Politics As Usual: Golden Age Space Opera Tales
In outer space, remote planets - politicians are, well, politicians.
That means you can trust them as far as you can throw them. And there's the great Mark Twain quote, "Politicians and baby diapers should be changed often - and for the same reason."
Ballot-stuffing, even this electronic version, just pulls on a long history of politico's getting their way. All quite regardless of messy things like "constituants".
Of course, the authors collected into this anthology are long dead, and their stories are placed into the future, on planets no human has visited.
But still, you might be able to see through their facade. Satire is a bit revealing that way.
Space Opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, chivalric romance, and risk-taking. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it usually involves conflict between opponents possessing advanced abilities, futuristic weapons, and other sophisticated technology.
The term has no relation to music, as in a traditional opera, but is instead a play on the terms "soap opera", a melodramatic television series, and "horse opera", which was coined during the 1930s to indicate a formulaic Western movie. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, and video games.
The Golden Age of Pulp Magazine Fiction derives from pulp magazines (often referred to as "the pulps") as they were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term pulp derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazines printed on higher-quality paper were called "glossies" or "slicks". (Wikipedia)
The pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction. Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century. Although many writers wrote for pulps, the magazines were proving grounds for those authors like Robert Heinlein, Louis LaMour, "Max Brand", Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and many others. The best writers moved onto longer fiction required by paperback publishers. Many of these authors have never been out of print, even long after their passing.
Anthology containing:
- The Unnecessary Man by Randall Garrett
- Tiger by the Tail by Poul Anderson
- The Syndic by C. M. Kornbluth
- Shamar's War by Kris Neville
- Sea Legs by Frank Quattrocchi
- The Rebel of Valkyr by Alfred Coppel
- Mr. President by Stephen Arr
- If at First You Don't... by John Brudy
- Hail to the Chief by Randall Garrett
- The Green Beret by Tom Purdom
- Freedom by Mack Reynolds
- Expediter by Mack Reynolds
- The Envoy, Her by H. B. Fyfe
- The Deadly Daughters by Winston K. Marks
- Dateline: Mars by Richard Wilson
- Check and Checkmate by Walter M. Miller
- And Gone Tomorrow by Andrew J. Offutt
- The Golden Judge by Nathaniel Gordon
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