Anime Roundup 4/21/2013: Fee Fi, Ho Hum
More international streaming sites have announced their spring simulcasts, and I’m afraid it looks like the entire world will get to see a couple of high school romantic comedies, but most of the good sf […]
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Like Tears in Rain
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_hYs1jBy8Y&w=570&h=321] You can almost smell the rain, feel it hammer the leather of your trenchcoat. Hear the harmonic buzz of blue neon all around you. You can taste the Tsingtao, bubbly and cool on […]
Is SETI Hopeless?
Today’s manhunt in Boston for the alleged Marathon bomber has pretty much buried yesterday’s story that NASA’s Kepler telescope has discovered three exoplanets that contain water and support life. The discovery is interesting, of course, […]
Remembering a Ghastly Legend
Lawson Deming gave us the friendly neighborhood vampire Sir Graves Ghastly, the horror movie host who helped many young impressionable fans enjoy old time science fiction and horror.
Cities in Science Fiction
The events in Boston at the beginning of this week were an awful tragedy and, naturally all our hearts go out to the victims. Boston is one of the oldest cities in the US and, […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Terence Jackson
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 […]
Alien Parameter Space
I love science fiction stories with aliens. There are some good ones without aliens, but they’d probably be better if they threw in some aliens. OK, maybe not, but I still love aliens. I write […]
The Meteor That Never Fell
Just kidding! Putin didn’t really ride that meteor! But it was an uneasy thing to watch, and it prompted uneasier thoughts about other things that fall, and why I crave stories with endings.
An Unhappy Burtiversary
Ten years ago this past March, I enjoyed the greatest TV moment of my lifetime- the debut of Tremors: the Series, on the Scifi Channel. Two hours of heady, Burt Gummer-fun. Just a few months […]
Robots and Cyborgs and Androids, Oh My!
Author’s Note: Last week I wrote about one of my favorite Star Wars characters, Admiral Motti played by Richard LeParmentier. It is with disappointment and sadness that I learned of his death this week. (04/16/13) […]
City Lights, City Grunge
From Metropolis to Blade Runner, the city of the future has been a subject for science fiction artists and film makers, who have vented both dreams and deep-seated fears. This blog post offers a collection […]
Book Review: Hope Reborn by S.M. Stirling and David Drake
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 […]
Anime roundup 4/14/2013: This Will Be on the Test
A big stack of first looks this week, and then it’ll be time to make decisions about what to add for the regular weekly commentary. Those of you worried about the absence of Attack on […]
The Artful Collector: In Praise of Tangibility
First, and let’s get this out of the way right at the start: I would never say that digital art isn’t Art. I have never claimed that digital artists aren’t “real artists” – as some […]
Individualism, Atheism, and the Search for God in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
The following essay originally appeared in issue number 111 of the quarterly journal Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, edited by Graham Sleight. Revised and expanded, 2nd ed. Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel The Road […]
The Coolest Thing I’ve Seen All Week
I’m an astronomer, but I also have a background in engineering, and when I was six, dinosaurs rivaled space for my primary interest. I’m grown-up now, but must admit I still love toys. The bigger […]
A Little Game of Catch
This week I’m fighting my way past drunken skateboarders and striking cab drivers to get a peek at the latest security and surveillance gadgets the world has to offer. I’ve already spoken with some developers […]
Blake’s 7 returns!
Exciting news today from The Telegraph newspaper. The classic British SF series Blake’s 7 is to be remade by FremantleMedia and the SyFy network. Blake’s 7 was the brainchild of Terry Nation, inventor of the Daleks […]
Will the Real Tony Stark Please Stand Up
Over the past few decades the uber rich have had an increasing influence on our technological future: Peter Diamandis funds various space-oriented X-Prizes, one of which saw the development and successful flight of SpaceShip One. […]
William Gibson’s formulae for success: No rayguns.
Not long ago I started rereading the Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. It’s an interesting book, but the thing that really struck me when I read it was the startling amount of […]
Anime roundup 4/7/2013: Stop the World, I Want To Get Off
First, a little awards news: Nominees for the Seiun for Best Media (roughly equivalent to Hugo nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation) include two anime series, Bodacious Space Pirates and Eureka Seven AO. E7AO is a […]
No. 12 Alfred Elgin van Vogt, Weapons Masters, and The Big Three.
$1995.00. For 15 pages. That’s how much a copy of A. E. van Vogt’s speech, Tomorrow on the March, goes for today. He delivered this speech as the guest of honor at PACIFICON, July 4, 1946. […]
Sense of Wonder #2 – From the Movies
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 You Shouldn’t Read John Scalzi
Like many readers, I became a fan of John Scalzi after reading his Old Man’s War. It’s a wonderful book and it led me on to his others. I’ve now read most of his novels […]
The Safest Place There Is
“The safest place there is. . . .” It’s a dubious, quizzical line, delivered by Lois Smith near the end of her one unforgettable scene as the self-proclaimed mother of Precrime. Dubious because we’re talking […]
Science Fiction Wishful Thinking
There are a number of science fiction tropes that might come true at some point, but not necessarily within our lifetimes or near future. They’re extremely common, however, and challenging them can elicit strong emotions […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Kristina Grifantini
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 […]
Book Review: Skull Island, by Will Murray
This is going to be a first for me- I’m going to review a book BEFORE I finish it. Hold on! You might be thinking. How can I pass judgement on a book without finishing […]
Cosmic Dance
Who isn’t fascinated by the images of outer space, which have become available over the last few decades from ever more powerful telescopes: the iridescent colour play of stars in the making, the drifting clouds […]
Sequential Wednesdays #7 – Tales of Tails
Animals have a very special role to play in stories, at least according to the long history of tales utilizing their presence as potent symbolism. Throughout the world of story-telling, a multitude of beasts have had very […]
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