Category: Uncategorized

  • “The Roads Must Roll” by Robert A. Heinlein

    I wrote this essay in August 2011, I thought it was already posted here but apparently not: Any child with an interest in how the world works would at some point or another in their young lives come up with the idea of moving roads.  The whole highway system as a means to convey people […]

  • “Helen O’Loy” by Lester Del Rey

    This is Del Rey’s second published story, from 1938 at the age of 23. Anyone who thinks SF short fiction is a young person’s game now should look at some of these classics, and we’re still a few years before 21-year old Asimov writing Nightfall, considered by many the greatest SF short story ever. Helen […]

  • “Twilight” by John W. Campbell

    Campbell was only 24 when this story was published, among the first if not the first under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart, to distinguish his more serious work from the pulpier stuff he had already published in Amazing and Wonder Stories. This might have been his first story for Astounding, it was followed by a […]

  • “A Martian Odyssey” by Stanley Weinbaum

    First up in the SFWA SF Hall of Fame is this 1934 classic by Stanley Weinbaum, the first published SF story by a young prolific writer who must have also been a chain smoker as he died of lung cancer in his early thirties. A Martian Odyssey is one of the stories more famous for […]

  • 2018 Nebula nominees

    Novel The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK) Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK) Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan) Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing) Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga) Novella Fire Ant, Jonathan P. Brazee (Semper Fi) The Black […]

  • Locus recommended SF novels 2018

    ▪ Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager US; Hodder & Stoughton) ▪ Emergence, C.J. Cherryh (DAW) ▪ Chercher La Femme, L. Timmel Duchamp (Aqueduct) ▪ Europe at Dawn, Dave Hutchinson (Solaris UK) ▪ Shelter, Dave Hutchinson (Solaris US; Solaris UK) ▪ Pride and Prometheus, John Kessel (Saga) ▪ The Calculating Stars, Mary […]

  • Books to read for Hugo noms

    Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK) Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente (Saga) Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager US; Hodder & Stoughton) Pride and Prometheus, John Kessel (Saga) The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) If Tomorrow Comes, Nancy Kress (Tor) Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK) […]

  • Strahan Best Of ToC

    “Dreadful Young Ladies”, Kelly Barnhill (Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories) “Okay, Glory”, Elizabeth Bear (Twelve Tomorrows) The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing) “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again”, Zen Cho (B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, 11/31/18) “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”, P […]

  • PKD nominees

    The 2019 Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced: Time Was, Ian McDonald (Tor.com Publishing) The Body Library, Jeff Noon (Angry Robot) 84k, Claire North (Orbit) Alien Virus Love Disaster, Abbey Mei Otis (Small Beer) Theory of Bastards, Audrey Schulman (Europa) Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, Vandana Singh (Small Beer)

  • Goodreads Best SF of 2018

    Vengeful, V.E. Schwab Iron Gold, Pierce Brown Vox, Christina Dalcher Only Human, Sylvain Neuvel Red Clocks, Leni Zumas The Night Masquerade, Nnedi Okorafor Persepolis Rising, James S.A. Corey Artificial Condition, Martha Wells The Oracle Year, Charles Soule Head On, John Scalzi Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers Star Wars Thrawn: Alliances, Timothy Zahn Severance, […]