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Science fiction is a big muscular horny creature, with a mass of bristling antennae and proprioceptors on its skull. It has a small sister, a gentle creature with red lips and a dash of stardust in her hair. Her name is Space Opera. This volume is dedicated to her.
Science fiction is for real. Space opera is for fun. Generally what space opera does is take a few light years, and a pinch of reality and inflate thoroughly with melodrama, dreams and a seasoning of screwy ideas….. (quoted from Brian Aldiss’s introduction).

FIRST EDITION: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974