Satire is no longer being written in America. It’s still on television via Saturday Night Live, South Park, and the great, unsung animation series Squidbillies. (I’d lump Superjail in there, but it’s not for the […]
Ignorance is never better than knowledge. – Enrico Fermi When I was just a little tyke, driving to Logan Airport in Boston meant, as today, enduring the unavoidable traffic jam. Conversing in the family car […]
Today we begin a new bi-weekly feature that introduces the art and history of the members of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), a group of artists who have as their collective forte the […]
Gafiate, for those whose Fannish Lexicon isn’t handy, is Fan Speak for the act of ‘Getting Away From It All’. Leaving Fandom. Putting conventions and fanzines and crazy projects and far-flung friends behind you. It […]
Bradley made her first sale as an adjunct to an amateur fiction contest in Amazing Stories in 1949 with the short story “Outpost“, which was published in Amazing Stories Vol. 23, No. 12, the December […]
In the early 1400s, when Lady Vivianne, the Baroness Von Grunwald (hero of my latest book, The Last Summoner) lived, one of the largest libraries in Europe was at the University of Cambridge; it held […]
After the last few S&S works of the early 1940s, such as “Dragon Moon” by Henry Kuttner and the short-lived Unknown, Sword & Sorcery lost steam. With Robert E. Howard dead for five or more […]
This week some in the world are celebrating the birth/death of the Bard of Avon also known as William Shakespeare. Shakespeare as you might have heard was a well-known English playwright and poet. Curiously enough […]
There is a kind of writer whose name evokes not just the titles of their best-known novels or the characters in them, but a certain way of experiencing the world. If one hears the name […]
While Fritz Leiber was creating a boisterous style of Sword & Sorcery based upon E. R. Eddison and James Branch Cabell, Norvell W. Page wrote two novels that seem on the surface to be closer […]
Number 13: a 13th Amazing Stories post. I interrupt my regularly scheduled posts, in my ongoing series of discussing writers of classic science fiction (and the inner meanings therein), to consider the number 13 (and […]
Thanks to the Chums on Fictionmags (an invite group), this article in Popular Mechanics features a house designed and built by the author of And He Built A Crooked House. Yes, Robert A. Heinlein’s dream […]
In 1939 Farnsworth Wright began a move away from Sword & Sorcery. With Robert E. Howard dead, he no longer championed the dark fantasy tale, publishing Henry Kuttner’s Elak as the last. This meant that […]
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 […]
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 […]
“Do not annoy a dragon, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.” — Author Unknown A myth about ancient map makers is that they’d adorn the distant uncharted areas with “Here Be Dragons”, […]
Here’s how to do cultural appropriation right. Look at the man and his fox bride; you can tell he loves her.
Jules Verne was born February 8th 1828 and died in 1905. He and H.G. Wells are considered to be the ‘fathers’ of modern Science Fiction although Edgar Allan Poe was actually ahead of both of […]
Hello and welcome to what will be an occasional feature on my blog! So – what, exactly, do I mean by ‘unknown or under-appreciated’? To put it simply – not everyone is a Kevin J. […]
Fans are nothing if not creative and, over the decades, fandom has come up with not only our own jargon and customs, but also our own art forms. We even have a unique verse form, […]
Of late, I am sensing that lines have been drawn and sides chosen in the camps of Science Fiction (& Fantasy) and Christianity. There’s a virtual wall between the two fandom groups- and that’s a […]
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 […]
The Demolished Man is a classic of SF. The story of Lincoln Powell’s faceoff with Ben Reich is worthy of the first Hugo, and is still an entertaining read today. Beyond the well imagined world […]
While we still don’t know who will grace the U.S. postage stamps saluting science fiction authors this year, we do know Who — The Doctor, that is — will appear on a set of British […]
I’d mentioned previously the spectrum of modern fantasy is fairly disparate, but if you go into the library or a bookstore it’s really borne out. So I think the best way to discuss the topic […]
INTRODUCTION This is a blog about rockets and science and rocket scientists. I’ve spent my career in this field, working among the people who make some very, very cool things happen there. I’ll discuss cutting […]
Robert E. Howard may have invented Sword & Sorcery with the first King Kull tale, but he was not the only author working with the raw materials of heroic fantasy. We have already mentioned C. […]
Few poems have been quoted, misquoted and satirized as much as Poe’s The Raven, and in truth it’s style and gothic theme are easy to satirize. Poe’s most ardent wish was to be known as […]
Dragon Battle Book Sculpture by wetcanvas. First sentences are important. Introductions are important. Not gonna lie, I’ve been writing in my head for weeks trying to figure out the perfect start to this blog, and […]
Cait Coker is the Curator for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection and Coordinator of Research Services for Cushing Memorial Library & Archives. An Associate Professor at Texas A&M, her research interests focus on the depiction of women, gender, and sexuality in science fiction and fantasy.
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