From two acclaimed editors comes the best-ever anthology of science fiction’s most vigorous subgenres: the space opera."Space opera, " once a derisive term for cheap pulp adventure, has come to mean something more in modern SF: compelling adventure stories told against a broad canvas, and written to the highest level of skill. Indeed, it can be argued that the "new space opera" is one of the defining streams of modern SF.Now, World Fantasy Award-winning anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have compiled a definitive overview of this subgenre, both as it was in the days of the pulp magazines, and as it has become in the 2000s. Included are major works from genre progenitors, popular favorites, and modern-day pioneers.