2021 Space Opera Novels That Will Transport You To Another Galaxy!

Want a BIG story with heaps of action and larger than life characters? Space opera is the genre for you! This sci-fi sub-genre has become wildly popular in the last few years and as interest has grown, so has the number of series available. If you've been on the hunt for a new one to dive into, look no further than this round-up featuring some of the best space opera books released this year!

Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy (Book 2: Greater Good) by Timothy Zahn

Release Date: April 27, 2021

Thrawn’s latest triumph still rests newly on his shoulders. He has led the Chiss to victory and brought glory to the House of Mitth, but the true threat to the Ascendancy has not yet been extinguished. Their foes do not send threats or ultimatums, do not mass ships on the edge of the Chaos. Their weapons come cloaked in smiles and generosity: Gifts offered freely. Services granted unconditionally.

Across the Ascendancy, seemingly inconsequential events could herald the doom of the Chiss. As Thrawn and the Expansionary Defense Fleet rally to uncover the plot, they discover a chilling truth: Rather than invade Chiss capitals or pillage resources, their enemy strikes at the very foundation of the Ascendancy, seeking to widen the rifts between the Nine Ruling Families and the Forty Great Houses below. As rivalry and suspicion sow discord among allies, each warrior must decide what matters most to them: the security of their family or the survival of the Ascendancy itself.

Read Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy, Book 2 here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Foresight by M. R. Forbes

Release Date: July 27, 2021

As a development platform for desperately needed advanced technology, the experimental starship Foresight is the greatest hope humankind has to flee the alien hordes. For test pilot Captain Nicholas Shepherd, the success of the program is even more personal. Successful completion means delivering his wife and son safely off-world and leaving the war behind for good. But when Foresight suffers a critical malfunction during her final scheduled flight, what should have been a minor setback becomes a major fight for survival.

With his family caught in the crossfire, Nicholas realizes that the flawed starship offers the best chance to escape. It isn’t long before even the frantic evacuation turns sideways, and he discovers that not only is the war harder to get away from than he thought, but Foresight is more than just a prototype.

Much, much more.

Joined by an unintended crew of survivors, Nicholas is about to embark on an impossible mission that will take them far beyond the outer reaches of space. If he fails, humankind won’t just be lost.

We’ll be completely erased.

Read Foresight here on Amazon.

Hold Fast Through the Fire by K. B. Wagers

Release Date: July 27th, 2021

Zuma’s Ghost has won the Boarding Games for the second straight year. The crew—led by the unparalleled ability of Jenks in the cage, the brilliant pairing of Ma and Max in the pilot seats, the technical savvy of Sapphi, and the sword skills of Tamago and Rosa—has all come together to form an unstoppable team. Until it all comes apart.

Their commander and Master Chief are both retiring. Which means Jenks is getting promoted, a new commander is joining them, and a fresh-faced spacer is arriving to shake up their perfect dynamics. And while not being able to threepeat is on their minds, the more important thing is how they’re going to fulfill their mission in the black.

After a plea deal transforms a twenty-year ore-mining sentence into NeoG service, Spacer Chae Ho-ki earns a spot on the team. But there’s more to Chae that the crew doesn’t know, and they must hide a secret that could endanger everyone they love—as well as their new teammates—if it got out. At the same time, a seemingly untouchable coalition is attempting to take over trade with the Trappist colonies and start a war with the NeoG. When the crew of Zuma’s Ghost gets involved, they end up as targets of this ruthless enemy.

With new members aboard, will the team grow stronger this time around? Will they be able to win the games? And, more important, will they be able to surmount threats from both without and within?

Get your copy of Hold Fast Through the Fire here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Release Date: August 3rd, 2021

The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . . Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers. After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete. Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.

Read Shards of Earth here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Exiled Fleet by J. S. Dewes

Release Date: August 17th, 2021

The Sentinels narrowly escaped the collapsing edge of the Divide.

They have mustered a few other surviving Sentinels, but with no engines they have no way to leave the edge of the universe before they starve.

Adequin Rake has gathered a team to find the materials they'll need to get everyone out.

To do that they're going to need new allies and evade a ruthless enemy. Some of them will not survive.

Grab The Exiled Fleet here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

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The Scavenger Door by Suzanne Palmer

Release Date: August 17th, 2021

Fergus is back on Earth at last, trying to figure out how to live a normal life. However, it seems the universe has other plans for him. When his cousin sends him off to help out a friend, Fergus accidently
stumbles across a piece of an ancient alien artifact that some very powerful people seem to think means the entire solar system is in danger. And since he's the one who found it, they’re certain it’s also his problem to deal with.

With the help of his newfound sister, friends both old and new, and some enemies, too, Fergus needs to find the rest of the artifact and destroy the pieces before anyone can reassemble the original and open a multidimensional door between Earth and a vast, implacable, alien swarm. Problem is, the pieces could be anywhere on Earth, and he’s not the only one out searching.

Get your copy of The Scavenger Door here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

The Light Chaser by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell

Release Date: August 24th, 2021

Amahle is a Light Chaser – one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories.

But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds. She comes to understand that something terrible is happening, and only she is in a position to do anything about it.

And it will cost everything to put it right.

Dive into Light Chaser here on Amazon.

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds

Release Date: October 12, 2021

For thirty years a tiny band of humans has been sheltering in the caverns of an airless, crater-pocked world called Michaelmas. Beyond their solar system lie the ruins of human interstellar civilization, stalked by a ruthless, infinitely patient cybernetic entity determined to root out the last few bands of survivors. One man has guided the people of Michaelmas through the hardest of times, and given them hope against the wolves: Miguel de Ruyter.

When a lone human ship blunders into their system, and threatens to lead the wolves to Michaelmas, de Ruyter embarks on a desperate, near-suicide mission to prevent catastrophe. But an encounter with a refugee from the ship—the enigmatic woman who calls herself only Glass—leads to de Ruyter's world being turned upside down.

Get your copy of Inhibitor Phase here on Amazon.

Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey

Release Date: November 16th, 2021

The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again.

In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before.

As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance to unite all of humanity, with the promise of a vast galactic civilization free from wars, factions, lies, and secrets if they win.

But the price of victory may be worse than the cost of defeat.

Start reading Leviathan Falls here on Amazon. Also available on audiobook.

Discordia by Kristyn Merbeth

Release Date: December 7th, 2021

Scorpia is finally back among the stars, far away from the memories of the war she and her family started – and ended – on Nibiru. Her first order as captain of the Memoria is to keep her crew safe, and she is all too happy not to get involved in dangerous political games for once.

Corvus is haunted by what he experienced at the hands of the Titan attack, and he’s just as eager for a new beginning. He knows that not all Titans are built for war, and that the system can find peace, even as Deva and Pax begin to rattle their sabers.

Though the Kaisers may be responsible for diverting a multi-planet war, the planetary leaders are wary of the knowledge they hold. Better to lock them up and keep their dark secrets hidden. But the Kaisers are the only ones who know the truth about the threat of the ancient world-ending alien weapons rooted in each planet – and they may be the only ones who can save the system from total annihilation.

Grab Discordia here on Amazon.

Which of these space operas will make their way into your (e)bookshelf? Which ones are you most excited for? Let us know here in the comments, or over in the Discover Sci-Fi Facebook group!

*All book-related copy in this post was pulled from Amazon, Goodreads & Wikipedia, unless otherwise credited.