Alastair Reynolds is the author of eight novels and two short story collections. His story in The Starry Rift is “The Star Surgeon’s Apprentice”

1. When did you start reading science fiction? How old were you, and can you remember the first book or story that really excited you as a reader?

I started reading SF - as opposed to just absorbing it through the TV - when I was eight, beginning with serialised versions of Arthur C Clarke’s short stories. I was blown away almost from the get-go, but it was Clarke’s long “A Meeting with Medusa” that really did it for me. Not long after I read 2001: A Space Odyssey, and then worked my way steadily through his novels.

2. What do you think science fiction has to offer young readers today?

SF is basically the literature of rational enquiry - it’s fiction that says the universe is intinsically knowable, that - however strange things might appear at first - there’ll always be a sensible explanation if you look hard enough. Sensible doesn’t have to mean dull or mundane - it can be as awe-inspiring as any battle between wizards and dragons. I’ve nothing against fantasy, but in these times of declining scientific literacy and anything-goes, grab-bag belief systems, we need SF all the more. It’s the literature of the enlightenment, one more candle in the darkness.

3. Tell us about your story for The Starry Rift.

It’s a pirate story - I love pirate stories. It’s got cyborgs in it, and a space battle. It’s not to be taken hugely seriously as hard SF, but it’s not completely fantastical either. I chose not to set it in my “Revelation Space” universe as I wanted a sense of a larger backdrop than I can get within than framework - a real galactic civilisation, with countless worlds and solar systems. But the tone of the piece, and the characters, share a lot in common with some of my other stories.

4. Did you find there was a real difference between writing for younger readers, or was your approach basically the same as when you’re writing for any other audience?

Rightly or wrongly, the process was 99% identical to that of any other story I’ve written. I had intended to write “Star Surgeon” anyway; it just moved to the top of the stack when the anthology was announced, and a young adult protagonist suited the theme perfectly. In fact, it wouldn’t have worked if the apprentice had been older.

5. What are you writing now? Is there something you’d recommend to readers who enjoyed your story in The Starry Rift?

I’m working on a new novel now; a standalone about which I’ll say as little as possible other than that it’s SF, it’s weird, and it doesn’t have spaceships in it. If readers enjoyed my story in The Starry Rift, I might point them to my recent collection Galactic North - there are stories in there that I hope they might enjoy, especially “Weather”, which is another pirate-themed piece. With cyborgs.

Kathleen Ann Goonan is the author of six novels. Her story in The Starry Rift is “Sundiver Day”.

1. When did you start reading science fiction? How old were you, and can you remember the first book or story that really excited you as a reader?

Ursula K. Le Guin stands out as the first science fiction that I read, and I was about twenty years old! At that time, other women, such as Joan Vinge and Elizabeth Lynn were also at the forefront of science fiction. But I also remember that when A Wizard of Earthsea came out, in 1968, when I was sixteen, it made a huge impression on me.

And during the 1960’s, I read as much Kurt Vonnegut as I possibly could. Perhaps, then, Slaughterhouse Five was the first science fiction book that deeply impressed me.

2. What do you think science fiction has to offer young readers today?

First of all, the experience of thinking outside the box, following extrapolations that are grounded in reality, but which lead to unexpected places. Perhaps most important is helping them become aware of the world in which we live, a world made possible by science and technology, which it is very easy to take for granted. Perhaps science fiction can make young readers aware that the world we live in exists because of the work of scientists and engineers, and perhaps make them more interested in the world within and behind our everyday experiences with computers, text messages, and medicine.

3. Tell us about your story for The Starry Rift.

“Sundiver Day” is what the character, Elendilia, calls herself, because it is what her missing-in-action brother called her. The story is about how she comes to terms with his loss.

4. Did you find there was a real difference between writing for younger readers, or was your approach basically the same as when you’re writing for any other audience?

My approach with any piece of fiction is to be the point-of-view character. I try to see how they would see, feel how they would feel, do what they would do, all the time trying to fashion a deep, coherent, real person.

5. What are you writing now? Is there something you’d recommend to readers who enjoyed your story in The Starry Rift?

Right now I’m working on THIS SHARED DREAM CALLED EARTH, a follow-up to IN WAR TIMES, which is the ALA’s Best Adult Genre Novel of the Year. Actually, readers who enjoyed “Sundiver Day” might also enjoy QUEEN CITY JAZZ, my first novel, which was classified as a YA novel by some librarians. It is about seventeen-year-old Verity, who lives in nanotech-changed Ohio, and who manages to get inside Cincinnati, a Flower-City, to find out the truth about herself.

