Az ​űroperák határtalan világa

by Jonathan Strahan (Editor), Mária Ballai (Translator), András Huszár (Translator)

A csillagközi konfliktusokban, öntudattal bíró űrhajókban, galaktikus intrikában és igazán nagyszabású elképzelésekben bővelkedő űropera a science fiction egyik legnépszerűbb válfaja. Ebben a gazdag válogatást kínáló kötetben elismert kortárs szerzők kísérnek el lélegzetelállító világokba az űroperák univerzumában.

Jonathan Strahan közel harminc éve dolgozik sci-fi és fantasy szerkesztőként, tízszer is jelölték Hugo-díjra, 2010-ben pedig megkapta munkásságáért a World Fantasy Díjat. Rengeteg antológiát és szerzői novelláskötetet jegyez, többek között Az év legjobb science fiction és fantasynovellái sorozatot. Nyugat-Ausztráliában él feleségével és két lányával.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Space Opera, Anthologies, Fiction, LGBT, Adult

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 13, 2024

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive line-up of authors. From the introduction: “Robert Silverberg identified two fundamental themes in science fiction: the journey in time and the journey in space. Space opera, he suggested, was a sub-genre of the journey in space, one that takes romantic adventure, sets it in space, and tells it on a grand scale.“

Great introduction! Usually I skim those, because I tend to find them boring and want to get on with it. This was good though. And, hey, based on one of the definitions in it, Dune is not space opera. Not set in space (much), for starters… Hm. We do have a galactic-empire scenario though. I still haven’t read any Larry Niven and I also haven‘t read Ender’s Game. Or Consider Phlebas. I do need to re-read Downbelow Station. I‘ll be reading #16 of Foreigner soon… My mileage with Miles Vorkosigan varies. Not sure if I want to tackle Revelation Space. Leviathan Wakes, YES! I love it! Ancillary Justice! All Systems Red! So good! No, Some Desperate Glory didn‘t do it for me… Yes, it won the HUGO… 🤷
Ok, I am excited and ready for these short stories. Here we go, links behind the titles lead to free online versions:

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S. Buckell, 🚀🚀🚀½
An odd bot story. Devious little plan. Nicely out-maneuvered the bad guy!
Should I re-read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? Don‘t really remember it.

Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee, 🚀🚀🚀🚀
Hugo Awards 2018 Novelette Nominee
I‘ve read this in 2018. My review is here. I quite liked it back then. So far I haven‘t picked up Ninefox Gambit.

All the Colors You Thought Were Kings by Arkady Martine, 🚀🚀🚀½
Fighting an empire from within? Clones, succession, revolution, nanites.
Her novel A Memory Called Empire is very good.

“Belladonna Nights,” by Alastair Reynolds, 🚀🚀🚀
Humans in a very far future, circling the galaxy. Space, big ideas. Perception, mind and memory, what constitutes reality? Hm.
My favourites of his so far were The Prefect and Blue Remembered Earth.

Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher, 🚀🚀🚀🚀½
2021 HUGO AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY
An old man creates two sentient machines, Brother and Sister. They are guileless and joyful. Events drive them into space and Sister learns something. Nice!
Thornhedge just won the HUGO, check it out, it‘s very good…

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders, 💣
Over the top heist story. A couple of not-quite humans have to steal something. I’m sure it makes fun of a lot of typical SF tropes and it’s really clever, but it was just too silly for me and not my thing. I skimmed.

Immersion by Aliette de Bodard, 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
2012 NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY
2013 LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY
I have read one novel and a few short stories from her Xuya universe. I like the world, more or less, but struggle with the writing. It is not easily accessible. I am unsure if this is a Xuya story as well. It‘s set on a space station that has won its independence from the galactic empire, influenced by Vietnamese culture. There is Quy, working at her family‘s restaurant and a woman caught in her galactic avatar. It‘s about cultural identity and self and it‘s very good.

Morrigan in the Sunglare by Seth Dickinson, 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 with a 🍒 on top.
Wow, this one gave me goose bumps. War between Earth and her colonies. Fighter pilots. Killing, how to deal. Motivation. Loyalties. Brutal. Very, very good. So much happening in those few pages. Loved it.
There is also a MORRIGAN IN SHADOW, also published in Clarkesworld Magazine. It‘s novella length and I got that particular issue of Clarkesworld for it. I have to read what happens to the MC, Laporte, next. And if I like that novella just as much, I have to take a serious look at everything else by the author. So far I have read The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Recommended!

The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar, 🐙🐙🐙
“A space opera adventure set in a universe controlled and run by Jewish religious authorities. An enforcer is sent to a distant planet where he discovers an android who changes his mind about what is right and wrong.“
Parallel, linear timelines. The fate of the entire universe and the chosen people, a ruler, an investigator, Jewish tradition, angels… tentacles? Pretty odd. I don’t think I got the meaning of that ending.
The only full length novel I read by the author was Unholy Land. Not a total success, but interesting.

“A Good Heretic,” by Becky Chambers, 🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
“…a short story by Becky Chambers that is part of the Wayfarers universe, taking place before the events of the main series. […] The story focuses on Mas, a Sianat …“
(text from the Wayfarers Wiki, be careful what you look at, there will be spoilers)
This was lovely. Becky Chambers is comfort food. Her writing makes me happy. Despite that I still have some unread backlog. So many books, so little time.
Apparently Mas appears in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I don‘t remember her, but it‘s been a few years since I read the first book in the Wayfarers series.

A Voyage to Queensthroat by Anya Johanna DeNiro, 🚀🚀🚀½
A trans woman in a broken apart Empire that has become unfriendly to her. Can she save herself and someone else? The pacing is a little uneven. I wonder if the bad guy has orange hair? I don‘t think I have ever read anything by DeNiro before.

The Justified by Ann Leckie, 🚀🚀🚀
A planet with a totalitarian ruler. Het is one of her enforcers. She was dissatisfied and left, but now she has been recalled. I liked Het and the end of the story, but otherwise did not care much for this.
Regardless, the Imperial Radch series is one of my favourites.

“Planetstuck,” by Sam J. Miller, 🚀🚀🚀🚀½
A fairly crazy portal-hopping story. The homeworld of the MC has gone off the grid and is unreachable. Or maybe not? And what price would he have to pay? Good one.
This is from the author of Blackfish City. I liked that one. Different & imaginative.

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck, 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐
“Life on the transdimensional ship Skidbladnir is a strange one. The new janitor, Saga, finds herself in the company of an officious steward-bird, a surly and mysterious engineer, and the shadowy Captain.“
At first I thought that this is a very weird story, making no sense. Television, videotapes, telephones and electric lights on a space ship. But it can happen, if you fly through space in an office building merged onto an alien hermit crab thing. I fell in love with Skidbladnir and the story made me happy. What a crazy idea.

There is an „About the Contributors“ at the end. I was very pleased to read that Becky Chambers is working on a new standalone novel.

Bottomline, excellent anthology. Only one story I truly didn‘t like, some great authors, a lot of variety in writing styles, a lot of food for thought, fun and good feelings.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher or author through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

[Rach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had me from the description: “Are you tired of reading science fiction novels that feel like they’re taking literal eons to finish?” Dear reader, the answer to this question is YES.

To be honest, I think sci-fi in the short story format is harder to pull off than as novels. It's a genre accustomed to four 400-page books in a series, where the world building can be detailed down to the socioeconomic consequences of how the protagonists utilize currency. Short story is HARD. The writer has to simultaneously establish the world AND hook the reader, create a cohesive narrative that stands on its own, and land the ship (pun gloriously intended) — in fewer pages than some books dedicate to single chapters. 

Truthfully, it's what I prefer in sci-fi. I care about character more than climate, and when you have so little to work with it's typically character that gets the most attention. So in a lot of ways, this collection was custom made for my tastes, which probably explains the 5 star review. Though to be fair, once I looked back on the entire collection, I noted that more of the stories tended towards the upper 4 stars, so averaging out at a 5 felt justified. Plus: this is fun. We should sign more things like this.

(Mostly) short spoiler free reviews of each story:

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance: A top tier title and a strong start! It's hard to pick an opener and this was a good one. I’m a huge fan of "what exactly does it mean to be human?" wearing a trench coat made of narrative plot. I got lost a little bit on the world building, but the formist/robot subplot was phenom and the ending packed such a punch I didn't care. 4.5 stars

Extracurricular Activities: I really enjoyed the characters, thought them well established for how many there are and how little time they have on the page. But I felt like this was a slice of a larger story, and not necessarily something that could exist on its own. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was legitimately lifted from a full length novel. There's still too much to unpack with Meng. 4 stars.

All the Colors You Thought Were Kings: Whew, second person AND present tense? I was predisposed against it, but this story was right hook after right hook. I couldn't breathe reading this one. 5 stars.

Belladonna Nights: way way way waaaaaaaay too much superfluous lore, but when it finally got down to it, it was a good story. Something to chew on, at least. If pared down, the concept could really shine. 3.7 stars

Metal like Blood in the Dark: Tense, but not as much as All The Colors. A good premise, well executed. Kept the world building tight, which I deeply appreciated. We often talk about "learning humanity" solely in terms of empathy, compassion, etc. Not treachery. Good stuff. 4.5 stars

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime: the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. So ridiculous and fun that I looked up the author halfway through and tbr'd her work. This felt like Catherynne Valente wrote a Dr. Who episode, circa 10 or 11. Sometimes space is just for fun!! 4.20 stars

Immersion: If I had a nickel for every time I begrudgingly started a second person present tense story that ended up knocking me sideways, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. Right?
This is what Black Mirror should feel like, when the writers’ sole goal isn’t legitimately ruining your life. 4.7 stars

Morrigan in the Sunglare: “You have to go to sleep you have to go to sleep you HAVE TO GO TO SLEEP" I told myself over and over again. Still read this in one breathless sitting. It takes SOOO much talent to tell a story in such a nonlinear fashion, and the author smashed it. No notes. Discovered he writes the Destiny lore and this is the first thing that's ever tempted me into playing that series. 5 stars. 

