Let's Be Real: Sci-Fi Needs More Awesome Space Gods

The new John Joseph Adams anthology Cosmic Powers, which collects stories of super-powered adventure in deep space, was inspired by Adams' love of godlike comic book characters. "Half the time Silver Surfer is hanging out in the cosmos, between planets, talking to some sort of god-thing," Adams says in Episode 255 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. I love the idea of stories that are like, 'Hey, we're walking around on the head of a dead god.'" Geek's Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley also admires those stories, and wishes those sorts of ideas would crop up more often outside of comic books. "The idea of spaceships running into gods in space I feel is not super-explored in science fiction," he says. Becky Chambers, who wrote a story for Cosmic Powers, says using religious imagery makes it easier for her to tap into a sense of wonder than in her other, more science-based work. "Science is there to uncover the mystery, whereas if it's just pure mystery and awe, that's the realm of religion," she says. "We're going beyond what we can understand, what we can puzzle out and rationalize, and instead going into something that is awesome in the original meaning of the word." The way that science and religion might merge is something Tobias Buckell explores in his Cosmic Powers story "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance," which imagines a robot taking confession with a superhuman AI that gets erased at the end of each session, ensuring total privacy. "That's what I would want out of a confession booth," Buckell says. "I don't want a human being who's going to turn around and be like, 'That guy!'" Listen to our complete interview with John Joseph Adams, Becky Chambers, and Tobias Buckell in Episode 255 of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below. "My first book was the first time I had any fiction out there.