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

525 Pages·2009·2.24 MB·English

by  Gardner Dozois

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