The Old Dispensation. This one threw me for a loop because I am such the right audience for this - above average understanding of the Torah and ancient Hebrew traditions, a person who likes stories about religion - but this was such a miss for me. I knew all the words and didn't get the picture. Maybe that was the problem? There was so much compounded lore. I liked the shape of it, but I just didn't love it. 3.7 stars.

The Good Heretic: So. I picked up this entire anthology for Becky Chambers, and had a rollercoaster of emotions when I saw the title.
Upside: Good Heretic is in her Wayfarers series, about a species I LOVE, but can be read as a standalone or introduction to the series.
Downside: this exists in other anthologies. Maybe that's the case with other stories in here! That's probably how anthologies work! But my heart's desire was to have more Becky Chambers content in the world, and I was a little sad to discover that isn’t the case.
Now, the story itself: flawless. Becky is a character writer like no other, and her world building is my favorite. Ten stories in, she is the first to center a narrative on a non-humanoid, non robot character. Full blown alien. Not even bipedal. 
Chambers is one of the few authors I've ever encountered who actually gets creative with her aliens, and this is no exception. Sianats are fascinating. This whole story is fascinating. I wanted 30000 more pages. I wept for the hope of it all. It's the only tears I shed the whole anthology. I love her with all my heart. 500 stars.

A Voyage to Queensthroat: for a story that references so many events outside the narrative, this works so well as a short story. There's so many layers to unravel here, I'll think about this one for days. The perfect amount of lore to leave you hungry for more. A gut punch of an ending. 4.4 stars

The Justified: the lore almost lost me, but I’ll excuse a multitude of sins if you just give me a woman murdering the sh*t out of some privileged a-holes. Was Het a human? Who cares! We support women’s rights and women’s wrongs. 4.5 stars.

Planetstuck: This was some of the best character writing in the collection, with a story that got under my skin. Perfect amount of world building. Phenomenal combo of humor and humanity. Great ending. 4.8 stars

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir: a sweet note to end on. The opener and closer of an anthology are tough picks, and this has just the right about of optimism, and melancholy, and adventure. It leaves a good taste in your mouth, which is how you want to finish this. 4.4 stars

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an unbiased review!
PopSugar 2024: a book set in space.

[Kara Babcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years and years ago, I said that my love for space opera was dimming. Space opera has always been one step away from science fantasy, of course, but I was getting bored with how same same all the nanotech-fuelled, AI-high stories seemed to feel. In the last couple of years, something has changed. I don’t know if it is me or the field or both, but I have been loving space opera again! When I opened my eARC of New Adventures in Space Opera, provided by Tachyon Publications in exchange for this review, I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the names I recognized among the contributors.

The book lifts off with Jonathan Strahan’s introduction, which provides escape velocity. He puts into words a lot of what I was feeling, described above, crystallizing how it feels like we are definitely in a new vogue of this subgenre. The military science fiction of the nineties and early 2000s is metamorphosing into a decolonial, or at least postcolonial, attempt at deconstructing the imperialist sides of space opera. I think that is what most fascinates me about the subgenre. Beyond that, however, I think the way authors are exploring how advanced tech and a sprawling, galactic humanity might reshape our understanding of personhood and autonomy has changed for the better. The Big Ideas are becoming more complex, more nuanced, than in decades previous. That isn’t to trash science fiction or space opera from before—but like any genre, science fiction must be responsive to its times. These new adventures feel different in the right way for the world in which we currently live.

The anthology opens with a banger, “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” by Tobias S. Buckell. It ends with an astrophysical twist which is clever but doesn’t exactly feel all that original, so your mileage may vary. What actually intrigued me more about the story is its handling of the idea of free will. The main character is a maintenance intelligence that is basically a copy of an uploaded human; when they uploaded themself, they signed a contract that removed their free will. At the same time, they seem to have plenty of autonomy, which is an intriguing paradox.

These meditations on personhood continue in “Belladonna Nights,” by Alastair Reynolds; “Metal Like Blood in the Dark,” by T. Kingfisher; and “A Good Heretic,” by Becky Chambers. These stories all variously have either nonhuman or transhuman protagonists and, as such, truly stretch one’s imagination when it comes to understanding how such protagonists navigate and learn concepts—like deceit—we humans take for granted.

Some of the stories are more prosaic. “Extracurricular Activities,” by Yoon Ha Lee, follows a young Shuos Jedao (one of the main characters from Lee’s Machineries of Empire series) on a special op. “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” by Charlie Jane Anders feels very season 3 Star Trek, if you know what I mean, and I can’t say I loved it, but I understand what she’s going for. “Planetstuck,” by Sam J. Miller, is a little melancholy and haunting.

I bounced off a few of the stories hard. Lavie Tidhar continues to be an author who I think is just not for me, nor did I really follow “Morrigan in the Sunglare,” by Seth Dickinson. I liked Arkady Martine’s “All the Colors You Thought Were Kings”—it was interesting reading this as a contrast to her Teixcalaan duology that I just recently finished. That being said, I think the theme I got from the story—that we are doomed to be assimilated into oppressive, imperalist institutions if we think we can change them from within—isn’t sufficiently explored, even for a short story. Similarly, “The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir,” while rich in pathos and imagination, didn’t intrigue me or excite me that much.

All of this is to say: this is a varied collection. It’s unlikely you will enjoy them all, but you will probably enjoy some (hopefully most) of these stories—maybe the ones I didn’t like as much are the ones you’ll love! That there is probably something for every science-fiction reader in this anthology is a testament not only to Strahan and Tachyon’s curatorial skills but also to the cornucopia of space opera available these days, especially in shorter forms. And as much as I am less enamoured by slower stories like “The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir,” I really want to emphasize that I don’t think those stories are any less worthy of celebration or inclusion—space opera should not just be bang-bang-big-shoot-em-up-in-space! There is room for and value in stories that focus more on inner lives, on relationships, on giant space crabs!

Anthologies are always hit-or-miss for me, yet I had a feeling New Adventures in Space Opera would be more hit than miss. Maybe I just read it at the right time. Whatever the case, I was right. This book is just fuelling the fire stoked by my recent reads in the subgenre and leaving me hungry for more, more, more.

Originally posted on Kara.Reviews.

[L (Nineteen Adze) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to let my impressions sit for longer, but two people have this collection on hold– so I’m running through my quick story impressions before I take it back (good taste, fellow city residents!). The short version is that this is a strong collection, and it’s worth tracking down to read the whole set together even though many of them are online (links added where available). Two of my favorites are available only in this collection or in older anthologies. I’ve sorted these into rough tiers, but they’re not in a strict order within these groupings of loved/ enjoyed/ didn’t find memorable.

My favorites:

“Morrigan in the Sunglare” by Seth Dickinson
This story takes place while a ship is falling into a sun’s gravity well, covering both the fatigue at being part of a probably-avoidable war and one pilot’s experience of going into battle over and over under the command of a captain for whom she has complex and half-articulate feelings. It’s just a magnificent character study piece wrapped up in a war story. I’ve had The Traitor Baru Cormorant on my TBR for ages, but clearly I need to move it up–I think this is my favorite of the collection.
Available online: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/dick...

“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings” by Arkady Martine
The way Arkady Martine crafts sentences is endlessly compelling to me, and I found the intensely personal character-study tangle of fear and desire mixed with the imperial reach of carefully curated genesets fascinating. You can see some seeds of ideas that might make it to A Memory Called Empire one day, but I would read a whole series set in this geneset-dominated empire too. The imagery is just gorgeous, and with everything in second person too? Fantastic, no notes.
Available online: https://www.shimmerzine.com/all-the-c...

“Planetstuck” by Sam J. Miller
The sheer scale of space opera here is focused on space, with planets centuries of travel apart connected through gates where someone can walk casually through dozens of worlds in a single day of taking the long way around to avoid tolls. In that vast space, how does it feel to have those distant connections to home severed–or to learn that the way might be open after all? It took a few turns I didn’t expect, and I am a reliable sucker for bittersweetness, so I think this one will stick with me. This is both a great adventure story and a killer character study that makes me want to read more of Miller’s work.

“Belladonna Nights” by Alistair Reynolds
Space opera excels at a sense of size and scale, and this one focuses on the vast expanse of time more so than space–the story takes place at a gathering once every two hundred thousand years where members of the Mimosa Line share their experiences and strive to show the most compelling memories. It’s personal against that immense background of a planet sculpted to host this gathering, and bittersweet in a way that really landed for me. I’ve heard about Reynolds for years, but if anyone wants to suggest a starting point for his novels, I’d love one.

Solid and thought-provoking:

"Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard
This one has a killer hook-- in order to communicate better with people from other cultures, it's possible to wear an immerser that filters your impressions and provides information about cultural norms. The ending was a pinch simple for me, but I love the questions the story is asking about who can culturally immerse for convenience, who has to in order to survive, and what that immersion can do to a person's sense of self. I would absolutely read a novel exploring this premise.
Available online: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/debo...

“Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher
This was the only story in the collection that I had read before, back during a Hugo Readalong discussion. I still think that it’s great, but the impact was much stronger the first time around. Even on a second reading, though, I love the way the story takes a less-covered fable and explores it in new ways– seeing powerful artificial intelligences as vulnerable children is a good twist.
Available online: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/artic...

“Extracurricular Activities” by Yoon Ha Lee
I have a soft spot for heist and espionage stories, and this really scratched that itch. It swings between serious moments, the creativity of clever schemes, and good sparks of humor between the characters on this mission. I really need to get around to trying some of these author’s novels, since I’ve liked quite a few of his short stories.
Available online: https://reactormag.com/extracurricula...

