I don’t consider time travel to be a Space Opera trope.
I liked the low key nature of the Solar Clipper series, too. But it is as prone to Space Opera tropes as any Space Opera. Artificial gravity? Check. Have to motor (well, “sail”) out of the gravity well to get to FTL? Check. Magic FTL? Check. Interstellar break bulk cargo trading? Check. Entire planets that that are the equivalent of cities or nation states. Etc., etc. Still, I enjoyed the the simple Bildungsroman.
