Book picks similar to
Space Opera by Brian W. Aldiss


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The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories


Vandana Singh - 2009
    In the title story, a woman tells her husband of her curious discovery: that she is inhabited by small alien creatures. In another, a young girl making her way to college through the streets of Delhi comes across a mysterious tetrahedron. Is it a spaceship? Or a secret weapon?The first Indian female speculative fiction writer, Singh has said that her genre is a “chance to find ourselves part of a larger whole; to step out of the claustrophobia of the exclusively human and discover joy, terror, wonder, and meaning in the greater universe.” A revolutionary voice in fantasy writing, Singh brings her passion for discovery to these stories, and the result is like nothing of this world.Contents:Hunger (2007)Delhi (2004)The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet (2003)Infinities (2008)Thirst (2004)Conservation Laws (2008)Three Tales from Sky River: Myths for a Starfaring Age (2004)The Tetrahedron (2005)The Wife (2003)The Room on the Roof (2002)A Speculative Manifesto (2008) essay

Radicalized


Cory Doctorow - 2019
    Radicalized is the story of a desperate husband, a darknet forum and the birth of a violent uprising against the US health care system.The final story, The Masque of the Red Death, tracks an uber-wealthy survivalist and his followers as they hole up and attempt to ride out the collapse of society.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventeenth Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisRobert Silverberg - 2000
    John HarrisonHunting mother/ Sage WalkerMount Olympus/ Ben Bova Border guards/ Greg Egan Scherzo with tyrannosaur/ Michael SwanwickA hero of the empire/ Robert SilverbergHow we lost the moon, a true story/ Frank W. Allen & Paul J. McAuleyPhallicide/ Charles Sheffield Daddy's world/ Walter Jon WilliamsA Martian romance/ Kim Stanley RobinsonThe sky-green blues/ Tanith LeeExchange rate/ Hal ClementEverywhere/ Geoff Ryman Hothouse flowers/ Mike Resnick Evermore/ Sean Williams Of scorned women & causal loops/ Robert GrossbachSon observe the time/ Kage BakerHonorable mentions: 1999

Doctor Who: Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories


Eoin ColferCharlie Higson - 2013
    Eleven Doctors, eleven stories, eleven unique interpretations of the Doctor, his terrifying alien enemies and his time-travelling adventures.

Nebula Awards Showcase 2017


Julie E. Czerneda - 2017
    The editor, selected by SFWA's anthology Committee (chaired by Mike Resnick), is Canadian science fiction and fantasy writer and editor Julie Czerneda. This year's Nebula Award winners are Naomi Novik, Nnedi Okorafor, Sarah Pinsker, and Alyssa Wong, with Fran Wilde winning the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book.

The Martians


Kim Stanley Robinson - 1999
    As the planet is transformed from an unexplored and forbidding terrain to a troubled image of a re-created Earth, we meet the First Hundred explorers—men and women who are bound together by Earth’s tenuous toehold on Mars. Presenting unforgettable stories of hope and disappointment, of fierce physical and psychological struggles, The Martians is an epic chronicle of a planet that represents one of humanity’s most glorious possibilities.The Martians is a unique collection of previously unpublished fiction, a fascinating addition to Robinson’s oeuvre, and a must for all lovers of the red planet.

The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse


Martin H. GreenbergRobert Silverberg - 2010
    No longer relegated to the fringes of literature, this explosive collection of the world’s best apocalyptic writers brings the inventors of alien invasions, devastating meteors, doomsday scenarios, and all-out nuclear war back to the bookstores with a bang.The best writers of the early 1900s were the first to flood New York with tidal waves, destroy Illinois with alien invaders, paralyze Washington with meteors, and lay waste to the Midwest with nuclear fallout. Now collected for the first time ever in one apocalyptic volume are those early doomsday writers and their contemporaries, including Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Lucius Shepard, Robert Sheckley, Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, William F. Nolan, Poul Anderson, Fredric Brown, Lester del Rey, and more. Relive these childhood classics or discover them here for the first time. Each story details the eerie political, social, and environmental destruction of our world.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection


Gardner Dozois - 2018
    Now, in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the field. With an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina


Kevin J. AndersonDave Wolverton - 1995
    Anderson * Doug Beason * M. Shayne Bell * David Bischoff * A.C.Crispin * Kenneth C. Flint * Barbara Hambly * Rebecca Moesta * Daniel KeysMoran * Jerry Oltion * Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens * Jennifer Roberson* Kathy Tyers * Tom Veitch & Martha Veitch * Dave Wolverton * TimothyZahn

The Wailing Asteroid


Murray Leinster - 1960
    Rather, it suddenly wanted to stop thinking about them. The public was scared. Throughout all human history, the most horrifying of all ideas has been the idea of something which was as intelligent as a man, but wasn't human.The first sounds came at midnight, a plaintive keening from an unknown voice in the vastness of uncharted space. Within hours the whole world had heard the strange, unearthly music--and the panic had begun.Were the sounds a plea for help? From whom? From where? Or were they a command too terrible to think about? No one knew: And in billions of earth-bound minds the horror grew...For how could man, who had not yet claimed the moon, defy a challenge from the stars?And hours later, to the ears of a helpless world, the second message came. . .And Earth's days were numbered.

Prime Number


Harry Harrison - 1970
    Sometimes sardonic, sometimes sad, often amusing, always brilliant, Harry Harrison's collection of mind-spinning tales re-emphasizes his status as a giant in the science fiction galaxy.

