I've suffered for my research, now it's your turn
I promised myself that during August I'd have a go at writing a space opera - you know, a proper one, with giant spaceships, aliens, awesome weaponry... that sort of thing. Not just because I enjoy reading such stories and would like to write one of my own, but also because I could make it all up. I mean, what would I need to research? The laws of physics? Most space opera stories ignore those pretty much, anyway. I could just take the story, and fly with it.
Sadly, I didn't manage it. Instead, I wrote the first drafts of two stories - one set at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and the other about the exploration of Mars. (This was on top of ongoing work on a novelette and a novel.)
Both stories required a lot of research.
The Mars one was the easier of the two. There's plenty of material online - there's even a Google map of Mars. Plus, I have several books on the exploration of the Red Planet: Mission to Mars, Michael Collins (I reviewed it here); The Case for Mars, Robert Zubrin; Mars 1999, Brian O'Leary; and Mars Underground, William K Hartmann. So I had lots to read in order to make my fictional trip to Mars, and subsequent surface exploration, as accurate and authentic as possible.
The story set on the floor the Mariana Trench, which I've been referring to as my "bathypunk" story, was much harder to research. It seems bizarre that more information is available about Mars than about the bottom of the Pacific, but that does seem to be the case.
(Rest of post on It Doesn't Have To Be Right...)
Sadly, I didn't manage it. Instead, I wrote the first drafts of two stories - one set at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and the other about the exploration of Mars. (This was on top of ongoing work on a novelette and a novel.)
Both stories required a lot of research.
The Mars one was the easier of the two. There's plenty of material online - there's even a Google map of Mars. Plus, I have several books on the exploration of the Red Planet: Mission to Mars, Michael Collins (I reviewed it here); The Case for Mars, Robert Zubrin; Mars 1999, Brian O'Leary; and Mars Underground, William K Hartmann. So I had lots to read in order to make my fictional trip to Mars, and subsequent surface exploration, as accurate and authentic as possible.
The story set on the floor the Mariana Trench, which I've been referring to as my "bathypunk" story, was much harder to research. It seems bizarre that more information is available about Mars than about the bottom of the Pacific, but that does seem to be the case.
(Rest of post on It Doesn't Have To Be Right...)