“A Good Heretic” by Becky Chambers
Some moments of friendship and connection here are trademark Chambers, but there’s a deeper well of despair, uncertainty, and self-loathing than I’ve seen in her other work. Above all, this is a story about feeling wrong and broken while trying to live up to expectations and not knowing why it’s such a struggle.

“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” by Tobias S. Buckell
This opener has the most classic science fiction mood for me: the way the focus moves between the tight programming-based restrictions of what the narrator can do and the enormous scope of ships containing landscapes set a great tone for the collection.
Available online: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...

“The Justified” by Ann Leckie
The fusion of a science-fiction approach to controlled reincarnation with remixed Egyptian mythology is a great framework. I wanted a little more exploration of these characters and their backstories, but the general arc is quite well done.
Available online: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...

“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck
This is what I think of as a One Great Image story: the concept of a giant starfaring crab-like creature outgrowing its shell and needing help to perhaps find another is great, but the story sort of drifts along around that point. I found myself wanting more character interaction or internal work to really bring the last few pages together.
Available online: https://reactormag.com/karin-tidbeck-...

Not my cup of tea:

“A Voyage to Queensthroat” by Anya Johanna DeNiro
This is another that I wanted to enjoy more than turned out to be the case. The non-linear approach to events is normally great for me, but combining the tension of how these characters can escape danger in the present day with dreamy recounting of how glorious and successful they are in later years just killed the suspense for me, and the potentially great backstory is never quite explored enough.
Available online: http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/a-...

“The Old Dispensation” by Lavie Tidhar
I read this one less than a week ago, but it’s barely stuck in my memory. The story structure of a religious authority trying to reconstruct possibly heretical events by forcing their way into the memories of one of their agents is interesting, but it feels more like a concept-sketch than a satisfying story for me.
Available online: https://reactormag.com/the-old-dispen...

“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” by Charlie Jane Anders
Humor is perhaps the most subjective and personal quality a story can have, and I found this attempted comedy to be painfully unfunny. There are moments of potentially strong emotion, but they get lost in the frenzy of throwing phrases around in sort of a word salad. I’m sure this is someone else’s favorite, but it wasn’t mine.
Available online: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...

I had no luck finding a clean Table of Contents list for this collection, so I made one of my own as an outline if anyone else is looking for that.

“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” by Tobias S. Buckell
“Extracurricular Activities” by Yoon Ha Lee
“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings” by Arkady Martine
“Belladonna Nights” by Alistair Reynolds
"Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard
“Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher
“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” by Charlie Jane Anders
“Morrigan in the Sunglare” by Seth Dickinson
“The Old Dispensation” by Lavie Tidhar
“A Good Heretic” by Becky Chambers
“A Voyage to Queensthroat” by Anya Johanna DeNiro
“The Justified” by Ann Leckie
“Planetstuck” by Sam J. Miller
“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck

//
This is somewhere between 4 and 5 stars for me-- definitely above average for my normal experience of short fiction anthologies. Four stories are around around five-star territory, many others are thought-provoking or cool without being memorable favorites, and only one or two were flops for me. I'll do a story-by-story recap next week if I have time, but for now, I just want to flag that this is a great collection with some fantastic bittersweet gems. RTC.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will begin this a review with a plea to editors, publishers, and marketers: please include a list of authors when you publish an anthology. This one isn’t completely opaque, because they’re all listed on the cover, but you have to look at it enlarged and some of them are upside down, making it a bit of a pain. So to spare others this annoyance, the authors in order of appearance are:

* Tobias S. Buckell
* Yoon Ha Lee
* Arkady Martine
* Alistair Reynolds
* T. Kingfisher
* Charlie Jane Anders
* Aliette de Bodard
* Seth Dickinson
* Lavie Tidhar
* Becky Chambers
* Anya Johanna DeNiro
* Ann Leckie
* Sam J. Miller
* Karin Tidbeck

As for the anthology itself: this was great. I was familiar with some of the authors, and not others, as is usually the case. I got to visit some favorite universes and hopefully discover new ones. I read a few of the stories a few months ago as a palette cleanser between other books, and then when writing this review discovered (to my delight) that the T. Kingfisher book I read a few weeks ago was *not* in fact my first experience of her work; I’d read her story in this anthology, and loved it.

None of these stories were bad; there was nothing I had to force my way through. But to highlight my favorites:

* “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” by Charlie Jane Anders. I don’t even know what to make of this story; it was a hilarious absurdist story about a heist & various other assorted hijinks, pleasure taken too far, and a solar-system-sized testicle and the cult that worships it.

* “Morrigan in the Sunglare” by Seth Dickinson. A few pilots are on a ship falling into a star, with insufficient power to pull out of it and no hope of rescue. This story is a reflection on dehumanization during war; both that which the pilots did to their enemies, and the price doing so inflicted on they themselves.

* “A Good Heretic” by Becky Chambers. Those who have read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (if you haven’t, go read it, it’s fantastic) might remember the navigator aboard the Wayfarer was a member of a species that had a symbiotic relationship with a virus that allowed them to navigate space-time. Somewhat unusually for Chambers, she revisits that species here.

* “Planetstuck” by Sam J. Miller. An interstellar sex worker has been cut off from his home planet, and his brother, after an isolationist sect destroyed all the FTL gates on the planet. He copes with the homesickness, the loneliness, and the simultaneously tantalizing and distressing possibility that there might still be a way to reach home.

* “The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck. The engineers of a starship (which is basically a few crew quarters strapped to the back of a skyscraper-sized transdimensional hermit crab) work to help their ship, which is outgrowing its shell, find a new one.

* “Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher. My favorite of the anthology. An old man on a remote planet creates two AIs, and declares them to be brother and sister. But when the old man has to go for medical treatment and leaves them alone, they must struggle along on their own. When they encounter a third AI, they have to work out concepts like “lies” and “untrustworthy” and make decisions they were never prepared for.

My blog

[Corvus · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Adventures in Space Opera first caught my eye due to the sheer number of excellent contributors that I was already at least somewhat familiar with. Even with this excitement, I tend to go into anthologies with below average expectations as I can often run into as many duds as I do excellent stories. This book surprised me by how solid it was across the board. Even the stories that genre-wise were not my cup of tea, were still well written enough to be entertaining. Some of the authors I already enjoyed brought their A-Game, but I was also introduced to a few others whose work I will be seeking out after having read this anthology.

As Jonathan Strahan discusses in the intro, the definition of what constitutes the "space opera" genre, like pretty much all scifi and fantasy, is debated. Though, there is often a common thread and that is that some see it as a lesser form of science fiction. A bunch of legit nerds like us scifi fans pretending anything we like is cooler than anything else is silly to me, but it is human nature I suppose.This anthology has a wide range of styles and subgenres well complemented by its talented authors, making it difficult for anyone to argue that space opera is lesser in any way.

I read the book cover to cover and one thing I really liked is how long many stories were. One of my biggest issues with short fiction is that I often feel like it's cut off before I am even invested in the story. These entries are still short, but with enough length to settle into. There were some stories that I would describe as war stories, spirituality themes, or space fantasy, that were not my taste (but as I mentioned, not poorly written.) The rest though, ranging from what I would describe as adjacent to cyberpunk, satire, and general space scifi were totally up my alley. The stories that were my favorites were Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee, A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders, Immersion by Aliette de Bodard, Planetstuck by Sam J Miller, and The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck with Miller and Anders being tied for the top spot.

Representation in the book was also above average with many stories surrounding characters of demographics and nationalities that we don't often see centered in English language scifi. This was also a great pride month read. If you're familiar with many of the authors, you may already know that. If not, then I will tell you that many of these stories are wonderfully gay and spectacularly queer. I also tend to go into anthologies expecting otherwise, but since I was familiar with some of the authors, I knew they'd deliver.

Overall, New Adventures in Space Opera is a great collection of stories that both add new elements to the genre and celebrate its long and beloved history among non-pretentious science fiction lovers. Its inclusion of a wide variety of styles and topics means there's likely something in it for everyone. It's a great edition to any shelf for those who love scifi, and maybe many who don't yet realize that they do.

This was also posted to my storygraph and blog.

[Carlex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four and a half star wars.

A excellent selection of stories, with well-known authors and some interesting new talents worth discovering.

[Leia Sedai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful stories with a fresh perspective on space operas. As someone who reads space opera frequently, it takes a truly unique story to surprise me, and more than one story did that. My only disappointment was the Becky Chambers story was a previously published story, and that was one of the big draws for me to request this eARC.




***I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. ***

[Annemieke / A Dance with Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

CW/TWGrief | Death | Murder | Torture | Mentioned Suicide | Addiction | Animal Death | Transhate

With names like Becky Chambers, Alastair Reynolds, Yoon Ha Lee and Ann Leckie this was one anthology that I would not pass by. I'm glad I didn't as it had some great stories in it. I've ordered my thoughts per story and rating.

5 stars

Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee
This story I immediately loved. Jedao is such a great character to follow. He is an undercover agent, an assassin of sorts. Which is all very cool and all but when your mom sends you things, you better listen. I loved the crew he ends up with. I loved the interactions that were between them. I loved his mom even if she was never on the page. I would love to read more with this character!

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck
Everything about this idea drew me in from the start. The idea of crab ships, of them growing out of their 'shell', using them as a means of transportation I found so great to follow. Would love to read more about these crabships.

4.5 stars

The Good Heretic by Becky Chambers
It has some interesting concepts. I am once again struck with how easy Chambers manages to write new species and their cultures in a way that makes it feel like I have a good grasp on it. It is never confusing without taking away any depth in the species.

4 stars

Belladona Nights by Alastair Reynolds
A really interesting concept of family lines and reunions. Of living long. But I felt like I missed a piece here and there. I would certainly love to read more about these lines and reunions quite a few years in the past.

Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher
This honestly read like a fairytale which honesty does not come as a surprise as it is by Kingfisher.

