Science Fiction: A Look @ Contemporary Space Operas

 

 (Drivebycuriosity) - Space operas are an amazing genre. There are no limits for the imagination of the author. The compilation "The 2020 Look At Space Opera Book" curated by Allan Kaster presents some contemporary versions ( amazon).  The anthology contains 20 short stories and novellas. 

 These are my favorites: 

 "By the Warmth of Their Calculus,” by Tobias S. Buckell. Mother Superior Koki-Fiana fe Sese, the captain of a space ship,  has big problems. Sudden and unexpected changes endanger her ship and the lives of her crew. She has to find out what caused these dangers and how to deal with that. The plot is spiced with fascinating idiosyncratic ideas. A major part of the story is the weird spaceship and the peculiar technology which makes her functioning. Pure cutting-edge hard science fiction.

 "Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. The plot follows the crew of an organic space ship, called "Bojum". They live inside a huge semi-intelligent being which lives and travels in the vacuum of space. 

“The Days Between,” by Allen M. Steele. A man suddenly wakes up from hibernation aboard a spaceship in deep space and finds himself alone. He - like the rest of the passengers - should have been woken more than 100 years later when the spaceship reaches the target planet. What will he do? A kind of modern Robinson Crusoe story.

  “Bright Red Star,” by Bud Sparhawk. Modified combat troops are searching for settlers on a planet which is attacked by hostile aliens. The description of the aliens and their war strategies are scary.

Unfortunately the curator used a very broad definition of space operas and included many fairy tales and similar fantasy stories which don´t have much to do with space travel, on the other hand he missed strong 21. century space operas like "Night Passage" by Alastair Reynold & "The Wordless" by Indrapramit Das. Both are reprinted in "The Year`s Best Science Fiction" edited by Gardner Dozois, Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection" ( amazon my review). I also missed "Winning Peace" by Paul J. McAuley, reprinted in The New Space Opera, edited by Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strathan (amazon my review).  And Yoon Ha Lee`s short story “The Dragons Gate” ( amazon) is much better than the included story "Extracurricular Activities".  

Maybe there were some copy right issues and the curator could not - or did not want to - include stories which already have been reprinted in other anthologies. Anyway, the collection is full of exotic & bizarre ideas and in the moment of writing the Kindle version cost just $6.99 - so the book is still a bargain.

PS On top of this post you can see art work by Angus McKie.