A while back, Koboldt started a blog where he invited experts in various technical fields to write about their work and explain some of the many pitfalls they see in speculative fiction in the hopes that they can impart enough knowledge to keep these issues from coming up in future books. Putting the Science in Fiction is a collection of these posts, as well as some new articles and a forward by author and comic book writer Chuck Wendig.
With almost 60 articles, Putting the Science in Fiction covers a wide array of topics from genetics to exoplanets and everything in between, and these articles are grouped together to form cohesive sections. These sections touch on lab environments, psychology, biology, computers and space travel, with many different facets of each topic covered.
Each article tackles a specific topic and gives enough groundwork to let the reader know that, if they really want their science to be believable, they need to ask more questions and they should ask the right kind of expert. Some of these articles even give ideas on how the information given to the reader could be incorporated into an interesting story element. Instead of having nanobots magically make energy out of nowhere, consider where that energy comes from and how it might affect the people that use them. Instead of having a poison instantly kill its victim by putting a few drops into a glass, consider how poisons actually work and find more fiendish ways to introduce the toxin into the bloodstream.
While not every topic in Putting the Science in Fiction thrilled me, they were all written well and it is obvious that each of the writers is passionate about both their work and helping to educate anyone willing to listen about what their particular field of study actually looks like instead of the tried and true tropes seen in fiction. As for accuracy, I can only truly talk about the articles related to computers and IT, as that is my personal field of expertise, and those articles were spot on. Given my various levels of knowledge in the other fields, I cannot find any faults in the other topics, though I have to say, my grasp of microbiology is so weak that many of the details discussed in a few of those articles went over my head.
Putting the Science in Fiction's focus isn't to be a one-stop-shop for all things science when writing, but instead it is a primer to not only get a writer's juices going, but to help them ask the right questions to the right people. With this book at hand, I have no doubt that speculative fiction writers who want a more accurate world (or a fantastical world with the backing of what we know is possible) will be able to produce some interesting stories that won't cause readers who are familiar with the nitty-gritty of these topics to put the book down in exasperation.
