Amazon.com: The Space Opera Renaissance: David G. Hartwell, Kathryn Cramer: Books

From Booklist
Hartwell and Cramer have well-honed reputations for consummate editorial acumen, thanks to the renowned hard-sf anthology The Ascent of Wonder (1994) and the consistently excellent Year's Best SF. Now, in an exhaustive compendium spanning eight decades, they provide a definitive overview of space opera. Originally a contemptuous label for pulpy adventure sf, space opera has matured into sf's most popular subcategory, in print and on screen: think Star Wars and Stephen Baxter's universe-spanning sagas. Beginning with "The Star Stealers," by Edmond Hamilton, arguably the first practitioner of space opera, Hartwell and Cramer cut a wide swath through the genre, from pieces by such departed masters as Cordwainer Smith and Leigh Brackett down to others by such rising stars as Tony Daniel and Charles Stross. Thirty-two tales in all trace space opera's evolution from its lurid early obsession with impossible planets to its contemporary fascination with wormholes and posthumans. While the massive volume may not be ideal schlep-along reading, it is an important resource for any comprehensive sf library. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“We are in the hands of a loving expert.”
--John Updike on The World Treasury of SF

“An editor extraordinaire.”
--Publishers Weekly on David G. Hartwell

“One of the definitive anthologies of the genre.”
--Des Moines Register on The Science Fiction Century

“Demonstrates the fact that science fiction is alive and well in the ’90s…A fine addition of any science fiction collection."
--VOYA on Visions of Wonder

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Hardcover: 944 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (July 11, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765306174
ISBN-13: 978-0765306173
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.7 x 2.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #479,513 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#38 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Hartwell, David G.

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
transport area, female tongue, six races, third expansion, greater earth, xenoc ship, vitrolite dome, simplex mind, grease apes, old kzin, neural nanonics, red giant system, new space opera, kzin warriors, vitrolite panels, snotty cruise, assistant tac officer, gravity polarizer, space opera writer, superluminal drive, called space opera, nut roaster, ring runner, red murk, ray pistol

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Dem Lia, Captain John, War Maiden, Quee Lee, Ces Ambre, Alpha Centauri, Captain Brand, Lady Mac, Sweet Today, Patek Georg, Captain Future, Far Rider, Red Rover, Princess Badroulboudour, Andre Sud, Empire Star, Den Soa, San Severina, Fourth Fleet, Captain Bachfisch, Hurus Hol, Orion Lines, Dal Nara, Commander Layson, Fool's Gold

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	64% buy the item featured on this page: The Space Opera Renaissance 4.4 out of 5 stars (8) $39.95
	16% buy The New Space Opera 3.6 out of 5 stars (11) $7.99
	11% buy The New Space Opera 2: All-new stories of science fiction adventure 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) $10.87
	5% buy The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) $14.93

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

space opera(6)

science fiction(2)

2007(1)

anthology(1)

heavy(1)

See all 8 tags...

Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search

No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hartwell & Cramer's best BIG review-anthology yet. , March 13, 2007

By	Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

I'm working my way through the Hartwell & Cramer SPACE OPERA RENAISSANCE anthology, and finding it well-done and to my taste -- I think it's Hartwell's best BIG review-anthology yet. Truly a doorstop: 940+ pages!, with a surprisingly large number of new-to-me stories.

Space Opera, as Hartwell points out in his nicely-done introductory essay and story notes, is a flexible concept. And when you get to New Space Opera, or Widescreen Baroque Space Opera -- well, no one really knows what these are. Really, space opera is what Hartwell (or whoever) points to when he says "space opera"...

