Stories in Speculative Science
Welcome to my blog. I write science fiction and post my stories here. I hope you enjoy them. – Brent Smith
Many of the stories you will find here fall into what I call speculative science. That is, the story is based on real science. I take today’s science news and ask questions like, “Where is this leading us?”, “How will this affect society?” and “What could possibly go wrong?” The science is very important to these stories.
I have discovered that a cool science idea does not always translate into a good story. So I include here some articles that I call speculative science. They are just ideas that I get while reading science articles but couldn’t think of a way to explore them through a compelling story.
You will find other types of stories here. Not so hard sci fi but more fanciful. Ideas that I just couldn’t let go of without writing a story about them.
A third type of story might be called fan fiction. Here, I take classic science fiction tales and ask “What happened next?” For example, in HG Well’s ‘War of the Worlds’, Earth’s microbes won the initial battle. But as they say, a battle does not win the war. The legacy of this novel is that you have two civilizations that fear one another, that pose existential threats to one another. How would that play out?
Most of my story ideas come from reading science articles from various sources. I put a lot of background research into the science behind my stories. Some of that, I will post here so the interested reader can learn more about it and use the references I provide to dig into it themselves.
-
Speculative Science – The Beach Blanket Theory of the Universe
Read more: Speculative Science – The Beach Blanket Theory of the UniverseA thought experiment to explain the workings of the universe without using fabrications such as dark matter and dark energy.
-
Story: What Lies Beneath
Read more: Story: What Lies BeneathThe premise of this story is “what if” from a great classic in science fiction. I can’t mention which classic here – it will ruin the story. All will be revealed in time. In writing this story, I wanted to experiment with creating suspense. The story gives me lots of opportunity to do so but…
-
Story: Minutes to Midnight
Read more: Story: Minutes to MidnightThis story emerged from reading all of the hand wringing over the war in the Ukraine and its possible escalation. How close are we to nuclear armageddon? The Doomsday clock says that we are a whisker away.
-
Story: Waters of Bethesda
Read more: Story: Waters of BethesdaThis story originates from an article in Newscientist about some interesting research. I can’t say too much more about this without giving up the plot. At the end of the story, I explain how the story relates to the article.
-
Speculative Science: Drifters
Read more: Speculative Science: DriftersI had this idea, but I just couldn’t come up with a good story for it. After much time and effort, I decided to turn it into a speculative science piece. As an opening to this piece, I use the opening paragraph of one version of the fictional story I was attempting to write.
-
Story: Locked and Loaded
Read more: Story: Locked and LoadedI thought I would experiment with an old sci-fi theme – the spaceman stranded on an alien planet. It is a simple comic book level story with a message/point of view woven into it. I thought it was well-constructed and would be well-received by editors. It wasn’t. Writer 10, Editor 0.
-
Story: Oh Nothing
Read more: Story: Oh NothingI wrote a version of “Oh Nothing” thirty years ago when my daughters were in grade school. It is a parent’s lament, a tease to my kids who are now going through the same thing with their kids. Apparently nothing of interest ever happens at school, at least nothing worth telling your parents about.
-
Story: Sentinels
Read more: Story: SentinelsBeing Canadian, I am exposed to the horror of mass shootings in the US on a far too frequent basis. This tragic phenomenon is on an upward trend and there appears to be no way of changing this trajectory. It gets me thinking for one, with so many bright minds in that country, where is…
-
Story: Deja Vu
Read more: Story: Deja VuI had this idea relating the common experience of deja vu to a physical event. After all, there must be an explanation for it other than just a glitch in the system. I couldn’t really come up with a story where this idea might play a critical role in the plot so I wrote a…
-
Story: Remember Me
Read more: Story: Remember MeI can’t give too much background on this story without giving up a spoiler. It emerged from the passing of a relative, gone suddenly, leaving only old photos and memories.