With Gary about to leave for the World Fantasy Convention to be held in New Orleans next week, and with Jonathan in the process of assembling anthologies on the most recent iterations of space opera, we spend most of our time discussing the characteristics, history, and too-common misuse of that venerable term.
While we do touch briefly on the etymology of 'space opera', and on the pulp-era adventures that Wilson Tucker had in mind when he rather contemptuously coined the term in 1941, most of the discussion focuses on how the idea has evolved since M. John Harrison set out to demolish the old-school space opera with The Centauri Device in 1974, the efforts of Paul J. McAuley and others to define a new space opera in the 1980s (and Jonathan and Gardner Dozois’s The New Space Opera anthologies of 2007 and 2010), the influence of media, and more recent examples ranging from James S.A. Corey’s Expanse series to Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya universe, Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti series, and other authors who have energetically begun to reclaim space opera for a more diverse cast of characters. We fully expect enthusiastic disagreements.
As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. See you all again after World Fantasy!
Episode 510: Ten Minutes with Chaz Brenchley
Episode 509: Ten Minutes with Lev Grossman (redux)
Episode 509: Ten Minutes with Lev Grossman
Episode 508: Ten Minutes with Terri Windling
Episode 507: Ten Minutes with Sheree Renée Thomas
Episode 506: Ten Minutes with CSE Cooney
Episode 505: Ten Minutes with Mimi Mondal
Episode 504: Ten Minutes with Veronica Schanoes
Episode 503: Ten Minutes with Suzy McKee Charnas
Episode 502: Ten Minutes with Tim Pratt
Episode 501: Ten Minutes with Chen Qiufan
Episode 500: Second verse...
Episode 499: Ten Minutes with Vandana Singh
Episode 498: Ten Minutes with Elizabeth Knox
Episode 497: Ten Minutes with Karin Tidbeck
Episode 496: Ten Minutes with John Crowley
Episode 495: Ten Minutes with Charles de Lint
Episode 494: Ten Minutes with Christopher Priest
Episode 493: Ten Minutes with Nina Allan
Episode 492: Ten Minutes with Charles Vess
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