In the last decade, new satellites and observatories have drastically expanded our understanding of the universe. We now know that planets are a pretty common phenomena around the galaxy, bringing us to a question that science fiction has long imagined answers to: What will life around the galaxy look like?
The European Astrobiology Institute is adding its own spin on the question with a new anthology: Life Beyond Us, which will feature twenty-two short stories that address this concept. The anthology has since funded via Kickstarter, and you’ve only got a day or so to back it if you’d like a copy.
The anthology is a project from the EAI, which published another short anthology last year along similar lines: Strangest of All. Like that project, this one’s edited by Czech scientist, editor, and science fiction author Julie Nováková, as well as Laksa Media’s Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest.
In the pitch video, Nováková says that they wanted to do something a bit more ambitious—this project will include twenty-two original stories, each of which will be accompanied by a companion essay about the science behind the world that the authors include. One of the goals, Nováková says, is to inspire future readers and writers to take a greater interest in science.
Those authors? This anthology includes a powerhouse table of contents: Eugen Bacon, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Tobias S. Buckell, Eric Choi, Julie E. Czerneda, Tessa Fisher, Simone Heller, Valentin Ivanov, Mary Robinette Kowal, Geoffrey A. Landis, Rich Larson, Lucie Lukačovičová, Premee Mohamed, G. David Nordley, Malka Older, Deji Bryce Olukotun, Tomáš Petrásek, Arula Ratnakar, DA Xiaolin Spires, Bogi Takács, and Peter Watts.
The book will be available to backers at $11 US (ebook edition), $21 (paperback), $29 (hardcover), and $42 (limited, illustrated hardcover edition), while other tiers have some other neat perks, like ebook bundles, virtual tours of scientific labs, and more.
