Modern Space Opera

Following the success of their Locus Award-winning anthology

The New Space Opera, editors Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan up the ante with

The New Space Opera 2, in which more of the most beloved names in science fiction spin stunning tales of interstellar adventure and wonder.

A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented - something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix - part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past.

This dazzling anthology includes epic interstellar adventures, tales of space and wonder, from some of the brightest names in science fiction.

When Earth’s boldest inventor-aviator picks up a distress signal from the cloud-veiled wilds of Venus, there’s only one man reckless enough to answer it: Flash Morgan — millionaire rocket ace, part-time genius, full-time patriot, and living spokesman for “Democracy, Whiskey, and Football!” Armed with a chrome-plated rocket plane, experimental ray guns, and a smile bright enough to light the moons of Jupiter, Flash blasts off to liberate Venus from its iron-fisted warrior queen, its perfumed palace conspiracies, and its dangerously persuasive femme fatales. But Venus is no helpless...

Would the Gospels still have value… if the Apostles had copied every word from an apocryphal text — lost, disputed, and of unknown authorship? Inspired by the theory of the Quelle Gospel (“Source” in German), or Q Source, first proposed in the 19th century by pastors Weisse and Wilke, this novel delves into the mystery of a vanished Greek manuscript believed to have inspired the Gospels of Luke, Matthew, and the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. A discovery that ignites an intergalactic investigation to hunt down an unscrupulous casseur — the “breaker” of forbidden books. ...

In space everyone can hear you sing. A century ago, intelligent space-faring life was nearly destroyed during the Sentience Wars. To bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity and understanding, the Metagalactic Grand Prix was created. Part concert, part contest, all extravaganza, species far and wide gather to compete in feats of song, dance and/or whatever facsimile of these can be performed by various creatures who may or may not possess, in the traditional sense, feet, mouths, larynxes or faces. 

It is the far future. The artificial intelligences created by humanity are now gods, and mankind mere ants who scrabble in their shadows across a million worlds. The Lords of the Great Houses on the ever-night Moon of Hexator are suspected of the murder of one of their own. And merchant William Roxley, once a magistrate-priest, is unwillingly coopted to uncover the truth behind the killings. With only the help of his naive young assistant and a brutish robot bodyguard, the man they call 'Sweet William' digs into the Moon's eerie existence. A collapsing society where many strange, terrible ...