The New Space Opera - 2 product reviews

A collection of 19 Sci-Fi short stories from new and veteran authors of the genre.

The New Space Opera 2 provides a great taster if you are new to Sci-Fi - offering quick reads across a diversity of story 'flavours'. Long-standing fans of the genre will also enjoy this batch of intriguing bite-sized adventures - a perfect travel companion.

Nice touch to add a brief author bio (just a paragraph or two) before launching into tale they have to tell.

Some of these stories are quite thought provoking. I especially enjoyed Elizabeth Moon's 'Chameleons' - very clever writing to deliver a decent full-bodied tale in a short space. I have to admit I found a couple of the stories a bit 'whimsical', but there is definitely a good range included in this volume so you are likely to find a decent number that will satisfy your particular preferences.

I love anthologies... there's always something worth reading in them, as long as at least the genre fits your interests. I especially love anthologies where there are an array of authors, because it's like going to a smorgasbord... you get to sample a lot of flavours and styles, and you can usually bet that you will not only find favoured tastes of long acquaintance, but also get to sample something new that may be worth further exploration to see if it will join your pantheon of favourites... and that's where this not-so-little beauty comes into the story.

Having read quite a few other collected works assembled by the ever-impressive Gardner Dozois, and once again I find myself utterly devoid of disappointment. In most of these sorts of books, I usually find around a quarter that are not to my tastes... but this time I honestly couldn't say ANY of them were 'not my style' - sure, there were a couple that wouldn't show up on my 'all-time faves' list, but nothing I would want to ignore on a repeat reading. Seeing many favourite names in the list of contributing authors probably has a lot to do with that...

What really pleased me the most was getting exposed to quite a few *new* names I hadn't come across before... that's always exciting. Not only does it give me a chance to expand my reading horizons, but it gives new points of view on a genre that can get a bit stale if you restrict yourself to a few key authors. Like food, variety is the spice of life...

Overall, this was a very welcome addition to my stack of reading material, and one I was only disappointed by in one regard... I plowed through it in near-record time, leaving me *starving* for more! Roll on collection #3!