Photo of Sarah Smith taken by Augusten Burroughs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Smith, the author of King of Space, is a writer from Brookline, Massachusetts and a member of the Cambridge Speculative Fiction Workshop. Her series of mystery novels includes New York Times Notable Book and Waterstone’s (London) Book of the Year The Vanished Child, New York Times Notable Book The Knowledge of Water, Entertainment Weekly Editor's Choice A Citizen of the Country and her most recent book in the series, Crimes and Survivors, set aboard the Titanic.

Smith wrote King of Space after meeting the owner and publisher of Eastgate Systems, Inc., Mark Bernstein, at MacWorld, just after finishing her first novel. "Want to write me something?" Mark asked, and she did. The work was published in 1991 and remains, along with John McDaid's Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse, one of a handful of e-lit works that tackle the science fiction genre.

ARTIST STATEMENT

When I was a graduate student, I wanted to write a book about how technology influences narrative. For instance, how was Samuel Richardson's Clarissa influenced by the fact that Richardson himself printed it? How was the early film esthetic shaped by orthochromatic film stock?

I never got to write that book. Instead, Mark Bernstein gave me a chance to live it.

The original King of Space was a creature of the late 1980s, of the very early days of consumer computing. We were roll-your-own to an inconceivable degree. We were thinking out every piece of tech for the first time. There were four of us: programmer, artist (the brilliant Matt Mattingly), music (Michael D), and text (me). Color wasn't an option. Neither was enough space to fit all the text in, all the images and animations we wanted. We fell off the edge of the narrative and discovered the necessity of a bounded narrative world. We broke the original programming language.

It was frustrating. It was wonderful. We dreamed all the time of what we couldn't do. Somehow we managed to do it…most of it…and created what's been called the first science fiction hypertext.

Now, thirty years later, Prof. Dene Grigar and the students from the Creative Media & Digital Culture program have given me any creator's dream. How would my work look in today's technology? The King of Space you'll see can take advantage of graphics design programs, 3D rendering, storage without limits. Most of all, it has the advantage of 22 talented collaborators, bringing back to life the fertility dance in space we first dreamed of back in the ‘80s. Thanks to the CMDC, it's my honor to have my hypertext literature, like other literature, like films, rethought and made alive for a new generation.

It's beautiful, and I hope you'll enjoy it.

- Sarah Smith

OTHER WORKS BY SARAH SMITH

The Vanished Child (1992)

“Someone killed Richard. Now Richard wants to know why.” A dead millionaire, a disappeared child witness, an innocent young girl—and a half-mad, unwilling detective with a mysterious connection to all of them.

The Knowledge of
Water (1996)

Set in Paris during the devastating flood of 1910, The Knowledge of Water is a lush, complex, beautifully written novel about the consuming pleasures of passion and the obsessive perils of art.

A Citizen of the
Country (2000)

In the French countryside in 1911, a horror film evokes the shadows of war to come. A man in love, a man afraid...a fight against terrible odds...a cursed film, a cursed love, and the shadows of war...A Citizen of the Country.

Chasing Shakespeares (2003)

Joe has a letter from William Shakespeare saying he didn’t write the plays. Joe thinks it's forged; Posy believes it. Joe and Posy find that, when you start chasing Shakespeares, what you find is not only who he was, but who you are, and how far you're willing to go...

The Other Side of
Dark (2010)

Past, present. Living, dead. The ghosts Katy sees may lead her to a treasure, but they won’t help her with her life. A powerhouse YA debut about ugly histories, unlikely romances, and seeing people—alive and otherwise—for who they really are.

Crimes and Survivors
(2020)

In 1912 America, a young woman learns she may be Black. To find the truth, she follows her grandfather aboard the greatest ship in the world—Titanic. But when the iceberg strikes, she finds the truth is more complicated than black and white. More loving, more inspiring, and far more dangerous . . .

Future Boston (co-wrote)
(1994)

A collaboration by eight prizewinning science-fiction authors, Future Boston is the chronicle of a great city under alien occupation. From artists who see time to cannibalistic bishops, Future Boston presents an intricately conceived and alien new world.