Inventing the Radio

Looking back on the various books and stories I’ve written, I noticed a bit of a trend: namely that regardless of the universe and its technologies, I really like my characters to be able to talk to one another over a distance. Essentially, I’ve been repeatedly inventing the radio microphone. Only sometimes it’s magic. Or involves invasive surgery. I thought I’d explore a few of those solutions, and why it’s not necessarily a bad thing to remake something that already exists – or to always make communication ‘easy’.

I write both fantasy and sci-fi, but you’ve probably realised that one of those genres lends itself to featuring some form of ‘radio’ than the other… namely because it’s already a thing that exists. But just because there’s already a radio doesn’t mean that everyone just has to use walkie-talkies. I’ve used conventional earpieces and microphones in several works (or comms systems in space-suits, or just telephones), but sometimes you don’t want anyone to know your characters can talk to each other. There are plenty of solutions to this – a favourite of mine is to take advantage of bone conduction audio and implant mics and earpieces in someone’s skull. Sounds a bit grim, but it ain’t half handy when you need to be subtle.

My point is, don’t let the fact that something already exists stop you from inventing a new version of it, especially in spec-fic. There are always ways to make something more interesting and still fit in your world.

In fantasy, it’s a bit different. In a genre that’s usually based to some degree on real history it’s hard to deploy a thoroughly modern invention. But if you’ve got magic, then it can be done. Telepathy is the obvious answer – though not something I think I’ve ever used myself. If you’ve read the Boiling Seas books so far – particularly Nightingale’s Sword – you’ll have seen what’s probably my favourite solution. Resonators: magically paired bits of metal that vibrate in exactly the same way even when separated, and therefore work like a mic and speaker. (Please don’t apply too much actual physics to this idea.) With 3 POV characters to deal with I wanted to make sure they could always talk to each other if necessary, so I spent a while thinking up something that fit in the universe – and I’m pretty happy with it.

But does this make things too easy? Does enabling distance communication take away tension and stakes? Absolutely not. There are obvious merits to having one character aware of a situation while another in a different location is ignorant… but it can be just as powerful to have both characters aware, but only one of them able to do anything about it. Equally, just because characters have the ability to talk over distances doesn’t mean they’ll always be able to do it. If you’re sneaking around you don’t want to be having a loud conversation with your friend, and if you’re in a hostage situation you don’t want to give the game away by letting your captors know you’ve got a line to the outside. I’ve had a lot of fun crafting in-person conversations that simultaneously give information to people on the other end of the line. And if you really need characters to be cut off from conversation, you can just do that. Interference, increased distance – there’s always a way to take away the advantage you’ve bestowed if necessary.

That was a bit of a ramble. But I hope it gives a little insight into the way I think about this sort of thing when I’m writing.

And if you can think of any other technologies that have been reinvented in interesting ways, let me know in the comments!