[bookshare-discuss] Accessible World Presents the Science Fiction discussion Group, September 9
- From: "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bob Acosta" <boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:36:50 -0700
News Wire:
Hello Folks,
We had a great meeting last night. Although no one raved about it the
way I did, everyone liked A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. That
book was pretty long, but this month, we decided to go for one even
longer: a hefty anthology of modern space adventure stories. For the
next meeting, we're reading: The New Space Opera edited by Gardner
Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. This one is only available from NLS on
BARD and on tape so far. The download link is at:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.67821
<http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.67821
Here's the NLS synopsis:
Eighteen tales of interstellar adventure. In Stephen Baxter's
"Remembrance," an old man's recollection of a legendary resistance
fighter who battled Earth's alien conquerors inspires a new generation
of dissidents. Includes Greg Egan's "Glory," Nancy Kress's "Art of
War," and works by Alastair Reynolds, Robert Silverberg, and others.
Here's some more info about this anthology from Amazon's Editorial
Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
The new space opera shares with the old the interstellar sweep of
events and exotic locales, but Dozois and Strahan's all-original
anthology shows how the genre's purveyors have updated it, with
rigorous science, well-drawn characters and excellent writing. Many of
the 18 stories play with the scope that characterizes classic space
opera. In Greg Egan's Glory, creatures embody themselves as aliens to
perform archeological research, only to get caught up in a struggle
between two worlds. Robert Reed's Hatch, limited in locale to the hull
of a giant ship, proves that the scope of the struggle for life is
always epic. Stephen Baxter's Remembrance walks a line between the
personal and the global as resisters against Earth's conquerors
remember one man's struggle against the alien invaders. Kage Baker's
humorous Maelstrom, in which an acting troupe on frontier Mars puts on
a Poe story for the miners there, tells a personal story in an epic
setting. The new space opera teaches us that despite the bizarre turns
humanity may take to conquer these outré settings, a recognizable
core of humanity remains.
From Booklist
The rich space opera tradition, extending from the off-world voyages
of Verne and Wells to this galaxy-embracing anthology, is arguably
sf's most prolific subgenre. Veteran anthologist Dozois and coeditor
Strahan present some of the newest boundary-stretching variations on
the category's many themes. Accordingly, the roster of contributors
includes some of contemporary sf's brightest innovators, such as Peter
Hamilton and Robert Silverberg, as well as such rising stars as Tony
Daniel and Mary Rosenblum. Ian McDonald brilliantly sketches entire
future cultures and histories in Verthandi's Ring, the main concern of
which is millennia-old intergalactic battles. In Hatch, Robert Reed
describes the precarious lifestyle of a small human society eking out
a living on the surface of a Jupiter-sized starship. Other tales
monitor species-changing scientists, an eccentric Martian arts colony,
and Earth's last traumatized survivor. In sheer breathtaking,
mind-expanding scope, this collection of some of the finest
tale-spinning the subgenre has to offer delivers hours of exhilarating
reading.
Sounds like great fun, so hope lots of you can make it to the next
meeting to talk about it.
Evan
J. R. Westmoreland, Group Facilitator
Email: jr@xxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, September 9, 2009
Time: 6:00 PM PDT, 7:00 PM MDT, 8:00 PM CDT, 9:00 PM EDT,
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