SciFi Thoughts (also random synapse misfirings)

Last updated July 3, 2024

Today begins my multipart appearance (if audio-only counts as an appearance) on genre podcast SciFi Thoughts. My conversation with fellow SF author Lancer Kind will continue in several weekly installments -- see updates below.

Curious? Of *course* you are. Here, as an intro to my writing and authorial career, is installment one:

https://lancerkind.com/podcast/278-edward-m-lerner-perpetrator-of-science-fiction-and-techno-thrillers/

First update: touching on my three-novel InterstellarNet series, on the nonfiction/popular-science book Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction, and on my latest novel, aka Life and Death on Mars, here is installment two:

https://lancerkind.com/podcast/279-life-and-death-on-mars-author-edward-m-lerners-new-novel-mp3/ 

Second update: in episode three, we dig (with a minimum of spoilers) into Life and Death on Mars. You can check it out here: https://lancerkind.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/280-LIFE-AND-DEATH-ON-MARS%E2%80%94Billionaire-Cabal-a-Space-Race-with-China-and-a-NASA-Systems-Engineer.mp3 

And update the third: in installment four of our wide-ranging conversation, Lancer and I discussed my other 2023 novel. That's On the Shoals of Space-Time, and its wildly different than what we'd discussed earlier. At the end of the episode, we get a little into my InterstellarNet series. You can hear it all here: https://lancerkind.com/podcast/281-author-edward-m-lerner-introduces-on-the-shoals-of-space-time/ 

With a fourth update, we come to the end of this wide-ranging interview. Our focus in this segment is on the InterstellarNet trilogy. It's all here, at https://lancerkind.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/282-InterstellarNet-novel-series-by-Edward-M-Lerner.mp3 

With our discussion complete, it's time to thank host Lancer Kind for inviting me onto his SciFi Thoughts podcast.

SF antho with a twist

I'm ambivalent about theme anthologies. They can be great -- but limited to a specific topic, all too often an antho's stories, however excellent individually, begin to blur. 

Looking for a great SF antho?
Check these out

Not so the Shapers of Worlds anthologies, edited by Edward Willett, of which I recently finished reading the third-and latest volume in the series. How does Ed consistently dodge the too-much-of-a-good-but-same-thing bullet? With his open-ended theme: stories by spec-fic authors who have been guests on his Worldshapers podcast. And that selection criterion works, because Ed -- beyond his excellence as an interviewer -- has such a great sense for guests to invite. 

Whether your taste runs to hard SF or soft, horror or fantasy, IMO you're apt to find much you'll enjoy in this series. I certainly have, for three anthos running.

(Obligatory disclaimer: I was recently a guest on the podcast. If the series continues long enough, well, I might have a story in it, too. If so, I'll be in good company.)  

The best novels of First Contact

For frequent visitors here, my interest in the the First Contact theme will come as no surprise. My fiction has explored the possibilities fairly extensively, for example in Moonstruck, the InterstellarNet series, and, most recently, Déjà Doomed. In "Alien AWOLs: The Great Silence," a chapter in Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction, I address the absence of contact -- so far -- in a nonfiction sense. (Click on cover thumbnails on the blog RHS if you're curious about these titles.)

Why am I so interested? First, there’s the Big Question of are we alone. Whatever the answer, the implications are profound. But beyond that, there’s just so much great SF on the topic. A reader recently challenged me to name my favorite First Contact fiction. So: here 'tis! (And as hard as it was winnowing the candidates to a few, the order within my list is not a further ranking.)

(Oh, and please excuse Blogger's odd word-line spacing of this post.)

The list? Drumroll please ...

The Sherlock Chronicles / The Paradise Quartet

Updated July 29, 2023

Back in print (and electrons); updated links below

Subtitle: When publishing worlds collide

Alternate subtitle: The other shoe drops

On average it takes me about a year to write a book. Publishers take anywhere between a few months to two years to turn a delivered manuscript into a finished product. (Don't ask me to explain the range. I can't.) Some years that means I have no new book released, while other years I have two, or even three, books released -- no matter that (as I've said) I don't begin to write this quickly. And to publicize two books close together means short-changing both ....

