How would first contact--on earth, in space, on another planet--transform our understandings of technology, philosophy, and what it means to be human? What kind of cognitive dissonance would society experience, if we discovered a previously unrecognized sentience on Earth?
What would life be like if it originated in a frigid ocean beneath an impenetrable shell of ice? Or on a world whose haze obscures any view of the universe beyond? Or on an unfathomable scale in the depths of space? Or . . .
Life--beyond us.
Dive in as the European Astrobiology Institute presents fifty-four original SF Stories and Science Essays on life, from microbial to macro, from automatic to sagacious. Each speculative story is followed by a professional essay illuminating the scientific underpinnings of the story and providing a new window into the cutting-edge knowledge about exploration for life in the universe.
SF STORIES BY: Eugen Bacon, Gregory Benford, Renan Bernardo, Jana Bianchi, Tobias S. Buckell, Eric Choi, Julie E. Czerneda, Tessa Fisher, Simone Heller, Valentin D. Ivanov, Mary Robinette Kowal, Lisa Jenny Krieg (translated by Simone Heller), Geoffrey A. Landis, Rich Larson, Liu Yang (translated by Ladon Gao), Lucie Lukačovičov�, Premee Mohamed, G. David Nordley, Malka Older, Deji Bryce Olukotun, Tom�s Petr�sek, Brian Rappatta, Arula Ratnakar, D.A. Xiaolin Spires, Bogi Tak�cs, Peter Watts, and B. Zelkovich.
SCIENCE ESSAYS BY: Jacques Arnould, William Bains, Jos� A. Caballero, Dimitra Demertzi, Martina Dimoska, Tessa Fisher, Dennis H�ning, Valentin D. Ivanov, Fabian Klenner, Nina Kopacz, Geoffrey A. Landis, Natuschka Lee, Ania Losiak, Stephen Francis Mann, Connor Martini, Tony Milligan, Philippe Nauny, Julie Nov�kov�, Erik Persson, Tom�s Petr�sek, Joanna Piotrowska, Giovanni Poggiali, Amedeo Romagnolo, Stefano Sandrelli, Floris van der Tak, Jan Toman, Sheri Wells-Jensen, and Raymond M. Wheeler
INTRODUCTION BY: Stephen Baxter
FOREWORD BY: Julie Nov�kov�
AFTERWORDS BY: Wolf D. Geppert; Lucas K. Law & Susan Forest
EDITED BY: Julie Nov�kov�, Lucas K. Law & Susan Forest
Previous anthologies by Laksa Media (Strangers Among Us, The Sum of Us, Where the Stars Rise, Shades Within Us, Seasons Between Us) have been recommended by Publishers Weekly, Booklist (American Library Association), Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Locus, Foreword Reviews, and Quill & Quire.
Author Biography:
Stephen Baxter was born in England in 1957. He worked as a teacher of maths and physics, and in information technology. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and a Vice-President of the HG Wells Society. Stephen has been a full-time author since 1995, and his science fiction novels have been published in the UK, the US, Germany, Japan, France, and elsewhere, and have won several awards. His non-fiction includes Deep Future, Omegatropic, TheScience of Avatar, and Revolutions in the Earth: James Hutton and the True Age of the World. Julie Nov�kov� is an evolutionary biologist by study, active in science education and outreach, one of the many founding members of the EAI, and acclaimed author, editor and translator of speculative fiction. She has edited or co-edited four anthologies in three different languages(English: Dreams From Beyond: Anthology of Czech Speculative Fiction; Strangest of All: Anthology of Astrobiological Science Fiction; Czech: Terranullius; Filipino: Haka, co-edited with Jaroslav Olsa, Jr.). Her stories and translations appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov's, Analog, Tor.com, F&SF and elsewhere, and s he occasionally publishes nonfiction in Clarkesworld, Analog and other venues. Find more at www.julienovakova.com or Twitter @Julianne_SF. Peter Watts is a former marine biologist, flesh-eating-disease survivor and felon/tewwowist whose novels-despite an unhealthy focus on space vampires-have become required texts for university courses ranging from Philosophy to Neuropsychology. His work is available in 24 languages, has appeared in 32 best-of-year anthologies, and been nominated for 59 awards. His (somewhat shorter) list of 22 actual wins includes the Hugo, the Shirley Jackson, and the Seiun. He seems disproportionately popular in countries with a history of Soviet occupation. He lives in Toronto with fantasy author Caitlin Sweet, five cats, a pugilistic rabbit, a Plecostomus the size of a school bus, and a gang of tough raccoons who shake him down for kibble on the porch every night.
