The future of the world begins here

Nov 14 2007 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

“You can deal with quite adult themes and I think some people would be quite surprised, if they’re used to reading those kinds of books, about the violence and things. But kids today grow up with that,” he explains.

“There are obviously things you have to avoid, like swearing, and you need a narrative drive as well that isn’t quite so essential in an adult novel, so every chapter has to end on a cliffhanger. It’s a very character-driven story as well.

“It’s an odd thing with SF,” he continues, “the stuff that’s marketed in the shops as SF is a cult market but it’s still about 10 or 12% of the readership. People watch SF all the time without thinking about it, such as Doctor Who, Life on Mars and so on.”

Baxter’s interest in space and other worlds is not confined to his literary career. His degrees in maths from Cambridge and engineering from Southampton University (he also has a third in business administration), are a good background for his post as a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS).

Since 1994, he has been working with a group from the BIS on a design study for a manned base at the Martian north pole, and he is still holding out hope that he will again watch a human being walk on the Moon.

“The Apollo 11 landed when I was 11, then it was all over by the time I was 15. It would be strange for it not to happen again in my lifetime. They seem to be putting enough money into it now that it’s necessary for it to go on, and the UK is starting to reap the benefits of the space race as well,” he says.

“It’s inspirational. After the Americans went to the Moon there was a big upsurge in recruitment for scientists and engineers. It’s such an opportunity that I think any smart nation will try to get there.

“I think the UK could be involved,” he adds, surprisingly. “We’ve dragged our heels a lot but we’re very good at some things. The Beagle 2 probe that went to Mars, it failed in the end but only just. What we’re good at is very small probes, microrobotics, and there’s definitely a place for that in space. There’s actually a lot of low-level space-related work going on in the UK now on medical aspects and things like that. It’s all below the radar but it’s definitely there.”

Baxter’s own plans to join a space programme, in a guest slot on the Russian space station Mir in 1991, were thwarted when he was beaten to the post by a factory worker from Slough – “she was a very Soviet figure”.

“Looking back, I’m not sure if I would have had the courage to do it,” he says. “It’s a very tough experience and frightening. I would have liked to have had a go at it and seen if I was brave enough.”

For now, he will have to rely on his imagination to take him to other worlds.

lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk

An excerpt from The H-Bomb Girl

”H-BOMB Girl,” Nick said, “listen to yourself. You are a 14-year-old girl, stuck in a hole in the ground, in Liverpool. How can you talk about causing wars or not? How can you talk about choosing futures? Who do you think you are, the Virgin Mary or Supergirl?”

But she was at the pivot, Laura thought. Because of the Key. She was at the place the futures were fighting over, to become real. She didn’t ask for it to be that way, but that’s how it was. Maybe everyone thinks they’re the centre of the world. But, Laura thought now, maybe whole futures, whole worlds, billions of lives and deaths, really did depend on the decisions she made in the next few hours. She looked around at them, her mum, Agatha, battered Nick, troubled Joel, curled-over, pregnant Bernadette. “I’ve made my mind up,” she said.