Gwyneth Jones, TR:SF author

TR:SF is an anthology of hard science fiction that will be hitting the newsstands this fall. Last week, we revealed that Cory Doctorow would be part of the lineup, and this week were thrilled to introduce the second member of the lineup, Gwyneth Jones.

Jones is a British writer who, among other awards, has won the Arthur C. Clarke award, the British Science Fiction Association award for short stories, and the Philip K. Dick award.

While Jones is mostly known for her novels, she has also written some wonderful short stories (as her BSFA awards shows). The short story that brought her to our attention for TR:SF is called “The Voyage Out,” and it concerns an interstellar transportation technology that doesn’t send physical bodies, just information. Of course, converting a person into data and reconstituting them physically on another planet is not without its side effects, and the story explores the psychological fallout on a team who’ve been pressganged into making the one-way trip.

For us, Jones has written another story where the science of information takes center stage, under the banner of communications (the stories in TR:SF will be organized around the areas of coverage that Technology Review follows closely). It’s an elegant, lyrical piece that brings to mind Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” You’ll be able to read it in early October.