The great Philip José Farmer was the master of grand concepts – story ideas based with unique original settings, such as Riverworld, which features a strange physical afterlife into which all the humans who ever lived are reincarnated. One of his lesser-known works is a blending of historical and far future concepts: his 1971 novel […]
Ever since I read his 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson has been one of my favorite authors. He writes in a broad variety of genres, including the “Baroque Cycle” historical fiction series. His 2017 novel The Rise And Fall of D.O.D.O., co-authored with Nicole Galland, is an interesting twist on the theme of […]
At the height of the genre’s boom around 2010, lots of folks were getting on the Steampunk Bandwagon. One happy side effect was a renewed interest in science fiction from the Victorian Era. The book Steampunk Prime is a collection of tales from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, collected by editor Mike Ashley. A […]
In 2016, after the surprise victory of the Orange Interloper, I was invited to participate in a Donald Trump sci-fi anthology by fellow writer George Donnelly. I had fun writing my contribution, though the majority of the stories therein were unmistakably anti-Trump in tone. MAGA 2020 & Beyond, published in 2017 by Superversive Press, is […]
Recently I wrote a review of Volume 2 of Jerry Pournelle’s “There Will Be War.” The series began in the 1980’s and came to an end in 1990 when the Soviet Union fell. After 9/11/2001, however, it was apparent that Fukuyama was quite wrong about “The End of History.” Notwithstanding the continuance (and increase) in […]
C. J. Hopkins, an American playwright residing in Berlin, writes a column of political commentary which appears in various places on the Internet. I encountered his work on unz.com, a rogue site which publishes writers from all over the spectrum, many of whom have been banned and censored elsewhere. I enjoy Hopkins’ maverick viewpoint and […]
In the early 1980’s, renowned sci-fi writer Jerry Pournelle compiled the first in a series of story collections with a military theme. For several years they came out regularly until the end of the Cold War seemed to make the series obsolete. Though I hadn’t been interested at the time, my interests have broadened since […]
(Directed by J.A. Bayona) In one of Star Trek’s many incarnations, the crew of the Enterprise encountered a society of clones that was in big trouble. Every genetic duplication they made introduced a bit of error, a concept they called “replicative fading.” The same holds true, unfortunately, for the latest movie in the Jurassic Park […]
Images (c) their respective publishers and/or artists. British writer Michael Moorcock is a master of many genres. He’s written numerous volumes of classic fantasy as well as iconic modern sci-fi. He is also one of the few who was writing steampunk because it was “a thing.” The cover of his 1971 novel Warlord of the […]
When you’ve got lemons, the saying goes, make lemonade. Or if you’ve got a two-hour daily commute, make it enjoyable with audiobooks. Recently I’ve been doing audiobooks at a rate of one every week or so. Once again I found myself on Audible searching for another steampunk novel. Kathleen McClure’s Soldier of Fortune: A […]
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