The New Space Opera 2

by Jonathan Strahan, Gardner Dozois, Jonathan Strahan

Book Overview

"An exceedingly fine set of stories written specifically for this collection by some of the best sf authors writing today.'
--Library Journal (starred review)

Following the success of their Locus Award-winning anthology The New Space Opera, editors Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan now up the ante with The New Space Opera 2, new stories from some of the biggest names in science fiction's biggest genre. With contributions...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061562351
• ISBN13: 9780061562358
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A selection of adventures perfect for any science fiction library

This original anthology offers some fine space opera blending high drama with science fantasy. Short stories by Elizabeth Moon, Garth Nix, Mike Resnick, Sean and Tad Williams, and more pair original science and cutting-edge scenarios with high drama in a selection of adventures perfect for any science fiction library.

That's what I'm talking about

On good anthologies I find myself checking the stories in the table of contents so that I'll read them again when the mood strikes me. More checks than not for The New Space Opera: Volume 2. Lots of tongue in cheek stories and you can't go wrong by invoking Star Trek. Given the space faring theme of the book that description could work for several of the stories not just one obvious one entitled To Go Boldly. Definitely a worthwhile collection for those that like their science fiction to be fun. The Kennedy Effect

Lots of entertaining sci fi here

After being disappointed with the first volume, The New Space Opera, I had low expectations for this new book, The New Space Opera 2. However, I was happily surprised to find lots of great stories in this book. Space opera is my favorite style of sci fi, and - hooray! - judging from this book space opera is not dead but is actually in a renaissance. I liked almost all the stores, which for me is rare in an anthology. Even the few stories I didn't like weren't bad, just not to my particular taste. You might like them. The editors seem to have genuinely tried to find "space opera" stores that were both well-written and highly entertaining. I hope they will do more volumes like this. I found many authors here who until now were unknown to me - I'm going to look for other things they've written. One that stands out is Jay Lake - what an excellent job he did with his story "To Raise a Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves." I was also glad to find a lower-than-usual dosage of pointless sex and violence, compared to what you often find in sci fi stories. If you like "space opera" type sci fi, this book is well worth a purchase.

A collection of good reads

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.

Pretty Good Read

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.