A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction


Terry Pratchett - 2012
    Here for the first time are his short stories and other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press,; to the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas,all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour.With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt, illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself, this is a book to treasure.

Of Wars, and Memories, and Starlight


Aliette de Bodard - 2019
    Aliette de Bodard, multiple award winner and author of The Tea Master and the Detective, now brings readers fourteen dazzling tales that showcase the richly textured worldbuilding and beloved characters that have brought her so much acclaim.Come discover the breadth and endless invention of her universes, ranging from a dark Gothic Paris devastated by a magical war; to the multiple award-winning Xuya, a far-future space opera inspired by Vietnamese culture where scholars administrate planets and sentient spaceships are part of families.In the Nebula award and Locus award winning "Immersion", a young girl working in a restaurant on a colonized space station crosses paths with an older woman who has cast off her own identity. In the novelette "Children of Thorns, Children of Water", a shapeshifting dragon infiltrating a ruined mansion finds more than he's bargained for when his partner is snatched by eerie, child-like creatures. And in the award-winning "Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight", three very different people--a scholar, an engineer, and a spaceship--all must deal with the loss of a woman who was the cornerstone of their world. This collection includes a never-before seen 20,000-word novella, "Of Birthdays, and Fungus, and Kindness", set in Bodard's alternative dark Paris. Limited: 1250 signed numbered hardcover copiesTable of Contents: Introduction The Shipmaker The Jaguar House, in Shadow Scattered Along the River of Heaven Immersion June The Waiting Stars Memorials The Breath of War The Days of the War, as Red as Blood, as Dark as Bile The Dust Queen Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight A Salvaging of Ghosts Pearl Children of Thorns, Children of Water Of Birthdays, and Fungus, and Kindness (original novella) Story Notes

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisJames Patrick Kelly - 1996
    A helpful list of honorable mentions and Gardner Dozois's insightful summation of the year in science fiction round out the volume, making it indispensable for anyone interested in science fiction today.Contents ix • Summation: 1995 • (1996) • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • A Woman's Liberation • [Yeowe and Werel • 4] • (1995) • novella by Ursula K. Le Guin51 • Starship Day • (1995) • novelette by Ian R. MacLeod68 • A Place with Shade • [The Remarkables] • (1995) • novelette by Robert Reed100 • Luminous • (1995) • novelette by Greg Egan129 • The Promise of God • (1995) • shortstory by Michael F. Flynn143 • Death in the Promised Land • (1995) • novelette by Pat Cadigan195 • For White Hill • (1995) • novella by Joe Haldeman231 • Some Like It Cold • (1995) • shortstory by John Kessel243 • The Death of Captain Future • [The Captain Future Duet] • (1995) • novella by Allen Steele281 • The Lincoln Train • (1995) • shortstory by Maureen F. McHugh293 • We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy • [North American future] • (1995) • novella by David Marusek341 • Radio Waves • (1995) • novelette by Michael Swanwick360 • Wang's Carpets • (1995) • novelette by Greg Egan389 • Casting at Pegasus • (1995) • novelette by Mary Rosenblum414 • Looking for Kelly Dahl • (1995) • novella by Dan Simmons452 • Think Like a Dinosaur • (1995) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly470 • Coming of Age in Karhide • [Hainish] • (1995) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin489 • Genesis • (1995) • novella by Poul Anderson575 • Feigenbaum Number • (1995) • shortstory by Nancy Kress589 • Home • (1995) • shortstory by Geoff Ryman595 • There Are No Dead • (1995) • shortstory by Terry Bisson602 • Recording Angel • (1995) • novelette by Paul J. McAuley627 • Elvis Bearpaw's Luck • (1995) • novelette by William Sanders645 • Mortimer Gray's "History of Death" • (1995) • novella by Brian Stableford698 • Honorable Mentions: 1995 • (1996) • essay by Gardner Dozois

Free Amazons of Darkover


Marion Zimmer BradleyJoan Marie Verba - 1985
    Here dwell the Free Amazons, who have set themselves apart from their male-ruled world, owing loyalty only to each other, living their lives as free citizens, equal to any man or woman, soldier or lord. The eighteen tales in this collection, including two by Marion Zimmer Bradley herself, tell the story of these Free Amazons, and are certain to enchant anyone who has fallen under the spell of the Amazon heroines of Thendara House and City of Sorcery.On the Trail - Barbara ArmisteadTactics - Jane M.H. BigelowThe Meeting - Nina BoalKnives - Marion Zimmer BradleyThe Legend of Lady Bruna - Marion Zimmer BradleyThe Oath of the Comhi Letzii, Or "Order of the Renunciates" - Walter BreenHer Own Blood - Margaret L. CarterThe Camel's Nose - Susan HoltzerThe Oath of the Free Amazons: Terra, Techno Period - Jaida n'ha SandraThe Banshee - Sherry KramerA Different Kind of Courage - Mercedes R. LackeyThe Mother Quest - Diana L. PaxsonTo Open a Door - P. Alexandra Riggs Growing Pains - Susan M. SchwartzRecruits - Maureen ShannonGirls Will Be Girls - Patricia Shaw-MathewsCast Off Your Chains - Margaret SilvestriThis One Time - Joan Marie VerbaChild of the Heart - Elisabeth WatersMidwife - Deborah J. Wheeler