The appliance of science

In Competition No. 3061 you were invited to imagine a well-known author who doesn’t normally write in the genre having a go at science fiction and submit an extract from the resulting work. In a 2015 interview, Ursula K. Le Guin, always a staunch and eloquent defender of the genre, took a pop at writers of literary fiction who move into sci-fi and simply think that ‘they can use some of the images and tropes and so on from science-fiction and stick them in their book and put it on another planet or in a spaceship or something…’ Although a fair few entries this week were — understandably — guilty as charged, they were clever and entertaining nonetheless. Commendations go to Carl Tanner, Brian Allgar, David Silverman and Frank McDonald, who were unlucky losers. The winners take £30, except Bill Greenwell who pockets £35.  

Home, sweet Home! Our Krypton-driven Navigator passed into the orbit of Epsilon B at 11 o’clock, and my dear wife Carrie concocted a vitamin booster for the occasion.