“I Cannot Live Without Books”
The genre of science fiction followed Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote “I cannot live without books” by almost a century, but what does the rest of his message mean to today’s fandom?
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Please Support the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers
Like science in your science fiction? Like stories set in space that aren’t full of errors? Like to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in science? Consider making a donation to the Launch Pad […]
A Commissioning Editor Speaks: David Moore of Abaddon Books
Britain’s Abaddon Books is a seething brew of villainous steampunk, sleek spaceships, cruel sorcery, and blood-soaked horror. I tracked their commissioning editor David Moore down to his lair, where I forced him to unravel a cracked and […]
Born with the Dead: 99 cents Today Only
Born With the Dead was nominated for every major science fiction award when it was originally published in 1974, winning the Nebula and Locus awards. Robert Silverberg now revisits his classic story with Australian author Damien […]
Review: The General’s President
The General’s President John Dalmas Baen The best way to look at Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders is to consider it a thought experiment into how the American Government can be reformed by a President who […]
Crossroads: Speculative Devices in Police Procedurals
Character, Context, and Procedure: The Cores of the Police Procedural One can’t analyze science fiction and fantasy without running into certain words over and over again: World-building. Sense of wonder. Neologism. Cognitive estrangement. Novum. These […]
Christopher Priest – The Adjacent Interview: Part 1
Christopher Priest is one of the leading authors in any genre. His first published story was ‘The Run’, in 1966. His first novel, Indoctrinaire, was published in 1970. His second, Fugue for a Darkening Island, […]
Synthetic Voices #18 – May 2013 Top Picks
This month’s top picks are a little on the WEIRD side, so get your out your crazy hat and dive in! [powerpress] Jimmy RogersRead My Profile www.scienceismagic.com
Why are we afraid of monsters?
A while back I did a few articles regarding “science horror“, or works where the tropes of both SF and horror are blended together to create a gory speculative fun house. Recently, however, I began […]
No. 19 – James Benjamin Blish, Cities in Flight, and Technical Exposition.
No. 19 – 2013 June – James Benjamin Blish, Cities in Flight, and Technical Exposition. James Benjamin Blish may not be as widely known as he ought to be, not when you consider the number […]
Marooned off Vesta by Isaac Asimov
Marooned off Vesta was Asimov’s first published story, appearing in the March 1939 issue of Amazing Stories. The story, and the story behind the story, is an example of man’s will and determination to to never give up.
Ray guns don’t kill people, peop … — oh wait, yes they do!
Be careful. Be careful, they got ray guns. – Loomis in the Carpenter Street episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, 11/26/2003 In Ray Bradbury’s epic The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950, the author presented his futuristic […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Felicity Savage
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 […]
Have Literary Luddites Taken Over SFF Fandom?!
For the past year, I’ve been doing the indie thing- writing and self-publishing my own novels on Amazon, B&N, etc. During that time I’ve learned quite a lot and have come to the conclusion that […]
Review: Allies and Aliens
Allies and Aliens Roger Macbride Allen Baen I find it hard to remember, looking back over twenty years, which book served as my first proper introduction to Baen Books. One possible candidate was On Basilisk […]
The Peacock Cloak by Chris Beckett
Chris Beckett has been publishing short stories since 1990. His debut novel was The Holy Machine, followed by Marcher, and last year, Dark Eden, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for the Best SF […]
Crossroads: The Difficulty of Police Procedural Speculative Fiction
Police procedurals are a complicated genre to explore because they intersect so fluidly with so many other genres. On the one hand, they solidly rest within the mystery tradition: there is a crime that needs […]
So You Want to Write a Sequel to Your Novel…
Congratulations, you published the next great SF novel and it is a whopping success. Now you are wondering whether you should write a sequel. Before you do that, check out this list of common issues […]
No. 18 – C.J. Cherryh, The Faded Sun, and a World Building Ethos.
No. 18 – 2013Jun02 – C.J. Cherryh, The Faded Sun, and a World Building Ethos. The next time you look into the night sky, try finding the asteroid, 77185 Cherryh. Admittedly, it’s not an easy […]
Getting Lost in Lost in Space
Not to be confused with the television series of the late 60’s, this novel is an absorbing classic story where the readers will find themselves getting Lost in Space right along with the characters.
Scide Splitters: Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison
I was first enticed to read Bill, the Galactic Hero, Harry Harrison’s darkly humorous take on military SF and space opera, by the funny illustration on the cover of the book (see right). I was […]
Microcosmos (Imaginings Volume: 5) by Nina Allan
In the Forward to Microcosmos Nina Allan explains that, having forgotten the finer details of the requirements for the collection, with her stories tending to ‘run away with themselves’ and being rather long for short […]
Crossroads: “Speculative” Literary Fiction and SF/F Techniques
Last week, we talked about how works of speculative fiction deploy techniques commonly found in literary fiction. This week, we’re going to flip that coin and look at how mainstream literary fiction employs techniques developed […]
My Start as a Writer and My First Published Story
Hi, my name is Matt Mitrovich. I have been an avid reader most of my life and like most book worms I had the desire see my own name in print one day. I wanted […]
No. 17 – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, and Book Burning.
No. 17 – 2013May26 – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, and Book Burning. Ray Bradbury would have you believe that he only wrote a single science fiction story. The rest, he claims, are actually fantasy yarns. […]
ASM Blog Horde Interview with Ricky L. Brown
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 […]
Crossroads: “Literary” Speculative Fiction and Literary Sensibilities
As I mentioned last week, trying to draw general conclusions about the relationship between mainstream literary fiction and speculative fiction is difficult at best. For every “general” hypothesis, a slew of counter-examples can be raised […]
From Fantasy England to Realistic Space Battles
I had a spurt of reading energy so instead of giving you three weeks of reviews I decided to bundle them altogether into one article. Luckily for me I get to review books from two […]
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination Returns
Fantastic Stories of the Imagination Warren Lapine, ed. Wilder Publications $29.99 hardcover $14.99 trade paper $6.59 Kindle $7.99 Nook In one of its prior incarnations, Amazing Stories® had a sister publication, Fantastic Stories of the […]
How Young is a Young Adult?
The science fiction novels I read as a teen weren’t written for that age group. The themes were adult, as were the character dynamics and main issues. There just weren’t enough young adult books to […]
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