The Expanse special issue
The Expanse was published as a series of nine books written by James S. A. Corey, a joint pen name of Daniel Abrahams and Ty Frank. It is set in a science fiction future in which humanity has colonised much of the solar system, with the development of distinct cultures on Earth, Mars, and the Outer Planets. The story starts with the crew of the Rocinante, a missing person investigation, political intrigue, alien technology, and covers a range of themes from political organising, and terrorism, all the way up to civilisation scale economic and social change.
The authors have added a further nine novellas and short stories. It has been adapted into a six-season TV series, comics, roleplaying and board games, and an upcoming Telltale game. There is also a podcast that goes into more detail about each episode of the TV series (amongst many other topics) with Ty Frank and Wes Chatham, the actor who plays Amos.
It has been over ten years since the publication of the first novel. After season three there was a fan-led campaign to save the show following its cancellation by Syfy. It was later picked up by Amazon – reportedly after the intervention of Jeff Bezos. Its popularity has been part of a wider resurgence of science fiction, reaching a broader audience and cultural significance.
Across both the books and the TV series, the expanse pays homage to classic science fiction and other genres like horror. What started as a text-based role-playing game has grown into a multi-layered universe of speculative fiction. The series imagines what would happen with human societies spread throughout the Solar system, bringing the contradictions of today into the future.
This call for submissions aims to discuss The Expanse from multiple angles and approaches, bringing together a collection that reflects on both the series and contemporary science fiction more widely.
We are inviting submissions that could include the following:
- Cultural criticism of the books and/or TV series
- Marxist analysis of the series or a particular aspect
- Reflections on the significance or impact more widely
- Any other Expanse-related topic
- Creative responses that do not have to take an essay form
- Something completely different or experimental
We are imagining a collection of pieces with a word count of up to 4,000 words (with different limits for other formats if needed). At this stage, we are asking for potential contributors to send a paragraph of no more than 200 words, outlining the proposed contribution by the 1st of November 2022. The deadline for accepted contributions will be the 31st of January 2023. We intend to hold an in-person event in London and launch the publication as an ebook, with the possibility of a print run.
If you are interested in submitting please email: jamie@redfuturesmag.com
If you have any questions, please email us. We particularly want to invite new and first-time writers. If you have an idea but want some help shaping it, we would be happy to discuss the options.
Deadlines
1st November 2022 - Submission of 200-word max proposed contribution to: jamie@redfuturesmag.com
31st January 2023 - Deadline for the submission of contribution