While I'm talking about the print version, that's already available for you to have and to hold right now at this very moment (depending on shipping preference chosen), here's a bunch of links for you:
And while I'm book pimping I might as well remind you that my first book, the short story collection Urban Legends of the Future, is also available in all formats for your enjoyment.
Now that my obligation as a self-published author trying to sell you my wares is over, let's look to the future. Especially since the future is my favorite topic to write about.
Ever since I was a little kid watching Return of the Jedi on repeat, jumping off my parent's couch and making lightsaber sounds, science fiction has always fascinated me. A little more than it should, but it seems like the rest of my generation has the same problem, and I think that makes it okay. So it should surprise few people that I like writing stories about future scenarios where you can essentially make anything happen with the excuse of, "technology advanced".
I think the most troubling aspect of writing science fiction is embodied in the super trope Time Marches On. Everyone who writes about the future walks the line of being prescient and dated. Especially on this upswing of Moore's Law that we've been feeling over the last couple decades, staying ahead of the curve tech-wise while trying to tell a story that's really about the present is not easy. But it's also an incredibly important aspect of the genre for, in my opinion, one main reason: to keep humanity dreaming.
Space Opera canon of fighting wars on Mars (much like Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter books) or travelling through the cosmos (like Buck Rogers) is a reflection of many fears that humans have. One, our innate fear of those different from us, and two fear that we're going to destroy this planet and need to search for a new place to live before we all die on this rock. Some people claim to not care, some people don't want to think about our time being finite, and some people just think it's awesome to go spacemarineing around the universe, kicking alien ass as we go. All of this boils down to the driving fear behind pretty much every single action humans do: our own mortality.
Fear of death is the reason why we have sex; the biological imperative to reproduce and have a copy of yourself enter a time and place where you cannot go. Fear of death is the reason why we create works of art, make monuments, tag on walls, eat food, go to the gym and play games. We want something to last in our place while we're gone, we want to maintain what life we have, and we want to be distracted from dwelling on our inevitable ending. Science Fiction is both a distraction, and a glimmer of hope at the same time.
For one, SciFi usually has humans, or some humanoid type creature/construct with ties to humanity. This may be strictly because 1) special effects are difficult/expensive to maintain with non-humanoid aliens, and 2) it's easier to connect to a human mind than an alien one, but it shows that humanity will have some hand in the future. For two, SciFi shows us both issues we need to overcome in the present, and the extrapolated consequences if this issue is taken to its (il)logical conclusion point. It can show us fears from both sides of the spectrum, from the "Far Right" or "Far Left" and any shade in between. And since you're doing it with jetpacks and laser guns, it makes it easier for people to digest the information you're feeding them, for good or ill. And speaking of jetpacks and laser guns, it gives us something to strive for tech wise.
If you're reading this, you have connection to the internet. Congratulations. We're essentially living out a dream documented through fictional history, even as far back as 1909 in E.M. Forster's short work The Machine Stops. The device you're reading this on is essentially a combination of technology stretching back to the printing press, and you're transferring information through alphabet tech that's existed since cuneiform. We're just using the current model available to us at the moment (if you speak English that is). If you're reading this on the miracle that is a smartphone, that's essentially a bunch of Trekkie's wet dreams actualized and put in your pocket for the low low price of $499.99 (or easy monthly payments with a 2 year contract), all for you to drop in the toilet and demand a free upgrade to the newest and shiniest model for you to also drop in the toilet.
Of course, unlike the linked story, we're not all sitting in private rooms, staring at a screen bank and chatting with people across the globe about why we don't visit. While those people definitely exist, it's not a widespread thing that's keeping humanity enthralled to a machine overlord. We still have people doing the enthralling. But the point I'm trying to make is Forster got lucky with their insight into the future. Even William Gibson (whose works I adore), a complete non-computer guy, was able to imagine in Neuromancer a virtual world where mankind interfaced with the graphical representation of all the world's data back in 1984 (the year, not the book) when the internet in general was still just a DARPA communications tool. Thirty-one years later, we're scratching the surface of true virtual and augmented reality. In 1992, Neal Stephenson (whose works I also adore), an actual computer guy, wrote in Snow Crash about the Metaverse, which essentially is the internet hooked up with VR goggles in a giant MMORPG that also is a graphical interface with all the world's data.
Science fiction shapes the world. It's what keeps us going forward and pushing to that next plateau. I've always loved the genre and I feel lucky to be alive in an era where some of the most far out dreams have become realities. There's also many unforeseen unfortunate realities that come with it, but following the laws of thermodynamics, there is no action without an equal and opposite reaction.
