Special Effects, then and now
When Forbidden Planet came back out way back in 1956, it was on the cutting edge of animation, and lots of people were talking about how it showed things on film which hadn’t been […]
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Is Ender’s Game Really Any Fun to Read?
Troll the internet for “the greatest science fiction novels of all time” and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game will be at the top of every list you’ll find. (Or it was last time I checked.) […]
No. 10 Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Self-Reliance
No. 10 – 2013Mar10 – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Self-Reliance. As a Navy man, Heinlein recruited Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp into working at the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard. […]
Anime roundup 3/17/2013: Showdown time
So here’s how this works: Every week, I commentate on the latest episodes of various anime series, and then we all discuss further in the comments! Then in April, From the New World will end […]
Review: Men Into Space by John C. Frederiksen
MEN INTO SPACE John C. Frederiksen Bear Manor Media 2013 314 Pages $21.95 (Kindle $9.95) Men Into Space was a television show that (unfortunately) aired for a single season between September 1959 and September, 1960. […]
Resurrecting the Literary Dead
Though William Faulkner is often attributed with the expression “In writing, you must kill your darlings,” the expression first appeared in a lecture On the Art of Writing by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch as, “Whenever you […]
The Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers
I have some news about the workshop, but first, in case you don’t know what it is… Launch Pad is a week-long workshop held every summer since 2007 at the University of Wyoming. I founded […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Diane Severson
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 […]
Interview with Bruce Boston – Part 1
Bruce Boston. Among speculative poets and those who read it, he’s a well-known name. But just in case YOU are not familiar with him, here’s a brief biography of the Man (gleaned from his own […]
MONSTER EARTH- A Book Review
I grew up watching kaiju. Well, back then I didn’t know that’s what it was called. I just thought it was cool watching giant monsters duke it out at the peril of many a balsawood […]
Crossroads: The Western Hero in Speculative Fiction
Someone once said that every story starts with someone either coming to town, or leaving town. And there is no genre for which this adage holds more true than the western. It probably takes us […]
The Myth of Science
Welcome internet traveler. I will be stockpiling neatly organized bits into a collective known as a blog along this portion of your journey. Do not fear for your personal safety, as I will take great […]
Mangling the works of Jules Verne
In a recent post about Jules Verne and his translators for English editions, I included a few examples of how those translators mangled Verne’s stories, so that for generations his authorial abilities were maligned by […]
In Magnificat, There’s a New Pope. And She Changes…Everything
The lead article in the Review section of the March 9 Wall Street Journal began “The next pope should be a man who…” But, wait. Before you start to fill in the characteristics: What if the […]
We Can Hear You Scream: An Overview of SF/Horror Literature
The fear of the dark, the unknown, the monster standing right behind you ready to tear you limb from limb…is part of the human condition. Since the dawn of civilization we have been terrified by […]
Characters: Swan Er Hong from 2312
Most reviewers seem to agree, Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 is a book with well thought out science, beautiful descriptions, and a bold, interesting look at the future of humanity. Most also seem to agree that […]
Interview with John McClure
As I am preparing to self-publish my first novel, I thought I would talk to some friends who have gone down this road ahead of me, to see what they did, what they think now […]
Sense of Wonder #1
We are drawn to science fiction and fantasy because of what Damon Knight called its “sense of wonder”. This is a hard term to define exactly, but you know and I know exactly what it […]
A Blog Horde Interview with C.E. Martin
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 […]
How to Host a Big Bang Theory Party
When the tv show the Big Bang Theory first appeared, I wasn’t sure I liked it. I mean, weren’t people laughing at the nerdy scientists as often (or more often) than they laughed with them? […]
Crossroads: Riding into Space – Westerns and Speculative Fiction
March is here, and that means it is time to move into a new Crossroads series. For some reason, March always brings to mind melting snow, spring’s inexorable creep across the plains, cold mountains withstanding […]
Gazing at Alien Skies
Have you ever wondered what it might be like to look at an alien sky? The sky of a planet whose atmosphere has a different chemical composition to that on Earth, resulting in entirely different […]
The Fuzzy Line Between Science Fiction and Fantasy
Pull the blinds and turn off the phone, it’s time to head to the Game Room and lock in on some hardcore meta-gaming action. In the Game Room we will explore the world of gaming […]
Book Review: The Wind Whales of Ishmael – Philip José Farmer
I have two purposes for this review. One is to call your attention to a novel that older readers have probably already read, The Wind Whales of Ishmael by Philip José Farmer (originally published by […]
The Art and Science of Spaceship Design I: The Xiezhi from Revolution 60
Here at Giant Spacekat Productions, we are a little company making a big videogame. Thus, we all wear many hats. I am, inter alia, Executive Producer, Second Line Texture Artist, the entire Legal Department, and […]
Is It Hindsight or Prediction When They Got It Right But No One Listened?
Over the past several years I’ve been watching a number of trends within the science fiction field. Some fill me with hope and anticipation, such as the strong movements pushing for greater equality in a […]
Fast Versus Slow Zombies
Lately there has been an unstoppable wave of zombies movies rampaging through the cinema, and lately even onto television. Zombie movies are so well known that many of the new movies don’t even bother to […]
Mars Babylon: A Review of John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood by Michael D. Sellers
Reading Michael D. Sellers’ fascinating book, John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood, we learn all the reasons why John Carter, Disney’s film version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, failed at the box office. […]
No. 9: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, and Who’s The Real Monster?
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, while on holiday, visited Lord Byron’s Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva in 1816. Percy Shelley, her lover and future husband, and two close friends entertained Lord Byron, over several days, with […]
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