Links: Hartwell & Kramer's Space Opera Essay / Show Article /

Editors Dozois & Strahan add their voices to the discussion of what constitutes the New Space Opera. There are some very good stories, some pretty good stories, and some that wandered in thinking it was about something else entirely. It's a pretty good collection but not quite The Year's Best SF.

Selected Story Reviews: Verthandi's Ring by Ian McDonald / Hatch by Robert Reed / Winning Peace by Paul J. McAuley / Maelstrom by Kage Baker / Blessed by An Angel by Peter Hamilton

From back of book: What sets space opera apart from other fiction is its sheer scale: it is exuberant celebration of the very large and the very small; of the very old and the very new; of the vast, panoramic instant we live in, the instant in which everything that went before melds with everything yet to be.

The only book of its kind, The New Space Opera brings together for the first time the generation of writers who spawned and embody the "new space opera," as well as other talents destined to join their ranks. Going beyond everything that has come before, this fresh, visionary anthology is essential reading for every science fiction fan.

(Source: EOS)