Cover Launch: RANDOM SH*T FLYING THROUGH THE AIR by Jackson Ford
I guess if you’re a gilr who can move sh*t with your mind, there’s bound to be random sh* flying through the air…
Top 10 Young Adult Books You Need To Read By Fall
Now that summer is winding down a bit, it’s time to start stocking up for winter reading – or – you’re TBR pile is just not tall enough!
Review: Lincoln’s Wizard by Tracy Hickman & Dan Willis
Filled with airships, dragons, zombies, robots, and a wide array of other gear driven inventions, Lincoln’s Wizard is a fresh Steampunk take on the War Between the States.
Review: Beautiful Intelligence, by Stephen Palmer
Beautiful Intelligence is a bracingly imaginative novel. By choosing to operate within a realistic, post-crash, dystopian cyberpunkish framework Stephen Palmer has written his most accessible and commercial work to-date.
Small Press Book Review: Starbase Human by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The latest Retrieval Artist novel – Starbase Human – will throw you some curves.
Review – Cowboy Angels, by Paul McAuley
The Real is a parallel world in which the Second World War never happened, where Alan Turing emigrated to America in the 1950’s and laid the foundations for the development of Turing Gates. By 1968 the CIG was beginning to use the Gates to secretly explore parallel worlds. … There is a lot of plot in Cowboy Angels. There is also a lot of Bourne-movie style action. McAuley builds the suspense well and the set-pieces are effectively conceived.
Small Press Book Review: A Murder of Clones by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Rusch pulls off another taught thriller with A Murder of Clones.
“CLASSIC” Movie Reviews, OUR MAN FLINT and IN LIKE FLINT
Steve revisits a favourite–classic–“spy spoof” from the ’60s. Many people loved these James Coburn films!
Review: Jani and the Greater Game by Eric Brown
Eric Brown takes us on steampunk adventure through India at the time of the Raj. The year is 1925, and history has taken an alternate course.
Living With the Nazis
With its haunting portrayal of the unthinkable, Fatherland sired (ha ha…) the alternate history sub-genre one might call: “What if … the Nazis won?”
Cloud Atlas, Skyfall and the McDonaldization of Hollywood
Gary Dalkin reviews Cloud Atlas and Skyfall and talks about the homogenization of American cinema.
Sixties, Science Fiction and Secret Agents
Secret agent tales have always carried a hint of science fiction with them – futuristic gadgets, threatened world-wide annihilation. Steve examines Bond’s 60s rival – Flint – and reminds us that James Coburn was COOL.
Do Videogames Have to Be Fun: Papers, Please and Monotony
Papers, Please, a game by Lucas Pope for PC and Mac, endeavors to be boring. You’ll spend your hours as a border guard in 1982 Russia analogue Arstotzka, checking and double checking papers…
Crossroads: The Challenge of Espionage in Speculative Fiction
If spy fiction uses SF/F techniques, then why doesn’t speculative fiction feature more espionage? Perhaps SF/F’s world-building is too much of a good thing, preventing the genre from leveraging tension the way spy fiction does.
Crossroads: Society, World-building, and Estrangement in Spy Fiction
Growing up in a household where the legacy of Communism loomed large (my parents had fled Communist Poland during the ’60s), poison-tipped umbrellas and double-or-triple-agents were regular mealtime conversation. And with no James Bond showing […]
Crossroads: I Spy, with My Little Eye…Espionage in Speculative Fiction
Hello and welcome to August! I was away for much of July on a “blogging vacation”, and I very much missed you and our ongoing genre mash-up conversation while I was gone. Now that I’m […]
How Science Fiction Fans Can Save America
Will you stand for something? Or settle for anything?
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 […]
Zombies, Nazis, and the Spear of Destiny
The Spear of Destiny Jason E. Thummel paperback $12.95 ebook $2.99 Kindle Nook Smashwords Jason E. Thummel is the author of a number of well received heroic fantasy short stories (many collected in the book […]
The Fury – Blu-ray and Expanded Soundtrack
Those difficult teen years. A time when you have no money, power or influence, and have to spend your day going to school without getting paid for the privilege. Have to do what adults say […]
Sequential Wednesdays #5 – The Private Eye For the Public
The publication of comics has drastically changed in the past 5 years. As scores of e-reader devices hit the market to facilitate the millions of e-books available, a market grew around digital publication of comics […]
The Monster Makers
The spotlight last month fell on the special effects wizards who make SF monsters come to life. The crowning glory was the award of the Best Picture Oscar for Argo. This spy drama focuses on […]
Dynamo – Unsuccessful Wooing, Decrees from Rashmon & A Silent, Bearded Man
If there’s a recently popularized term that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, it’s “webisodes.” This demeaning and fun-sized determination of quality stems from the misconception of tacked-on extra content pumped out in the […]
Crossroads: Where Genres Meet in the Night
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.
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