The theory is still a theory, but it suggests that life may have started very early on the earth (and now possibly on Mars because it, too, had ancient volcanoes), and it says that life is constantly being created way down deep in the earth. Or on any planet, moon, or body with an active volcanic core.
The Tom Swift Jr. books had great, evocative covers, quite pulp-like, and were quick reads.
s\Some writers who might have started off in science fiction soon reveal their true selves when they start publishing what they really want to write about.
We all know that “mainstream” writers have, for years, been writing borderline science fiction stories and novels, using all kinds of tropes and conceits that any reader of science fiction would recognize as belonging to hard-core science fiction.
Paul Cook looks back at an early science fiction influence – the Winston Science Fiction Series.
This is partially in response to K. Ceres Wright’s recent blog entry, “Having a Sexual Harassment Policy is not Enough”, but from an entirely different angle. I think that what’s happening at science fiction conventions […]
Recently a thread passed around on Facebook asked various writers what books mattered to them most when they were young, starting out with an interest in science fiction. One writer said she was reading all […]
Lord of the Trees by Philip José Farmer Titan Books – Reprint 2012 ISBN-13: 978-1781162934 (Trade paperback) The Mad Goblin by Philip José Farmer Titan Books – Reprint 2013 ISBN-13: 978-1781162996 (Trade paperback) Titan […]
Rumor has it that Shane Black is writing a script for a Doc Savage movie that may come out in 2015. It has a good chance of introducing the greatest of pulp action heroes to […]
In 1985, Orson Scott Card published Ender’s Game, a book that relied heavily on the use of a faster-than-light communication system called the Ansible. Card needed the Ansible (or something like it) because through this […]
When I was young I purchased most books and magazines in the science fiction field based on their covers. Nowadays that still applies, though much less so since I now know what to look for […]
When anatomically modern humans developed consciousness 50,000 years ago (or whenever), it’s because they started developing a sense of their place in the world and this included a sense of time. Time in the present. […]
The Man-Kzin Wars – 25th Anniversary Edition – Created by Larry Niven Baen Books – 2013 ISBN-13: 978-1451639001 (Trade paperback) This is a reissue of the very first volume in the Man-Kzin Wars series created […]
By now you have undoubtedly seen Man of Steel and I don’t doubt that you have some pretty visceral feelings toward the movie, not many of them good. Let me start with the good in […]
James Bama single-handedly introduced the entire world to Doc Savage (he and his editors at Bantam Books and art director Len Leone). Doc Savage, as most of you know, was the greatest of the pulp […]
I remember when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club back in 1963, one of the selections was Donald Keyhoe’s bestseller UFOs Are Real. I bought it and The Man in the High Castle and […]
What makes science fiction (and fantasy) so enthralling to readers is that not only can their authors tell extraordinary stories, the stories themselves can come packaged with great art. When I was in my teens […]
Everything I know about writing science fiction, reading it, and understanding it, I learned from Edgar Allan Poe, specifically his one story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. This goes for all of world […]
When I first started out as a published writer of science fiction in 1978 and sold my first novel in 1979, I started going to local and national science fiction conventions. Mostly I felt it […]
Satire is no longer being written in America. It’s still on television via Saturday Night Live, South Park, and the great, unsung animation series Squidbillies. (I’d lump Superjail in there, but it’s not for the […]
Lazy Literary Agents in Self-Publishing Money Grab Via Argo Navis Most of you who are reading these blogs here at Amazing Stories are probably well aware that publishing is changing. It has perhaps always been […]
The Teleportation Accident – Ned Beauman Bloomsbury USA 2013 ISBN-13: 978-1620400227 (Hardcover) I buy books, especially novels, based on whether or not the story might interest me. This includes anthologies or collections of short stories […]
Hope Reborn by S.M Stirling and David Drake Baen Books 2013 978-1-4516-3877-6 (Trade paperback) Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that has long been the mainstay of Baen Books. True, Ace has […]
Earlier I wrote about what Damon Knight characterized as “a sense of wonder” that emerges at times in a science fiction story, or as in the case of this blog entry, in a movie. I […]
When I was a kid, I saw a cheezy science fiction B movie wherein someone was playing an instrument that looked like a small organ with a hemispherical keyboard, and before him was a screen […]
Bowl of Heaven – Gregory Benford and Larry Niven Tor – 2012 978-0765328410 (Hardbound) This is the first collaboration between two of our major writers, Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. Bowl of Heaven is about […]
Troll the internet for “the greatest science fiction novels of all time” and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game will be at the top of every list you’ll find. (Or it was last time I checked.) […]
We are drawn to science fiction and fantasy because of what Damon Knight called its “sense of wonder”. This is a hard term to define exactly, but you know and I know exactly what it […]
I have two purposes for this review. One is to call your attention to a novel that older readers have probably already read, The Wind Whales of Ishmael by Philip José Farmer (originally published by […]
Three Messages and a Warning – Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic – edited by Eduardo Jimenez Mayo and Chris N. Brown Small Beer Press 2011 Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-193152031-7 I was drawn to […]
Recent Comments