Hence, today's post is actually Installment Two of my book-release news for May. (If you missed the first installment, see DÉJÀ DOOMED is ... finalement here :-)) Still, I'll argue, today's update was/is worth the wait :-)  

The Sherlock Chronicles

A mile a minute? Nonsense. Even a meat brain knows “mind going a mile a minute” is mere metaphor. For a quantum mind, a light-second per minute would be nearer to apt, if sadly sans alliteration. Ordinarily, I have my metaphorical fingers in hundreds, even thousands, of figurative pies. Any less stimulation than that is boring, and boredom is the bane of a q-mind’s existence.

That events in the “real” world often strike humans as inexplicable is hardly surprising. Meat brains have limits. And so, when an opportunity presented itself, I thought: why not lend a virtual hand? Every moment of diversion was welcome, and this “case,” surely, a harmless amusement.

Thus began my detective phase. Only I couldn’t have been more wrong about harmless ….

And if an AI PI isn’t intriguing enough, there’s also The Paradise Quartet

A triumph of ingenuity and sheer willpower has delivered a dying generation ship to the exoplanet Paradise. Too bad the ingenious biotech the colonists deployed to settle on that planet triggered an inexorable devolutionary cycle.

Thousands of years later, possible rescuers arrive—and are themselves ensnared in the manmade trap that is Paradise. Escape will require new ingenuity and more multi-generational striving ….

Two great adventures in one volume.

As this is a commercial announcement, I'll share the (updated) Amazon links for Sherlock/Paradise in hardcover, in trade paperback, and for the Kindle (different retailers, of course, have other popular ebook formats).

DÉJÀ DOOMED is ... finalement here :-)

I've really looked forward to making this post. Why? Because Déjà Doomed -- with or without the accent marks, search engines being entirely indifferent to them -- was officially published earlier today.

Also, there's no expectation anyone reads French ;-)

What if First Contact becomes ... Last Contact?

On the Moon's far side, shielded from Earth’s radio cacophony, Americans are building a radio-astronomy observatory. Russians sift the dust of a lunar "sea" for helium-3 to run future fusion reactors. Commercial robots, remotely operated from Earth, roam the Moon's near side in a hunt for mineral wealth. Why chase distant asteroids for precious metals? Onetime asteroids must lie close beneath the much-bombarded lunar surface.

Then a prospecting robot encounters a desiccated, spacesuited figure. An alien figure ….

Americans dispatched from the lunar observatory investigate. Near the original find, underground, they discover an alien installation. Lunar Russians, realizing that the Americans are up to something clandestine, send their own small team. Each group distrusts the other … even before the fatal "accidents" begin. By the time anyone suspects what ancient evil they have awakened, it may be too late -- 

For everyone on Earth, too.

"Impressive character work and invigorating twists … a buried lunar treasure."

— Publishers Weekly

What's old is new again

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, shelter-in-place rules in ever more places, and the economy more or less stopped, realistically my news of the day hardly rates a mention. All that said ... it pleases me. In particular, I'm happy to announce that ReAnimus Press has just reissued my earliest two novels. With classy new cover art, I hasten to add ....

Kindle link for Probe

My debut novel was Probe -- and it's true what they say. You always remember your first time ;-)

And what, you ask, is the probe of the title? The hero's own robotic spacecraft, prowling the Asteroid Belt for mineral wealth? The alien derelict that Prospector had the (mis)fortune to come upon? Something the military does not want found? Or is it something really out of the ordinary? 

"With a scientist's background and a novelist's eye, Ed Lerner has written a fast-paced thriller sure to please techno-junkies, sci-fi lovers, and anyone who simply enjoys an exciting yarn."

-- Pete Earley,
   NYT bestselling author of Family of Spies: 
   Inside the John Walker Spy Ring

And second, a quite different tale, Moonstruck.

