This morning Perth time it was announced that The New Space Opera 2, an anthology that I co-edited with the fabulous Gardner Dozois, had emulated the success of its predecessor and won the Locus Award for Best Anthology. There’s no doubt in my mind the kudos for this achievement lie with the contributors, the cover artist, the publisher and my co-editor. Still, I am delighted. My sincerest thanks to everyone involved and to all of the Locus voters. I am honored. I was asked to provide a short acceptance speech, which is reproduced below:
Thank you. I’m delighted and honoured to hear that The New Space Opera
2 has won the Locus Award. I’d like to thank all of the voters,
everyone at Locus, Diana Gill and the wonderful team at HarperCollins,
the contributors to the book and, most importantly my friend and
colleague Gardner Dozois, who really did all of the hard stuff on this
book.The New Space Opera 2 winning this award may be, I think, the most
important moment in the 20 years I’ve spent editing science fiction.
It is a pure quill science fiction book aimed straight at the very
heart of our field and, considering that we stand at point where the
centre has not held and science fiction is shattering irrevocably into
a thousand fascinating and individually worthwhile pieces, it is
heartening to know that such a book still has value and still has a
purpose.It’s my sincerest wish that Gardner and I get to do more of these
books, but whether we do or not, this book and its Locus Award winning
predecessor stand, for me, as a statement about how the past of our
field can still connect to its future.
Congratulations again!
Are you planning for “The new Space Opera 3”?
Gosh, what a terrific acceptance speech.
It’s true that there’s been some renewed experimentation with blurring the boundaries of SF, of late – from the “new weird” movement, to the “Secret History” anthology, to the “spinning rack” cross-genre anthologies of messrs Martin & Dozois, and the new Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio book, just out.
But you’re still going to get my attention with books like NSO and NSO 2. Bring on number three!
We have had a proposal out with publishers for some time, but for the moment at least there seems to be little interest. If we can find a way to do it, though, we will.
Thanks, Peter. I hope we can find a way to keep doing books like NSO. I love doing them and think they retain a relevance and importance to the field.
Take Jonathan’s remark about how I did all the hard work with a large grain of salt…
We’re willing to do a NEW SPACE OPERA 3. Now all you have to do is convince the publisher.
Well, I’ve just ordered my second copies of both NSO volumes (for a gift). If they didn’t sell, it sure ain’t my fault!
It’s greatly appreciated too! Gardner and I are going to do everything we can to make either NSO3 or a similar book happen as soon as we can. My own Godlike Machines, Engineering Infinity, and Life on Mars sit in a similar space, but there’s nothing quite like a book dedicated to stories filled with awesome spaceships.