This is the second of two companion anthologies that chronicle the history of the SF adventure story. With this book, editor Gardner Dozois is attempting to disprove the old adage that "they don't write 'em like that anymore." Which, of course, they do, as writers like Peter F. Hamilton, Michael Swanwick, George Turner, and John Varley amply demonstrate in these pages. The selections here date from 1977 to 1998, although Dozois has limited himself by omitting subgenres such as cyberpunk, military SF, and even hard SF. While this makes the The Good New Stuff somewhat dubious as a historical overview of the adventure SF field, it allows Dozois to uncover some real gems that might otherwise have gone overlooked, including a couple of stories first published in the Brit-lit SF magazine Interzone. It's safe to say that in the hands of authors like Robert Reed, Walter Jon Williams, and Stephen Baxter, the grand tradition of SF is alive and well. --Craig E. Engler


From Kirkus Reviews
Companion volume to The Good Old Stuff (p. 1339), that being a selection of golden oldie adventure stories/space operas from the 1940s through the 1960s. Here, Dozois rounds up yarns in a similar mold from the 1970s on up. Some are already famous or familiar: Bruce Sterling's splendid Shaper/Mechanist yarn, ``Swarm''; Walter Jon Williams's wrenching perversion of religion, ``Prayers on the Wind''; and George R.R. Martin's science fiction Inquisition, ``The Way of Cross and Dragon.'' Maureen F. McH ugh's ``The Missionary's Child'' is set on same world as her recent novel, Mission Child (p. 1421). Most of the other yarns are top-notch too; it's not quality that's at issue here. One problem is a change of style in SF: virtually none of these tales wou ld qualify as space opera or even adventure. Mostly they're too complex to be easily categorized. Another quibble involves the volume's breakdown by decade. Of the seventeen yarns here, two derive from the 1970s, four from the 1980s, with a disproportiona te eleven from the 1990s, these latter no more ``adventurous'' than the others. Splendid yarns, but still, while Dozois's desire to wrap things up in a neat package is understandable, his rather specious justifications grate nonetheless. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Dozois once again unites a magnificent gamut of epic storytellers into one volume that travels beyond the outermost galaxies and stirs the emotional foundations of the human condition."-- Bookpage, on The Year's Best Science Fiction

"Dozois is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell, Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950s-- the finest editor in the world of short SF."--Publisher's Weekly



Review
"Dozois once again unites a magnificent gamut of epic storytellers into one volume that travels beyond the outermost galaxies and stirs the emotional foundations of the human condition."-- Bookpage, on The Year's Best Science Fiction

"Dozois is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell, Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950s-- the finest editor in the world of short SF."--Publisher's Weekly



Review
"Dozois once again unites a magnificent gamut of epic storytellers into one volume that travels beyond the outermost galaxies and stirs the emotional foundations of the human condition."-- Bookpage, on The Year's Best Science Fiction

"Dozois is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell, Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950s-- the finest editor in the world of short SF."--Publisher's Weekly



Book Description
Once the mainstay of science fiction, adventure stories fell out of favor during the 1960s and early 1970s. But in recent years, science fiction writers have spun out galaxy-spanning adventures as imaginative and wonderful as any of yesteryear's tales. Renowned editor Gardner Dozois assembles seventeen such escapades here, with stories from today's and tomorrow's finest writers, including:

Stephen Baxter, Tony Daniel, R. Garcia y Robertson, Peter F. Hamilton, Janet Kagan, George R. R. Martin, Paul J. McAuley, Maureen F. McHugh. G. David Nordley, Robert Reed, Mary Rosenblum, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, George Turner, John Varley, Vernor Vinge, Walter Jon Williams

These stories brim with the exciting thrills our universe offers us-- alien landscapes, unimagined realms, life unlike any we have known before, and that mysterious realm known as the human soul. The Good New Stuff shows that they really do still write 'em like that!



Card catalog description
Once the mainstay of science fiction, adventure stories fell out of favor during the 1960s and early 1970s. But in recent years, science fiction writers have spun out galaxy-spanning adventures as imaginative and wonderful as any of yesteryear's tales. Renowned editor Gardner Dozois assembles seventeen such escapades here, with stories from today's and tomorrow's finest writers.


About the Author
Gardner Dozois is the longtime editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine and of the annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies. He has been honored many times with the Hugo Award for best editor, and his own short fiction has garnered two Nebula Awards. He lives in Philadelphia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Once the mainstay of science fiction, adventure stories fell out of favor during the 1960s and early 1970s. But in recent years, science fiction writers have spun out galaxy-spanning adventures as imaginative and wonderful as any of yesteryear's tales. Renowned editor Gardner Dozois assembles seventeen such escapades here, with stories from today's and tomorrow's finest writers.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

Companion volume to The Good Old Stuff (p. 1339), that being a selection of golden oldie adventure stories/space operas from the 1940s through the 1960s. Here, Dozois rounds up yarns in a similar mold from the 1970s on up. Some are already famous or familiar: Bruce Sterling's splendid Shaper/Mechanist yarn, "Swarm"; Walter Jon Williams's wrenching perversion of religion, "Prayers on the Wind"; and George R.R. Martin's science fiction Inquisition, "The Way of Cross and Dragon." Maureen F. McHugh's "The Missionary's Child" is set on same world as her recent novel, Mission Child (p. 1421). Most of the other yarns are top-notch too; it's not quality that's at issue here. One problem is a change of style in SF: virtually none of these tales would qualify as space opera or even adventure. Mostly they're too complex to be easily categorized. Another quibble involves the volume's breakdown by decade. Of the seventeen yarns here, two derive from the 1970s, four from the 1980s, with a disproportionate eleven from the 1990s, these latter no more "adventurous" than the others. Splendid yarns, but still, while Dozois's desire to wrap things up in a neat package is understandable, his rather specious justifications grate nonetheless. .