Category: Science Fiction

The Years of Rice and Salt
[Reading Challenge 2019]

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson Random House, 2004 [Challenge # 6: An alternate history] Kim Stanley Robinson’s alternate history novel The Years of Rice and Salt caused a sensation in the SF world when it came out in 2004. In this timeline, the Black Plague kills off the entire population …

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Cloverfield Lane

Cloverfield Lane creature design, as envisioned by artist Kurt Papstein.  

The Silver Metal Lover [Review]

The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee DAW, 1981 The Silver Metal Lover is perhaps Tanith Lee’s best known novel after her three Flat Earth books. It may be the most beloved. Though an abiding Lee fan I was immune to its charms for many years until finally deciding to read it last summer. The …

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The Lost City of Uranus

Surely its name was S’phink-Ter?  

Gender Pronoun Tyranny

Some months ago I decided to write a short story featuring a genderqueer, nonbinary protagonist to see, in part, how it could, and should, be done to make them human and relatable. The SF book above, released in 1992, did it by creating a new pronoun for the titular character: Cry. Cry was the pimp/madam …

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Heavy on the Symbolism

Dare to touch her, and Death smiles. (Illustration by SF artist Virgil Finlay)

The Geek Feminist Revolution [Review]

The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley Tor, 2016 Kameron Hurley is one of a new generation of feminist SFF writers who began to publish in the 2010s, when social media began is phase of near-ubiquitousness, a cornucopia of hype, much of a geek-related. By geek I mean SFF in its many media — games, …

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Alternative Truths III: Endgame Released

My short story “Gold and Ivory” appears at the end of this marvelous collection!     Alternative Truths III: Endgame is the final volume in the best-selling Alternative Truths series from B Cubed Press. Edited by Bob Brown and Jess Faraday, Endgame features 30 of today’s best writers and political thinkers taking a look forward …

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