There are things that titles tell you. A title like “A Conversation with My Time Traveling Future Self” says “Expect science fiction comedy played against a hilarious relationship situation.” That’s what I had in my […]
Who decides what makes a good book? How does an editor know what readers will want? A writer’s friends and family might thrill at every new story but it still has to impress an agent, […]
Before we get into a discussion of how speculative fiction approaches noir, let’s start by discussing just what the noir aesthetic really is.
Over the last year or so, I’ve noticed something when I’ve conversed with people (in person or through email), posted things on my blog, or left comments on someone else’s blog. We may be using […]
On January 8th, the long awaited final edition in the Wheel of Times series was released in hardcover. The ebook, however, was no where to be found, and won’t be available until April 9th. Hardcover […]
Hello and welcome to what will be an occasional feature on my blog! So – what, exactly, do I mean by ‘unknown or underappreciated’? To put it simply – not everyone is a Kevin J. […]
Any SF library without Edgar Rice Burroughs and John Carter of Mars is hardly complete. Burroughs’ John Carter series captured the imagination of many noted SF writers, like Ray Bradbury, early in their youth. As […]
It recently struck me how most of the films that, IMHO, were truly scary were the ones that had little or no digital special effects. The reason is simple: what makes something scary is mostly […]
Why Are You Writing?: Deciding on the writing career that you want Welcome back. This is the second in my weekly series of posts on how to market and sell short fiction. In my initial […]
The single most important step for a reader is the initial act of choosing what to read. After that, everything else is just a formality of literary cultivation. You read, you absorb and you grow. But it’s that first step that determines who you are as a reader. So, what books grab “your” attention?
“I Like Science Fiction, It’s Got Like Giant Robots and Stuff, Right?” Science Fiction’s Self-Esteem Problem Part I: Who Reads SF Anyway? Practically No One. Science Fiction has a self-esteem problem. Almost from its beginnings, […]
When people think of 1929 they usually recall the Great Depression and “Black Tuesday” (October 29th). I prefer to think of it as the year Sword & Sorcery was born. For S&S, like its greatest […]
FANTASTIC FICTION at KGB reading series, hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel present: Brian Keene is the author of over thirty novels, most recently Entombed and An Occurrence In Crazy Bear Valley. He also writes […]
I said last time that I wasn’t going to debate the definition of “fan” here. But one of the most important defining characteristics of fandom is our shared language. From founding fan Forrest J Ackerman […]
I have spent a lot of time in previous posts dwelling in the past. I have been like an old man suddenly lost to the present, the memory of times past reeling behind his eyes while he absently stirs his tea. Well, I think perhaps I should bring this topic into the present and talk about some of the science fiction and fantasy artists working today.
There has been an explosion of fantastic art. In the past fantastic art’s only reason for being was as illustration to fantastic literature. That changed and today fantastic art is it’s own reason for being. You can find fantasy art on posters, tee-shirts, coffee mugs. You can find it on the internet almost as easily as you can find pornography or lolcats.
The science fiction movie Outland has been described as a reimaging of the western classic High Noon set in space: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2XfvN8XSc&version=3&hl=en_US] The setting is Io, which is the closest large moon of Jupiter, despite […]
In Japan, even the elves are different. Fantasy novelist Satoru Sato has won a place in the postwar fantasy canon for his uniquely charming creations, the Korobokkuru.
The funny thing about movies is that liking or disliking them can become as political a process as anything else. In fact, sometimes I get a pretty strong sense of whether a movie will do […]
There is a curious phenomenon not exclusive to science fiction fandom, it is prevalent in pop music worship and other places, by which those afflicted feel a need to establish rivalries. The Star Wars fan […]
UPDATE: 12:00 pm 1/9/13 (Earlier news below) SPECIAL NOTICE! One of our own – Daniel M. Kimmel, will be having a book reading & signing on January 27th, 2013 at The Book Shop in Sommerville […]
I’m pleased to be participating at Amazing Stories by writing about pulps. But before jumping feet first into that discussion, it’s best to issue a warning: It’s always important for all participants in a conversation […]
Kia ora and welcome to my new Visual Arts blog on Amazing Stories! First up, let’s have some Hobbit art. Let me state this outright: I am not going to try to determine who is the “greatest artist” in the fandom. I am not particularly interested in who is the most technically proficient, or the most outrageously inventive. Who gets the biggest fees, the most prestigious projects, has the greatest fan base, or who, by whose definition, is the “most famous”. I like to feature art I like.
It must be an incredibly hard decision for a studio to decide what superheros are worthy of a big screen adaptation, which should be aired on the small screen…and those that should never make it beyond […]
John Scalzi offers us this warning about a scam directed at SF/F/H authors scam ALERT! Our own Ken Neth interviews Brandon Sanderson who has completed Jordan’s Wheel of Time’s final chapter- errr – book (via […]
A couple of years ago, Mark Charan Newton, author of Nights of Villjamur and Drakenfeld, as he’s wont to do, stirred some feathers when he challenged several bloggers to diversify their book coverage, to shift […]
My ten best (or ten favorites) is up at North Shore Movies, where my reviews regularly appear:http://northshoremovies.wordpress.com… However I also like to unload on the worst or most overrated movies I had to suffer through […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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