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The New Space Opera 2: All-new Stories of Science Fiction Adventure PDF

525 Pages·2009·2.24 MB·English
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The New Space Opera 2 Edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan For Jessica and Sophie, who are far more likely to see the stars than me Contents Introduction Utriusque Cosmi • Robert Charles Wilson The Island • Peter Watts Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance • John Kessel To Go Boldly • Cory Doctorow The Lost Princess Man • John Barnes Defect • Kristine Kathryn Rusch To Raise a Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves • Jay Lake Shell Game • Neal Asher Punctuality • Garth Nix Inevitable • Sean Williams Join the Navy and See the Worlds • Bruce Sterling Fearless Space Pirates of The Outer Rings • Bill Willingham From the Heart • John Meaney Chameleons • Elizabeth Moon The Tenth Muse • Tad Williams Cracklegrackle • Justina Robson The Tale of the Wicked • John Scalzi Catastrophe Baker and A Canticle For Leibowitz • Mike Resnick The Far End of History • John C. Wright Other Books by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan Credits Copyright About the Publisher INTRODUCTION T he true heart of science fiction has always been the space-opera story; the thrilling adventure tale of powerful rocket ships, dashing heroes, and far frontiers—stories of immense scope and scale, color and action, taking us to the ultimate limits of both time and space. Two years ago, when compiling the book that became The New Space Opera, we looked to present a snapshot of how the space-opera story had evolved from what Bob Tucker had in 1941 contemptuously defined as “the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn spaceship yarn” to one of the most popular forms of science fiction of the eighties, the nineties, and the oughts, and one where much of the cutting-edge work in today’s genre is being done. As we noted in the introduction to that book, starting in the early 1970s, writers on both sides of the Atlantic (Iain M. Banks, M. John Harrison, Barrington Bayley, Samuel R. Delany, Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge), building on the work of earlier eras, from the twenties to the sixties, by such great pioneers as Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, A. E. van Vogt, Poul Anderson, Jack Vance, and many others, started experimenting with what had in some ways by then become an old and threadbare form, investing it with a much more rigorous approach to science, a greater depth of characterization, better writing, and an increased sensitivity to political realities. While “old space opera” continued—and continues—to be written, part of the established spectrum of science fiction, this “new space opera” caught the imagination of the reading public, and to this day many writers identified with the form are among the bestselling authors in the field. Our intention with compiling The New Space Opera was not to assemble a movement-defining book—a task that still remains to be done, in our opinion— but to map at least some of the territory covered by this sprawling (and sometimes contradictory: the line between New Space Opera and Old Space Opera, and just plain science fiction, for that matter, is often subjective and hard to draw, and no two people draw it in the same place) new form, providing a broad range of stories by some of the best writers working in the field at the time. And, of course, to provide as entertaining an anthology as possible in the process, one that would make the readers think that their money had not been ill- spent. Much ink was spilled over the result, with some critics drawing lines in the sand and declaring that some of the stories in the book were not really New Space Opera by their definition, while other critics drew other lines in the sand and came to exactly opposite conclusions about what was canonical and what was not. No doubt the book you hold in your hand will provoke a similar range of arguments. The subgenre of New Space Opera has become broad enough that we were able to provide a completely fresh slate of contributors for this anthology, not needing to reuse anyone from the first book—and coming along behind them is yet another entirely new rank of New Space Opera creators who may yet someday also get a shot of their own. We’re proud to say that the book at hand compiles new work from eighteen of the best current practitioners of the New Space Opera, from relatively new writers to experienced veterans of the field: Robert Charles Wilson, Peter Watts, John Kessel, Cory Doctorow, John Barnes, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Neal Asher, Garth Nix, Sean Williams, Bruce Sterling, Bill Willingham, John Meaney, Elizabeth Moon, Jay Lake, Tad Williams, Justina Robson, John Scalzi, Mike Resnick, and John C. Wright—as good a list of authors, we think, as you’re likely to find in any other science-fiction anthology this year. We think there’s something here for everyone, with the stories ranging from cool, cutting extrapolation on the extreme edge of cosmology to baroque romanticism to the swashbuckling adventures of space pirates. There’s variety and breadth, color and life, scale and scope, drama and conflict, romance and glory—and not a little humor. While it’s a completely different book than its predecessor, we think that it’s nonetheless a worthy successor to The New Space Opera. We can only hope you’ll agree. —Gardner Dozois/Jonathan Strahan ROBERT CHARLES WILSON UTRIUSQUE COSMI Robert Charles Wilson made his first sale in 1974, to Analog, but little more was heard from him until the late eighties, when he began to publish a string of ingenious and well-crafted novels and stories that have since established him among the top ranks of the writers who came to prominence in the last two decades of the twentieth century. His first novel, A Hidden Place, appeared in 1986. He won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel The Chronoliths, the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel Mysterium, and the Aurora Award for his story “The Perseids.” In 2006, he won the Hugo Award for his acclaimed novel Spin. His other books include the novels Memory Wire, Gypsies, The Divide, The Harvest, A Bridge of Years, Darwinia, Blind Lake, Bios, and Axis, and a collection of his short work, The Perseids and Other Stories. His most recent book is a new novel, Julian. He lives in Toronto, Canada. Here he tells the compelling story of a young woman faced with the most significant choice she will ever make in her life—after which, nothing will ever be the same. D iving back into the universe (now that the universe is a finished object, boxed and ribboned from bang to bounce), Carlotta calculates ever-finer loci on the frozen ordinates of spacetime until at last she reaches a trailer park outside the town of Commanche Drop, Arizona. Bodiless, no more than a breath of imprecision in the Feynman geography of certain virtual particles, thus powerless to affect the material world, she passes unimpeded through a sheet- aluminum wall and hovers over a mattress on which a young woman sleeps uneasily. The young woman is her own ancient self, the primordial Carlotta Boudaine, dewed with sweat in the hot night air, her legs caught up in a spindled cotton sheet. The bedroom’s small window is cranked open, and in the breezeless distance a coyote wails. Well, look at me, Carlotta marvels: skinny girl in panties and a halter, sixteen years old—no older than a gnat’s breath—taking shallow little sleep-breaths in the moonlit dark. Poor child can’t even see her own ghost. Ah, but she will, Carlotta thinks—she must. The familiar words echo in her mind as she inspects her dreaming body, buried in its tomb of years, eons, kalpas. When it’s time to leave, leave. Don’t be afraid. Don’t wait. Don’t get caught. Just go. Go fast. Her ancient beloved poem. Her perennial mantra. The words, in fact, that saved her life. She needs to share those words with herself, to make the circle complete. Everything she knows about nature of the physical universe suggests that the task is impossible. Maybe so…but it won’t be for lack of trying. Patiently, slowly, soundlessly, Carlotta begins to speak. Here’s the story of the Fleet, girl, and how I got raptured up into it. It’s all about

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Some of the most beloved names in science fiction spin all-new tales of interstellar adventure and wonder Neal Asher John Barnes Cory Doctorow John Kessel Jay Lake John Meaney Elizabeth Moon Garth Nix Mike Resnick Justina Robson Kristine Kathryn Rusch John Scalzi Bruce Sterling Peter Watts Sean Will
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