the crew finds themselves...elsewhere. It ends forever everything humanity had thought they knew about the nature of the universe, FTL flight, and the origins of life. Instead, the universe apparently revolves around the Arena...a mysterious alternate space where alien races compete to complete their goals. All FTL technologies possible merely cause the ship to emerge in Arenaspace, and the Arena itself enforces its rules upon all races who discover it. You get the idea. It's a pretty dang original idea.

A great plot, characters with believable personal grievances and a bold imagination to blend the largest and smallest structures in the universe makes "Light" by M. J. Harrison by far the most valuable novel in literary terms.

After reading The Culture series by Banks and the Revelation Space series by Reynolds I've been hard pressed to find anything matching the level of these writers. I fear my life is going to become an endless saga of re-reading. I have tried the Polity books and Light plus Vinge but they seem like hard work for minimal reward. Thank you for some more suggestions, I'll definitely give them a go.

Lensman series

I'm a big science fiction fan I never read the books but I thought the TV series was really good which intrigued me to find out about more Isaac Asimov from video interviews and he pretty much convinced me that psycho history could be real given his predictions of the future.

We have one like this who founded De Code Genetics in Iceland. I think that guy should move to Mt. Olympus in Greece. Thanks for the video man! Best wishes to you from Iceland!

A Fire Upon the Deep is underrated? IT WON THE HUGO AWARD. The Icarus Hunt was a NYT bestseller that was in every bookstore at the time, even the small mall ones. I've read four of the five titles on this list and I'm not particularly well read. This is not remotely esoteric. Try harder. Read more.

Woke (circa 2020) commentary on a novel (circa 1960) is pointless.

If you want to write your own and dont know where to start, analysis of lists of words can provide you with the rise and fall of a civilization. drive.google.com/file/d/1S8TifLRYG1nv5C5lriGdoZUmEjCmbcPK/view?usp=drivesdk

Obviously I am getting old :) Things written in the time since the turn of the millennium do not fall into an underrated or forgotten category :D I thought you might speak on the Lensmen or Princes in Amber series not this angsty modern trash :p

God Vinge and Hamilton are so boring and predictable. Asher is just a bad writer. At least Zahn is interesting and fun. Never read the other writer.

Sun Eater Series by Christopher Ruocchio

oh and to add a new new waver to your list it would be the dark short story collection deathbird stories by harlan ellison.

it gets genius to write about genius. and genius is always going to be controversial and misunderstood.

loved all of these books. behold the man especially is like a way more eye opening twilight zone episode than tv would ever allow, so its a great read and the prose is perfectly on point.

short answer: YES! ^v^

Gordon Dickson Dorsai books in Childe series.

Saga Of Seven Suns is one of my favourites, highly recommend it.

Nice. I have read the first two and last out the 5 and highly recommend. Will check out the others. And added black milk to my reading list… sounds great.

Thank you!

I've read the Vinge book and it's sequel. Light looks interesting.

Honestly one of my absolute faves remains Teh Vorkosigan Saga. But for me the intimate is an earmark of the cosmic. Plus the REVELATION SPACE series plus EARTHCLAN.

Could you someday do a tier list of space operas?

Did you say "underratedocity"? 😃 I've read Fallen Dragon. I don't remember much about it, but I did like it. Same for Icarus Hunt. A Fire Upon the Deep is one of my top books. I've read it numerous times. Another favorite is the seemingly unknown In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman.

Not a bad list but I'd flip it and have Neuromancer at one and the Demolished Man should be top ten as well. Interesting that the most recent winner is from 30 years ago. Are none of the Hugo winners since the mid-90s as good as what came previously? For mine Ancillary Justice and the City & the City could make the list

One of my Favorite Space Opera Series is The Deathstalker Series by Simon R. Green!

The Agent Cormac books are an excellent read. What starts as a kind of James Bond in a future, were everyone is connected to AI, takes a dark turn later on. A Fire Upon The Deep is a SF must read, there are enough ideas inside for lesser authors to write multiple books. A entertaining (but less thought provoking) series with good space battles are the Honor Harrington books.

While I don't disagree, that's probably because I haven't been tracking recent Hugo winners very closely. I don't think the list includes a single title from the last thirty years or so. It flips the usual issue (mostly with visual media) of discounting older titles. I've read seven of the titles on your list - the remainder I started then abandoned, for various reasons.

How is "sabotage" different from it being a weapon?

David Brin’s Startide Rising is one of the best space operas out there and seems to have been forgotten. I was surprised it wasn’t on the list.

I've already read all of these except for the Neal Asher book, but my favorite Space Opera so far has to be Dan Simmons' Hyperion.

My only problem with the book was the plot twist. It was incredibly stupid, made no sense at all and justified nothing.

I'm worried at the number of comments saying they don't know Blakes 7. Are they sure they're scifi fans?

I read A Fire Upon The Deep when it was first published and it along with A Deepness In The Sky are amongst my absolute favorite novels. As for it being underrated that's hard to judge. I don't see it discussed often but when it is it is always in the glowing terms you lavished on it.

Foundation series and Dune series are my favorites Maybe a bit strange but Nul-A and sequel by A.E. van Vogt is space opera

The Requiem for Homo Sapiens by David Zindell. The Golden Oecumene by John C. Wright.

A Fire Upon the Deep is one of the most beautiful sci fi novels I've ever read.

After reading all of The Culture series, I used Asher's, Ian Cormac series as my methadone treatment for withdrawal. Earth Central, the AI in Gridlinked is a little similar to the culture's AI ship minds.

Gridlinked was not very good. I give Asher a bit of a pass as i believe it was his first book, but i think most Asher fans recommend starting somewhere else with him. Gap Cycle by Donaldson would be my recommendation for this list. Grimdark in space.