Slice-Of-Life and the Open Ending
I have noticed a trend in newer anime in the last few months: The completely open-ended conclusion. To be fair, anime stories have always had a different flavor to their endings than Western cartoons, in […]
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Four Reasons to Stay Out of the Water
Tales of Terror: Dark Waters Christopher Fulbright ND3 Press 0.99 Memorial Day is over, June has begun, and summer is upon us. Temperatures are climbing, and people are beginning to seek relief from the heat […]
10 Reasons to return to Mass Effect 3
Though I’m normally enthusing about my love of SF TV entertainment, today I’m going off on a tangent and revealing my other love; computer games. My favourite, and by far the most played, is the […]
From the In Box 6/3/13
THIS WEEK’S NOVEL EXCERPT DR. WHO Wednesday, June 5th, will see the debut of Hunter Liguore’s Travels of Danger in the Yucatan: A Mayan Time Travel Odyssey. It’s a return to the scientific romance of the […]
No. 18 – C.J. Cherryh, The Faded Sun, and a World Building Ethos.
No. 18 – 2013Jun02 – C.J. Cherryh, The Faded Sun, and a World Building Ethos. The next time you look into the night sky, try finding the asteroid, 77185 Cherryh. Admittedly, it’s not an easy […]
Anime roundup 6/2/2013: Graduation Day
Hunter x Hunter #81 – Watch that fight scene in isolation, and it’s just another case of insanely exaggerated martial arts. But watch it with the weight of 80 previous episodes of struggling and training, […]
Science Fiction and UFOs
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 […]
The Artful Collector: Should You Worry About Forgery in SF Art?
How important is Fraud in the SF/F art market? I could write lengthy blogs on how forgers break down and then reconstitute the same clay to fashion Mid- and South American artifacts, using original (thousand-year-old) […]
Getting Lost in Lost in Space
Not to be confused with the television series of the late 60’s, this novel is an absorbing classic story where the readers will find themselves getting Lost in Space right along with the characters.
Popular Content From May 2013
Here’s a list of the most read posts from the month of May 2013: Characters: Kvothe from The Name of the Wind Characters: Clare of Claymore Deconstructing Horror: Haunted Houses More Sci-fi Shows to Hit […]
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 20 in series)
I Love Your Story. Now Change It: Working with an editor Welcome back to my on-going series on how to market and sell short fiction. I’ve written these posts in a very specific sequence, with […]
From the In Box 6/1/13
SFWA CONTROVERSY: RESNICK & MALZBERG & ‘SEXIST’ COVERS Daniel M. Kimmel Announces BOFCA Facebook Page SFWA Controversy!!! Authors Up in Arms! Pitchforks and Torches Heading for the Castle! In the immortal words of Dr. Venkman, […]
The Apollo Program, A Personal Journal: Hand-Held Calculators (Circa 1968)
The first manned landing on the Moon occurred in 1969. The first hand-held calculator didn’t come on the market until 1972. So we got men to the Moon using pencil and paper and a slide rule. Really!
Scide Splitters: Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison
I was first enticed to read Bill, the Galactic Hero, Harry Harrison’s darkly humorous take on military SF and space opera, by the funny illustration on the cover of the book (see right). I was […]
The Cabin in the Woods
I’ll try and keep this spoiler-free, because I think it goes without saying that spoilers are the film buff’s bane, but I will need to at least hint at a few key aspects of the […]
A New Space Telescope Helps to Usher in a New Future
I think this is pretty cool. A company with plans to mine asteroid, Planetary Resources, Inc., has just announced that they’re putting a telescope in space and they’re inviting the public to crowdfund it AND […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Bill Spangler
Welcome to the Amazing Stories BLOG HORDE INTERVIEWS! The ASM Blog Horde is a diverse and wonderful species. I have the privilege of talking with all of them, and I get to share those chats with […]
Novedades abril-mayo
Como dije en el otro post, seguimos produciendo. He aquí de las novedades que me han comunicado de los meses de abril y mayo LIBROS “De monstruos y trincheras” de Ramón Merino Collado. (Espiral Ciencia […]
The Mucha Influence on SF & Fantasy Art
You probably don’t know his name. You may not even know that there is a name behind the distinctive design, but you have very likely seen his work or a derivative of it. You will […]
From the In Box 5/30/13
Warning for Authors Space Telescope Kickstarter Via Lawrence Santoro on Facebook we are informed that editor Tony Giangregorio is back. Please read Lawrence’s blog post (which contains quite a bit of appropriate reference material) before […]
Kids & Cons
With summer upon us, it’s convention time here in my neck of the woods. And while I’m not that big of a fan of cons, I do try and treat my little nerdlings to one […]
Understanding the Sexism of Fantasy
Thank you to Kate Elliott for her involvement with the inception and development of this post. One of the little pleasures of my life is that I have easy access to several of my favourite […]
Microcosmos (Imaginings Volume: 5) by Nina Allan
In the Forward to Microcosmos Nina Allan explains that, having forgotten the finer details of the requirements for the collection, with her stories tending to ‘run away with themselves’ and being rather long for short […]
Your Majesty, I’m So Over You
Ranks and titles are powerful tools in the fantasy writer’s toolkit. What a shame they are used so unimaginatively in general. I offer some inspiration alongside your weekly dose of young fogeyishness.
Shadowrun Returns
This month, we will see the first fruits of the great Kickstarter flood of 2012. The four titans of that period—Double Fine’s Broken Age, Obsidian’s Project Eternity, in Exile’s Wasteland 2, and Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun […]
Crossroads: “Speculative” Literary Fiction and SF/F Techniques
Last week, we talked about how works of speculative fiction deploy techniques commonly found in literary fiction. This week, we’re going to flip that coin and look at how mainstream literary fiction employs techniques developed […]
Pretty Soldiers: Hotaru Tomoe
Hotaru Tomoe is abused by her father. She suffers from an illness that leaves her breathless, weak and wracked with pain. She is picked on by her classmates. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune are planning […]
Happy 50th Anniversary BSFS
This past weekend the Baltimore Science Fiction Society celebrated its 50th year. I attended many Balticons in the late 70s and early 80s and consider BSFS to be one of my fannish “homes”. It’s great […]
Win a Signed Copy of Douglas Smith’s The Wolf at the End of the World
Award winning author Douglas Smith has written a novel length sequel to his Aurora Award winning novelette, “Spirit Dance” and now you can win a FREE, signed copy! (an extended excerpt from the novel was recently published here on […]
An Interview with Bestselling Author Ty Franck (James S.A. Corey)
Today we are lucky enough to host the critically acclaimed science fiction author Ty Franck. Ty writes as one half of the artificial construct known as James S.A. Corey. Together with his co-author, Daniel Abraham, […]
About Author
R.K. Troughton works as an engineer, developing tomorrow’s high-tech gadgets that protect you from the forces of evil as well as assist your doctor in piecing you back together. His passion for science fiction and fantasy has been fed through decades of consumption. He is the author of numerous science fiction and fantasy screenplays and short stories, and his debut novel is forthcoming. His articles appear every Wednesday morning on Amazing Stories.
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