Garth Nix is the author of sixteen novels for readers of all ages. His story in The Starry Rift is “Infestation”.

1. When did you start reading science fiction? How old were you, and can you remember the first book or story that really excited you as a reader?

My father is an avid reader of science fiction, so we always had tons of books to read. He also used to visit the USA regularly for his job and would bring back books not available in Australia. Probably the earliest SF I read was when I was around 9 or 10 years old, and would have been Andre Norton’s STAR MAN’S SON or CATSEYE, or Robert Heinlein’s HAVE SPACESUIT WILL TRAVEL or CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY.

2. What do you think science fiction has something to offer young readers today?

I think it has the same things to offer today as it had when I was a young reader, great stories and interesting ideas. Sometimes even the two things together!

3. Tell us about your story for The Starry Rift.

As is often the case, I was going to write a completely different story when INFESTATION arrived. I am best known as a fantasy writer, and this story appears to be fantasy initially, as it has vampires in it. Possibly it could have stayed fantasy, but because I wanted it to be SF, I had to think about a different kind of explanation for vampires, and also for my protagonist, J.

4. Did you find there was a real difference between writing for younger readers, or was your approach basically the same as when you’re writing for any other audience?

I basically always write for myself and simply try to tell a good story. If I can manage that, it will work for readers of any age.

5. What are you writing now? Is there something you’d recommend to readers who enjoyed your story in The Starry Rift?

Well, today I am writing a space opera story for the forthcoming NEW SPACE OPERA 2 collection. It’s tentatively called “Doctor Starkill”. Apart from that, I’m working on the seventh and final book in my THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM series, which is called LORD SUNDAY. I think that if you like my style of writing, probably anything I do will be of some interest, though of course the different books and stories do have varying appeal for different tastes.

Karen Burnham gives The Starry Rift a very good review at Strange Horizons, singling out Kelly Link and Greg Egan’s stories for particular comment. The introduction faired less well, but I hate writing those things, so that’s okay. It is interesting to see how much various reviewers response to the book is colored by how they imagine readers younger than they are will react to the book.

Ann Halam, who also writes as Gwyneth Jones is the author of more than twenty novels. Her story in The Starry Rift is “Cheats”.

1. When did you start reading science fiction? How old were you, and can you remember the first book or story that really excited you as a reader?

The first science fiction that excited me was, no contest, the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials, that were televised when I was six or seven years old. An enduring influence. And there was “Quatermass and the Pit”, about the haunted Tube station: a big sensation in the UK at the time. We children weren’t allowed to stay up for it, we used to sneak down the stairs and peek through the living room door, terrified. I don’t remember when I started reading sf, but I remember being very taken with a story about a lone pilot-explorer, set in the jungles of Venus. Sorry, no idea what the book was called, or who wrote it.

2. What do you think science fiction has something to offer young readers today?

Adventure, excitement, and the thrill of new knowledge.

3. Tell us about your story for The Starry Rift.

The adventure with the kayaks in the reedbeds is based on a real experience. My brother and I did that: got lost, enjoyed getting lost and were amazed (and ungrateful) when they set the Air and Sea Rescue on us. . . The idea that information can “travel” instantaneously across huge, interstellar distances has fascinated me for a long time. We are information. It’s what our minds are made of, and our bodies too, in the final analysis. Who knows? One thing we can guess about the future (by looking at the past) is that impossible things can become possible.

4. Did you find there was a real difference between writing for younger readers, or was your approach basically the same as when you’re writing for any other audience?

I’m often asked this question. I think the difference is character driven. I write, try to write, in character. If the people in my story are thirteen, fourteen, then I’m writing from that viewpoint. Otherwise, my approach is entirely the same.

5. What are you writing now? Is there something you’d recommend to readers who enjoyed your story in The Starry Rift?

I’ve just finished a space opera called (working title) The Princess Of Bois Dormant. It’ll be published as a “Gwyneth Jones” book, but it’s not something only adults could enjoy. I hope the readers of The Starry Rift will look out for it, if they enjoy my story.

Walter Jon Williams is the author of two short story collections and more than twenty novels. His story in The Starry Rift is “Pinocchio”.

1. When did you start reading science fiction? How old were you, and can you remember the first book or story that really excited you as a reader?

My first SF novel was HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL by Robert A. Heinlein. I was in second grade, which would make me, what, seven? (I was a pretty advanced reader for my age.)

That novel had it all: adventure, mind-expanding ideas, interesting characters, and best of all, Heinlein’s writing. I re-read it every so often, and it’s still one of my favorites.

2. What do you think science fiction has something to offer young readers today?

The adult world prefers to stunt or crush the imagination and calls it “growing up.” Science fiction can set the imagination free!