Anyway, take a look at this juicy lineup:
(my faves are starred*)

Introduction: *How Shlt became Shinola, Definition & Redefinition of Space Opera, by Hartwell & Cramer

I. Redefined Writers
"The Star Stealers" by Edmond Hamilton
"The Prince of Space" by Jack Williamson
"Enchantress of Venus" by Leigh Brackett
*"The Swordsmen of Varnis" by Clive Jackson

II. Draftees (1960s)
***"The Game of Rat & Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith
"Empire Star" by Samuel R. Delany
"Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenjik Palace in Flames, Jon Westerly Dead" by Robert Sheckley

III. Transitions/Redefiners (late 1970s to late 1980s)
*"Temptation" by David Brin
"Ranks of Bronze" by David Drake
*"Weatherman" by Lois McMaster Bujold
"A Gift from the Culture" by Iain M. Banks

IV. Volunteers:Revisionaries (early 90s)
*"Orphans of the Helix" by Dan Simmons
"The Well Wishers" by Colin Greenland
*"Escape Route" by Peter Hamilton
"Ms Midshipwoman Harrington" by David Weber
"Aurora in Four Voices" by Catherine Asaro
**"Ring Rats" by R. Garcia y Robertson
*"The Death of Captain Future" by Allen Steele

V. Mixed Signals/ Mixed Categories (to the late 1990s)
*"A Worm in the Well" by Gregory Benford
**"The Survivor" by Donald Kingsbury
"Fools Errand" by Sarah Zettel
"The Shobies Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"The Remoras" by Robert Reed
"Recording Angel" by Paul McAuley
"The Great Game" by Steven Baxter
"Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel" by Michael Moorcock
"Space Opera" by Michael Kandel

VI. Next Wave (21st Century)
"Grist" by Tony Daniel
"The Movements of her Eyes" by Scott Westerfeld
*"Spirey and the Queen" by Alastair Reynolds
*"Bear Trap" by Charles Stross
"Guest Law" by John C. Wright

Some story comments:

"The Game of Rat & Dragon" (1955) by Cordwainer Smith. My favorite Smith classic, which is to say one of the best SF shorts ever, Hasn't dated one bit in a half-century. Meow!

Dan Simmons' "Orphans of the Helix" (1999, _Far Horizons_), is a tasty, atmospheric and thoroughly space-operatic travel-adventure, set in the Hyperian Cantos universe. Pure travelogue and goshwow, mind --allegedly, this started life as a TV treatment. Would have made a nice show, if the SFX turned out well....

There's a new-to-me David Brin short: "Temptation" (1999), Streaker dolphins in Jijo's ocean. Quite a nice one, and reminds me of the good bits in the Jijo books -- like the sheer audacity of (literally) scraping a technical civilization into the ocean. In theory, anyway <G>. Those tricky Buyurs!

Donald Kingsbury's long novella "The Survivor" (1991) is set in Larry Niven's Known Space universe, during the Man/Kzin wars, and is a proxy for Niven, a Space Opera King who's notably absent. It's the first half of his Lt. Nora Argamentine saga, set just after the Fall of Wunderland. John Clute thought it one of the best stories of 1991, and so do I.

"Ring Rats" (2002) by R. Garcia y Robertson: Space pirates! --pure adrenaline rush, with some nasty bits. Strong stuff, one of his best yet.

"Spirey and the Queen" (1996) by Alastair Reynolds: which has "some of that space-war sizzle and true weirdness that we see as a primary appeal of late-model space opera" -- Hartwell

Anyway, there's a ton of good stories here, most of which you'll be happy to add to your permanent library. Check it out.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
Review first published at SF Site

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb anthology, July 17, 2006

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

In the Introduction to this superb anthology, space opera was coined by Bob Tucker in 1941: "In these hectic days of phrase coning, we offer one. Westerns are called "horse operas," the morning housewife tear-jerkers are called "soap operas." For the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space ship yarn, or world saving for that matter, we offer space opera." By 1959 the connotation remained "A hack science fiction story, a dressed up western" as noted by Fancyclopedia II. By the 1960s space opera was considered dead. Yet today it is alive, well, and highly regarded as its reputation changed as "sh*t became Shinola". This terrific compilation pays tribute to space opera tales from various decades starting with a delightful Edmond Hamilton tale from 1929 to a Stephen Baxter contribution from 2003; the entries showcase the evolution and make an analytical argument that even cheap pulp fiction in outer space can be well written. The break out by decades is as follows: 1920s - 1; 1930s - 1; 1940s - 1; 1950s - 2; 1960s - 1; 1970s - 1; 1980s - 3; 1990s - 16; 2000s - 6. Though the spread is heavily the 1990s (half the entries) with some readers fascinated with the sub-genre roots wanting more of the older entries, the contributions are from a who's who, who come through with superb tales. This is must reading for science fiction short story fans.

