May 30 sees the publication of Defying Doomsday, a very interesting anthology edited by Holly Kench and Tsana Dolichva and published by Twelfth Planet Press. Here is the blurb: Teens form an all-girl band in the face of an impending comet. A woman faces giant spiders to collect silk and protect her family. New friends… Continue reading Defying Doomsday
Category: Thoughts on SFF
2015 Reading on SCy-Fy
I read 85 books in 2015, fairly evenly divided between science fiction and fantasy. The photo shows an average mail day. Science fiction was slightly ahead this year in part because of my push to read all of the first 24 books in the Gollancz SF Masterworks series; I blogged about that here. My reading… Continue reading 2015 Reading on SCy-Fy
SF Masterworks: The First 24
Here at SCy-Fy, we don’t often sit in judgement on books (not publicly, anyway); we ask a lot of questions and then some more. Today will be different. The reason is that I have just finished reading the first 24 books in Gollancz’s SF Masterworks series. This is a goal I have had for some… Continue reading SF Masterworks: The First 24
SFF Series that Hooked Us After the First Book
I participated in a Mind Meld on SF Signal to discuss this topic. The moderator was Rob Bedford and the other panelists were Lee Kelly, Luke Brown, Stefan Raets, Mike Ferrante, Harry Connolly and Courtney Schafer. The clear winner was – well, I don’t want to spoil the suspense. Check it out on SF Signal!
Sequels You Would Love to Read
What genre book(s) do you wish a sequel had been written to? I took part in a Mind Meld on SF Signal to discuss this topic. The Meld was presented by Paul Weimer and the other guests were Kari Sperring, Peter Newman, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Alexandra Pierce, Shaun Duke, Jaime Lee Moyer, Michael J Martinez,… Continue reading Sequels You Would Love to Read
Worst (Best) Century to Have Lived In?
Post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction love to imagine dark times. In 2004, Channel 4 in the UK ran a three-part programme on the world’s worst century, which the makers selected as the 14th century, largely due to the Black Death. Ten years on, let’s re-assess. The Black Death must have been horrible, but are there other candidates for… Continue reading Worst (Best) Century to Have Lived In?
Unaccompanied Sonata by Orson Scott Card
I remember clearly reading this story when it was first published in Omni magazine in 1979, when I was very young. I have just re-read the story for the first time since then and was surprised and pleased to see how well I remembered it. That is the sign of a story that really made… Continue reading Unaccompanied Sonata by Orson Scott Card
Language in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
On re-reading this classic recently, I was very struck by the clever use of language. “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” was first published in 1966, the setting is 2075-6. Heinlein gives his viewpoint character a plausible future Moon dialect of English; a number of Russian words and even some Australian ones such as “cobber”. The character’s… Continue reading Language in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
Who Can Replace a Man? by Brian Aldiss
This story imagines an attempt by machines to replace humans who are presumed to be extinct. It reminded me of Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, but with machines instead of animals. In the end, the answer to the question in the story’s title is given as “no machine”. However, until they realise that humans are not actually extinct,… Continue reading Who Can Replace a Man? by Brian Aldiss
UFOs in A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
What do science fiction fans think of the UFO phenomenon? Clarke’s novel A Fall of Moondust got me thinking about it again. The setting is around 2040 AD. A tourist bus on the moon is trapped under the surface and rescuers race against time to save the passengers before they run out of oxygen. When… Continue reading UFOs in A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
S.C. Flynn 