Just Like Being There: A Collection of Science Fiction Short Stories

✍ Scribed by Eric Choi

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing
• Tongue: English
• Series: Springer Science and Fiction
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Just Like Being There is the first collection of science fiction stories by award-winning author and aerospace engineer Eric Choi spanning his 25 year writing career. The stories are “hard” science fiction in which some element of engineering or science is so central there would be no story if that element were removed. Story topics include space exploration, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cryptography, quantum computing, online privacy, mathematics (statistics), neuroscience, psychology, space medicine, extra-terrestrial intelligence, undersea exploration, commercial aviation, and the history of science. A special feature of the book is that each story is followed by an "Afterword" that explains the underlying engineering or science. This collection will entertain and inform all aficionados of science and science fiction.

Reviews
“There are many forms of science fiction, all equally worthwhile, but Eric is a master of the hard science approach. This is classic science fiction at its best. Highly, highly recommended.” (R. Graeme Cameron, amazingstories.com, August 19, 2022) “The fifteen stories comprising Eric Choi’s Just Like Being There take readers on a fun and fictional romp through space and time, from alternate histories to daring future missions. Some of the narratives are sobering revisits of past events on Earth while others launch us on adventures in deep space. All are imaginative and captivating.” (Robert Thirsk, Former CSA Astronaut)

“Eric Choi’s story collection takes us on an epic literary road trip across the red sands of Mars, down the mysterious tunnels of an asteroid, into our ocean’s inky depths, and even plunges into the remote crevasses of our brain. His narratives are a perfect fusion of meticulous scientific research and imagination, a classic hard SF approach that ponders territories just beyond our reach. While Choi’s alternative histories and fictional tales cover a wide range of topics, each one is an invitation to see the world anew. He challenges us to let go of stereotypes and assumptions, and he does so with great subtlety and charm. The afterwords following each story provide fascinating background information that contextualizes the narratives and provide intriguing insights into politics, science, and history. Clear your agenda. This book is impossible to put down.” (Bettina Forget, Director of the Artist-in-Residence Program at the SETI Institute)

“Eric Choi has created an intellectually engaging collection of stories with afterwords discussing the meticulously researched science of each. A real tour de force.” (Michael Brotherton, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wyoming, Editor of Science Fiction by Scientists)

“When an award-winning writer and editor is also an aerospace engineer you get some of the best hard SF stories around. In Just Like Being There, Eric Choi writes with clarity, grace, and imagination as he leads us through an astonishing breadth of topics and themes from near-future stories of astronauts doing dangerous work to alternate history tales on Captain Nemo. The fifteen stories in this book are enter[1]taining, exciting, and thoughtful by turn. This collection deserves a huge audience. Very highly recommended.” (Rick Wilber, Author and Visiting Professor of Genre Fiction at Western Colorado University, Administrator of the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing)

“Enjoyable and thought provoking. This collection of short stories is a must read for those who have an interest in aviation, space, and scientific innovation. Choi’s blend of futuristic settings and historical what-ifs challenged a number of my assumptions about the science fiction genre and made me look at our history–and some of the treasures in our collection–in a completely different light.” (Christopher Kitzan, Director General of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum)