Need some good reading to distract you from the heat, the forest fires, the pandemic? How about a pandemic anthology? How about the July-August issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction? Go for it!
A HUGE roundup of genre happenings in Hispanoamerica
Ivan extols the virtues of emerging Ecuadorian author Richard Cedeño Menéndez. and his El arca de los Sueños (Ministry of Culture and Heritage of Ecuador, 2017) collection.
Reflections on Blade Runner’s Roy batty, on the occasion of his birthday.
A review of the re-issued novel by Colombian author Luis Noriega – Iménez
An examination of the novels of Argentinian author Samanta Schweblin
After a delay, Steve finally finishes his review of Volume 1 of Anthony Boucher’s Treasury of Great Science Fiction from 1959. Surprisingly, most of these 60-plus-year-old stories still hold up!
Steve reviews part of the first volume of a classic set of SF anthologies. What’s up with only reviewing part of a book? Read it and find out!
This week is movie week—a fantasy over a century old, and a brand new science fiction. Both are very good for their time, Steve thinks—see what you think!
On Dystopias, with side trips to Philip K. Dick and Ecuador.
This week, Steve reviews the new(ish) movie Blade Runner 2049. Does he like it? Have you seen it? Did you like it? Check out the review and see if you agree!
An analysis of how science fiction themes and tropes have become a part of popular culture, and, in particular, have merged with literary fiction, leads to a discussion of the writing of Cristián Londoño Proaño.
An interview with the three editors of 1818: Origen.
An all-new follow-up to Steve’s Ace Doubles columns. He’s doubled up with laughter, because he’s doubling his Ace writings!
For the last of his NaNoWriMo “redux“ columns, Steve finishes his look at Ace Doubles cover illustrators. Nostalgia, indeed! Good old stuff from the Good Old Days!
You think Star Wars ruined the possibility for “legitimate science fiction” to appear on the big screen? Darren Slade suggests that you think again.
Science fiction writers had long warned the people of earth about the potential of a Martian invasion, but nothing could have prepared them for a billion jeering Little Green Men.
This week, Steve reviews a new, upcoming book by Hugh A.D. Spencer, the second episode of 11.22.63 on Hulu, and tells of a unique offer for Robert A. Heinlein fans. (Check out the final photo!)
This week Steve reviews the new March/April issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF), and talks about a postage stamp series that never came about, honouring SF writers, and the reasons behind it.
A review of Jorge Valentin Miño’s short story collection Today is Another Day
Steve once again covers the ubiquitous Stephen King, who’s got a new collection of short stories out. A new collection of King is usually something to crow about, and this one’s no exception.
This week Steve reviews the latest issue of long-running (but not as long as Amazing Stories!) magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF). Some good reading here!
A review and analysis of Underbreak, the latest novel by Ecuadorian author Cristián Proaño Londoño
As Harry Turtledove, the master of alternate history, said in the introduction to The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century, even historical memoirs can sometimes be so far from the truth they can be classified as science fiction. He used the example of Civil War veterans who highlighted their successes and blamed superiors or subordinates for the […]
Frank Wu and his wife Brianna ‘Spacekat’ Wu have designed a game called REVOLUTION 60. It looks quite awesome! The back-story sees the resurrection of a cold war environment, though this time with China, a return to space, Secrets-in-Space and the adventures of a crew of female operatives from the shady, quasi-governmental agency known as […]
World-building, extrapolation, analogy, conceptual breakthrough, thought experiment – these are science fiction’s basic methods. Other genres might occasionally borrow them, but SF has sharpened them to a razor’s edge. So what happens when this set of tools works alongside the themes, styles, and plot structures of noir?
Talk Somewhere around the mid-1980s, science fiction novels (less so short fiction) became filled with talk. I think this has to do with the appearance of word processing, but it also has something to do with the perceived desire of the reading public by publishers for longer, thicker novels–more for your money and all that. […]
What is alternate history? Not as easy question to answer. Historians have been speculating on “points of divergence” since classical times. The Roman historian Livy wrote the first “counterfactual” when he speculated on what would happen if Alexander the Great turned west in 323 BC. Like a true nationalist, he believed Rome would have easily […]
Imperium – Keith Laumer Baen Books 2012 – ISBN-13: 978-1451637953 – Mass Market Paperback: 640 pages. Imperium is a gathering of three Keith Laumer alternate-history novels, Worlds of the Imperium (1962), The Other Side of Time (1968), and Assignment in Nowhere (1968). Baen Books has been on the forefront of rehabilitating writers who in earlier […]
