Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful Author Arwen Elys Dayton Shares Her Sci-Fi Inspirations

In Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, a futuristic novel told in six parts, Arwen Elys Dayton explores the dangers of a world in which biotech’s possibilities are infinite, and (to quote Jurassic Park) scientists are so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they don’t stop to think if they should. She imagines a future, perhaps closer than we think, in which disease is irrelevant and death endlessly delayed. In her hands, the applications of future tech are the stuff of both dreams and nightmares, and will rattle around in your mind for days like the best episodes of Black Mirror do. To celebrate her book’s release, Dayton shares six of the film and literary influences behind her book and its brave and fearful new world.
THE FUTURE IS CURIOUS.
I’ve been reading and watching science fiction my whole life (well, ever since I could read reasonably well and understand enough dialogue to make it through a whole movie). It started with Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and Star Wars, and my love for the genre has never let up.
Here are three books and three movies that have influenced me (sometimes dramatically!), and which I hope you will all read and watch because they’re amazing. Many feel like cousins or even siblings to the story and world of Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful.

Dune, by Frank Herbert
I read this book out loud with my parents when I was ten or eleven years old. I might have been ten and eleven, because it took a while to read that way. It was worth every minute, however, for the mind-blowing, mind-altering mind expansion that came with the story. Dune could be considered YA, since we follow the young Paul Atreides as his family moves from their homeworld of Caladan to the desert planet Arrakis, commonly known as Dune. Dune is the only planet that produces the spice, a drug at the center of interplanetary commerce, travel, and even religion. This book builds worlds, civilizations, and an empire that spans star systems and populates them with heroes, enemies, politicians, religious orders, a generations-long human-breeding scheme, and so much more. Dune is the book that showed me what is possible in fiction. Do yourself a huge favor: read it and let it change your life.

The Diamond Age (Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer), by Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson may be my favorite author. I read The Diamond Age when it first came out many years ago, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The book is set in a future revolutionized by nanotechnology, when nation-states have all but disappeared, replaced by tribes, or “phyles,” that are organized in any number of ways. (My favorite phyle? The Neo-Victorians, with their Edwardian dress, elaborate manners, and worldwide corporate structure.) Stephenson’s plots can be meandering, serpentine, and manifold. But it doesn’t matter. You will sink into this book, which is, at its core, the story of Nell, whom we meet as a child of four and follow until she is a young woman. When her brother steals a special learning device (the Primer) and gives it to her, Nell’s dismal existence is set on an entirely new course. This book showed me how the nuances of a world can seep into the story in hundreds of small ways—a lesson that came in handy with Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful, which shows the future of Earth through the eyes of six different characters.

Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
This groundbreaking YA space adventure is told through a series of emails (many censored), interviews, security footage transcripts, and other documentary evidence. The characters are as sharp as the plot, which will often have you on the edge of your seat, and the reading experience, including the physical presentation of the book, is intensely immersive.

Minority Report
A movie I’ve watched countless times, most recently with my twelve-year-old daughter, who loved it every bit as much as I did the first time I saw it. The ability to see murders before they occur revolutionizes police work and begins to change the face of society. But what if the system is wrong? What if an innocent person is targeted? This movie is an exploration of human rights, justice, and individual freedom, and it’s a very fun ride.

Gattaca
Perhaps the definitive movie on human genetic modification, Gattaca imagines a future in which society is rigidly segregated based on genetic classes. Vincent, an “in-valid” who was born without the aid of genetic manipulation, lives in constant danger of being exposed as he pursues his dream of traveling to the stars. This movie speculates about how human society will embrace “improved humans” and what will become of the rest of us.

Serenity
In the twenty-sixth century, a crew of smugglers takes in a psychic girl named River, who happens to know some very dangerous secrets. Pursued from planet to planet by a government assassin, River and the rest of the crew learn the truth behind the devastation of several worlds. With themes of tyrannical government control and unregulated frontiers and featuring a drug that makes people so content that they stop doing anything at all, this movie brings the Wild West to space travel. You should tighten your seat belt before you hit play.