What occurs when humanity lastly builds a civilization on one other planet, and instantly repeats its outdated errors? That query drives ‘The Second World’, the sharp, satirical debut from author Jake Korell. Set in opposition to the rise of a breakaway Martian nation, the story follows Flip Buchanan, son of the colony’s strongest chief, as he navigates two chaotic a long time of scientific breakthroughs, political theater, and cultural rising pains on the Purple Planet.
Korell grounds his humor in actual near-future science. His Mars is not a distant fantasy however a logical extension of the conversations occurring proper now in area exploration, from private-sector growth to the ethics of off-world settlement. By retaining the know-how believable and the human conduct all too acquainted, Korell creates a world that feels each futuristic and uncomfortably recognizable.
House: ‘The Second World’ makes use of Mars as each a literal and symbolic frontier. What drew you to Mars particularly, and the way did you steadiness actual space-science plausibility with satire and speculative fiction?
Korell: I’ve at all times cherished something associated to outer area. It prompts the farthest reaches of our creativeness—the vastness, the bizarre physics, the unknown. The longer term has that very same built-in sense of marvel, the identical limitless prospects. However in storytelling, in the event you push too far forward or veer too distant from what we have truly noticed within the universe, issues can change into summary and fewer relatable. A near-future Mars felt like the right center floor, particularly since persons are already planning to colonize. It is a complete different planet, however nonetheless our next-door neighbor—comparatively talking. Constructing a world on the Purple Planet gave me immense artistic freedom whereas retaining all the pieces tethered to our personal expertise…
My objective was to maintain the world scientifically believable, then bend it simply sufficient to make it humorous. One thing which may sound absurd to us now, however would really feel fully regular to the characters residing in that actuality.
House.com: Your story imagines a newly sovereign Martian nation grappling with political id, tradition, and legacy. How did actual conversations in area coverage, colonization ethics, and planetary nationalism affect your worldbuilding?
Korell: Worldbuilding has at all times been my favourite a part of the writing course of, and I really like taking actual points from our world and weaving them into a spot that’s solely invented. Once you begin taking a look at area coverage and colonization ethics, you understand how unsettled all the pieces nonetheless is. Nobody “owns” Mars or the Moon. Even on Earth, we’ve borders and land as a result of we are saying so, and the authority solely comes from the flexibility to implement it. Issues are extra nuanced now, however that’s nonetheless the inspiration all the pieces rests on. And in early America, colonizers took land from Native peoples just because they may.
My Mars colony rapidly emerged as the right allegory for the 13 colonies, and the void between planets simply turned a a lot, a lot larger Atlantic Ocean. The sample was acquainted. In colonization, first come the explorers, then the traders, then the politicians. A SpaceX-like company will nearly definitely attain Mars first—appearing as each explorer and investor, on this case. And the eventual Martian independence motion can be extra like a company revolution. A union strike in spacesuits. But it surely’s all the identical sample, simply with totally different branding…
House.com: The e-book spans a long time of technological and societal evolution on Mars. What future tech, space-travel ideas, or colonization challenges did you are feeling had been important to floor the story in plausible near-future science?
Korell: Twenty years is an extended span to cowl, and know-how can change dramatically in that window. That is a part of why I grounded the story extra within the characters than the devices. Human conduct is the one fixed. If the folks really feel actual, the long run round them can stretch a bit with out breaking.
I additionally did not wish to bury the story below pages of scientific exposition. It’s more durable to land a joke between equations and formulation. The longer term tech used within the story is predicated on concepts already theorized in scientific and sci-fi circles: holograms, area elevators, VR, alien contact, cloning, even faster-than-light journey by means of a spacetime distortion bubble. I definitely bent some guidelines and twisted others, however the basis is at all times one thing believable inside speculative science.
All through the e-book, I poke enjoyable at sure applied sciences, however I am actually satirizing the sci-fi storytelling tropes greater than the science itself. The primary Mars colony definitely will not be an enormous glass-dome biosphere, but it surely’s such a basic visible that it carries a form of cultural shorthand. Utilizing these kinds of issues permits the reader to orient themselves rapidly so the satire and story can take heart stage.
Human nature—particularly greed—is the largest impediment. We are able to take people off Earth, however we’re nonetheless bringing our instincts, anxieties, and ambitions with us. You possibly can’t code that out of a species.
However my view is not completely pessimistic. For those who have a look at historical past, we have improved ourselves fairly a bit, little by little. Focusing particularly on the USA, placing politics apart, most of us can agree that the Founding Fathers making a democracy was a significant step up from residing below a monarchy. And we have been refining and adjusting ever since. Errors had been made, and proceed to be made. It’s not good. And almost definitely, no futuristic area society can be both. However we’re enhancing.
Progress requires a market of concepts. And for that to exist, folks cannot all be minimize from the identical material. Variety of thought brings innovation… together with unhealthy actors, dumb concepts, and the occasional catastrophic oopsie. You get the total spectrum. It’s important to take the great with the unhealthy.
The “unhealthy” in that equation is sort of at all times greed. If the incentives in area aren’t aligned with constructing a greater world, if revenue outweighs goal, we cannot abruptly change into enlightened simply because we’re on a brand new planet. Whether or not it is Earth, Mars, or some asteroid we’re mining, the problem is similar: if the cash does not level us towards a utopia in area, it isn’t going to occur.
House.com: Your influences vary from grounded sci-fi voices like Andy Weir to extra absurdist storytellers. How do you method mixing scientific realism, speculative creativeness, and humor whereas nonetheless respecting the seriousness of area exploration?
…I totally imagine {that a} area settlement is inevitable. People have at all times been explorers, trying to find higher locations, higher supplies, higher techniques—in different phrases, progress. All through historical past, folks have fought progress, however they at all times lose. The individuals who invested in horse-drawn carriages weren’t thrilled about vehicles, however automobiles weren’t going to vanish simply to guard the carriage-industrial complicated. There was a way more profitable automobile-industrial complicated to think about. In the identical approach, settling Mars is not hypothetical. It is in movement. Individuals are actively working towards it proper now. And as soon as we settle Mars, we’ll look to the moons of Jupiter or Saturn. After that, we’ll begin eyeing planets outdoors our photo voltaic system. It’s only a matter of time horizon.
