A week or so ago I set myself a challenge: to write a science fiction story in which a flying boat featured prominently. I was hoping to come up with some heartland sf story, something with spaceships and aliens and such. And flying boats, of course. But I couldn’t think of a plot in which a flying boat, especially a historical one, might plausibly appear in the distant future or on another planet.
I could have just invented some futuristic flying boat, but I was determined it’d be a known type – and I had in mind one of those flying boats from the 1930s which carried passengers to Australia or across the Atlantic. So I dreamt up and considered a number of ideas, and promptly discarded them… and then realised there was only one way I could justifiably have a Short Empire flying boat, for example, in a sf story. But I didn’t really want to write alternate history. I wanted something more sfnal than that.
And I think I’ve sort of done it.
It’s a somewhat experimental story – in both structure and the fact that the plot is only implied. I shouldn’t think it’s the first story, science fiction or mainstream, to ever be written in this fashion, but it’s the first time I’ve tried it. It was fun to research, and I had fun “writing” it. I hope it proves as much fun to read.
Here it is (PDF): Disambiguation
Enjoy.
Filed under: my fiction, science fiction, short stories, writing
[...] Science fiction with flying boats I challenged myself to write a sf story featuring a flying boat, because flying boats are cool. And I sort of succeeded. So here you go, have a read. It's here. [...]
Geez, plots are easy.
NCIS in space. Guy builds flying boat in basement. Someone nicks it.
[Your spam thing ate my freesf.strandedinoz.com comment it seems]
I am not a spammer, or even number 2.
And where are the submarines?
Is that a new challenge? A sf story with submarines? I’ll have to think about it…
Flying submarines!
Like that book.
Love the story. Simply love it. What a simple, elegant turn, for a tale inspired by porcine, inelegant flying machines. Funny.
You could certainly turn this one into Kindling, too.
It uses text from Wikipedia, so I can only publish it under a Creative Commons licence.
Nah, is 3.0 Attribution-Share Alike which just means yours has to be, too – doesn’t mean you can’t sell it..
I’m quite sure there is not any ‘non-commercial’ limitation on it. In fact, I think there’s a company or two selling every bloody article on there!
I’ll have to check. There’s also the problem of attributing all the photos as well…
[...] site: “Disambiguation” by Ian [...]