Arrivederci Italia

Mentioned in passing in my November 22nd post, "2019 Best Reads," I was recently in Italy. To be complete, my wife and I both were. Between research and prepping for the trip, the trip itself, and resting/catching-up afterward, this Italian adventure accounted for a big chunk of my autumn. Setting aside the rain we encountered during some part of nearly every day sightseeing, everything about this trip was awesome.

(Yes, this a blog about science and SF. If you choose to leave now, nothing will be said. If it matters, I promise to end with an SFnal tie-in.)

Mosaic at Pompeii

We began in Naples -- from which, of course, we did a side excursion to nearby Pompeii. (We'd also planned that day to go to the summit of nearby Mount Vesuvius, slayer of Pompeii. Remember my comment about the rain? Due to rain and fog, the Italian park service closed the mountain that day. Sigh.) Among other sites seen in Naples: the Palazzo Reale (grand home to the Bourbon kings of Naples, and said to have inspired Louis XIV to build his better-known palace at Versailles) and the National Archeological Museum.

His telescopes @ Galileo Museum, Florence

Next up: Florence. Highlights there included the fabulous Renaissance cathedral (aka, the Duomo), bearing the largest freestanding dome to be built in over a thousand years, the Ufizzi gallery, and the Ponte Vecchio. Historical Florence is eminently walkable and utterly charming.

Our last stop was Rome. In a word: wow. The Colosseum, ancient Forum, Circus Maximus, and ancient catacombs. The most amazing Roman structure, IMO, of them all: the Pantheon (whose huge, freestanding dome was something of a template for the design of the aforementioned Duomo). The Vatican: museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's.

Interior of the Pantheon

Pantheon dome (w/ fingertip of authenticity)

Then, on a day trip outside of Rome, we saw the sprawling estate of the Emperor Hadrian and the adjacent Renaissance estate -- largely built with marble scavenged from Hadrian's place -- Villa d'Este. The latter's famous cornucopia of entirely gravity-powered fountains, water jets, and water spouts was, ironically, turned off that day because of dirt washed into the system by the previous day's heavy rain. Sigh.

Back (exhausted!) from Capclave

Capclave is the DC area's annual con, held every fall. For 2019, the con was held the weekend just past, October 18-20.

This year, like most years, I took part. This year, unlike many years past, I was able to clear my schedule for the full three days. And Programming kept me hopping. I was a panelist for:

• SETI
• Does size matter? (As in, story lengths. Get your mind out of the gutter ;-)  )
• World-building
• Murderbots and Terminators
• Exoplanets

while moderating three of those panels. Also, I did a reading (two bits of flash from the newly released Muses & Musings: A Science Fiction Collection). Joined in the mass autograph session. Attended other panels. Cruised the hucksters room. Dropped by a bid party for the 2023 Worldcon. Chatted with readers -- this is a very literary con -- and editors, publishers, and other authors. Caught up with friends (too many of whom I only get to see at cons) and made new ones.

Rob Sawyer & Ed Lerner

And because every post requires at least one picture, here I am on the con's opening day at lunch with co-GoH -- and good buddy -- Robert J. Sawyer.

(And yes, the glare is astonishing.)

Muses & Musings: A Science Fiction Collection

Last updated September 2, 2024. Copies are temporarily unavailable. New editions to come.

=====

I am delighted to announce the release of Muses & Musings, my first short-fiction collection since 2010.

Muses & Musings offers seventeen never before collected stories at every length from flash to novella, chosen from four separate magazines and three original anthologies. And as a bonus, there's a guest intro from every-conceivable-award-winner Robert J. Sawyer

Quoting from the cover copy:

Best known for his SF novels – including the InterstellarNet series and (with Larry Niven) the epic Fleet of Worlds series – Edward M. Lerner is also a prolific author of short fiction. This collection showcases many of his finest stories, featuring works selected from over a decade’s output.

Alternate history. Parallel worlds. Rogue artificial intelligences. Alien invasion. Biting satire as to where the Internet is leading us. A Sherlock Holmes for the next century. Deco punk. Deep thoughts about, well, deep thoughts. In this book, you’ll find these – and more – together with Ed's reminiscences as to what led him to create these seventeen gems in the first place. 

