Skylife: Space Habitats in Story and Science

I read this book some time ago, but copied these paragraphs from a longer article I wrote about it and three other books that appeared in "The Writer" in 2001 .I found this book in the SF anthology section: "Skylife: Space Habitats in Story and Science" edited by Gregory Benford and George Zebrowski. Benford is a physicist, author of over a dozen novels and two-time Nebula award winner. Zebrowski's credits include science fiction novels, short fiction collections, anthologies and a book of essays. In this collection of fourteen prescient essays and stories, they plot the course of humanity as it takes its first steps away from Cradle Earth and colonizes space. Benford and Zebrowski introduce the book with a piece on how space travel and living have been portrayed in literature from the late 19th Century to the present day and end with a selected bibliography of space stations and habitats in fiction, non-fiction, and visual media.The book contains 350 pages of visionary writing by SF luminaries. Larry Niven explains his Ringworld as well as Dyson spheres, multi-generation ships, and flying cities in "Bigger Than Worlds." Isaac Asimov explores the possibility of moon colonies and hollowing out asteroids for habitation in "Spomelife: The Universe and the Future." Arthur C. Clarke foreshadows life on a space station in "The Other Side of the Sky." In this book you learn from the masters how to put "science" back into "science fiction." The eight vintage color plates showing artists' renditions of space living also go a long way to replacing stray images of the Millenium Falcon and Deep Space Nine.

A collection of science fiction short stories portraying situatoins of otherworld settlements by humans and the cultures they developed. Writers explore how human societies might develop in non-Earth environments: other planets, planetoids, multi-generation colonization ships, mining colonies on asteroids, and such.It is a cultural or social collection from Sci Fi, in which various authors portraying their made-up universes and worlds, or various aspects of the quest to conquer pace.The volume has an excellent introductory essay by the editors, providing a literary and technical foundation. This essay and introductions to each short story in the collection provides a technical reference for actual science and physics involved in the questions of space travel and related physics and engineering knowledge and design.Many well-known science fiction writers have been very meticulous in their study and use of actual science, physics and other technical subjects, including sociology and economics. Many have been actual science consultants and have written as scientists in their own right. For instance, Isaac Asimov, had a PhD in Chemistry and was a university professor.Many Sci Fi writers have had uncannily accurate prophecies and forecasts in their stories. Some have specifically dealt with the engineering details of science and its possibilities. This collection of stories provides interesting views of possible social and technical problems and successes in the attempts to establish living environments on artificial satellites, long-range colony ships and actual colonization of other worlds.One story, "The Other Side of the Sky" by Sir Arthur C. Clarke was written in the 1950s. Yet all the details he describes here about space exploration are right.It has sometimes been the case that NASA and other space strategists and engineers actually referred to Sci Fi writers as guides to techniques and design. In fact, some of you may have even seen Clarke on coverage of NASA space launches. Clark is a noted consultant on actual space technology. Some terminology now commonly used began in Sci Fi stories of the past.This is the level of quality of this collection. Two new stories are included which were written just for this volume.

This is a terrific book, containing knowledgeable and reliable science explorations of the possibilities of living in space with some of the best hard science fiction writers' stories treating the same subject, like Greg Bear's WIND FROM A BURNING WOMAN. SKYLIFE ought to be in every middle and high school library! It also reads beautifully as entertainment.