Currently Reading: The New Space Opera

Cover art for The New Space Opera anthology
Cover art for The New Space Opera anthology

One thing I make a point of doing every summer is to put together a reading list. I may not get through all the books on the list, but I do try, and if nothing else, it gives me a non-work, non-family, non-computer related goal to strive for. Last summer, I decided to promote my list by posting a short “what I’m reading” blurb with the book’s cover art on my office window. It seemed particularly appropriate seeing as how I work in a library and all.

It’s the middle of winter, but I’ve been making an effort get back to reading (after all, it really shouldn’t be an annual event). To that end, the poster’s back up in my office window, and I’ve decided to blog about my “winter reading list” as well.

First up on that list is one of the books I got for Christmas: The New Space Opera. It’s edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan and features 18 short stories by the likes of Greg Egan, Ian McDonald, Robert Reed and  Stephen Baxter. I’m about four stories in and so far it’s not what I’d normally think of as space opera — it has a harder edge than say, Star Wars or even Star Trek, and the stories lack a certain romantic edge that I normally look for in the subgenre. 

That said, I’ve got plenty of stories left to read, and I have been enjoying the book; I just think their definition may have been a wee bit too liberal.