this stop: the structure

If you liked my story "A Map of the Mines of Barnath", then you might also like "Inevitable", which has just come out in the Strahan/Dozois collection New Space Opera 2. It's the first glimpse into the world of the Structure since "Barnath" was published, way back in 1994. It's the last until a much larger novella in Godlike Machines, hopefully this year. The collection as a whole is awesome, with people like Garth Nix, Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Moon and many, many others crowding out little old me.  Here's the cover:

I had a lot of fun writing the story, which features two whole new space opera empires (the Guild of the Great Ships and the nasty Decretians) and has none of that real-physics nonsense of the Astropolis books. Here, when the characters want to go from one side of the galaxy to the other, they just go.  Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Maybe one day I'll get around to writing the novel.