RIP: Ken Rand
Today is truly a sad day. Author Ken Rand has died. Patrick Swenson of Fairwood Press (who has recently published two of Mr. Rand’s short story collections) has a few things to say about the author (link found via SF Signal). This one hit a little closer to home for me than most of the […]
Who Gets to Decide What’s Good Literature?
(Originally found this question here). This question seems fitting considering my post yesterday about 1984 and genre fiction. One of the problems I think many of us have with literature is that there’s no consensus on what is good and what isn’t–not one, at least, that can be quickly and adequately discovered. Literary critics may […]
1984 and the Label “Science Fiction”
Google alerts brought to my attention this short, interesting, and annoyingly snobbish post about why 1984 shouldn’t be stuck in the science fiction category and, being the science fiction nut that I am, I couldn’t leave it well enough alone. The author certainly despises science fiction as a genre and I can’t help thinking that […]
SF/F Links: Pre-May Batch
Here are a few more links. Enjoy: Nothing Sacred writes an interesting post about Lord of the Rings as a science fiction tale. I don’t agree that it actually is science fiction, but the points he makes about why LOTR is important from an science fictional view certainly have merit. The Torch Online has a […]
Reader Question: How do I get ARCs/galleys easily?
This one was sent to me by LibraryDad via twitter. I think this is one of those questions that eventually gets asked by someone somewhere. Those of us who review books, whether professionally or as amateurs, love getting advanced reader copies (ARCs or galleys). I’m not entirely sure why. I like them because it’s nice […]
Reader Question: Why Science Fiction?
This is an interesting question submitted by Perry on Facebook. The reason it’s interesting is because I’m not sure what it’s asking. It could be asking several different things at once, such as: Why do you like science fiction? Why do you write/blog about science fiction? Why science fiction and not something else? How exactly […]