It's simply in our nature as humans to reach for the stars, no matter the cost – whether technology, peace, or lives are lost. But as we go beyond our limits even in the face of such obstacles, will we still be able to hold on to our humanity?
This is the challenge faced by washed-up former astronaut Charles “Chuck” Sorrel, who finds himself in the middle of a geopolitical firestorm after being hired to investigate the crew deaths of the first commercial asteroid mining mission.
To survive, he must confront his troubled past and save the future in Abundance, a newly released sci-fi novel by Malaysian-born author Alan Chan, a seasoned veteran of Hollywood’s behind-the-scenes world.
Pushing boundaries
Chan, a 30-year veteran of the visual effects (VFX) industry, has lived in the United States since the late 1980s.
His career spans Academy Award-winning projects such as Titanic, Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, Green Lantern and Alice In Wonderland.
He is also an award-winning short and indie film writer-director, who is now bringing his magic to game cinematics.
His field of work, he mentions, has always involved pushing the edge of his abilities and accomplishing what he has never done before. This rings true throughout the plot of Abundance, Chan’s first book.
His time spent on the film and technological frontier has helped bring the story to life as it offers a glimpse into mankind’s possible near-future, a mess of international tensions and the inevitable political consequences of technological advancement. “A smart, snappy epic of intrigue, technology, and skullduggery in the near future,” wrote Kirkus Reviews, a US-based book review magazine, about Chan’s debut.
Abundance’s more realistic approach to the world ahead of us is a refreshing contrast to many other titles of the same genre, which depict the future like a quiet lake of uninterrupted global peace.
Chan’s book 'Abundance' marks a full-circle moment, drawing on his Apollo-era childhood, love of sci-fi, and drive to find meaning in everything. Photo: Alan Chan
“In our real world, there’s always tension and war. It’s part of the fabric of who we are as humans. Abundance is essentially a more realistic way of imagining what will happen,” said Chan, now based in Texas, in an email interview.
Chan, who grew up in Kuala Lumpur, never had any plans to write a book. It all started in 2018, when he wrote a simulation using satellite data from NASA that would allow users to visualise and drive over Martian terrain. It gained good coverage from the media.
Uncharted territory
The next year, Luke Dormehl, a reporter at technology publisher Digital Trends, suggested they write a book together.
Chan had worked on short stories and screenplays in the past, but a novel would be completely uncharted territory for him. Naturally, in his grand tradition of trying anything creative at least once, he agreed.
At the time, Dormehl had been profiling futurists, tech specialists and innovative entrepreneurs. His experience, coupled with Chan’s technical expertise, helped shape the world of Abundance and its advanced technology, most of which was already being designed and developed by some of the people Dormehl had interviewed. While Dormehl ended up having to step away from the project for personal reasons, Chan still attributes the book’s creation to his co-writer.
“A lot of the story in the book is part of him as well. It’s a combination of us. My process in the last few years is basically just polishing and preparing for the release of the book that we already wrote, which is as much him as it is me,” said Chan.
In Chan's debut book, asteroid mining promises untold riches for those willing to take the risks … but in the race to gain first-mover advantage, the price of failure can be severe. Photo: Alan Chan
It’s not surprising that Chan has always been intrigued with space. When he was one-year old, Neil Armstrong took that memorable step on the Moon. Growing up, Chan believed the hype about space exploration.
He even thought he would be living and working not on Earth but on the planet’s natural satellite.
Imagining the future
Five decades later, he remains drinking coffee in the US, still more than 384,000km away from that giant space rock. Nonetheless, he believes that it is important for humanity to further expand its horizons in space exploration so that such a future becomes tangible to us rather than remaining the stuff of fiction and fantasy.
With recent rapid developments in technology, this is becoming increasingly possible. Abundance, which is set decades ahead of the present, envisions modern tools like artificial intelligence (AI) as part of daily life in the future. While the AI described in the novel is more advanced than what is currently available to the public, today’s technology certainly wastes no time in catching up to the standards set by what was once thought of as mere fiction.
The rapid pace of technology evolution makes future advancements tough for sci-fi writers to anticipate, especially when the writing process takes a few years. As such, sometimes amendments need to be made along the way to update stories and include big historical changes or directions in technology that are relevant.
When Chan and Dormehl started writing Abundance in 2019, neither anticipated the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it would have. Aspects like these as well as laws and legislation will always speed up or hinder global development, which are important to consider when writing hard sci-fi.
Through it all, technology is the big winner. Chan hopes that Abundance readers will look forward to the future. Technology initially engineered for asteroid mining can have other applications as time goes on, just as past space-geared inventions have eventually filtered down to common everyday use.
But technology isn’t the only thing that can improve to make the world a better place.
“In general, story-wise, the book tries to illustrate how you can become a better person and be optimistic. The main character begins as a broken man and as the story progresses, he grows and learns to be more optimistic about the future. I’m hoping that Abundance can inspire people to do the same,” he said.
Chan still has more in store for the universe of Abundance. With the promise of a second book – and possibly even a third – on the horizon, readers will undoubtedly have something to look forward to in the future.