Harriet Klausner

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, December 11, 2007

By	Blue Tyson "- http://freesf.blogspot.com" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Space Opera Renaissance (Paperback)

Firstly, the Space Opera Renaissance is a good book, and one that has been fascinating me for a while, now. You can see this by the story average of 3.61 over a significant number of stories. Throw in the intro and the story intros and you have something approaching excellent, even. You could stretch the rating for the book to 4.25, perhaps.

Hartwell and Cramer are clear leaders as far as editors go in writing introductions to stories, where they actually do provide opinion and guidance, rather than a dry, used car salesman list of previous publications and upcoming work that might be as much science fiction as Snow White or Law and Order, and not relevant at all. While it is nice to promote writers and not hurt the poor darlings feelings - that shouldnt' bother editors, they do that every day with a whole bunch of 'No', it is their job, after all. Lists of publications ignore the silly geographically split up publishing market, and might be irrelevant to large chunks of the readers who only hang out in bookshops, anyway.

They are also unafraid to mention URLs or other resources relevant to these pieces, and editors in general could do this for space reasons when they want to expand on something a little more. So this part is very well done, and usually I read those first in their anthologies.

It is also commendable for the variety of stories and tone included, humour included.

Anyway, rambling on about this at great and likely boring length is done at the usual notfree spot for anyone that cares, and is way too long for here. The problems I see here are story choice, and actually being more clear to the unfamiliar about what they see Space Opera as, and story and author choices - two whole novels, basically? etc.

Still, a really interesting book worth having.

Space Opera Renaissance : The Star-Stealers - Edmond Hamilton
Space Opera Renaissance : The Prince of Space - Jack Williamson
Space Opera Renaissance : Enchantress of Venus - Leigh Brackett
Space Opera Renaissance : The Swordsmen of Varnis - Clive Jackson
Space Opera Renaissance : The Game of Rat and Dragon - Cordwainer Smith
Space Opera Renaissance : Empire Star - Samuel R. Delany
Space Opera Renaissance : Zirn Left Unguarded the Jenghik Palace in Flames Jon Westerly Dead - Robert Sheckley
Space Opera Renaissance : Temptation - David Brin
Space Opera Renaissance : Ranks of Bronze - David Drake
Space Opera Renaissance : Weatherman - Lois McMaster Bujold
Space Opera Renaissance : A Gift from the Culture - Iain M. Banks
Space Opera Renaissance : Orphans of the Helix - Dan Simmons
Space Opera Renaissance : The Well Wishers - Colin Greenland
Space Opera Renaissance : Escape Route - Peter F. Hamilton
Space Opera Renaissance : Ms Midshipwoman Harrington - David Weber
Space Opera Renaissance : Aurora in Four Voices - Catherine Asaro
Space Opera Renaissance : Ring Rats - R. Garcia y Robertson
Space Opera Renaissance : The Death of Captain Future - Allen Steele
Space Opera Renaissance : A Worm in the Well - Gregory Benford
Space Opera Renaissance : The Survivor - Donald Kingsbury
Space Opera Renaissance : Fools Errand - Sarah Zettel
Space Opera Renaissance : The Shobies Story - Ursula K. Le Guin
Space Opera Renaissance : The Remoras - Robert Reed
Space Opera Renaissance : Recording Angel - Paul J. McAuley
Space Opera Renaissance : The Great Game - Stephen Baxter
Space Opera Renaissance : Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel - Michael Moorcock
Space Opera Renaissance : Space Opera - Michael Kandel
Space Opera Renaissance : Grist - Tony Daniel
Space Opera Renaissance : The Movements of Her Eyes - Scott Westerfeld
Space Opera Renaissance : Spirey and the Queen - Alastair Reynolds
Space Opera Renaissance : Bear Trap - Charles Stross
Space Opera Renaissance : Guest Law - John C. Wright

Hey! You! Get offa my Sun!