A Temporary Embarrasment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders
With a title like that one could imagine this was going to be a bit ridiculous. It was funny, it was ridiculous, but at times it went a bit too far and it stopped being funny. But for the most part it was a good read.

3,5 stars

Zen & The Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S. Buckell
This story is an interesting idea of a person who traded his human body for an AI body. No free will but he lives forever and gets to travel everywhere. There is some question about if he still has humanity and morality in this one.

Immersion by Aliette de Bodard
This one is partially written in second person point of view. But also in third person point of view. I don't think the switching in such a short story did it any favors. It was well written otherwise but it was only a snippet of a story.

The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar
Interesting story that was very religious feeling. Not in a way that religion was excused but in this case the religion was more of a dictatureship. The religion seems to be based mostly on judaism.

Planetstuck by Sam J. Miller
Interesting idea. It was easy to read but there wasn't enough there to care about the characters.

3 stars

All the Colors You Thought Were Kings by Arkady Martine
This story is written in a second person point of view, so in you. I am not a fan of that so it took me quite a while to get into it. It does kind of work. Unfortunately I didn't care enough about the characters.

A Voyage to Queensthroat by Anya Johanna DeNiro
Honestly a longer story would do much more justice to this story. It has an interesting set of characters with female trans mc's.

The Justified by Ann Leckie
Again, an interesting idea. But I found the violence a bit too much for me with how how little depth we truly got. It felt meaningless to me.

2 stars

Morrigan in the Sunglare by Seth Dickenson
I found this one very confusing and I didn't actually care about anything that happened.

[Austin Beeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

NEW ADVENTURES IN SPACE OPERA
RATED 86% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 4.0 OF 5
14 STORIES : 4 GREAT / 6 GOOD / 4 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF

I always understood Space Opera as the genre definition that separated something like Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy from “Science Fiction” which was represented by Isaac Asimov, Gene Wolfe, or Arthur C Clarke. Which apparently isn’t the case in the mind of many scholars and commentators.

Before reading this anthology, I listened to The Coode Street Podcast Episode 588: Let’s Talk About Space (Opera), Baybee…. In this podcast episode you can hear Editor Jonathan Strahan and SciFi Scholar Gary K Wolfe wrestle with the history and definition of Space Opera. By the time Strahan was writing the forward to this anthology, he had settled on this definition.

"It was at this time, around 2003, that I got caught up in online discussions of the new space opera, and went on to help to compile Locus’s special new space opera issue, and to co-edit The New Space Opera and The New Space Opera 2 with Gardner Dozois which covered it. It was an exciting time."

This book, though, covers what came next. The journey that picks up in 2011 with the publication of James S. A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes (possibly the most popular space opera of the period), moves to Ann Leckie’s ambitious Ancillary Justice, Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit, and then to Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti, Martha Wells’ All Systems Red, Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace, Tade Thompson’s Far from the Light of Heaven, Maurice Broaddus’s Sweep of Stars, and Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory.

…

The fascination with empire faded and its terrible impact was more deeply interrogated. This is the move from the ‘new space opera’ to whatever comes next. What is it? It is more open, more diverse, has different points of view to present, and

powerfully and critically examines the political underpinnings of its stories, while still being everything that Silverberg, Hartwell, and Spinrad understood space opera to be.

In the 2020s the influences of the new space opera have been absorbed and space opera itself now stands somewhere between the sprawling empire of Teixcalaan and the glorious pulpy energy of Guardians of the Galaxy. It can be thoughtful and considered, analysing, deconstructing, and commenting upon what has come before in terms of politics, economics, race, gender, and more. It can also be garish goofy fun (a talking racoon, a face the size of a planet!). It’s all still space opera, as you will see in the pages to come.

This is a very different Space Opera anthology than the ones Strahan edited with Gardner Dozois. It is dominated by female writers, the science is much less “hard,” the descriptions less baroque. The stories show higher levels of character development and prose technique. The New Adventures in Space Opera are different because the genre is different..

What hasn't changed is a collection of a “who’s who” of modern science fiction and Jonathan Strahan focus on the selection of superb stories.

Four Stories Make My All-Time Great List:
https://www.shortsf.com/beststories

“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings,” by Arkady Martine. 2016. Elias and his friends have covertly planned an assassination attempt during Tamar's upcoming succession duel against the current Empress. Elias must decide whether to go through with their treacherous plan or abandon it.

“Belladonna Nights,” by Alastair Reynolds. 2017. A poignant tale of loss, set in a far-flung future where humans attend lavish gatherings to reminisce and celebrate past glories. This story centers on one such event called the Belladonna Nights.

“Immersion,” by Aliette de Bodard. 2012. In a world where people can assume the avatars of other culture, there is a strong danger of losing oneself inside it.

“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir,” by Karin Tidbeck. 2019. Beautiful and poetic story of an accidental jack-of-all-trades on a living spaceship with an animal encased in the metal of the ship. The animal is dying and must either be killed or find a new “shell.” I loved the warmth of this story.

New Adventures in Space Opera
14 Stories : 4 Great / 6 Good / 4 Average / 0 Poor / 0 Dnf

“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” by Tobias S. Buckell. 2017

Good. A robot living on the outside of a large interstellar ship has a moral dilemma when it is commanded to help a human war criminal escape justice.

“Extracurricular Activities,” by Yoon Ha Lee. 2017

Good. A story full of good, old-fashioned espionage and action. A cunning military commander is sent to rescue a captured old friend and discovers things are more complex than they seem.

“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings,” by Arkady Martine. 2016

Great. Elias and his friends have covertly planned an assassination attempt during Tamar's upcoming succession duel against the current Empress. Elias must decide whether to go through with their treacherous plan or abandon it.

“Belladonna Nights,” by Alastair Reynolds. 2017

Great. A poignant tale of loss, set in a far-flung future where humans attend lavish gatherings to reminisce and celebrate past glories. This story centers on one such event called the Belladonna Nights.

“Metal Like Blood in the Dark,” by T. Kingfisher. 2020

Good. Two giant robots (Brother and Sister) are captured by an enemy and have to evolve and find a way to survive. It is interesting with the ways in the which the robots transform their thinking and their bodies to increasingly deceptive purposes. Upgrade from my original review of average. I was original put off my the fantasy-style poetic language, but it didn’t bother me much this time.

“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime,” by Charlie Jane Anders. 2017

Average. A tongue-in-cheek, twee, pastiche of the zany space opera romps of old. Two vulgar and chaotic ‘anti-heroes’ are on the run after stealing from a space cult.

“Immersion,” by Aliette de Bodard. 2012

Great. In a world where people can assume the avatars of other culture, there is a strong danger of losing oneself inside it.

“Morrigan in the Sunglare,” by Seth Dickinson. 2014

Good. With radiation death imminent and certain, a captain and her star pilot discuss what one has to become in order to kill without hesitation in war.

“The Old Dispensation,” by Lavie Tidhar. 2017

Good. A story of espionage, sabotage, discovery, and betrayal in a universe controlled by variations of Judaism.

“A Good Heretic,” by Becky Chambers. 2019

Average. After a religious ritual that should have taken hold doesn’t, the protagonist must come to grips with her feelings of failure, betrayal, and lack of identity.

“A Voyage to Queensthroat,” by Anya Johanna DeNiro. 2020

Average. The narrator, an old woman, recounts how she first met the young woman who would become the Empress when the narrator saved her and then guided her escape. Reads very much like fantasy and not ideal for this anthology.

“The Justified,” by Ann Leckie. 2019

Average. In a world where some groups of people are constantly reborn, Het is given and assignment to eliminate the threats to the powers.

“Planetstuck,” by Sam J. Miller. 2023

Good. A sexworker/spy, who travels the universe though ‘gates,’ discovers that his home world may not actually be completely cut off from everyone else.

“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir,” by Karin Tidbeck. 2019

Great. Beautiful and poetic story of an accidental jack-of-all-trades on a living spaceship with an animal encased in the metal of the ship. The animal is dying and must either be killed or find a new “shell.” I loved the warmth of this story.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooooo much fun! This is an absolute treat for science fiction fans, a collection from some of the best authors in the business today. Tobias S. Buckell’s *Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance* is a brilliant thought experiment on bodies and othering-in space, with robots, from a (kind of?) non-human perspective. *Extracurricular Activities* by Yoon Ha Lee is about spy-assassins and factions. In the profoundly sad *Belladonna Nights* by my personal fav, Alastair Reynolds, the world has ended, but not everyone realises it. T. Kingfisher’s *Metal Like Blood in the Dark* is a little like a space age Pinocchio story, and is also bittersweet—post-Edenic—on the loss of innocence. Lavie Tidhar’s *The Old Dispensation* is Jewish lore (and biblically-accurate angels, eek) on another planet. The deeply moving *A Good Heretic* by Becky Chambers is about not being the same as others, and learning to find yourself and your purpose in that. So is Anya Johanna DeNiro’s *A Voyage to Queensthroat*, while also evoking the US’s current cultural wars. Ann Leckie’s *The Justified* is gory and bloody and fun—not words I ever thought I’d use together in a sentence, and is about unjust rule and class stratification.

Arkady Martine’s *All The Colours You Thought Were Kings*, Charlie Jane Anders’s very wacky *A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime*, Aliette de Bodard’s *Immersion*, Seth Dickinson’s *Morrigan in the Sunglare*, Sam J. Miller’s *Planetstuck*, and Karin Tidbeck’s weird and wonderful, now classic *The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir* are the other stories rounding out this superb collection.

But that’s not all. In his excellent introduction, worth reading in itself, editor Jonathan Strahan takes readers through the definition and history of space opera, its evolution from its earliest days, through pulp and then sci-fi’s Golden Age, the rise of “hard” sci-fi with its scientific rigour, to today’s new socially conscious, diverse, politically aware stories. It’s excellent on things like the move away from fixation on, and new awareness of the consequences of, empire and colonization; increasing inclusivity, in representation both of characters *and* authors; and awareness of and commentary on today’s social problems. It’s an excellent overview. SF (and space opera with it) has some way to go, still, but it’s come a long way.

