The New Space Opera 2 [Kindle Edition]

Gardner Dozois (Author), Jonathan Strahan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This solid follow-up anthology to 2007's The New Space Opera includes 19 new stories that show how far space opera has come since its pulp beginnings in the '30s and '40s. These entertaining and provocative tales of interstellar adventure, written by a laundry list of genre heavyweights, range from Mike Resnick's Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for Leibowitz, a campy misadventure that follows a larger-than-life freelance hero on his quest to regain a musical theater producer's lost song, to John Meaney's From the Heart, set in his Nulapeiron universe, which revolves around spy Carl Blackstone and an unlikely—and surprisingly poignant—love story at the galactic core. The impressive diversity of stories reaffirms that soap opera is alive and well, and where some of the genre's most innovative writing is taking place. (July)
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Review

“This anthology is a reminder of why science fiction captured the hearts and minds of generations of generations of readers.”

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 938 KB
• Print Length: 562 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0061562351
• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (June 30, 2009)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002EBDP6E
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,269 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More New Space Opera, August 9, 2009

By 

John M. Ford "johnDC" (near DC, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Space Opera 2 (Kindle Edition)

I enjoyed reading all 19 stories in this collection. I confess that The New Space Opera first volume is still on the shelf by my bed, only a few stories sampled. The difference was having this one in my iPhone Kindle app, so I could read away at it during train rides or boring staff meetings. I'm grateful for the entertaining diversion.

My five favorite stories in this book made me rethink my approach to my job:

"The Lost Princess Man" by John Barnes demonstrates how to conduct a job interview with a con man in a high-tech dictatorship.

"Defect" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch shows how to resign from a job as an undercover assassin--and how to resign ourselves to the consequences.

"Chameleons" by Elizabeth Moon reminds us what it is like to babysit a pair of bratty kids.

"The Tale of the Wicked" by John Scalzi evokes those feelings we sometimes have that our office computers are really running things--and that their errors are intentional.

"The Far End of History" by John Wright emphasizes the dangers of becoming romantically involved with someone at work--especially when different versions of both of you play so many different roles that it's hard to keep them straight.

Two more stories weren't among my favorites, but get an honorable mention for succeeding as "space opera" while making fun of it. Cory Doctorow's "To Go Boldly" made me laugh harder about Star Trek than I have since reading Terry Bisson's Galaxy Quest. And Mike Resnick's "Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for Leibowitz" pokes enjoyable fun at the handsome heroes and shapely sirens of truly bad space opera. Can't wait to see the comic book version.

It's a good collection. Read and enjoy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good Read, August 7, 2009

By 

Nathaniel Karas "DocuApe" (virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Space Opera 2: All-new stories of science fiction adventure (Paperback)

I liked this collection a lot. There is nothing mind-blowing here, but all of it is readable and some is pretty good. The story that came closest to greatness, in my opinion, was Peter Watts' The Island. It had truly epic scale and a believeable sense of the human as alien and the alien as maybe human after all. Read it and see. Bruce Sterling's was the best written, but was not actually space opera. I enjoy Asher's work immensely, but his contribution here was good, not great. The Kessel and Meany stories were interesting in places, but did not finish strong for me. Lake's story made me want to read more of his work. I enjoyed his setting and characters, but the plot seemed to just happen; maybe the longer version will correct this. Barnes' story was very good, but I grew weary of its constant narrative dislocations; less cleverness would have been wiser in this case, but I still enjoyed most of it a great deal. Doctorow's story started off as mildly pleasant parody and then derailed in what I thougt was shoddy, unbelieveable character development. The opening story had great ideas and the grandest scale of any of these mini operas, but the narrative device was a little trite to my mind. Every story was at least a pleasant diversion, so I recommend this book quite highly.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A collection of good reads, August 9, 2009

By 

Benedict J. Jackson (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Space Opera 2: All-new stories of science fiction adventure (Paperback)

Several years ago in one of the "Year's Best" summations, Gardner Dozois concluded that the defining characteristic of good Science Fiction was being a "good read". This is a fun collection of short stories set in big universes with solid plots. If you want more cerebral material, ambiguous morality or less fantastical futures then you should consider "Year's Best Science Fiction 25" (or any of the prior 24) instead. If you want to enjoy reading some clever adventure stories in space, this is the book for you.