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Rules for Space Opera
Feb. 23rd, 2009 11:43 amTo cleanse my palate I've been reading space opera. The book I'm currently reading* got off to an extremely slow start, and then about halfway through the story finally picked up momentum. Rather than idly reading a few pages at a time, it went to "Can't put this down."
Being a writer, when the book failed to hold my interest I started looking for reasons why it wasn't working. The first reason was obvious--it took too long to get things started since so much time was wasted on setup. No in media res here, instead each character was introduced, given back story, and then in careful increments of short scenes each character was moved along the board until they began to intersect one another.
The second reason was less obvious-- I didn't know what I was missing until BOOM! it appeared. In this case the boom was both literal and figurative in the form of an attack. Now, finally the central characters had something to react against, rather than an intellectual puzzle to solve.
So here are Patricia's (entirely arbitrary and your mileage may vary) thoughts on space operas:
1) If you're going to have a cool alien culture interacting with the humans in mysterious ways, then introduce those aliens up front. Don't keep them in reserve until halfway through the book, there's no guarantee readers are going to stick with you that long.
2) If you're going for action and adventure, then the threat to the characters must be immediate and visceral. I read these books for the same reason I love action movies--shit blows up. Starting off with a vague nebulous threat that mostly concerns legal and political maneuvering isn't going to hold my interest. I want to see the central character(s) face off against immediate dangers. If the heroine is a kickass, take charge, shoot 'em up (or MacGyver her way out of any situation) kinda gal, then I want to see that sooner rather than later. Sure it's okay to save the climactic battle scene for the end of the book, but keep us entertained along the way.
In short--there's nothing wrong with giving the reader what they're looking for.
In this case, the last half of the book was fast-paced, exciting, classic space opera. But I'm wondering how many readers got bogged down in the first part, and never discovered the rest.
*I'm not naming names here, since it's the author's first novel.
Being a writer, when the book failed to hold my interest I started looking for reasons why it wasn't working. The first reason was obvious--it took too long to get things started since so much time was wasted on setup. No in media res here, instead each character was introduced, given back story, and then in careful increments of short scenes each character was moved along the board until they began to intersect one another.
The second reason was less obvious-- I didn't know what I was missing until BOOM! it appeared. In this case the boom was both literal and figurative in the form of an attack. Now, finally the central characters had something to react against, rather than an intellectual puzzle to solve.
So here are Patricia's (entirely arbitrary and your mileage may vary) thoughts on space operas:
1) If you're going to have a cool alien culture interacting with the humans in mysterious ways, then introduce those aliens up front. Don't keep them in reserve until halfway through the book, there's no guarantee readers are going to stick with you that long.
2) If you're going for action and adventure, then the threat to the characters must be immediate and visceral. I read these books for the same reason I love action movies--shit blows up. Starting off with a vague nebulous threat that mostly concerns legal and political maneuvering isn't going to hold my interest. I want to see the central character(s) face off against immediate dangers. If the heroine is a kickass, take charge, shoot 'em up (or MacGyver her way out of any situation) kinda gal, then I want to see that sooner rather than later. Sure it's okay to save the climactic battle scene for the end of the book, but keep us entertained along the way.
In short--there's nothing wrong with giving the reader what they're looking for.
In this case, the last half of the book was fast-paced, exciting, classic space opera. But I'm wondering how many readers got bogged down in the first part, and never discovered the rest.
*I'm not naming names here, since it's the author's first novel.