So, *New Adventures in Space Opera* is a fantastic, fun, *and* eye-opening read; very, very highly recommended. Many thanks to Tachyon Pubs and NetGalley for an early copy.

[Oriente · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nagyon egyenletes színvonalú, jó válogatás került ebbe az antológiába. Inkább csak volt néhány darab, ami nem igazán érdekelt és nehezen figyeltem a történetükre. (Na igen így szoktak a novelláskötet-olvasások néha hónapokig is elhúzódni: lerakom a könyvet, ha elakadok egy szövegben, és nehéz utána újra felvenni.)
Összességében nekem kicsit sok volt a military sci-fik aránya, de űroperákról beszélünk, úgyhogy azt hiszem ez benne volt a pakliban. Amit viszont örömmel vettem észre, hogy a szerzők több, mint a fele nő - amennyiben a nem-bináris szerzőket egyik nemhez se soroljuk. Hát ezt is megértük! Azért ez nagyon klassz, hogy beért ez az új SF írónemzedék.

Hosszas értékelés helyett inkább csak kiemelném azokat a novellákat, amik maradandó élményt nyújtottak. Ilyenek voltak Becky Chambers: Egy jó eretnek (igaz, ehhez lehet, hogy előnyt jelent a Wayfarers univerzum ismerete), Ann Leckie: A jogosultak (ezt pedig úgy lehet igazán értékelni, ha az olvasó azonosítani tudja benne az mitológiai intertextualitást), végül Karin Tidbeck: A Skidbladnir utolsó útja (ez a történet egyszerű nagyszerűségében ragadott meg).
De ahogy átnézem most a tartalomjegyzéket, kifejezetten tetszettek még Alastair Reynolds, Tobias S. Buckell, T. Kingfisher, Charlie Jane Anders, Lavie Tidhar, és Sam J. Miller novellái is.

Szóval egy elég jól sikerült, modern antológia ez, jó szívvel ajánlom.

[Zefyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a rainbow hued collection of stories about gender identity as much as it is about space opera. The first couple of tales may seem innovative but by the end of the anthology this reader was left uninspired by the lack of variety.

[Julia ☕️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC!

This anthology is full of rich, creative stories from some heavy-hitting sci-fi/fantasy authors and it was really cool to see so many compiled in one release!

Like many anthologies/collections, stories can be hit or miss. Unfortunately, there were more misses and ‘middle of the road’ stories for me. I was also a little disappointed that while the collection is titled “New Adventures,” all of these stories have been published elsewhere previously. That being said, there were some stories that were stellar and stood out over others.

I would definitely recommend this to folks who love space-centric science fiction and space opera stories!

Favorites include:
“Belladonna Nights” by Alastair Reynolds
“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings” by Arkady Martine
“A Good Heretic” by Becky Chambers
“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very creditable and diverse range of stories that can be classified as space opera, if only because space travel is involved or implied. These aren't cookie-cutter copies of pew pew space battle stories, but elegant and complex short stories by some major authors in the field, and some newcomers.

I should point out that this is a reprint anthology, and these stories were published elsewhere over the past ten years or so.

[lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag but mostly enjoyable

Loved:
- Extracurricular Activities
- Belladonna Nights
- Immersion
- The Old Dispensation
- A Good Heretic
- The Justified

Liked:
- All The Colours You Thought Were Kings
- Metal Like Blood in the Dark
- Morrigan in the Sunglare
- A Voyage to Queensthroat

Mid:
- Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance
- A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime
- Planetstuck
- The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice selection of SF shorts, very different from early SF.

[Jeff Frane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anthology with many different approaches to Space Opera, all really worth reading. There was one story I didn't like as much but that's how reading goes and it's very rare I can say that about an anthology. Excellent editing by Strahan.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

New Adventures in Space Opera is a collection of fourteen short stories by some of today's best science fiction authors. That being said, as with all short story collections, some were much better than others. I would also disagree with classifying some of these stories as Space Operas. In all this book was a good read but a few of the stories dragged my rating down to just three stars.

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are a good deal of these stories reprints? Yes, AND they're some grade A space opera short stories. Even if you come across this and you've already read it in another place, be willing to look at it again - surprise rereads are still a treat to me. Highly recommended collection.

[Marlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

These space opera stories aren’t exactly new as they’ve all been published before in a variety of not necessarily widely available sources. But all are from the last decade and every single story represents an author who is at the top of their game. And, for the most part, they are marvelous.

I’m usually hit or miss with short story collections, sometimes they work, occasionally they don’t, and often there are a couple of stories that go ‘clunk’ and not in a good way and/or one or two where I can see why people liked them but I’m just not the right reader for them.

This particular collection only had three stories that weren’t absolutely stellar – all puns intended. Which means that I read through the whole thing and had at least a bit to say about each, leading to an overall Escape Rating of A.

“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” by Tobias S. Buckell
What is the difference between having free will but not having any real choices and being bound by contracts and programming – but having time to work one’s way around both? What does it REALLY mean to be human? And how much time and freedom does one need to find ALL the loopholes – and exploit the hell out of them? Escape Rating A for an absolutely beautiful asskicking of an ending.

“Extracurricular Activities” by Yoon Ha Lee (2018 Hugo nominee in the Novelette category)
Well, this just moved Ninefox Gambit up the virtually towering TBR pile, because I think this story is set in that universe and features one of the same characters, Shuos Jedai. Obviously one does not need to have read the series to get into this story because clearly I haven’t but just as clearly I most definitely did. Translating this to Trek a bit, because that’s what I was doing in my head, this story is what you’d get if Starfleet sent Section 31 to deal with the Tribbles, used Harry Mudd’s ship as cover – along with a much better looking version of Mudd – and it all worked out anyway in spite of all the reasons the entire operation should go terribly, horribly wrong. This is a story that shouldn’t be nearly as light as it turns out to be – but it is and it does and it was a LOT of fun along the way. Shuos Jedai fails up REALLY HARD in this story and it really works. Escape Rating A

“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings” by Arkady Martine
A different empire, different memories thereof. Three teens about to become cogs in the empire, except that they’ve chosen to take it over instead. A plot, a plan, a triangle of either siblinghood or romance or both, and a million to one shot that comes through but probably won’t change things half as much as they hoped. Escape Rating A

“Belladonna Nights” by Alastair Reynolds
What is the quality of mercy, and what does it mean to remember? Neither of which questions feel remotely like they should go together. I was expecting something about political shenanigans and jockeying for position and/or a bit of a star-crossed lovers romance, and what I got instead was something beautiful and sad and surprisingly elegiac. Which is exactly what the story is, an elegy for a people long dead, as seen through the eyes of the one person willing to remember them. Escape Rating A-

“Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher (2021 Hugo winner in the Novelette category)
Not all learning organisms are human, and not all learning is on the side of the angels. But when your opponent is definitely working from the dark side of the Force, even a machine has to learn to fight fire with fire. Reminiscent of T.J. Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets in its story of machines being required to learn the worst lessons from humans – because some of them already have. Escape Rating A+

“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” by Charlie Jane Anders
This was just so deliciously, delightfully and dementedly over the top that it’s rolling on the floor laughing its ass off on the other side. A belly laugh of a tale, with a sensibility and a naming convention reminiscent of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Escape Rating A-

“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard (2013 Hugo nominee in the Short Story category)
The weapons of conquest are not necessarily the kind that kill. Sometimes they just do their damndest to kill the culture instead and let the people conquer themselves. And sometimes the culture being appropriated manages to fight back in ways that aren’t exactly deadly weapons, but can be deadly all the same. Escape Rating A

“Morrigan in the Sunglare” by Seth Dickinson
Don’t read this one when you already have a sad because trust me, it won’t help at all. However, in its heartbreaking sadness it’s a beautiful story about what is, what was, what might have been, what it means to be human vs. what it means to have what it takes to defend those who are, what we owe to the people we love vs. what we owe to the people that love us AND it’s about saving what can be saved – even if that means we have to lose it. I have all the words and none of them convey this story properly because it’s beautiful and sad and HARD. Escape Rating A

“The Old Dispensation” Lavie Tidhar
My thoughts about this one went on two completely separate tracks. There are a TON of religious references in this far-future SFnal story, but what made all of that interesting was that every single one of those references, including place names and names of ships, originated in Judaism instead of any of the usual suspects. Very much on my other hand, however, the story doesn’t quite gel. The idea that the agent of the Exilarch was essentially dismembered and mind-raped was plenty creepy, and the whole idea of what the conflict was at its heart was kind of fascinating, but it didn’t pull together in the end and lost its way more than a few times in the middle. Escape Rating C

“The Good Heretic” by Becky Chambers
This was a heartbreaker in the best way, a story about friendship, and being true to yourself, and daring to be different no matter what it costs, and discovering that difference doesn’t have to mean bad or evil no matter what everyone else tells you. It’s part of the author’s Wayfarers universe but can absolutely be read as a standalone – I haven’t read Wayfarers yet but its moving up the TBR pile as I write. Escape Rating A++

“A Voyage to Queensthroat” by Anya Johanna DeNiro
There’s something in this one that reminds me of The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, although I can’t totally put my finger on why. Part of it is the way that both stories are memoirs of secondary characters telling the story of someone famous and even legendary from a previously untold point of view, and that both have a gut-punch of an ending. I’m on the fence – with both stories actually – about whether the length was just right or whether there should have been just a bit more. Escape Rating A-

“The Justified” by Ann Leckie
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or of the one – even when the one is supposedly the ruler of all they survey. And sometimes the only way to obey an order is to disobey the person who gave it. I think I needed more background than I had, or something like that, because this one only sorta/kinda worked for me and I was expecting it to be a wow. Escape Rating B

“Planetstuck” by Sam J. Miller
This was a story that works and works heartbreaking well because it’s completely invested in and riding on its characters. So even though we don’t have nearly enough about how this particular universe works, it doesn’t matter because what we care about – and deeply – are the desperate feelings of its protagonist and its lesson that you really can’t go home again – no matter how badly you want to, because some gifts really do come at much too high a price. Escape Rating A+

“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck
A beautiful ending to a terrific collection. It’s a bit steampunk-ish, not in setting but in the feel of the way the world is set up, but the story it reminds me of most is Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis, in that this is also about the last voyage of a cruise ship that is much bigger than it appears from the outside. Escape Rating B

Originally published at Reading Reality

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

You just think you're better than me because I'm a single-celled organism, and you're all multicellular.

