Lunar Awards S10 | Round 3 is Closed | Science Fiction

We are no longer accepting submissions for Round 3 | Hosted by Simon K Jones

Welcome to the Lunar Awards!

The Lunar Awards is a yearlong event broken into six rounds focusing on three genres (Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction). We’ve reached Round 3, the “Science Fiction” round. Thanks for making Rounds 1 and 2 such a success!

I’m grateful to Simon for hosting this round because he’s been a champion of the Substack indie community for as long as I’ve been on the platform. The Lunar Awards aim to highlight and celebrate emerging authors, so when I asked myself who would be a good fit to follow through on that mission with science fiction, I immediately thought of Simon.

Check out Write More with Simon K Jones for writing tips, interviews, and inspiration. Simon also publishes an ongoing serial fiction epic called Tales from the Triverse, a crime thriller that mixes sci-fi and fantasy. I recommend subscribing to Simon because he has a wealth of knowledge and isn’t stingy with it, plus, his work is an all-around good time.

Please read this post in its entirety before submitting a story. Any entries that do not follow the guidelines will not be accepted. The Prompt Quest continues at the bottom of this post.

Your participation and stories make this event a joy to run. Thanks for stopping by to give the Lunar Awards a chance. I wish you the best of luck for Round 3! ~ WM

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Introduction by Simon K Jones

Nobody told me to like science fiction. My parents weren’t readers of the genre. As a child, I consumed all the usual classics you’d expect a British schoolboy to read, then segued into an extended obsession with The Hardy Boys. It was science fiction on the big and small screen that first captured my attention: Transformers, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Flash Gordon.

Into my teenage years and I started reading science fiction. Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars tie-ins were the gateway to discovering Asimov and Clarke, and later Kim Stanley Robinson and Douglas Adams. Each new book, each author, was equivalent to being strapped to the Total Perspective Vortex.

Diving into classics like Flowers for Algernon and The Forever War, or more recent masterworks such as Galileo’s Dream and This is How You Lose the Time War, it’s impossible to ignore the sheer breadth of the genre. Throw in movies from James Cameron, Danny Boyle, Alex Garland. Television series from J. Michael Straczynski, Ron Moore and James S.A. Corey. The science fiction genre is an ever-expanding universe; there’s something for everyone at every age.

That there are infinite ways to slice the genre is what draws me to it. That endless versatility means scifi is continuously reinventing itself. It’s always fresh, and the best science fiction rents an apartment in my brain and refuses to leave. Those are the stories which are as much about now as they are the future.

As genre writers in 2025, we exist in an overtly science-fictional era. We have AI, we have robots, we have spaceships, we have the internet and personal communication devices and virtual reality.

What is left for us? What room is there for science fiction, in a real world that has already overtaken most of the genre classics?

J. Michael Straczynski wrote this line in Babylon 5: “The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us.”

Science fiction is always about the time in which it is written. It’s about the people who lived and the society of the day, even if the story is set a million years hence. That’s what keeps the genre relevant, even as the world accelerates into the future, and it makes our writing more vital than ever.

What is it you want your stories to say about the past, the present and the future? We live in challenging times, and science fiction is uniquely placed to help us find a path.

As ever, science fiction writers are the navigators. Show us the way.

Simon K Jones

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Round 3 is closed. Thank you!

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Season 10 | Round 3 Details

The third round is Science Fiction. We’ll consider your story as long as it heavily features Sci-Fi elements, even if it mixes with other genres.

Some suggested subgenres are, but not limited to, the following:

• Hard Sci-Fi

• Soft Sci-Fi

• Space Opera

• Cyberpunk

• Utopian

• Dystopian

• Apocalyptic

• Post-Apocalyptic

• Alien Invasion

• Solarpunk

• Steampunk

• Biopunk

• Climate Fiction (Cli-Fi)

• Science Fantasy

• Military Sci-Fi

• Alternate History

• Kaiju (e.g., Godzilla/Pacific Rim)

• Parallel Universe/Multiverse

• Time Travel

Please read the FAQ, which contains complete rules and word limits. If you have questions, ask in the comments.

Round 3 Schedule — Sci-Fi — Hosted by Simon K Jones

• May 15 - Open call for submissions

• May 31 - Submissions closed

• June 1 - Judging begins

• June 20 - Judging concludes

• June 26 - Winner and runner-up announced

For the complete schedule of Season 10, check out the post below:

Lunar Awards Season 10 Explained

Prizes

1. The winner will receive a permanent link on the Past Winners page and a high-resolution badge to display on their Substack.

2. The winner and runner-up will be offered a publication contract to be featured in the Lunar Awards official 2025 anthology.

3. The winner and runner-up will receive a 3-month trial to Storyletter XPress Publishing.

4. Featured authors in the anthology will receive a copy of the book after publication.

Entry

Post a link to your short story in the comments of this post. The entry will be verified with a “confirmed” comment. It will be temporarily declined if it violates a rule until a correction is made.

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[Optional] Prompt Quest

The rules are simple. Winston and our guest judge will each provide a prompt. The prompt quest will not have any weighted benefits other than completing an original story that fits the genre and submitting a story that the judge might enjoy.

Write a short story over the next two weeks using either prompt. You can choose to submit it for award consideration or not. We’ll host a gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and to highlight your stories.

Prompt #1

The emergence of AI in the early-mid 21st century did not develop in a way that any of the experts predicted. By the turn of the century, human society across Earth was fundamentally changed, with the early champions and naysayers of the technology both looking decidedly foolish. Write about where humanity found itself.

Prompt #2

In the near future, space travel has become commercialized, invoking comparisons to Earth’s oceanic cruises and luxury island getaways. The Moon has been settled as an international hub or waystation for embassies and megacorporations. However, to embark on such a trip, passengers must consent to the Terms & Conditions of the company they’ve chosen. Write a story that features a Moon colony and how commercialization might alter space travel and human privacy.

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