Science Fiction is one of the great loves of my life. I have spent some thirty odd years reading, critiquing, discussing, collecting, watching and dreaming it (I won’t talk about writing it, at least not yet). I cannot now clearly remember my life before SF and most certainly cannot imagine my life without it. If […]
There’s something specific needed to make Christmas Christmassy; it’s not the turkey or the flaming pudding, no, it’s a Time Lord. Ever since the BBC reinvigorated the Doctor in 2005, Christmas has not been the same without a season adventure. For many, it’s the perfect way to end a hectic day and, for sci fi […]
What is alternate history? Not as easy question to answer. Historians have been speculating on “points of divergence” since classical times. The Roman historian Livy wrote the first “counterfactual” when he speculated on what would happen if Alexander the Great turned west in 323 BC. Like a true nationalist, he believed Rome would have easily […]
I was 8 years old, and I had gotten my greedy little hands on a copy of The Hobbit. I read it by nightlight early in the morning before my family awoke. The Lord of the Rings followed shortly after, and I even wrote my grade five book report on the plot structure of the […]
Speculative fiction’s ability to stay fresh is a direct result of its ability to blend with other genres: the mash-up, the hybrid, the literary crossroad are where science fiction has always found innovation. We’re a magpie genre, and I think that should be celebrated and explored.
Hi. I’m glad you’re here. Come in, make yourself comfortable, and let me introduce myself. My name is Keith West. I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy for about 35 years, coming to the genre through comics, Star Trek, and Star Wars. You’re probably wondering what I’m going to blog about. After all, there are […]
We love mad scientists. We always have. It’s arguable that the Dark Ages tradition of the Evil Wizard is the earliest form of the Mad Scientist, only they didn’t have science to hang the idea on yet. We also love clocks. Always have. There’ve been clocks dating back centuries, some of those from the Middle […]
I’ve never written a blog. I’ve never had the urge to write a blog. So imagine my surprise when I bumped into a fantastic opportunity that I couldn’t resist: writing a weekly blog for Amazing Stories Magazine. I could barely contain a fangirl squee! So. Much. Fun. The timing was a little awkward since I […]
I don’t intend here to eulogize Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) but to discuss some of the contributions he made to the areas of Horror, Science Fiction and Detective Fiction. Poe was born in Boston in 1809. One of the most interesting aspects of researching Poe’s background is that no one seems to know exactly what […]
David Langford’s esteemed Ansible is out with it’s 2013 January issue. Every fan ought to read it here. Voting for nominations for the Hugo Awards 2013 short list are now open. You can learn all about the process here. Brian J. Clarke wins this year’s A. E. van Vogt Award that comes with a nice […]
Where does fresh-squeezed idea juice come from? Read on, and see what helps produce it.
Imperium – Keith Laumer Baen Books 2012 – ISBN-13: 978-1451637953 – Mass Market Paperback: 640 pages. Imperium is a gathering of three Keith Laumer alternate-history novels, Worlds of the Imperium (1962), The Other Side of Time (1968), and Assignment in Nowhere (1968). Baen Books has been on the forefront of rehabilitating writers who in earlier […]
Adam Gaffen for Amazing Stories Magazine: Our first Interview is with K.D. Emerson, author of – well, let’s just get right into this, shall we? What is the title of your book? K. D. Emerson: Oooh lala! I love this question because the title of my book has a double meaning. Title: Digitus 233 ASM: A […]
I’m both stunned and excited by the comeback of Amazing Stories and that I have become a part of this historic process. And it is a historic process. I’ve been looking back at what Amazing Stories’ accomplished in the past and it just increases my anticipation. With a history of so many great writers and […]
The Martian War by Kevin J. Anderson is a literary retrospective of writer H.G. Wells. It is a story based on the on the original War of the Worlds invasion premise, but this time around, several characters from other classic works by Wells partake in the adventure.
Introduction: Who I am and what this series will cover Hi and welcome. This is the first in a weekly series of posts I’ll be doing on how to market and sell short fiction. In this initial post, I’ll explain who this series is aimed at, why I think I can help you sell your […]
The concept of race in Middle Earth bears a strong resemblance to racist concepts that were popular during Tolkien’s youth. Readers need to be aware of these concepts and guard against taking them literally.
I do! Let me introduce myself. I’m an astronomer, a professor at the University of Wyoming, and a science fiction writer. I’ve been blogging for a number of years at www.mikebrotherton.com, primarily about the intersection of science and science fiction, and I plan to do that here, too. Let me start by making a case […]
“I wish somebody’d tell me, Tell me if you can I want somebody to tell me What is the soul of a man.” –Blind Willy Johnson J “As he dropped the last grisly fragment of the dismembered and mutilated body into the small vat […]
When people think about science fiction the first thing they usually visualize are spaceships (or green skinned women in shiny bikinis, but that may just be me). The spaceship has been a ubiquitous part of SF since the beginning and depicting such a thing has been a challenge that many artists have tackled with varying […]
Hello, I’m Leah Zeldes and I’m a fan. I have been a fan since 1973, not long after I discovered the concept of fandom in the pages of — not coincidentally, an Amazing Science Fiction column called “The Clubhouse” — and it seems to me that for most of the time since I’ve been arguing […]
November 2010 was a watershed moment with regards to the ebook revolution. That was the month I saw my sales go from a modest 1,000 per month (across 4 titles) to 10,000+ a month (across 5 titles). What was even more amazing is I wasn’t the only self-published author seeing this kind of spike, and […]
I was going to devote this initial essay to The Shaver Mystery, that forties phenomenon masterminded by Raymond Palmer which put science fiction for the first time (and not in an helpful fashion) under the lens of Henry Luce and Time but have decided to take a pass. Wikipedia has already entirely reconfigured the culture. […]
I grew up watching and reading Science Fiction. Some of it was actually old by the time I had already been born, but it had a natural appeal to me when I was young. The idea of getting in a starship and flying to another world appealed to me. A lot of the movies I […]