The Collection Overall:
New Adventures is, in my opinion, an unusually strong collection of short stories. I found I really liked the way that this collection was balanced and organized--there wasn't really that collection-typical inclusion of something very long and literary and boring by an acclaimed author that can't be ignored. Instead, each story was refreshing and entertaining and did a decently good job of highlighting the new era of space opera this collection was centered on. I especially enjoyed the balance of voices, giving a good mix of serious and epic tones versus more comedic and "low-brow" narrators.

My only complaint is that a Few too many of these stories consisted of the same generic introductory premise (usually a Queen, usually named after some sort of flower or nature, usually with an elaborate court of Space Rituals...) that did not quite distinguish themselves. I think one or two of these could have been weeded and replaced with something that could expand on the themes of the collection in a more unique way.

Individual Story Reviews:
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance
⭐⭐⭐⭐
It took me several tries to get into this story, but once I finally it was wonderful. My favorite concept for machine intelligence is the SOMA question. This story brought such an interesting and character-full twist to that dilemma.

Extracurricular Activities
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love a good fast-talking improbably-indestructible special ops with a certain je ne sais quoi. And this did not fail to deliver! Despite a pretty simple premise and mystery, it was thoroughly entertaining all the way through on the merits of its very charming cast.

All The Colors You Thought Were Kings
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This piece has some of the best tension I've ever read, and I love how it builds and breaks and rebuilds again. The complexity of these characters' relationships are truly impressive for such a short story. I only wish the glimpses of the greater picture had been a *tad* bit clearer, for the stakes felt a little flat.

Belladonna Nights
⭐⭐⭐
Hm. I liked the tone and concept of this piece, but it felt quite empty. I didn't connect with the characters or their grief in any meaningful way, which made their situation quite… uneventful. That said, the ending was compelling in its quietness—good for Gentians.

Metal Like Blood in the Dark
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I’m quite fond of the fairy tale voice of this story. I like when sci-fi, especially mecha sci-fi or similarly big and metal and math-y sci-fi, puts on the trimmings of a more magical genre. I did, however, think the opera of it all was missing. Just a bit too quiet and hidden to really feel genre appropriate.

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Now this is a space opera, and a fun one. I have a great fondness for slapdash and silly worlds, where the world building is mostly based on what would be hilarious. I think this story did a great job of combining that with genuinely sympathetic and interesting characters. It was the perfect length and pace, too.

Immersion
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really loved this story a lot, despite finding the pacing a little clunky and the writing a touch too forthright. I think this is one of the most successful examples of capturing the Imperial part of the space opera and its effect on the characters. I would love to see this expanded.

Morrigan in the Sunflare
DNF
I don't like Seth Dickinson. I find his writing to be particularly pretentious and overwrought, and that his choice in main characters always ends in him sticking his nose into places he doesn't belong. I'm not wasting any more of my time on him.

Old Dispensation
⭐
I found this world dense and annoying, in the sense that it approaches an almost techno-babble attitude to the politics and zealotry at work here. It was difficult to work through and not truly a text that I found necessary, at this political moment, to spend much time on at all.

A Good Heretic
⭐⭐⭐⭐
This world was fairly limited, but I loved to experience it through this character's eyes. In contrast to the last story, the blasphemy Mas faces was clear, despite the alien world. Her inner conflict feels grounded and relatable, making Mas herself quite a sympathetic character.

A Voyage to Queensthroat
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was a spectacular world-building job. The scope of the empire and the weight of history were so well crafted, despite never leaving a town too small for a name. I really loved these characters and the beliefs they carried.

The Justified
⭐⭐⭐
This one started out a bit underwhelming as this collection has a Lot of space operas with a very similar voice and premise, but I really liked the way the story developed. I think I would have liked this better earlier in the collection, when I was less burnt out on this type of opera.

Planetstuck
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Oh, lovely. This was a masterclass in short story world-building—plucky and entertaining, but full enough that it felt like the plot reached far beyond just this snippet. I loved the characters and the simplicity at the heart of the conflict. Really, really excellent.

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I have always thought that peaceful relationships with living ships were a bit unrealistic, so I loved that aspect of this story. I also really enjoyed the connections to the space exploration TV show and how it shaped Saga’s opinions and decisions about her ship. It was an interesting, quiet space opera.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Joe Karpierz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who has been reading my reviews for any length of time knows that I love space opera. This sub-genre of science fiction is what caused me to fall in love with the field in the first place, all those years ago. Space Opera has been around for a long time, and the term was at one point a derogatory one. That has changed, and Space Opera itself has evolved over time. I'm not going to go through all of that here. You can get a good summary of the evolution of Space Opera from editor Jonathan Strahan's Introduction. Strahan knows a thing or two about Space
Opera, having edited The New Space Opera and The New Space Opera 2 with Gardner Dozois in 2007 and 2009, respectively. This volume is a reprint anthology, and indeed I've read of few of these stories in the past. I liked them then, and I still like them now.

My favorite story is "Belladonna Nights", by Alastair Reynolds. The story takes place millions of years in the future in the universe of Reynolds' novel HOUSE OF SUNS. In the story, lines of shatterlings make circuits of the galaxy over a span of several hundred thousand years, then gather at a reunion location (agree to by all the lines of shatterlings) to insert their memories into a shared repository of knowledge. Shaula has returned for one of the reunions, looking forward to seeing her friend Campion who seems to be avoiding her. Campion starts leaving Belladonna
flowers at her doorstep, which turns out to be a reference of a protocol to abandon one reunion site and selecting another. This is a powerful story of loss and grief, and the ending leaves the reader as sad and Shaula is.

"Metal Like Blood in the Dark", T. Kingfisher's Hugo Award winning short story, is the story of two man-made machines who grow and learn, much like children do. They are eventually captured by a being who is out for revenge against other members of his race for something that it perceives as a slight. Whether it really is a slight is not the point here. The story really is about self-discovery, personal growth, treachery, and loyalty. Its Hugo Award was well deserved.

Two stories that I read previously to the publication of this book and I found terrific were Karin Tidbeck's "The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir" and Sam J. Miller's "Planetstuck". Tidbeck gives us a tale of ship that isn't a ship. Rather, it's a ship that is powered, for lack of a better term, by a living creature inside a building. The creature continues to grow, and must find a new building to occupy before it can fly again. It's a really touching story about an alien and the people that come to care for it. "Planetstuck" is the story of Aran who travels the galaxy trading sex for information (and sometimes just as often looking for a quick tumble with random men) which he sells to interested parties. Travel across the galaxy is via portals that are open between systems, and there is an ideological war brewing between people who travel via the portals - offworlders - and those who think it's better to be isolated on a single planet. It's a terrific story that in many ways mirrors what's going on in our country today.

Another couple of terrific stories take place in universes that we as readers are likely familiar with. Becky Chambers gives us "A Good Heretic", a story set within The Wayfarers universe. The story follows Mas (a character from THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET) as she comes of age and goes out among the stars to start life as a Navigator. But something is wrong with her Pairing, and due to her upbringing feels as if she is a heretic and out of place where she is. It's a tale of uncertainty and identity, and whether it's okay to be who you really are. Another is Yoon Ha Lee's "Extracurricular Activities", which takes place in the Hexarchate universe, that of NINEFOX GAMBIT and its sequels. It's a relatively straightforward adventure story involving one of the main characters in the novels, Shuos Jedao. It's a story that proves that a narrative does not have to be complex to be a good, fun story.

Speaking of fun and silly stories, Charlie Jane Anders gives us "A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime". It's a story that's hard to describe, what with all the zaniness going on, but any story where Hall and Oates are invoked as gods (as in "thank Hall and Oates"), and there's a spaceship named the Spicy Meatball, is at the very least very fun.

I could go on describing each story, but this would end up being a long review. In my opinion, there isn't a bad story here, and in fact I feel that most of them are quite good. And why not, given the array of authors who have stories in the book. Arkady Martine, Tobias Buckell, Lavie Tidhar, Aliette de Bodard, Ann Leckie, Seth Dickinson, and Anya Johanna DeNiro are all either household names in the field or should be.

Jonathan Strahan is a well known and major editor in the field, and it is clear by looking at the sources of these stories that he has done his research when making selections and that he knows where to go look. There are stories here from Tor.com, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Clarkesworld, among other places. The Chambers story was originally published in an anthology called Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers: The Definitive Anthology of Space Opera, an anthology that has been sitting on my TBR for years that I haven't gotten around
to yet. And yes, I agree that to call itself a definitive anthology of Space Opera is a bit much. I mean, I have several anthologies of Space Opera here on my shelves, many of which could lay claim to that description. The point is, however, that Strahan is a fan of Space Opera and knows the field well. He searched far and wide to find some of the best Space Opera stories that have been published since The New Space Opera 2. This volume is a great addition to the library of Space Opera.

