Review: The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
From audiobook to hardcover print, The Dispatcher is a quick, entertaining read by John Scalzi that will have you anxiously flipping the pages till the end.
Audiobook Review: Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi
Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi is a new audiobook from Audible Studios presenting a sampling of the author’s shorter work, including four pieces exclusive to this collection.
FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY! or Just a Humour Writer in a Science Fiction World
I told my psychiatrist everyone hates humorous SF. He said I was being ridiculous; everyone hasn’t read humorous SF…
BOOK REVIEW: SATURN RUN by John Sandford and Ctein
Steve picks up and reviews a brand-new hard SF book—a thriller—by best-selling mystery writer John Sandford and SF pro artist & photographer Ctein, and finds it a fast, fun read!
Fund Raiser and An Excerpt from “John Scalzi is Not a Very Popular Author…”
Hoo boy! The funny!
AMAZING THINGS! Amazing Stories Adding Italian Posts: John Scalzi Touring New Hampshire
Italian posts and a Scalzi book tour. What do you mean those things don’t go together?
AMAZING NEWS May 25, 2014
Amazon vs Hachette and lots and lots of newsletters and press releases!
Review – Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Gary Dalkin reviews the novel that gave the author of Old Man’s War – John Scalzi – his start.
AMAZING News 12/15/13
China soft-lands a rover on the Moon; NPR Features Filk; Charlies Stross warns that your frickin frying pan may be spying on you…and if that isn’t enough, Amazing Stories makes the case for Chuck Jones, famed cartoon director, having anticipated the Chinese Moon landing in his featurette Haredevil Hare from 1948!
LoneStarCon 3 Photos
With my schedule pressing in on me from all sides, I decided this was a good time to share some more photos from the 71st Worldcon. LoneStarCon 3 was filled with amazing fans and dazzling stars. All photos were taken by Shawn McConnell. Hope you enjoy these LoneStarCon 3 photos.
A Baaaad Case of the Warm and Fuzzies: H. Beam Piper v. John Scalzi
From time to time I make halfhearted efforts to like the things everyone else seems to, like The Beatles. In the same spirit I occasionally apply myself to classic science fiction. I recently dug into Little Fuzzy, the much-loved novel by H. Beam Piper.
Memories of the World Science Fiction Convention 2013
Science fiction has a long future ahead. While this was my first Worldcon, I hope it will not be my last.
Walking the River at LoneStarCon 3
LoneStarCon 3 promises to be one of the truly landmark events in the history of science fiction. Something so magnificent owes a great debt to San Antonio Fandom
Having a Sexual Harassment Policy is not Enough
The topic of sexual harassment, in general and specifically at science fiction (SF) conventions (cons), has been discussed online at length lately, due in part to the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) controversy (for a timeline of events, go here: http://www.slhuang.com/blog/2013/07/02/a-timeline-of-the-2013-sfwa-controversies/). In response, John Scalzi, former SFWA president, has developed his own convention harassment […]
(Can’t Wait For Sunday News) Worldcon Business Meeting Motion
Worldcon, coming up at the end of August, regularly conducts the WSFS business meeting where, among other things, possible changes to the Hugo Awards are proposed, discussed and then voted on by the membership. (Going to Worldcon? You’re a member and you get to vote, if you want to.) John Scalzi today published portions of […]
AMAZING News 7/21/2013
CAUSES 100 Great SF Stories by Women Don’t Travel to Texas If You Do Go to Texas, Stand With Their Women Scalzi on OSC Movie Boycott (Read through to the comments) CRAFT Food in Science Fiction Exit Interview with Former SFWA President Scalzi ENTERTAINMENT Win A David A. Hardy Postcard Daniel Kimmel Reviews Happy Accidents […]
Hugo Award by the Numbers
With the Hugo Award voting coming to a close at the end of July, I find my attention being pulled towards the historical data surrounding the Hugo. The Hugo Award started in 1953 at the 11th WorldCon in Philadelphia. Originally named the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Award, the award’s unofficial name, the Hugo, became official […]
My top 10 SF and fantasy picks for the big-screen treatment
Science fiction and fantasy are taking over the realm of the Hollywood summer blockbuster, no question about it. Marvel Studios is gearing up to launch the Avengers franchise into space with the forthcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film, Neill Blomkamp’s about to wow audiences with his sophomore full-length feature, Elysium, and Christopher Nolan’s next movie is […]
From the In Box 5/24/13
Doctor Who wins a Peabody Award (excellence in television) via File770. Myke Cole will be receiving the Compton Crook Award (best first novel) from the Baltimore Science Fiction Society later on today (BSFS) Several folks have a few things to say about the recent announcement of Kindle Works publishing fan fic – Book View Cafe […]
Crossroads: The Importance of Parody to the Speculative Fiction Genre
Last week, we talked about how every piece of humorous speculative fiction inevitably gets compared to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But as I outlined, Adams’ comedy of the absurd operates very differently from the vast majority of humorous speculative fiction out there. Most funny speculative fiction squarely operates within the realm […]
NaNoWriMo Woes
After last week, I talked about the whole process of writing and winning National Novel Writing Month – or in this case, it’s summer camp incarnation. You have thirty days to write a fifty thousand word novel. To give some clarity, the SFWA defines a novel as being longer than 40k but most adult novels […]
CROSSROADS: Right Place, Time, and Tech – The Hitchhiker’s Guide
Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (itself spread across five books with a six written by Eoin Colfer), with its friendly, green warning against panic, casts a huge shadow over the field of humorous speculative fiction. Though it is far from the only explicitly comedic science fiction (and far from the first), it […]
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 and even had the pleasure of writing the introduction to a collection of his film essays, 24 Frames into the […]
CROSSROADS: Make ’em Laugh – Humor and Speculative Fiction
Hello, folks! Now that I’m back on my feet, I find that April’s here. A few days ago was April 1st, also known as April Fool’s Day. And while I may not be clever enough to come up with fun jokes for April Fool’s Day, I can at least appreciate the humor. There’s something about […]
An Interview With Sword and Laser’s Tom Merritt
Thanks to the exciting reach the internet brings us authors and fans of literature are connecting in ways never seen before. What once was relegated to a letter sent across the ocean in the vain hope that it would be read, let alone replied to, is now done in under 140 characters almost instantaneously. The […]
Crossroads: Is this a Kissing Book? SFF’s Relationship with Romance
Whenever I think of speculative fiction’s relationship to romance, I am always reminded of that scene in The Princess Bride where Fred Savage’s character interrupts his grandpa and – voice dripping with scorn – asks: “Is this a kissing book?” The implication is that romance is antithetical to the cool stuff at the heart of […]
Serial Fiction for Beginners
Serial fiction is old school and the best examples I can think of is probably comic strips, soap operas and the black and white episodes of Flash Gordon, Doctor Who and Lost in Space that I never watched as a kid. The first time I came across serial fiction was The Green Mile in 1996. […]
Amazing News
The first installment of John Scalzi’s serialized novel – The Human Division – goes on sale tomorrow. The Human Division is being distributed by Tor on a weekly basis, prior to release as a print book. The Human Division takes place in Scalzi’s Old Man’s War universe. Tor has put a lot into this experiment […]
On Genre Diversity, or ‘Why Mark Charan Newton was Right’
A couple of years ago, Mark Charan Newton, author of Nights of Villjamur and Drakenfeld, as he’s wont to do, stirred some feathers when he challenged several bloggers to diversify their book coverage, to shift focus from all the frontlist new releases and give more coverage to the wonderful backlist of the genre. Long story […]