Space opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful (and sometimes quite fanciful) technologies and abilities. Perhaps the most significant trait of space opera is that settings, characters, battles, powers, and themes tend to be very large-scale. Before the 1970s, the term space opera was used in a negative sense, to denote bad quality science fiction, but over time it changed meaning, to describe a particular science fiction genre, without any value judgment.

As David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer note in their 2006 anthology of space operas, "there is no general agreement as to what [space opera] is, which writers are the best examples, or even which works are space opera". They further note that space opera has had several key and different definitions throughout its history; definitions that were significantly affected by literary politics.

They note that "what used to be science fantasy is now space opera, and what used to be space opera is entirely forgotten." Early in its history, the term space opera was a pejorative term for the worst, "really bad" SF, and this definition of space opera remained in force till about 1970s. In 1941, science fiction fan Bob Tucker (who would later become writer Wilson Tucker) coined the term "space opera" (by analogy to "horse opera" and "soap opera") to describe what he characterized as "the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn, or world-saving [story] for that matter." In other words, works that today would be recognized as space operas, would not be called as such before that period.

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