Pixels and Panels #2: Online Comics
Here are two web comics that feature world-building on a grand scale.
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Interview with Bestselling Author Daniel Abraham (James S.A. Corey and M.L.N. Hanover)
Today we are joined by bestselling and award-winning author Daniel Abraham. Daniel publishes science fiction as one half of the two-headed giant, James S.A. Corey. He satisfies readers with his urban fantasy as M.L.N. Hanover, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Jingoism and the Culture of Fear in Star Trek Into Darkness
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cn4A5IZg1k&w=570&h=321] Having seen Star Trek Into Darkness twice now, and having very much enjoyed it, my aim is to avoid spoilers here whenever possible, for the sake of those readers who might intend to […]
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 […]
To Star Trek or to Star Wolf?
Why not do both? Let’s start with Trek. The new Star Trek movie Into Darkness debuts this month. The word of mouth seems good from the few people I know who have seen advance screenings […]
Commander Koenig and the Lost Planet Airmen
You could get a hernia trying to suspend your disbelief high enough for this premise.
Hey, Who Shot First? Again!
A fan’s examination of the evolution of Star Wars from book to film to book to re-releases.
Alien Parameter Space
I love science fiction stories with aliens. There are some good ones without aliens, but they’d probably be better if they threw in some aliens. OK, maybe not, but I still love aliens. I write […]
Book Review: Hope Reborn by S.M. Stirling and David Drake
Hope Reborn by S.M Stirling and David Drake Baen Books 2013 978-1-4516-3877-6 (Trade paperback) Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that has long been the mainstay of Baen Books. True, Ace has […]
Sequential Wednesdays #8 – Rotten & Dirty [UPDATED]
UPDATE: ComiXology’s David Steinberger has announced that it was *NOT* Apple’s decision to not release Saga #12. Please see my comment below. It’s genuinely shocking that I haven’t written a full post about my absolute favorite […]
Book Review: Bowl of Heaven by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven
Bowl of Heaven – Gregory Benford and Larry Niven Tor – 2012 978-0765328410 (Hardbound) This is the first collaboration between two of our major writers, Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. Bowl of Heaven is about […]
How to Make a SciFi Feature Film for $500
In 2006, I created Borg War, an animated Star Trek feature film. Since I suspect that most writers would jump at the change to script a Star Trek film, I thought it might be of […]
Crossroads: The Western Hero in Speculative Fiction
Someone once said that every story starts with someone either coming to town, or leaving town. And there is no genre for which this adage holds more true than the western. It probably takes us […]
In Brackett’s Footsteps Under the Ember Star
Under the Ember Star Charles Allen Gramlich Wildside Press tpb $15.99 electronic $2.99 Kindle epub Unless Stephen Haffner has an unpublished manuscript tucked away somewhere, there will be no new stories from Leigh Brackett. Fortunately, […]
Mars Babylon: A Review of John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood by Michael D. Sellers
Reading Michael D. Sellers’ fascinating book, John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood, we learn all the reasons why John Carter, Disney’s film version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, failed at the box office. […]
The Monster Makers
The spotlight last month fell on the special effects wizards who make SF monsters come to life. The crowning glory was the award of the Best Picture Oscar for Argo. This spy drama focuses on […]
Strange Days
Fighting monsters is easy. Maintaining an interstellar relationship? That’s hard.
Cloud Atlas Shrugged – or let the Skyfall
On Monday Skyfall was released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK. Tomorrow Cloud Atlas will open in UK cinemas. Two films, poles apart. Skyfall, the 23th entry in probably the world’s longest running and […]
Ray Gun Rewind – Invoking Inigo
Hi, I’m Johne (John with a silent SEO’e’) and I’m an Overlord. <lengthy pause> Ahem – I can see you haven’t prostrated yourself yet. Perhaps you don’t yet understand. It is true I no longer […]
SF Weapons 101: An Introduction
Science Fiction from its earliest incarnations has always featured some sort of futuristic weaponry. From H.G. Wells’ martian heat-ray to the most modern charged particle beam of Alastair Reynolds, SF weapons astound, confound and amaze […]
Halo Jones Interview with Ian Gibson
Before From Hell, before Watchmen, before The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, there was The Ballad of Halo Jones. Co-created by writer Alan Moore and artist Ian Gibson, Halo Jones was a space opera about a young woman who is swept up in […]
Is Science Killing Science Fiction?
Gregory Benford shared this on facebook, asking if this notion was true: Strahan, Jonathan, “Introduction,” Edge of Infinity, Solaris, 2012. This is just a short introduction to Strahan’s latest book of short stories, but he […]
A Kepler’s Dozen
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 […]
A New Generation of Star Wars
A couple of months ago came an announcement that caught many of off-guard. The announcement I refer to is that of the Star Wars franchise being sold to Disney and the plan of a new […]
Ready When You Are, JJ
They’ve really done it now. It’s over. First George Lucas sold Luke, Obi Wan, Princess Leia, Han and all the others into eternal indentured servitude on the Disney Plantation. Lucas, once a man with ideas […]
Inoculate Against the Lurids: Language Is A Virus
I’m pleased to be participating at Amazing Stories by writing about pulps. But before jumping feet first into that discussion, it’s best to issue a warning: It’s always important for all participants in a conversation […]
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