Space Opera and Planetary Romance are subgenres of Science Fiction. To start with Space Opera, is a genre of fiction that shows a lot of technology, especially space ships. Mostly the space opera plots are about intergalactic wars and taking over the world. A well-known example of this genre is Star Wars by George Lucas. The features characterizing this story to be a Space Opera are between others the space ships and all the futuristic technology. Everything in a space opera is very big in scale. In this subgenre one doesn’t settle with anything less than ruling the entire galaxy. This also means that characters can become rather flat because the focus is lying on bigger situations rather than interpersonal conflicts.
Planetary romance on the other hand is still set in space but the characters seem more human. Once the power of the entire galaxy is settled in the space opera, the time has come to zoom in with planetary romance. Problems get more personal and conflicts between humans get more nuanced. How to make a living in space can come up as a question. Relevant every day topics moved to space can give a new perspective. Like Shakespeare when he wrote about conflicts that were very similar to the ones taking place in England at the time. These conflicts weren’t moved to space, but for instance took place in Italy or Denmark. In this setting the topic becomes less sensitive and makes space for problems to be discussed while pretending they aren’t there. The hero in a planetary romance is a deeper character that has the possibility for more feelings and less action. A good example of this subgenre is A world is born by Leigh Brackett. This story deals with poverty and how to make a living in space.
Both subgenres typically have stories that could take a new setting for instance Star Wars in the wild west. There is focus on the stories and not so much on being scientifically correct when it comes to questions like gravity and other species. This doesn’t necessarily make the stories bad unless the reader knows a whole lot about science and simply can’t accept the scientific mistakes made by the author. Space opera and Planetary romance are subgenres of science fiction used to entertain and tell stories, not to educate scientifically.