[Juli Rahel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Space is so wide and endless. This is why stories set there can go wherever they like, or so I like to think. In New Adventures in Space Opera editor Jonathan Strahan brings together fifteen stunning stories by fifteen brilliant authors, thereby completely redefining the possibilities of space for me. Thanks to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I will have to admit that, while I consider my Sci-Fi reading quite broad, I had never fully considered how "Space Opera" might differ, as a sub-genre. as such, I found Jonathan Strahan's introduction very insightful. There he argues that, in short space opera is a 'romantic adventure set in space and told on a grand scale'. What "romantic" here means is, I believe, up to the author but what I found was true in each of the stories in the collection was that they contained a deep yearning for something. Sometimes another person, sometimes a way of life, sometimes a place. Adventures abound, however, in this collection, and each does reach an impressive scale within the limits of a short story. Another interesting element of the introduction is how Strahan tracks the development of this sub-genre, how it took on the galactic-empire framework in the '50s, but then built upon this and began to become more diverse and actively critical of imperialism and colonialism in the decades that followed. The diversity of the stories included in New Adventures also supports this and in almost all you can find the traces of this deconstructing of empire and its influences, as well as LGBTQIA elements. Besides that, however, there is also the sheer inventiveness which blew me away. Some stories in this collection are irreverent, in a "Guardians of the Galaxy" way, while others are almost mythical, some never touch down on a planet while others hop between moons and worlds like there's no tomorrow. I can honestly say that this edition has made me a Space Opera-convert.

'Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance' by Tobias S. Buckell is a delightful start, about a robot, a stowaway, and the question of what makes us us. 'Extracurricular Activities' by Yoon Ha Lee is a heist story, with surprises and twists and insights into the oddities of cultures and sexualities. 'All the Colours You Thought Were Kings' by Arkady Martine, whose inclusion alongside T. Kingfisher and Lavie Tidhar first attracted me to the collection, is also stunning and ends in a way that had me on the edge of my seat. It is about empire, love, treason, and all things in between. 'Belladonna Nights' by Alastair Reynolds is a surprisingly tragic tale about endless travels through space, memory, and communion. 'Metal Like Blood in the Dark' by T. Kingfisher was a very surprising story to me, almost a fairy tale about a robot brother and sister who find themselves alone in space. 'A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime' by Charlie Jane Anders, meanwhile, is utterly delightful as well as gross as well as sweet. It surprised me from the first page, until I found myself oddly touched by the end. 'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard is potentially my favourite story from the entire collection. It is a stark tale about identity, colonialism, and technology which made my heart ache. 'Morrigan in the Sunglare' by Seth Dickinson suffered a little from coming directly after 'Immersion', but its discussion of war and comradeship was also strong. 'The Old Dispensation' by Lavie Tidhar was mind-expanding, depicting a galactic empire grounded in Jewish theology and story telling. This one also had me on the edge of my seat as it explored faith and identity. 'A Good Heretic' by Becky Chambers is a very touching story about who you truly are, the potential pressure of traditions, and daring to be one's self. 'A Voyage to Queensthroat' by Anya Johanna DeNiro made me a fan of this author, because it was not only a delightful mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi, but also very inventive in its structure. 'The Justified' by Ann Leckie was another favourite, combining the divine with bloody vengeance and Egyptian mythology! 'Planetstuck' by Sam J. Miller focuses on a sex worker in a universe that is truly endless, full of star gates, except to where our main character truly wants to go. It is an intriguing, warm, and heart-breaking story about not being able to go home. 'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck is an excellent closer to this collection, focusing on a space ship that is an office building that is also a sentient life form.

Usually my go-to caveat with short story collections is that not every story will be a hit and that one should expect this, going in. For New Adventures, however, I have to say that I enjoyed each story. Naturally, some did affect me a little more than others. As I said, 'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard was heartbreaking and will remain with me for quite a while. Arkady Martin'es 'All the Colours You Thought Were Kings' was gorgeously descriptive and made me determined to reread A Memory Called Empire ASAP and then get onto the second. Karin Tidbeck's 'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' and Anya Johanan DeNiro's 'A Voyage to Queensthroat' were also very intriguing from their structure, the way the authors played with genre and format, alongside crafting beautiful stories. 'Morrigan in the Sunglare' by Seth Dickinson and 'A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime' by Charlie Jane Anders, while not entirely my cup of tea, were still excellent reads that made me curious to read more by both. Overall, I think New Adventures is a perfect example of a well-curated collection, because it made me want to explore even further, find more stories that fall under Space Opera, and give each of these authors money for more of their works.

New Adventures in Space Opera is a delightful collection in which I took something away from each story. While some stuck with me more than others, each served to more fully fill in my idea of what Space Opera can be. The possibilities are endless in space!

URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the concept here, and I've always liked space opera as a genre, but I think in practice a lot of these short stories struggle to balance exposition with plot. Either nothing really makes sense, or you spend the whole thing on setup and there's barely any story.

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance by Tobias S Buckell - a robot doing starship maintenance tricks a CEO he's obligated to save. Great starter, satisfying ending. 5/5

Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee - a prequel to the Machineries of Empire series. Jedao runs a heist to kidnap a traitor to the empire from where he's holed on a different planet. This one worked pretty decently because I've read the books, so I had some background info. The story is fun but the ending felt a bit abrupt. 4/5

All the Colors You Thought Were Kings by Arkady Martine - clones plot to kill the empress so that their empress-clone friend can take over. Nice worldbuilding but not that interesting of a plot. 3/5

Belladonna Nights by Alastair Reynolds - clone reunion around a planet, but they're actually just echoes of people long since dead. Spooky and sad, 4/5.

Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T Kingfisher - mech AI siblings learn how to lie. Sort of simplistic, 3/5.

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime by Charlie Jane Anders - two people carry out a heist against the cult of the vastness and then have to do an even bigger heist against the planet they originally come from. There was nothing particularly wrong with this but I didn't really like it. 3/5

Immersion by Aliette de Bodard - in a society where "immersers" allow people to pass for a different race/heritage, people can get addicted. Nice blend of story with commentary, 4/5.

Morrigan in the Sunglare by Seth Dickinson - a gunner in a galactic war has to come to terms with the fact that she's a killer, even though their society is supposed to have moved past that sort of violence. Fine but not a particular standout. 3/5

The Old Sipensation by Lavie Tidhar - assassin brings back an infectious agent to his home base. The distinctive thing here is the worldbuilding is all Jewish mythology and cultural elements, which was pretty cool. The rest of the story is only alright. 3/5

A Good Heretic by Becky Chambers - an alien is supposed to be mind-melded with a higher power, but the meld didn't work and the alien has to renounce the meld to survive. This story is a good length and I liked it. 4/5

A Voyage to Queensthroat by Anya Johanna DeNiro - a woman fleeing incoming conquerors turns out to be a fled member of trans women warriors, and she saves a girl who will become the new queen. Very cool worldbuilding and compelling balance of heart and grit. 4/5

The Justified by Ann Leckie - lion-like nobility who can resurrect themselves murders a bunch of people to try to change her world's culture. This one is very good, and actually I'd read this before in some other collection. 5/5

Planetstuck by Sam J Miller - an escort from an inaccessible planet kills his one chance to get back through a secret path of jump gates, because it would put his brother in danger. 4/5

The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck - girl travelling through space on the back of a huge hermit crab-esque creature that acts as a spaceship. 4/5

[Max Rohde · Rating 3 out of 5]

One would think that space opera requires a grand, multiple volumes spanning scope. So it seemed kind of surprising to me to have a collection of short stories in the genre.

They were all quite fun stories and I especially enjoyed the diversity of styles and themes on display here.

Also of note is that most of these are by greats of the genre and story where selected that have received various accolades such as Hugo and Locus awards.

Here the stories included in the anthology:

“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” by Tobias S. Buckell

- A clever plot and interesting settings.

“Extracurricular Activities,” by Yoon Ha Lee

- A story about a prominent character from The Machineries of Empire Series. I am always up for that!

“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings,” by Arkady Martine

- An empire succession story of a kind.

“Belladonna Nights,” by Alastair Reynolds

- Couldn't be a Reynolds story without a scope spanning millennia.

“Metal Like Blood in the Dark,” by T. Kingfisher

- A story about a 'brother and sister' AI the grow up in an abandoned system. Explores some interesting questions of morality and sentience.

The taloned one was designated Third Drone. Brother and Sister had never met another sentient machine, nor indeed, any sentient at all except their father, and so it took them many power cycles before they could formulate that they did not like Third Drone, and many more before Sister’s programming had bridged and rewired and formed new channels and she could even think the thought I do not trust Third Drone.

It was a large thought. It was a thought that carried far too much with it, the notion of trust, the notion of lack of trust, and much larger, the concept of deception itself. Sister brooded over it, cross-referencing all that her father had said about the people coming to save him, and eventually she was able to think As Father does not trust those people, so I do not trust Third Drone.

“A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime,” by Charlie Jane Anders

- A fun sci fi adventure romp in the style of Guardians of the Galaxy.

“Immersion,” by Aliette de Bodard

- A family who scrapes by an existence on a space station. Asks interesting questions about virtual reality, but wraps up quite abruptly.

“Morrigan in the Sunglare,” by Seth Dickinson

- A short military Sci Fi story.

“The Old Dispensation,” by Lavie Tidhar

- A story inspired by the Jewish religion, in some ways reminded me of Simmons' Hyperion.

“A Good Heretic,” by Becky Chambers

- A beautiful allegory about what it means to grow up and find your place in society.

“A Voyage to Queensthroat,” by Anya Johanna DeNiro

- Somehow this gave me Star Wars vibes, again a kind of Empire succession story.

“The Justified,” by Ann Leckie

- Loved this, a story about power and anger! Great names for robots in here, such as 'Great Among Millions'.

“Planetstuck,” by Sam J. Miller

- Another great adventure story, with lots of pace and energy.

“The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir,” by Karin Tidbeck

- A derelict, half alive spaceships last journey. Gave me similar vibes to an old TV show: Lexx (1997–2002).

