In 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi posed a question that has intrigued scientists to this day. Given the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way, which contains billions of stars, and the chances that many of these stars could have Earth-like planets orbiting them, and that many of these planets could have developed intelligent civilizations, maybe in advance of our own, with the power to travel across the galaxy, Fermi asked one simple question, ‘So where are they?’. This simple question became known as the Fermi paradox and many scientists have come up with theories to try to explain why we haven’t yet found any evidence for the existence of alien life. In Space Oddity, I tried to write a story that provided one possible answer to this question and I’d like to thank the authors of the following books for helping me to understand more about humanity’s search for extraterrestrial intelligence: Human Universe by Professor Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen, The Aliens Are Coming! by Ben Miller and Aliens edited by Jim Al-Khalili.
Music also plays a very important part in the story, especially the songs of David Bowie, but I’d like to thank all the musicians who helped write the soundtrack to the writing of this book, especially Tim Burgess, whose Twitter listening parties reminded me of the immense power music has to bring us together.
Sincerest thanks to Ben Mantle for his wonderful cover art and illustrations. Huge thanks too to all the team at Chicken House, especially Rachel Leyshon, Rachel Hickman, Esther Waller, Elinor Bagenal and Barry Cunningham. And thank you too to my brilliant agent, Lucy Juckes.
Finally, I’d like to thank my family for all their love, support and understanding, especially my wonderful wife, Chrissie. I love you very much, you know.