"Edward M. Lerner has produced the best-ever guide to putting the science in science fiction, and he’s done it with clarity, wit, and panache."
— Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Quantum Night
As an author, I'm best known for my science fiction and technothrillers, but I also write popular science. In particular, I've written a lot about the science that underpins many an SF plot -- including, as my subject suggests, artificial intelligence (by which I don't mean merely the advanced autocomplete that passes for AI these days), the possibility of alien life, and what first contact might be like.
Long nonfiction story short, I'm speaking of my book -- newly returned to print and electrons -- Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction.The expression to trip the light fantastic dates back to John Milton. I suspect he didn't have in mind, as I did, faster-than-light travel. FTL is just another of the SFnal tropes (science used other than literally ... or is it?) I explore in this IMO fun book. Human 2.0? Time travel? ESP? Yup, all there -- and more. Together with examples of how these topics are used -- and sometimes abused -- in SF both literary and dramatic. Plus lots of references to relevant science and tech, for when you want to delve deeper ...
This post being a commercial announcement, here are the Amazon links for the newly re-released Kindle, trade paperback, and hardback editions.
"A trove of wonderful information about the why and how of the science in the fiction. ... a must read for any science fiction fan."
— Sci-Fi Saturday Night