An anthology of authentic and realistic hard science fiction
Long time readers of this blog may remember a piece I wrote back in 2008, in which I took apart Asimov’s ‘Nightfall’ and explained why I felt it wasn’t the greatest science fiction story ever – you can read it here. It received a lot hits. About two months’ worth in the space of a [...]
Filed under: science fiction | 8 Comments »
Yet another site puts together a list of the “greatest science fiction book series” and has Asimov’s Foundation series in the number one spot. (I won’t link to the site because my anti-virus software didn’t like it.) Sigh. Do people honestly think that’s the best the genre has to offer? A badly-dated trilogy with perfunctory [...]
Filed under: books, science fiction | 94 Comments »
While there are between three and thirty-six plots depending on your source, and no such thing as a new idea in science fiction… that’s not what this post is about. Those are topics for another day. Possibly. Instead, consider this: if a One True Science Fiction FAQ existed, it would consist of a single question: [...]
Filed under: science fiction, writing | 2 Comments »
My friend Bob approached me the other day. It’s not his name, but I call him that and he doesn’t seem to mind. Bob reads a lot, but he’s not an adventurous reader. In fact, he tends to avoid anything that smacks of genre. His preferred reading material is contemporary fiction. That’s what he likes [...]
Filed under: science fiction | 16 Comments »
The dictionary definition of “authentic” is “entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known facts or experience; having the origin supported by unquestionable evidence”. At first glance, this doesn’t seem relevant when discussing science fiction or fantasy. Where are the “known facts or experience” in an invented world? Where is the “unquestionable evidence”? [...]
Filed under: fantasy, science fiction, writing | Leave a Comment »
Now that Waterstone’s has decided to shelve urban fantasy / paranormal romance separately as “Dark Fantasy” – and I’ve also heard mention of a “Dark Romance” book shop category – I thought perhaps it might be time for… “Dark Science Fiction”. We’ve had Mundane science fiction and optimistic science fiction and New Space Opera, so [...]
Filed under: science fiction | 10 Comments »
Off we go again. I’ve been getting quite a bit of writing and stuff done of late, but I still managed to read a lot of books and watch many DVDs. Not that the To Be Read pile is getting any smaller… Books Moonraker, Ian Fleming (1955), is actually the third of the Bond novels, [...]
Filed under: books, films | 1 Comment »
…or rather, likes one of my stories. Tangent Online has reviewed Postscripts #20/21 ‘Edison’s Frankenstein’ here, and it’s a mostly positive review of the anthology/magazine. Steve Fahnestalk says of my story ‘Killing the Dead’ (you have to scroll about halfway down the page): “I particularly liked this story as it was pure SF that couldn’t [...]
Filed under: my fiction, reviews | 3 Comments »
