Interest for a UK SF anthology

Would you be interested in a hard(ish) anthology of "real world" space SF short stories?

  • Yes I'd read it

    Votes: 13 59.1%

  • Yes I'd write an submission for it

    Votes: 8 36.4%

  • Not interested

    Votes: 1 4.5%
  • Total voters
    22
Dan Jones

Dan Jones

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I am here to do the thing!
Hiya pals,

I'm doing a spot of market research for a project I'm kicking about. As some of you know, my day job is working for the UK Space Agency. It isn't rocket science (except that it totally is), and usually I keep my professional life at arm's length from my writing stuff, the podcast etc.

But I've been investigating how I could exploit the intersection between these artistic and scientific worlds a little more, and am considering, with the help of certain Space Agency colleagues, of curating an anthology of short stories that reflect actual work being done in the space sector. What art does very well (better than engineering IMO) is consider the differing permutations of new technologies, the impacts it has upon society, relationships, ethics, discovery etc.

The sorts of topics I'm considering are (though this is not finalised by any means):
- Space-Based Solar Power
- Deep-space interstallar / exploration
- Colonisation of the Moon/Mars/elsewhere
- Large-scale orbital infrastructure
- Robotic mining (legal or otherwise)
- Space medicine

And a few more. Ten seems a good number of stories, I'm thinking between 7.5-10K words each.

What this cannot be is overtly political, because UKSA is a Government agency, and we don't do party political stuff. What it can do is raise awareness of the sector, consider the ramifications of certain technologies (good and bad) and bring it to life in a way that scientists and engineers often struggle to do with lay-audiences.

I haven't defined the full requirements for what this would look like, and before I do I want to see if there's an appetite for this sort of thing.

All thoughts welcome!
 
I hate that I've made your first vote "not interested" but neither hard-ish SF nor anthologies are my thing.

More generally, though, I do wonder if the people interested in these technologies would be more interested in non-fiction? Maybe the stories of people working in these various fields, along with their speculations about where they will go in future? (And maybe with SF inserts?) I could definitely see the attraction of a collection like that.
 
I'm also not into hard SF, and certainly couldn't write it -- my SF lacks the scientific rigour of Star Trek TOS.

But if one of your colleagues who knows the science wants to have a go, Dan, but his/her writing skills aren't up to it, then I'd be happy to look at collaborating on a joint project.
 
I haven't got the knowledge to write hard science fiction on this subject. However, I have extensive knowledge of climate science and some of the technology involved in monitoring that. I know that the various space agencies play a significant role in monitoring climate change. Let me know if there is potential for this. Was interesting to hear that Bryan Wigmore (think that was his name) discuss how environmentalism was major theme in his published work. I need to check those out.
 
Lacedaemonian said:
Was interesting to hear that Bryan Wigmore (think that was his name) discuss how environmentalism was major theme in his published work. I need to check those out.
Click to expand...
That was his name (for it is I). I don't want to talk myself out of a sale (and I can't recall exactly what I said) but environmentalism is a theme in my so-far unpublished stuff, not in the published ones (except tangentially).
 
HareBrain said:
I do wonder if the people interested in these technologies would be more interested in non-fiction? Maybe the stories of people working in these various fields, along with their speculations about where they will go in future? (And maybe with SF inserts?) I could definitely see the attraction of a collection like that.
Click to expand...
That would definitely pique my interest.
 
I'd love to read it, especially if we're talking accessible science (like The Martian) and it doesn't require much knowledge of astrophysics.

I couldn't write for it, but if you'd like a positively inclined but clueless reader to check where the science gets obscure, I'd be happy to help.
 
Hex said:
I'd love to read it, especially if we're talking accessible science (like The Martian) and it doesn't require much knowledge of astrophysics.

I couldn't write for it, but if you'd like a positively inclined but clueless reader to check where the science gets obscure, I'd be happy to help.
Click to expand...

And where the hull-o have you been, Missus??!
 
I'm a biologist by training, so I'd be interested in the food and health aspects. The mining too, but I don't have the science to really do it justice.

Now I've got some stuff out on the page, I feel more confident about submitting again.
 
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