Film Review: The Colony
I wasn’t overly impressed with the film. I had expected a half-decent SF movie, and what I got was maybe a quarter decent.
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Review: Starship Century
Starship Century is a book based on the proceedings of the 2011 100- Year Starship Symposium, which brought together scientists and futurists to discuss the future of interstellar travel; to decide whether it was […]
Review: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
I’m going to cheat a little, and review a movie that’s not really a genre movie. Well, as far as I’m concerned it is, because the movie’s about magic—and many fans are very much interested in magic—and also because the underlying theme of the movie is very much “sense of wonder,”
A Fan’s History, Part the Next….
Fan Fahnestalk takes us through dead tree ‘zines, ‘live pixel’ zines, IBM Selectrics, toner feel and more in this personal fan history.
Review: Oblivion
I won’t say it’s the best SF film I’ve seen lately—it’s certainly one of the best-looking, however; but it’s deserving of a second look if you’ve been hoping for a moderately good science fiction film to watch this summer.
A Fan’s History — Fanzines, Continued….
Fanzines, continued: Okay, Mr. Smartypants, what’s a “sercon” zine? Actually, I’m glad you asked that question. It’s another of those annoying (well, to an outsider) fannish neologisms and acronyms. In this case, we have “serious” […]
A Fan’s History – Fanzines
Fanzines: What the heck is a ‘zine, anyhow? Well, ‘zine (usually abbreviated without the apostrophe) is short for fanzine, which should be self-explanatory. Unless I’m very much mistaken, SF fans were the first ones to […]
Review: Cloud Atlas
Movie Review: “Cloud Atlas,” written and directed by Tom Twyker and the Wachowski siblings, Andy and Lana, from the book by David Mitchell. Before I start, let me reiterate that I don’t like “spoiler” reviews […]
A Fan’s History – Part 4 – A Visit with Heinlein
Let’s give cons a rest for a bit and talk about one of science fiction’s greatest writers. Terms like “greatest writers” are usually somewhat subjective, but in this case my opinion is backed by a […]
A Fan’s History – Part 3
And I’m still not done talking about cons! Continuing with our talk about cons that have grown out of the SF con, we have things like Steampunk and Anime cons. Steampunk arose from the idea […]
A Fan’s History – Conventions (Part 2)
This blog is not a fan history, although I will cite some fan history. There are actual fanhistorians who guard our culture. If you want to read about early fan history, see the following books: […]
A Fan’s History, Part 1
I’m going to assume that you are a science fiction reader of some kind, since you’re here at Amazing Stories magazine’s website. Are you a science fiction fan? (I’m going to abbreviate it “SF” to […]
About Author
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association (PESFA) and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with chairing or helping run Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. As a fan, he’s published a Hugo-nominated (one nomination) fanzine, New Venture, and he’s founded two writing groups (Writers’ Bloc and Writers of the Lost, Ink). He’s emceed and auctioned art at many West Coast and Northwest conventions including one Westercon. As a writer, he’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories (including one in Compostella [Tesseracts 20], and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Rhea Rose’s Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
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