[Ben James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: ARC provided by Tachyon via Netgalley

Space Opera is a tricky genre to pull off – creating not just new worlds, but entire galaxies and universes. With the limitations of a short story word count, it’s an even greater challenge. How can the grand scales of space opera settings and stories be boiled down into a few thousand words? This anthology, featuring plenty of recognisable genre talent, has stories which succeed in some respects and struggle in others, with some works not quite filling the brief.

I enjoyed Strahan’s introduction to the space opera genre, which gave interesting insight into the history and hallmarks of the genre, including forerunners from the mid-1900s up to modern award winners (plenty of familiar names here – Herbert, Reynolds, Banks, Corey, Martine). I added a few books to my wish list from this!

1. Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance – Tobias S. Buckell – 5/5
Really loved this story. It filled the brief of space opera perfectly, with world-eating technologies, interesting characters, and a great resolution to the story.

2. Extracurricular Activities – Yoon Ha Lee – 3/5
This one didn’t really do anything new for me. Fairly standard setting and story.

3. All the Colours You thought Were Kings – Arkady Martine - 3/5
Also a fairly standard setting. Interesting use of second person narrative.

4. Belladonna Nights – Alastair Reynolds – 4/5
Reynolds is fantastic at what he does, and this is no exception. Great characters and story, leaving us with bittersweet emotions.

5. Metal Like Blood In The Dark - T. Kingfisher – 4/5
I’ve read this before in Uncanny, so I skimmed it here. An insightful look into AI feelings and what life means for created intelligences.

6. A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime – Charlie Jane Ander – 2/5
I can see what Anders is going for here – it’s very tongue in cheek. Just didn’t click for me.

7. Immersion – Aliette de Bodard – 2/5
Found this one a little confusing. The jumping between second and third person made it hard to follow the narrative. Didn’t feel like space opera.

8. Morrigan in the Sunglare – Seth Dickinson – 4/5
Excellent philosophical musings against the backdrop of a galactic war.

9. The Old Dispensation – Lavie Tidhar – 2/5
I didn’t really like the main character, so found it hard to get into.

10. A Good Heretic – Becky Chambers - 4/5
If you’re familiar with Chambers’ work, this is no different. Deals with strange alien races and cultures and the conflict that arise from such.

11. A Voyage to Queensthroat – Anya Johanna DeNiro – 3/5
I liked this but thought it could actually be a little bit longer to flesh out the narrative. Relied a bit too much on flash-back and flash-forward.

12. The Justified – Ann Leckie – 4/5
Leckie has created an interesting society here, and explores the inhuman boundaries that the genre offers.

13. Planetstuck – Sam J. Miller – 5/5
Great characters and narrative. Felt a bit like The Expanse.

14. The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir – Karin Tidbeck – 3/5
This one had some good characters, but the setting and Skidbladnir itself didn’t work for me.

Total: 3.4 rounded down to 3 for Goodreads.

[Henry Gee · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you've enjoyed Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune,  or practically any popular SF that's made it to popular cinema, you've experienced a sub-genre known as 'space opera'.  Space Opera is fairly easily defined (by me) as westerns, but set in space. Some of them are really sword-and-sorcery fantasies dressed up with technology (Star Wars is very much in this vein). There is usually a lot of violence, high-tech macguffins (faster-than-light travel, light-sabers, photon torpedoes, matter transportation); what SF nerds call 'sensawunda' (fantastic locales, killer robots, Martian princesses, exotic aliens who unconventional word order when they speak, use they must); and plot trumps characterisation. Space Opera used to be the domain of pulp magazine SF from the 1920s to the 1960s, a period that saw the flowering of the careers of many exponents of the genre such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert and ... er ... L. Ron Hubbard. After an eclipse under the 'New Wave' of the 1960s (Michael Moorcock, J. G. Ballard, Brian Aldiss and so on) that used SF to explore more social and political themes, Space Opera enjoyed a resurgence with the works of Iain M. Banks. Justina Robson, Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds, which, although they use all the props, tend to be more cerebral and sophisticated. But Space Opera moves on, finds new writers and audiences (such as Cixian Liu's Three-Body Problem trilogy), and it moves on still, to find new means of expression, and, in particular, diversity. New Adventures in Space Opera is a collection of SF stories exploring the outer reaches of contemporary Space Opera. Many of the authors are female (welcome), and there were some creative uses of pronouns (understandable, if sometimes confusing). I have to say, though, I found them a bit disappointing. One of the features of Space Opera -- like cheap music -- is that it's catchy. The images it evokes stay in the mind. Nobody who has ever seen The Day The Earth Stood Still will forget the giant robot Klaatu. No-one who has ever read Asimov's Foundation will forget Gaal Dornick's first experience of the planet-spanning city of Trantor. No reader of Dune will forget the sandworms. None of the stories in this collection stayed in my mind for more than a few moments after I had finished reading them. Okay, there was one by Alastair Reynolds, but it read like an inferior out-take from his full-length novel House of Suns. The story by Israeli author Lavie Tidhar, like many of his works, resonated with what I shall euphemistically call Current Events. But apart from that -- nothing. I think the problem was that I found it hard to engage with the characters. Many of the stories started without context, and this was too hard (for my brain at least) to pick up from the narratives. Maybe I am rather past it, and the new audiences for Space Opera are, to me, like aliens, with philosophies and modes of thought that cannot interface successfully with my own neural structures.

[Leigh Kimmel]

I'm not going to give this book a star rating because of the inherent problems in applying the star-rating system to collective works. Quite honestly, if I'd seen this book on an online retailer rather than borrowing it from the library, I probably would've passed it by. The first two stories dealt with unpleasant characters in grim settings, which were real turn-offs -- and as a result, I would've missed out on several ones I really liked.

"A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime" could easily have been a disgusting one -- but everything about it was so absurd that it had a certain slapstick character that made it more cartoon violence than realistic violence that would've been horrifying -- particularly the "pleasures" of the Courtiers of the Pleasure Nexus of Liberty House.

The story immediately following it, "Immersion," was a more serious one, dealing with the risks and benefits of virtual reality and other transhumanist technology.

I originally "met" Lavie Tidhar through his short story "Earthrise," a contest winner at the old Redstone Science Fiction Magazine. His story in this anthology, "The Old Dispensation," has that same sense of the beautiful and the destructive all tangled together, although in this case it deals with a Saving Remnant of the Chosen People who slipped into another universe, and their relations with the indigenous sophonts, which echoes how subsequent waves of human migration have dealt with the descendants of earlier migrations since humanity first left the Rift Valley.

"A Good Heretic" is a fascinating piece of xenofiction, with nary a human in sight. It's a story of a misfit, and how she finally comes to find her place, which she seems to have suspected at some level at the beginning.

Ann Leckie's "The Justified" puzzled me, because I couldn't tell whether it was supposed to belong in her Imperial Radch 'verse, or if it was a stand-alone. It has strange technology, including the standards that may be living organisms or robots of some sort, and transhumanist technology in the various servants of the empress.

Sam J. Miller's "Planetstuck" made me remember an anthology I tried to get in years ago, of stories about prostitution shown in a positive light. Mine was rejected on the grounds that it was about making the best of a bad situation, and the editor wanted stories about sex work as a good thing. In this story, the protagonist is a hooker and a spy, collecting intelligence while traveling through the gates that link the worlds -- and someone is destroying them.

There are a number of other stories that are neither outstanding nor repellent, but still enjoyable enough that I would've missed a good read if I'd assumed from the first story that it would be a slog through gray goo, as I would've if I'd been considering buying it and had to go with the sample in an online sales platform's page. Because I was borrowing from the library, I could take the risk because if I end up not enjoying it, I can just send the book straight back, nothing lost but my time.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

New Adventures in Space Opera is an anthology featuring short stories from some of the biggest names in modern sci-fi, including Ann Leckie, Yoon Ha Lee, and T. Kingfisher. Jonathan Strahan, the anthology’s curator, goes into the history of space opera and common tropes and how the subgenre has moved into what it is today. I had a rough idea of space opera built on sci-fi shows from the 80s and pop culture references, so I really enjoyed seeing the evolution of the subgenre laid out.

My favorite story was ‘Immersion’ by Aliette de Bodard, told in both second and third person. Largely dealing with tourism and giving up who you are to blend in, ‘Immersion’ is ultimately about what we lose when we choose assimilation. Quy is a young Rong woman living on the Longevity Spaceport when she meets Agnes, another young Rong woman who is going to get married soon. Agnes has been wearing an immerser, a device that cloaks her in an avatar to make her look more white, for a long time and has retreated so far into herself that she barely speaks and has lost her connection to not only her culture but to everything around her.

Another story I liked was ‘All the Colors You Thought Were Kings’ by Arkady Martine. Told in second person, Elias is an Akhal geneset, either clones or a very limited set of genes that produce people very similar to each other, and would do anything for Tamar, who shares a geneset with the Empress. By right, Tamar can challenge the Empress for the throne if she believes the Empress is not fulfilling her duties. Loyal Elias and Petros, who was also raised with Tamar, will assist her, but it won't be easy.

‘A Good Heretic’ by Becky Chambers is a third person-POV space cozy with a bite to it. Mas is from a species that chooses to be infected so they can become a Paired with Whisperer and looks forward to her future. However, when Mas is infected, something goes wrong and the virus grants her the intelligence promised but not the peace. Mas spends years in hiding, convinced she must be a heretic, for something she cannot even control.

To my surprise, my two favorite short stories in this collection were in the second person, which is a POV I rarely gravitate to. De Bodard and Martine both show great mastery of prose and in injecting themes into a small space while making the story feel incredibly personal. Chambers and T. Kingfisher both have a fairy tale quality to their short stories that expands what space opera can be beyond space battles but also links back to the most famous space opera of all and fairy tale in space, Star Wars.

I would recommend this to fans of space opera, readers looking to dip their toes into the subgenre, and those who are fans of modern sci-fi and fantasy