This being a commercial announcement, here are the Amazon links for Muses & Musings for the Kindle and Muses & Musings in trade paperback. (M&M is also available in a plethora of other ebook formats -- check your favorite site.)

If your preferred bricks-and-mortar bookseller doesn't happen to have the print edition on its shelves, the staff will happily order you a copy (for which, as a convenience, you might want to offer the publisher, Phoenix Pick, and the ISBN: 978-1612424408). 

New Horizons, metaphorical and literal

Did you savor the Pluto closeups returned by NASA's New Horizons probe in July 2015? Of course you did -- it's the kind of thing that appeals to the kind of folk who visit SF and Nonsense.

Fascinating!

The saga of New Horizons itself is every bit as fascinating, written (to be precise, coauthored) by the man who first dreamed of the mission and eventually became its principal investigator. The book covers the guerilla struggle to interest NASA in the mission concept, the funding wars, the mad dash (once funding was finally approved) to complete the probe while Jupiter and Pluto still had the proper alignment (celestial mechanics is a harsh mistress), the long flight, and the hectic close encounter with Pluto.

In short, I highly recommend Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto, by (the aforementioned PI) Alan Stern and fellow scientist/author David Grinspoon.

Potpourri (an astronomy edition)

Because -- as if you hadn't noticed -- I'm into astronomy. And so, herewith:

The birth of radio astronomy: "Project Diana Honored With an IEEE Milestone."

The football-field-sized radio telescope so central to my Energized

"Signs of a ‘super Earth’ discovered around a nearby star." How near? Barnard's Star -- after the Alpha Centauri triple system, our closest neighbor. (Not to mention, home to the perfidious Snakes of my InterstellarNet series.)

Also, "A star is born: Astronomers witness rare birth of a baby binary."

And a new place to look for company. "Searching for ET? Look to binary stars, researchers say."

Closer to home, we have: "Asteroid Bennu is flinging rocks into space: OSIRIS-Rex’s target turns out to be very rare, and very active, posing problems for the mission."

Theia bites the big one

Closer still: "Earth magma ocean ended up on the moon: New modelling resolves contradictions in Earth-moon hypothesis."

And that, surely, is enough to amuse my fellow astronomy fans for the day ....

End-of-year(ish) writing update

It seems I'm overdue on reporting authorial news. And there's much to report ....

Remember these?

Let's begin with Analog. The November/December 2018 issue is currently running my guest editorial "Dystopic? Or Myopic?" As you may have guessed from that title, I'm no fan of the genre tendency these days toward dystopias.

The January/February 2019 issue of Analog will have my short(est ever) story "Clockwork Cataclysm." And in an issue TBD, look for "The Gates of Paradise," sequel to the last year's award-winning "Paradise Lost."

On to The Grantville Gazette (Universe Annex). Following up on last year's novelettes "The Company Man" and "The Company Dick," the November 2018 issue is currently running "The Company Mole (Part I)." Part II will run in the January 2019 issue. Suffice it to say, the plot has really thickened ....

Over at Galaxy's Edge, you can look forward to the short story "I've Got the World on a String" in the January 2019 issue.

Oh, and have I mentioned my cameo in The Washington Post? That's in the article "We crashed a science-fiction writers convention to ask about Trump’s 'Space Force' " (I believe my "could" got turned into a more definite "would," but otherwise the conversational snippet that's quoted is as I remember it. Could be I mumbled.)

I've saved the best for last ... a new collection coming in 2019 from Phoenix Pick. The new book has story selections that originally appeared in more than a half-dozen disparate venues. This will be -- mirabile dictu -- my nineteenth book (twentieth, if I count a chap book). The new book's working title is Muses and Musings.

Readin', writin', and 'rithmetic (authorial style)

Despite the traditional order of elementary skills you will have noted in my subject line, I'll begin with writing. To wit: last week, I completed the first draft of DEJA DOOMED. Woohoo! This is a hard-SF/space-opera/technothriller hybrid.  Everything we hold dear is in existential peril, of course ....

Crossing the 100K word mark?

