New Space Opera 2: sf stories with sweep

Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan's new anthology The New Space Opera 2 came out today, featuring all original stories by me, John Scalzi, Robert Charles Wilson, Jay Lake, Garth Nix, Bruce Sterling, Elizabeth Moon, Justina Robson and many others. My story, "To Go Boldly," is a look at the LARPing ethic that lurks under the skin of any space navy.

The New Space Opera 2: All-new stories of science fiction adventure (via Scalzi)

• [hadlock]

  The cover looks like a screencap of the Red Dwarf intro sequence, where Starbug crash lands on the icy moon with the luck virus.

• [hadlock]

  Sorry no, it’s where Starbuck smashes into the side of Red Dwarf leaving the docking bay. Skip to 0:11 of this youtube video or see the screencap here

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCjvPFpuR28

  http://nearlydeaf.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/reddwarfseason4spaceoperabookcovercomparison.jpg

• [Anonymous]

  This genre was discussed yesterday on BBC Radio 4 (see 0850 http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8123000/8123574.stm).

  This is all new to me and I look forward to getting into it! :)

• [traalfaz]

  I wanted to buy a copy and went out to do so, but the eBook version was priced at $15. Honestly, what’s the justification for charging $15 for a file containing the same info as a paperback which costs $6, and has no per-unit production cost or significant transport fees?
  I don’t buy that ebook prices have to be kept high to keep from eating into hardcover/trade paper prices; as for myself (and I suspect most people who would buy ebooks in the first place) I’m not in love with dead trees, I just want the data; I’m simply not going to pay $19 for a hardcover or trade paper. I’ve barely come to grips with $6-8 for a paperback.

  I do notice that the Kindle edition is $9.99. I might consider paying that, but the Kindle is basically a DRM machine, and I’m not going there. I’ve already got a couple of dozen DRM’d eBooks from years ago on the Palm that I can’t access anymore because they’re locked to an account I’ve lost access to.

  Honestly, Baen is the only publisher getting any of my money for the last year or so (since I got my Sony reader), because they provide DRM-free ebooks for a reasonable price, usually $4 to $6.

• [Anonymous]

  Can I read your story on the internet anywhere or is it print-only?

• [0xdeadbeef]

  Huh. I got it on Saturday from a Books-a-Million, apparently before the street date. Take that, evil publishing cartels!

• [Anonymous]

  No go on Fictionwise as well – only availible in DRM’ed version which won’t open on my reader. But that seems to be par for the course – there’s been a huge drop in usable formats from them (Fictionwise.)

• [singingdragon]

  Oh, this was the story you did a reading of at Pi-Con! It’s incredibly funny, folks.

• [Irene Delse]

  @ Traalfaz: It’s even worse. I tried to buy the title from Fictionwise, my usual ebook store. With their membership rebate, the price would have dropped to USD 10.87 only. Fine. But when I tried to check out, big problem: geographical restrictions! Just like for DVDs. So, being in Europe, I’m not allowed to pay for the American ebook edition. Gee, thanks. I’m thrilled to see HarperCollins in the business of stopping people from buying books.

  Now, of course, I could go to Amazon and order the paper edition, or wait for an ebook edition accessible to Europeans…

  Or I might decide to give my money to some other publisher this month.

• [Anonymous]

  Honestly, I’m always a year or more behind in my reading list anyhow. Add the dead-tree version to your want list, and pick it up in a year when it’s $5/copy. That’s how I’m going to read Space Opera 1, now that I’ve discovered this series …