{"id":27639,"date":"2024-11-13T16:10:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T21:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=27639"},"modified":"2024-11-14T09:37:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:37:44","slug":"introducing-a-new-science-fiction-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/introducing-a-new-science-fiction-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing a New Science-Fiction Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

[Image: one of 23kpc’s inspirations — science-fiction illustrator Frank R. Paul<\/em>‘s<\/em> rendering, from the mid-20th century, of an asteroid repurposed as a spaceship.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a couple of months now, over on Substack, I’ve been building an ongoing work-in-progress<\/strong> — a (sort of) science fiction novel, called 23kpc<\/em>. I thought long-time RAMH<\/em> readers might want to check it out, especially if you’re at all interested in — or at least willing to try — science fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I use the term “science fiction” advisedly. 23kpc<\/em> is not serious<\/em> science fiction, and will quite possibly offer few satisfactions to fans of that sort. The first-person protagonist, Guy Landis, is a private eye aboard a twenty-N<\/em>th-century spaceship: a retrofitted asteroid, now a luxury liner, dubbed the ISS Tascheter<\/em>. The “vibe” falls roughly into the subgenre of something called Decopunk: science fiction with a mid-20th-century sensibility straight out of 1930s Hollywood. Guy’s not at all techno-savvy and must rely on others to explain the ship’s workings, as needed. There’s a lot of so-called “handwaving,” in other words: stuff just sorta-kinda works, without explanation. If you insist on knowing the mechanics of how the ship is moving, or how the passengers and crew live to survive what will likely be a centuries-long trip to the other side of the galaxy… well, save us both the distress at quite possibly never knowing<\/em>, and just move along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, you might try out the first installment<\/a>, called “Reviving an Inert Narrative,” posted in early September. (Each posted installment includes a link to the nex<\/em>t<\/em> installment, when the latter becomes available.) While I welcome subscribers, a subscription — or even a Substack account — shouldn’t be necessary (for now)<\/em> to read that post and the subsequent ones. It’s up to 18 chapters so far, with a new post every Friday\/Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(There’s also a reader’s guide<\/a> available, but it won’t be of much use to you unless you’ve been following the story all along.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: one of 23kpc’s inspirations — science-fiction illustrator Frank R. Paul‘s rendering, from the mid-20th century, of an asteroid repurposed as a spaceship.] For a couple of months now, over on Substack, I’ve been building an ongoing work-in-progress — a (sort of) science fiction novel, called 23kpc. I thought long-time RAMH readers might want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":null,"activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federate","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4878,3460],"tags":[528,5793,6011,6012,6013],"class_list":{"0":"post-27639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fiction","8":"category-science-fiction-06_writing","9":"tag-science-fiction","10":"tag-substack","11":"tag-work-in-progress","12":"tag-serialized-novels","13":"tag-decopunk","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/tascheterprototype.webp?fit=1370%2C2048&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-7bN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27639"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27645,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27639\/revisions\/27645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}