Infinite Stars is billed as"The definitive anthology of space opera and military SF." It's a fair assessment, as you can probably tell by the Table of Contents listed below. There's some of the Good Old Stuff and a lot of Good New Stuff. It's a huge book with well over 650 pages of stories, twenty-four in all, with a fine introduction by Robert Silverberg, who also has an excellent story included. I'm glad to see great stories like Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon" included, along with "Stark and the Star Kings" by Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton. And there's a good one by Poul Anderson, now nearly forgotten but a fixture in the digests of the '50s when I was growing up. He wrote great space opera, fantasy, hard SF, historical novels, and more, and he was good at all of them. Now virtually forgotten, more's the pity.There's a generous selection of new stuff, too, with some stories original to the volume, including a new Ender story by Orson Scott Card. Check out the Table of Contents below. You really can't go wrong with this book.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editor’s Note/Acknowledgements by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Introduction by Robert Silverberg
“Renegat” (Ender) by Orson Scott Card
“The Waters Of Kanly” (Dune) by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
“The Good Shepherd” (Legion of the Damned) by William C. Dietz
“The Game Of Rat and Dragon” by Cordwainer Smith 1956 Hugo Best Story, 1955 Galaxy SF, October
“The Borders of Infinity” (Vorkosigan) by Lois McMaster Bujold
“All In A Day’s Work” (Vatta’s War) by Elizabeth Moon
“Last Day Of Training” (Lightship Chronicles) by Dave Bara
“The Wages of Honor” (Skolian Empire) by Catherine Asaro
“Binti” by Nnedi Okorafor TOR.COM, 2015; 2016 Nebula/Hugo/BFA Best Novella
“Reflex” (CoDominium) by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
“How To Be A Barbarian in the Late 25th Century” (Theirs Not To Reason Why) by Jean Johnson
“Stark and the Star Kings” (Eric John Stark) by Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton
“Imperium Imposter” (Imperium) by Jody Lynn Nye
“Region Five” (Red Series) by Linda Nagata
“Night Passage” (Revelation Space) by Alastair Reynolds
“Duel on Syrtis” by Poul Anderson
“Twilight World” (StarBridge) by A.C. Crispin
“Twenty Excellent Reasons” (The Astral Saga) by Bennett R. Coles
“The Ship Who Sang” by Anne McCaffrey
“Taste of Ashes” (Caine Riardon) by Charles E. Gannon
“The Iron Star” by Robert Silverberg
“Cadet Cruise” (Lt. Leary) by David Drake
“Shore Patrol” (Lost Fleet) by Jack Campbell
“Our Sacred Honor” (Honorverse) by David Weber
3 comments:
Kind of a mixed bag with writers I like Silverberg, Reynolds, Smith, Nagata. Some I have never read and others I dislike such as Brian Herbert, Gannon, Card, Asara and Bujold.
I'd guess I've read about two-thirds of them, perhaps more, leaning toward the older ones. It's so sad to hear you say (correctly) that Poul Anderson is forgotten, or practically so. He has long been a favorite of mine. Though this one looks pretty good, I think I'll pass and keep plugging away at the other SF story collections I'm trying to get through.
I'm ordering this right now.
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