3. Tell us about your story for The Starry Rift.

“Pinocchio” deals with a teen icon— someone who has become famous /for being himself/, and what happens when he begins to doubt who he actually is. Should he continue in the belly of the media whale, or should he try to become a real boy?

The story deals with what it means to be authentic in a media-saturated world.

“Pinocchio” also has an unintended predictive aspect. It was written before several recent celebrity meltdowns, all of which are eerily prefigured in the story.

4. Did you find there was a real difference between writing for younger readers, or was your approach basically the same as when you’re writing for any other audience?

I just wrote the story I wanted to write. In fact it’s set in the same future as two “adult” stories, “The Green Leopard Plague” and “Lethe,” both of which were nominated for awards. Let’s hope the tradition continues!

5. What are you writing now? Is there something you’d recommend to readers who enjoyed your story in The Starry Rift?

I just finished a novel titled This is Not a Game, set in the world of online computer gaming. It should see print early in 2009.

In the meantime you can chow down on Implied Spaces, which has just been released. It’s got a swordsman hero, unimaginably vast machine intelligence, a complex love story, and huge interplanetary wary, and a talking cat. What more do you want?

When I first started work on The Starry Rift it was my hope that people would be encouraged to look at a wider range of science fiction than they had before, consider different and new books to look at.  Over the next while I’ll be talking about various possible books to look at after you’ve read The Starry Rift, both by authors who are in the book and some who are not.

The first book I want to mention is Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. It’s the best science fiction novel intended for readers of pretty much all ages in the last ten years.  It’s smart, feisty and brimming with good stuff. I hope to arrange a way to give away a couple copies, but in the meantime Cory reports:

On April 31, Toronto Public Library be launching my next novel,Little
Brother, at an event at the Merril Collection, the astounding public
science fiction reference library. Books will be on sale through
BakkaPhoenix books, and they’re taking pre-orders for signed/inscribed
copies of the book to be mailed out to you (CDN$19.95 for the book, plus
$9 and GST for shipping in Canada, $15 to the US, $20 to Europe, and
$25 to the rest of the world). BakkaPhoenix: 416 963 9993,
inquiries@bakkaphoenixbooks.com

Be sure to check it out.

Farah Mendlesohn has a terrific critical blog that discusses children’s literature generally, and children’s science fiction in particular.   She has some nice things to say about The Starry Rift. I’ve asked Farah to recommend five books you could check out after The Starry Rift, which I hope to post here in the next few days.

I have winners for the five copies of The Starry Rift. I’ll post their names here just as soon as I’ve let the winners know, and we’ll get copies out to them as quickly as possibe. Many thanks to everyone who emailed me, and for the great descriptions of favorite books. I’ll post some of them here, if I can.

Cory Doctorow is the author of four novels and two short story collections. His story in The Starry Rift is “Anda’s Game”, which originally appeared on salon.com.

1. When did you start reading science fiction? How old were you, and can you remember the first book or story that really excited you as a reader?

My father had sf books and comics around the house from the time I was born and the first book I read on my own was Alice in Wonderland, which, I think, qualifies. Made the top of my head flip open and my brain do a victory dance.

2. What do you think science fiction has something to offer young readers today?

Science fiction is the didactic literature that explains how the world works — how the social and technological mesh and what that means for the person on the street. Childhood is a continuous process of figuring this stuff out, so sf is the right story.

3. Tell us about your story for The Starry Rift.

“Anda’s Game” is a story about realizing that we all inhabit the same world and the same Internet, even if some of us — people from the rich developed world — are thousands of times richer than others. Anda is a young British girl who joins a girl-power gaming clan and finds herself involved in missions to knock over in-game sweatshops where little girls from Latinamerica toil to make virtual goods that are sold to rich players like her. The ensuing moral struggle makes Anda confront her place in the world and who she sees as allies.

4. Did you find there was a real difference between writing for younger readers, or was your approach basically the same as when you’re writing for any other audience?

Not really — there are a few little vocabulary issues, but for the most part, writing for kids is like writing for adults, only more so, since kids tend to be sharper, more careful readers who pay close attention and aren’t afraid to send you an email when you get it wrong.

5. What are you writing now? Is there something you’d recommend to readers who enjoyed your story in The Starry Rift?

My new novel is LITTLE BROTHER, my first book for young readers. It’s the story of hacker kids in San Francisco who get caught in the terrorism dragnet and have to declare war on the Department of Homeland Security to win back the US Bill of Rights. You can buy it in stores everywhere and you can download it free at http://craphound.com/littlebrother.