John W. Campbell, aka – Don A Stuart, wrote for Astounding Science-Fiction. His work Who Goes There? was voted the best science fiction novella EVER. Okay, slip of the tongue. ONE of the best. Sorry. […]
Over the last three weeks I have discussed the sources and causes of Science Fictions self-esteem problem. The genre’s inability to shed it’s pulp roots and ongoing pulpishness, the relative obscurity of SF to the […]
The Bloodlight Chronicles by Steve Stanton revives originality in today’s science fiction with a complex cyberpunk series.
NASA’s Kepler mission has been watching a swath of the Milky Way watching for the signs of stars being eclipsed by planets in orbit around them. This takes patience and favorable geometry, but Kepler has […]
Lisa Tuttle has long been one of the masters of the deeply unsettling tale. Last year her short story Objects in Dreams may be Closer than they Appear opened Jonathan Oliver’s excellent anthology, House of Fear, […]
Over at the Synthetic Voices podcast, I see a LOT of fiction over the course of a calendar year. Now, the 2012th year of the Common Era is coming to a close, so I thought I’d […]
Space Eldritch Nathan Shumate, ed. Cold Fusion Media Tpb $13.99, ebook $5.99 Kindle Nook Smashwords Two of the most popular subgenres of the fantastic are space travel (with its myriad sub-subgenres) and cosmic entities with […]
Stories can become dated and lose their luster, but amazing stories have a tendency to shrug off changes over time and shine on with fresh wonder. Written in 1932, The Lost Machine by John Beynon Harris is one of those amazing stories.
The only time the public pays attention to Science Fiction is when that great machine of mass marketing and “entertainment” called Hollywood inundates the collective consciousness with that most dreaded of phenomena: the Summer Blockbuster. But […]
Science deals with a lot of high speed phenomena, like the speed of sound and the speed of light, which can make the topic seem fast and exciting. We also see science news on tv […]
Time travel is one of those devices that seems to turn up eventually in most long running Science Fiction shows, particularly in the later seasons when they’ve worked out their main story arc already. I’ve […]
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?
This month has been a tumultuous one – travel, holidays, and illness. Podcasted fiction seems to have also had a hard time, December representing the weakest month for fiction that I have yet seen. Even […]
We’re heeeeere! Today’s interview is with Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times Bestselling author. Probably best-known for his contributions to the Star Wars universe and his Dune prequels with Brian Herbert, Kevin is currently hard […]
Five by Five Aaron Allston Kevin J. Anderson Loren L. Coleman B. V. Larson Michael A. Stackpole WordFire Press electronic only $4.99 Kindle B&N Kobo Smashwords I thought I’d look at some good old fashioned […]
Back in the old days you could read a novel in a series and pretty much enjoy that one novel as a stand-alone. The Asimov’s Foundation novels work this way, so do the novels in […]
Jules Verne hovers between number two and number three on the list of the most translated books worldwide and I think it’s deserved. He became one of the earliest science fiction writers to make it financially […]
Older male (check), glasses (check), white lab coat (check). A scientist! Even without the funny hat or breaker full of red liquid, everyone recognizes the stereotype. Stereotypes can be based on a nugget of truth […]
I’m often asked to recommend a good alternate history book, but you might as well ask me to name my favorite film. My mind rebels at the thought of picking just one. For the sake […]
Hello and welcome to what will be an occasional feature on my blog! So – what, exactly, do I mean by ‘unknown or underappreciated’? To put it simply – not everyone is a Kevin J. […]
“I Like Science Fiction, It’s Got Like Giant Robots and Stuff, Right?” Science Fiction’s Self-Esteem Problem Part I: Who Reads SF Anyway? Practically No One. Science Fiction has a self-esteem problem. Almost from its beginnings, […]
There is a curious phenomenon not exclusive to science fiction fandom, it is prevalent in pop music worship and other places, by which those afflicted feel a need to establish rivalries. The Star Wars fan […]
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 […]
I’m both stunned and excited by the comeback of Amazing Stories and that I have become a part of this historic process. And it is a historic process. I’ve been looking back at what Amazing […]
The Martian War by Kevin J. Anderson is a literary retrospective of writer H.G. Wells. It is a story based on the on the original War of the Worlds invasion premise, but this time around, several characters from other classic works by Wells partake in the adventure.
I do! Let me introduce myself. I’m an astronomer, a professor at the University of Wyoming, and a science fiction writer. I’ve been blogging for a number of years at www.mikebrotherton.com, primarily about the intersection […]
“I wish somebody’d tell me, Tell me if you can I want somebody to tell me What is the soul of a man.” –Blind Willy […]
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