Book Review: The Best of Analog edited by Ben Bova After the death of long-time editor John W. Campbell in 1971, Analog Science Fiction and Fact needed a new person at the helm. The winner of the selection process was Ben Bova (1932-2020), who intended to stay only a few years, those years winding up… Continue reading Book Review: The Best of Analog
Tag: postapocalyptic
Movie Review: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Movie Review: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi It is the year 2065, and in the ruins of Old New York, Dr. Aki Ross is looking for a plant. Some thirty odd years before, a meteor hit the Caspian Mountains, releasing the Phantoms. These ethereal beings come in multiple shapes and sizes;… Continue reading Movie Review: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Book Review: The Fifth Season
Book Review: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin The time is the far future. So far, indeed, that five or six great worldwide civilizations after our own have come, collapsed and been mostly forgotten. So far that there is only one known continent left, sarcastically known as The Stillness because of its constant tectonic activity.… Continue reading Book Review: The Fifth Season
Book Review: The Pocket Book of Science Fiction
Book Review: The Pocket Book of Science Fiction edited by Donald A. Wollheim In the introduction to this 1943 anthology, Donald A. Wollheim talks about “the theory of outrageous hypotheses” which helps science progress by asking, “this is not true but what if?” These ten stories are most assuredly fictional, but point to places to… Continue reading Book Review: The Pocket Book of Science Fiction
Book Review: The Buried Life
Book Review: The Buried Life by Carrie Patel Centuries after the Catastrophe that made living on the surface of Earth too dangerous for most humans, Recoletta is a thriving underground city. Conditions have improved on the surface enough so that there are farming communities up there, but the vast majority of people would rather stay… Continue reading Book Review: The Buried Life
Book Review: Octavia’s Brood
Book Review: Octavia’s Brood edited by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha One of the many uses of science fiction is to talk about current issues in a speculative setting. One can posit a world in which current trends have become exaggerated to dystopian levels, or where a solution has been found to a current… Continue reading Book Review: Octavia’s Brood
Book Review: The Rebellion’s Last Traitor
Book Review: The Rebellion’s Last Traitor by Nik Korpon Once upon a time, the Morrigan brothers formed a group called Tathadann to make Eitan City a refuge from the Resource Wars that were killing the planet. But then one of them betrayed the other, and the Tathadann became dictators. Now it was their turn to… Continue reading Book Review: The Rebellion’s Last Traitor
Book Review: Slow Dancing Through Time
Book Review: Slow Dancing Through Time by Gardner Dozois in collaboration with Jack Dann, Michael Swanwick, Susan Casper and/or Jack C Haldeman II. The art of collaboration is an interesting one; two authors (rarely three) blending their skills to create a story neither could produce individually. Ideally, the reader should be able to see the… Continue reading Book Review: Slow Dancing Through Time
Book Review: Infinity Two
Book Review: Infinity Two edited by Robert Hoskins Infinity was a series of paperback science fiction anthologies from Lancer Books in the early 1970s. Its primary draw was that all the stories were new, not having been previously printed in magazines. By this point, science fiction writers were allowed to mention sex and other controversial… Continue reading Book Review: Infinity Two
Book Review: Creatures from Beyond
Book Review: Creatures from Beyond edited by Terry Carr This 1975 speculative fiction anthology has the theme of monsters from outside human experience. The question of what lies in the outer darkness has haunted humanity since we developed imaginations. These nine stories look at the possibilities, from implacable enemies, to beings a lot like us… Continue reading Book Review: Creatures from Beyond