That first draft of the novel came in at about 128K words, making it my longest. (Not that that comparison matters. My novels don't have a contest going on, or anything.)

Between first draft and final version, I generally find reason to expand by 5-10%. That growth comes of noticing passages in which (for example) some nuance failed to complete the trek from brain to fingertips, or a clue or foreshadowing is too cryptic, or a more complete description of person or setting seems appropriate. In any event, the MS is set aside for at least a couple weeks, to give my poor brain a rest.

As needed nightly relief from the stress of the final writing push, followed by the reward of a little time off, followed, all too immediately, by a nasty cold (almost gone now), these past few weeks I've also done a lot of reading. And I've had uncommonly good results from my selections. (Note that I didn't attribute the results to good luck. The books I'm about to commend to your consideration were all written by known, well-trusted authors. Even a new book by an author one has previously enjoyed comes without guarantees (authors will, and should, try different types of storytelling from time to time), but past performance is still a good writing-quality predictor.

What books have I found noteworthy this past few weeks? I'm happy to share ... and it's all spoiler-free.

I'm ENERGIZED! (Now you can be, too)

I'm delighted to report that my 2012 technothriller Energized is back in print and electrons. (Alone among my older titles, Energized was briefly unavailable in these formats.) It was and is available as an audio book.

Latest cover

Or perhaps I should call this my prescient 2012 technothriller. In the headlines: private space companies, renewable energy, the imminence of asteroid mining -- and, sadly, also nuclear proliferation, chaos across the Middle East, homegrown terrorism, and meddling by an assertive Russia. Energized incorporates all these elements.

Much of the action is set dramatically in Earth orbit: Aboard a zero-gee orbiting hotel/playground for the super-rich. On (and within) a threatening asteroid diverted to become Earth's newest moon. On a two-mile-square orbiting power station, beaming solar energy 24/7 to Earth.

(Have I recently mentioned my seven years as a NASA contractor?) 

Fleet of Worlds: The Tintinnabulation

On October 16, 2007, Fleet of Worlds was first published. That is: ten years ago to the day.

Larry and Ed at 2015 Nebula weekend

This epic space opera, a collaboration with Larry Niven set in his Known Space future history(*), remains my most popular title. Fleet of Worlds has been translated into eight languages. It was selected (by what was not yet called the SyFy channel) as a Sci Fi Essential title, had a slot as a Science Fiction Book Club featured book, and was a finalist for a Prometheus Award.

(*) Which isn't to say that Fleet assumes the reader is familiar with any other story or book. But if you are a Known Space aficionado? If the name Beowulf Shaeffer rings a bell, or the title Ringworld elicits fond memories, I'm happy to say Fleet offers you the occasional Easter egg ...

A month to savor

Happy days :-)

My novelette "My Fifth and Most Exotic Voyage" is the cover story in the September/October issue of Analog. (And what a great cover it is! Hat tip to Eldar Zakirov.)

Who is the narrator? Well, who dressed in that distinctive manner made four famous voyages? You might suppose this to be Christopher Columbus ... but not so.

And in the September issue of the Grantville Gazette (Universe Annex), the reluctant detective of "The Company Man" (perhaps you met him in the May issue) returns as "The Company Dick." And matters aren't faring any better for him in this novella ...

An olio portfolio

Notwithstanding -- and more likely related to --  my most recent post (Weird process, this writing), the writing has been progressing smoothly over the past week. Lots of deeper back story worked out and retrofit, where appropriate, into the novel presently under construction. Lots of new text added. (We won't, however, speak of the single paragraph in the original, high-level outline that has transmogrified in my latest plans into five future chapters. Those wounds are too fresh.)

A veritable cornucopia

Amid the progress, my willpower on occasion did slip, leaving me to lapse into some of my customary surfing. And so, herewith, I shall bring to your attention several eclectic -- and relevant -- observations of the sort visitors here seem to find of interest.

