The very first science fiction tale I ever wrote — “No Worlds Left to Conquer,” a 2011 flash story for my former blog on Scientific American, “Assignment Impossible“ — is now on Metastellar!
“No Worlds Left to Conquer” holds a special place in my heart as my firstborn story-child, as you might imagine. Like pretty much all my pieces, in addition to being a straight science-fiction tale, it’s also a bit metafictional. I also wrote it while I was feeling anxious about my long-term profession of journalism, and I hope it will have a certain timeless quality for anyone whose field might get threatened by the inexorable march of history.
Back then, I didn’t really know anything about publishing science fiction. Had I known anything, such as via the excellent “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction” by Cory Doctorow and Karl Schroeder, who knows, maybe my science fiction career might have gotten a way earlier start.
I’ve made some slight revisions to “No Worlds Left to Conquer,” such as switching it from first-person to third-person POV and fleshing out the protagonist. Still, the frame of the story held up surprisingly well for me.
Some Easter eggs in the story include how the sci-fi authors in the tale all refer to the middle names or pseudonyms of real-life sci-fi authors — Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Estelle Butler, Robert Anson Heinlein, Alice Bradley (James Tiptree Jr.), Carl Edward Sagan, Geoffrey Alan Landis and George Alec Effinger. The protagonist’s name is a tip of the hat to Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz.
Hope you enjoy it!