3.5 out of 5

It's all over if the Martian Vampires nuke us, Red Rover.

3 out of 5

Stark goes looking to find a lost friend he thinks is in trouble, and ends up fomenting a slave rebellion, among other things.

4 out of 5

Spear carrier bad guy goes for the exhausted Indy solution.

3.5 out of 5

Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastich.

4 out of 5

Time to teach ourselves.

3.5 out of 5

Spoof Opera.

4 out of 5

Dolphin escape and magic time diaspora subservience scheme rejection.

3.5 out of 5

Lends us your Romans for some cut price hack and slash.

3.5 out of 5

It's cold outside, but it gets so hot a time in here.

4 out of 5

Talking smoking gun.

3 out of 5

Hyperion kid and Shrike buddy pay a visit for some teleporting fun.

3.5 out of 5

Grot stop's bad art garotte.

4 out of 5

Old ship find time shift.

4 out of 5

Tactically reduced.

4 out of 5

Crankenshaft cyborg art conflict.

3 out of 5

Space slavers can't Sink The Pink.

3.5 out of 5

"Heroes are hard to find. We need to welcome them whenever they appear in our midst. You've just got to be careful to pick the right guy, because it's easy for someone to pretend to be what they're not.
Captain Future is dead. Long live Captain Future."

5 out of 5

This wormhole is mine.

4 out of 5

Call me Mellow-Yellow, hyperspatial bloodnut monkey-female.

3 out of 5

AI whispering gives me a headache.

4 out of 5

Look, it's full of stars.

3 out of 5

Serious space ship s*cker scam.

3.5 out of 5

Personality variations don't quite cut it, universal aims are worth a shot though.

4 out of 5

Muddy Star Wars.

4 out of 5

Are your MacShards gunning?

3 out of 5

Spoof Opera opera.

3 out of 5

Ferret girl proves vital in time tweaking titans massive personality conflict.

3.5 out of 5

A girl's friendship with an AI leads to physical relationship and with it, the evolution past the legal sentience barrier.

4 out of 5

"Space war is gudawful slow."

Everything is also not as it seems in this conflict, partly as a result of the above.

3 out of 5

Share intelligence.

4 out of 5

Anti-piracy intelligence is powerful.

4 out of 5

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 8 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Uneven read, but better as a literature study
If you are a sci-fi fan just looking for a fun read, you may find this short story collection includes older stories of the sort that have clouded the image of sci-fi as based on... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Thomas O. Hagan

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stuff!
Just finished reading this monster, (940-plus pages), and all I can say is "Wow!" After 50-plus years of reading SF I would have thought at least one of these stories would be a... Read more

Published 24 months ago by L. Ochs

3.0 out of 5 stars Compilation of SciFi Short Stories under the "Space Opera" theme
Large and decent collection of short story samples from a number of popular authors, compiled under the loose definition of "Space Opera". Read more

Published on February 20, 2007 by Stewart Teaze

5.0 out of 5 stars Dignifying the Form
As someone whose own work has been describe as intelligent space opera, I love this book just for the statment on the dust jacket that:
Space Opera, once a derisive term... Read more

Published on September 10, 2006 by Lynda Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and enjoyable
Presents stories from the entire history of space opera (although heavily biased toward more recent stories), with scholarly comments on each entry and a long, informative... Read more

Published on August 15, 2006 by W. Leipold

› See all 8 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; }

Customer Discussions

Beta (What's this?)

New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.

This product's forum (0 discussions)

	Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
	No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

[Cancel]

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
science fiction SETI - Are They Missing The Obvious?	260	1 hour ago
science fiction Anti-gravity Out of Magnetics?	33	1 hour ago
science fiction Have You Written A Sci-Fi Book - Display Case	90	2 hours ago
science fiction Sci Fi for women	107	8 hours ago
space opera Definition of "space opera"	8	10 hours ago
science fiction More religion and aliens: How will our beliefs affect our behavior?	49	12 hours ago
space opera Craft Propulsion in Space Opera	16	1 day ago