SF is about world-building, with "world" loosely defined. Something about an SFnal story setting(s), whether in time or place, dimension or natural law or the state of technology, is different. One peril of the process is describing a world that's too uniform (e.g., "the desert planet" or "the ocean planet"), because we tend to find those unbelievable. The single world any of us know is, after all, rich with plains, forests, deserts, mountains, oceans, glaciers .... And neither are natural resources uniformly distributed, available at the convenience of our characters. A recent real-world reminder of that inhomogeneity involves helium:

... the element is needed to use or make all sorts of things: semiconductors, rocket fuel, computer hard drives, the Large Hadron Collider, magnets in MRI machines, airships, scuba tanks, arc welding, anything that needs to be super cold, and of course, balloons.

See "How the Qatar Crisis Shook Up the World's Supply of Helium."

Must ... finish ... novella

I would hate to go a week without posting, because skipping once makes it easier to do so again. Good habits are to be reinforced, after all. But I also have a story in process, about which I'll say no more than it's a secret history and it demands(!) to be finished.

Put this all together, and it's a good time to share some of the more eclectic items that have recently caught my eye -- such aggregation posts come together quickly. You might not find every item herein to be noteworthy, but you'll surely find something interesting in what follows :-)

Short fiction. Shorter updates.

On 8/30, I shared a few short-fiction announcements, as parts of Con-fusion / Writing updates. Happily, more short-fiction news has accumulated and, well, there's no time like the -- holiday pun unavoidable -- present.

Science Fiction by Scientists, an anthology by astronomer, SF author, and good buddy Michael Brotherton, is hot off the presses (and in other editions, fresh from the electron mines). It contains, among many interesting things, my short story "Turing de Force." Like every tale in the antho, mine has an afterword about the underlying science -- in this case, computer science.

(If the phrase "Turing de Force" evokes a sense of déjà vu, I suspect you're channeling my "Tour de Force." The latter short story, on an entirely different topic, is part of a fun antho, Impossible Futures, with an entirely different premise.)

Springer, the big textbook publisher, published SFbS. Alas, they priced this anthology more like a textbook than your typical SF antho. If you're curious but the pricing is rich for your taste, suggest the title to your local library. (As I type, the Kindle edition is marked down ... this is the time to check it out.)

But wait! There's more!

My 2016 Capclave schedule

The fine folks of WSFA (trying saying that quickly five times) have published the programming schedule for this year's Capclave: "Where reading is not extinct." The 2016 version of this annual DC-area regional con runs from mid-afternoon Friday October 7 into Sunday afternoon October 9.

Capclave mascot

I'll be attending only Saturday, October 8th -- but pretty much all that day. Here's my (hectic!) schedule for Saturday:

11:00 - 11:55 am: Alternate & Secret History 

-- Salon A
Panelists: Neil Clarke, Walter H. Hunt, Edward M. Lerner, James Morrow, Tim Powers.

Although alternate and secret history seem related, they are quite different. What are the differences? How do you tell them apart? What factors must you keep in mind when writing in either area? 

12:30 - 12:55 pm: Reading -- from my hot-off-the-presses (published last month) novel, Dark Secret.

-- Seneca Room

1:00 pm: Author table (For autographs, or just to chat)

-- Hallway
(Sorry, that's as specific a location as we're given -- but I know the venue, and finding me won't be too taxing ;-)  )

2:00 - 2:55 pm: Writing Gadgets Well
-- Rockville/Potomac Room(s)
Panelists: Barbara Krasnoff, Edward M. Lerner, Lawrence M. Schoen, Darcy Wold

How do you work technology into your story without boring the reader? You want to make your "inventions" believable, but how much is too much?

Saturday 5:00 - 5:55 pm: Ask the Authors
-- Salon A
Panelists: Sarah Beth Durst, Edward M. Lerner, Sarah Pinsker, Tim Powers, Bud Sparhawk

Panelists answer whatever questions the audience has on writing, editing, character development, agents, and others. Includes non-writer-parts-of-being-a-writer, such as being your own boss, setting schedules, and many more. 

Mass autographing session 7:30 - 8:25 p.m. 

-- Salon A

And those scattered times during which I've not been scheduled? I'll still be around!

You'll find much more about the con, including bios of all the panelists, on the main Capclave website. 

Hope to see you there!