So I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury novels and short stories as a child. I did not read Isaac Asimov — not really sure why to be honest and something I had a nagging sense I should rectify at various points of adulthood. So first things first, I had to figure out in what order I should read the various … Continue reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Stories
The novel The Man in the High Castle is my favorite novel by Philip K. Dick. (Granted I haven’t read all of them yet so that could change.) I was interested when Amazon did a pilot for a teevee show based on the novel. Mostly I thought it was an interesting adaption. It did a lot of work to recreate the alternate universe. I was … Continue reading The Man in the High Castle
I just finished Aurora, the latest novel from Kim Stanley Robinson. Kim Stanley Robinson is a writer of hard science fiction who brings logical, methodical extrapolation to any topic he ponders. He is, despite all of that, a fairly poetic fellow who often detours from physics to philosophy and the human condition. But still, hard science. Aurora is a very interesting but ultimately somewhat unsatisfying novel. … Continue reading Bookmark: Kim Stanley Robinson
A few quick thoughts on Christopher Baldwin’s One Way, his newest webcomic project and another story with a large group of characters in a science fiction setting. His last webcomic Spacetrawler had a similar mix of elements and quickly became one of my favorites (and a whole lot of other people too). For me, the biggest difference at the outset between these two comics is … Continue reading One Way
Really enjoyed reading what’s posted so far for Titan by François Vigneault. It’s a bit unfortunate that it doesn’t quite have the standard reader friendly website design we’ve all gotten used to but it isn’t too difficult to read. Vigneault has constructed an immediately interesting world with a tension building scenario. Workers on Titan are genetically engineered for their environment but can no longer survive on … Continue reading Titan is an exciting new science fiction webcomic
Of all the great authors I read in the last decade or so, none seemed to possess the combination of utterly fantastic imagination and optimism in the future of humanity that Iain Banks put into his culture novels. It was startlingly sad news to read his post about his terminal cancer only two months ago; it is less startling but still sad news to see … Continue reading Farewell Iain Banks
Steven Gould is one of my favorite authors because of the way he takes one impossible idea and then logically delves into a world with this one new impossible idea in it. He has a scientific method feel to how he writes science fiction that I really enjoy and he generally has a nice touch with action and characters as well. He’s probably best known … Continue reading Bookmark: Steven Gould
These “Bookmark” posts are useful for me; hopefully a few other people get something out of them along the way. I really enjoy Neal Stephenson‘s books. Unlike Stephen King, another novelist where the length of the book increases with each new effort, I never read a Stephenson book and wonder how badly he beat the editors. Stephenson books revel in their research, the density of … Continue reading Bookmark: Neal Stephenson
Pop Culture Rewind: writing about pop culture years after it was current. So I watch the movie Contact the other night. First off, I read the novel by Carl Sagan almost 10 years ago. I have fond, but mixed memories of that book that watching the film actually clarified (although I am not realy sure how closely the film follows the book – obviously the film condensed the … Continue reading Pop Culture Rewind: Contact
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