Jonathan Strahan is an award-winning editor, podcaster, critic, and publisher from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has edited or co-edited more than seventy anthologies and twenty short story collections. Strahan has received the World Fantasy, Aurealis, Atheling, and Ditmar Awards. He is currently the Reviews Editor at Locus Magazine and a consulting editor for Tor.com. Strahan lives in Perth, Western Australia, with his family. His latest anthology is New Adventures in Space Opera and he recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What inspired the anthology New Adventures in Space Opera?
A couple of years ago, I was talking to Jacob Weisman, the publisher at Tachyon, about space opera and science fiction. Space opera is, to me, one of the purest forms of science fiction, one of those things that science fiction always does, and at such a fundamental level that it actually reflects all of the changes in the world around it. I’d edited a couple of space opera anthologies, the most recent around 2010, and Jacob asked me what had happened in space opera since then, what else had changed. And that got me thinking. New Adventures in Space Opera is my attempt to work out what came next, what came after the new space opera.
In your introduction, you outline the origins and evolution of space opera from the Science Fiction pulps and into the new millennium. Can you quickly define for readers what you mean by "new space opera"?
The origins of space opera go back to the late 19th century. New space opera, though, is much more recent (as the name suggests). In the 1980s economic and political tensions made the world seem a much darker, difficult place than it had before. That tension—some of it clearly rooted in the Cold War—saw its expression in cyberpunk (which I’ve always seen as a response to the stresses in Reagan’s America) and in new space opera (which I saw as a response to Thatcher’s Britain). New space opera seemed to grow out of the UK and was darker, more intense, and more politically focused than its space opera predecessors. Where space opera was big and bright and garish, a lot of the new space opera was dark and gothic as in books like Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space.
What was your process for putting together this collection? Did you ask specific writers for stories that fit your theme, open up a submission process, or did you approach it in a different way?
Research was key. The new space opera was a thing of the 1990s and arguably had been integrated into science fiction by the early 2000s. The book was all about looking at what came next, so I spent a lot of time reading and researching. Searching for stories that had been published between 2010 and 2022 or so, looking for stories that both engaged and entertained and showed some aspect of how space opera was changing.
New Adventures in Space Opera features stories that had already been edited and published. My role was curatorial. I had to find the stories, I had to arrange permissions for them, and then arrange them into the final book, but because they were existing stories, I didn’t have to worry about submissions, etc.
Were there any surprises for you amongst the contributors (names you were not expecting to participate or writers you were certain would but were not able to contribute)? Are there any authors that you were hoping to include but were unable to for some reason?
New Adventures in Space Opera is an attempt to answer questions like what and who came next in space opera. Among the countless stories published during the nearly 15 years the book covers, I was able to find incredible work and was able to include almost everyone that I’d wanted to. The only limit in one or two cases was that some wonderful space opera writers just haven’t written much short fiction, so they couldn’t be included, and in one case permissions issues were too complicated, but overall I was very lucky and was able to do the book I wanted to do.
Are you a fan of Space Opera? What are some of your favorites (either classic or new) short stories, novellas, novels, films, and/or series? Who are your favorite authors and/or filmmakers?
I love space opera and have since I was a child. I go on about this, probably at too great length, in the introduction to the book, but I adore Iain M. Banks Culture novels, C. J. Cherryh’s Union Alliance novels, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan books, and far too many to mention from back in the 60s and 70s from the likes of Alfred Bester, Joe Haldeman, Frank Herbert, and others.
Do you have a least favorite? (I realize that you may not want to address this one, and if that is the case, please don't. But I also realize it might be so bad that it could be fun to answer.)?
Oh no! I’d be happy to tell you, but the truth is I either put the ones I don’t like down and don’t finish them or strive to forget the painful ones. I can think of some hilariously bad space opera TV and movies, but it feels cruel to point them out.
What do you think it is about Space Opera that draws you, as an editor, author, and/or reader, to these types of stories?
A space opera story is a story about going up out into the world, about engaging with a universe filled with romance and life and adventure. The stories are exciting and thrilling and keep you on your seat. They are exactly what readers and writers love. And they also are so very much of their time. There’s the opportunity to create the type of story that is possibly the most science fictional type of SF story (the space adventure) and to make it fresh new, to pull apart the assumptions and underpinnings of it, and put it back together just a little bit better and a little bit different from what it was before. Space opera today reflects so much more of our society than it once did, just for this very reason. It’s incredibly exciting.
Is there a theme/idea for another anthology that you would like to pursue or wish you had pursued in the past (and can talk about)?
I have a sprawling set of folders in my email that covers all of the many ideas I’ve wanted to explore—from industrializing fairyland to tales about what happens behind secret doors—that I could write about it for a week. There are always more ideas, something else exciting to do. It’s what makes this job so much fun.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
I’m currently reading The Mercy of Gods, the new space opera by James. S.A. Corey and Polostan by Neal Stephenson, and am re-reading Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye and Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed. I’m reading those out of curiosity, to keep up a little, and to do some podcast prep work. I have a pile of books lined up behind those on my e-reader and a room full of books sitting in my office next door, so I try not to think too much about my ‘to read’ pile because I might just get overwhelmed.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein. I was seven or eight, and I found a copy at the local library. I was immediately swept away by Thorby Baslim’s adventures, and it led me to search out pretty much every science fiction book in our small local library. It was literally the start of it all. I re-read it a couple of years ago, and after nearly half a century, it stands up pretty well. It has virtually no women in it, which is a thing, but the story remains just as captivating today as it was back in 1973.
Was there a book you felt you needed to hide from your parents?
Never. Not one. My parents loved books, encouraged reading, and were always open to new things. So we were read to when we were little, taken to the local library as soon as we could go, and left to read whatever took us away. We were very lucky.
Is there a book you've faked reading?
Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. I don’t know why, but there was a moment, and I did. I was young and probably at a party trying to impress someone.
Can you name a book you've bought for the cover?
Kinuko Y. Craft did a cover for Patricia A McKillip’s Winter Rose that was just overwhelmingly beautiful. I remember walking into a bookshop and just having to buy it. The story was great, but the cover was incredible.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Well, Citizen of the Galaxy made me read science fiction, The Integral Trees lead me to a life in science fiction, and Aurora fundamentally changed my views of science fiction. So, one of those. Or maybe Michael Bishop’s Light Years and Dark or possibly Iain M. Banks The Crow Road. Probably one of those. Actually, maybe one book didn’t change my life in one big way, but a handful of books changed my life in a number of important but small ways and led me to where I am now. That feels right to me.
Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?
Either Howard Waldrop’s Strange Things in Close Up or maybe Jonathan Carroll’s Sleeping in Flame. They are both amazing.
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
No. I love what I’ve read, but I want to read things I haven’t read yet. And I sort of love re-reading, so I don’t think I need to read something again for the first time. Though, once I might have said Kim Stanley Robinson’s Pacific Edge (which could also be another answer to your question about books everyone should read!)
What are you working on now?
Ah, I am editing a book about death and a book of stories in honor of a famous science fiction writer. Both are filled with new and original stories and are only just coming together. Hopefully, you’ll see them next year!
