Military Science Fiction is another similar genre which may sometimes overlap, but is not quite the same. ( Flash Gordon, at least in the classic Alex Raymond era, remained resolutely Planetary Romance, tied to the planet Mongo.) While works such as John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs were pure Planetary Romance, Buck Rogers and its imitators had essentially codified the Space Opera concept in the popular imagination by the late 1930s, though the earliest strips took place on an After the End future Earth. Planetary Romance was more or less Heroic Fantasy In Space. Historically, it is a development of the Planetary Romance that looks beyond the exotic locations that were imagined for the local solar system in early science fiction ( which the hard light of science revealed to be barren and lifeless) out into an infinite universe of imagined exotic locations. It has a romantic element which distinguishes it from most hard science fiction: big love stories, epic space battles, oversized heroes and villains, awe-inspiring scenery, and insanely gorgeous men and women. It frequently takes place in a Standard Sci Fi Setting. The action will range across part of a solar system at a minimum, and more commonly will extend over large tracts of a galaxy or several. Space opera has an epic character to it: the universe is big, there are usually many sprawling civilizations and empires, there are political conflicts and intrigue. Technology is ubiquitous and secondary to the story. Space Opera refers to works set in a spacefaring civilization, usually set in the far future or A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away.
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