An anthology of authentic and realistic hard science fiction
There was a bit of fuss caused last week by a nitwit post claiming that epic fantasy has degenerated since the days of Robert E Howard and Tolkien (I shall not dignify the post with a link to it). Nihilism and Decadence in populist escapist literature. Oh no! We must be in the End Times! [...]
Filed under: fantasy, science fiction, writing | 9 Comments »
Liz Williams is one of those British sf writers who was first published in the US. Her debut novel, The Ghost Sister, was shortlisted for the Philip K Dick Award in 2001, but has never received a UK edition. It wasn’t until her second novel, Empire of Bones, that she had a novel published in [...]
Filed under: 2011 reading challenge, book review, science fiction, women in sf | Tagged: liz williams | 5 Comments »
It’s time I publicly admitted I have a problem: “my name is Ian Sales and I buy lots of books”. See, here’s the proof. Yup, it’s book haul time again. And here’s what has arrived at the domicile since my last book haul post. A mixed bag, as you can see. Now all I need [...]
Filed under: book haul, books | 2 Comments »
Perhaps television science fiction is too easy a target. Perhaps the demands of television drama are incompatible with the demands of good science fiction. Good prime-time television drama, that is: a television series that doesn’t want to appeal solely to fans of television science fiction. I am, of course, speaking of Outcasts, BBC1′s new science [...]
Filed under: science fiction, television, world-building | 2 Comments »
… of a sort. Here’s an excellent piece of flash fiction from ever-erudite Adam Roberts. I don’t normally link to stuff like this, but this one was, I felt, worth the trouble.
Filed under: flash fiction | Tagged: adam roberts | 2 Comments »
I love research. I take a nerdish delight in it. When I’m writing, I want everything in my story to be right. If that means digging through books, or searching the Internet, to find the information I need, then I’m more than willing to do so. I should be writing, of course. Except I can’t [...]
Filed under: my fiction, science fiction, writing | 3 Comments »
I don’t write speculative fiction, I don’t write fantastic fiction. I write science fiction. Occasionally, I write fantasy. I use the so-called “marketing categories” because I expect my readers to understand what I am trying to do in my short stories, and readers that will understand are more likely to read fiction labelled as “science [...]
Filed under: science fiction, writing | 10 Comments »
Between 1954 and 1980, Edmund Cooper published thirty novels and collections. None of his books remain in print, none have been considered for Gollancz’s SF Masterworks series. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says of him, Edmund Cooper “died with his reputation at a low ebb; but he was a competent and prolific writer”, which is [...]
Filed under: book review, british sf masterwork, edmund cooper, science fiction | 16 Comments »
There was a conversation this morning on Twitter about collecting and collectible authors. Lavie Tidhar has already given his thoughts on the subject here. I collect books by certain authors myself – just see my irregular book porn posts on this blog – but I collect those authors because I like and admire their prose. [...]
Filed under: books, science fiction | 4 Comments »
