How Important is Science Fact in Science Fiction?
I’ve heard the question a few times before, but I can’t remember if I’ve ever addressed it from my personal perspective (as a writer and as a reader). Science fiction, for me, has always been as much about its science as it is about its fiction, but always within a certain futurological perspective — that […]
Good vs. Evil and the Simple World That Never Was
(Or the Problem of Absolutes in Fantasy Literature) Good vs. evil. It forms the basis of our religions and fills the narratives of our stories, myths, legends, and day-to-day conversations. But the more I look at the world, the more I get the sense that such a simple dichotomy never existed. Nothing is ever so […]
The Reviewer Matters: On the NYT Review of “A Game of Thrones”
If you haven’t seen the blogosphere throwing a fit yet about this New York Times review of the TV adaptation of “A Game of Thrones,” then prepare yourself. It was bound to happen that some hack of that lovely “literary” culture would come along to talk about something they barely understand: this time A Game […]
Can Science Fiction Survive the Future?
I’ve been thinking a lot about this question lately. It has nothing to do with the publishing industry, sales, or anything like that (at least, not directly). What I’m really curious about is the ability for science fiction to be science fiction as time progresses: will we always have science fiction, or will it die […]
Guest Post: “The Weird West Subgenre” by Lincoln Crisler
Your kind host has asked me to introduce you to the wonderful world of the Weird West (and in doing so, to the unassailably awesome aesthetics of the alliteration!). If you like steampunk or alternate history, you might like Weird West stories. That Wild Wild West movie that came out a decade or two ago […]
New Weird and Scifi Strange: Part Three — The Existence of Unsure Things
(Read Part One and Part Two) III. The Strange is Coming? When I initially began work on the series of which this is a part, I had always intended to end with a post about Scifi Strange. I thought I would write a long, definition-based post about Scifi Strange and its problems. But then it […]