The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter review – a melancholy...
Though there’s plenty of fun to be had from this latest instalment of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s Long Earth series, I read it in a rather mournful frame of mind. Our supply of original...
View ArticleMichael Moorcock: My family values
My mother was a chronic liar. I learned early on that her version of the truth and other people’s version was nowhere close. As they say in Texas [where Moorcock lives], she would rather climb a tree...
View ArticleLost on Mars by Paul Magrs review – a coming-of-age tale set in space
Space exploration has enjoyed a renaissance of late. Missions to Mars and comet landings have renewed public interest, particularly among young people, and Lost on Mars is a welcome addition to the...
View ArticleThe best recent science fiction novels – review roundup
A former astronomer with the European Space Agency, Alastair Reynolds writes expansive, cutting-edge SF that explores the future with the analytical eye of a scientist. Poseidon’s Wake (Gollancz,...
View ArticleThe joy of reading role-playing games
I’m a lifelong fan of role-playing games, but I rarely play them. Dungeons & Dragons. Call of Cthulhu. Vampire: The Masquerade. Cyberpunk 2013. Traveller. I’ve been enchanted by the words and...
View ArticleDune, 50 years on: how a science fiction novel changed the world
In 1959, if you were walking the sand dunes near Florence, Oregon, you might have encountered a burly, bearded extrovert, striding about in Ray-Ban Aviators and practical army surplus clothing. Frank...
View ArticleAurora by Kim Stanley Robinson review – ‘the best generation starship novel I...
Forget the cartoon impossibilities of “faster than light” SF spaceships. In reality, the scale of interstellar distance and the constraints of physics mean any craft we build will take centuries to...
View ArticleWeird westerns that cross the genre border
It’s a little-known fact that one of the all-time bestselling writers of westerns lived most of his life in the English market town of Melton Mowbray. JT Edson, who died in 2014, wrote more than 137...
View ArticleTime Salvager by Wesley Chu review – a new sheen on sci-fi’s rusty clichés
Wesley Chu’s Time Salvager opens on a familiar scene. The spaceship captain of the High Marker stands on his bridge and receives status reports in standard sci-fi gobbledygook: “Shield arms down!”...
View ArticleWill HP Lovecraft’s ancient deity give his name to a feature on Pluto?
I have lately been glued to Stephen Baxter’s novels Proxima and Ultima, about a mission to colonise a planet of Proxima Centauri, but, already in a space exploration mindset, I’ve wrenched myself away...
View ArticlePluto: the splendid semi-planet with a special place in our hearts
We have all been marvelling at the New Horizons images of Pluto – 134340 Pluto, to give it its official, rather distractingly Beverley Hills 90210-ish designation. And we marvelled with good cause. The...
View ArticleDaniel José Older creates female black heroes to make fantasy more real
It’s fair to say that Daniel José Older is having a very good year. In the first week of 2015, Penguin published his first novel, Half-Resurrection Blues. By the end of January, Anika Noni Rose’s...
View ArticleGeorge RR Martin urges ‘every true fan’ to rally for Hugo awards vote
George RR Martin is urging “every true fan” of science fiction to vote in the Hugo awards before the ballot closes at the end of July, for what the Game of Thrones author said was “proving to be the...
View ArticleAre we alone? SF is as sure a guide as any
Are we alone? There are so many possible ways to begin to answer this question. The backstory on the Fermi Paradox – why we haven’t encountered aliens yet – reads like science fiction. Certainly, the...
View ArticleStephen Baxter interview: why science fiction is like therapy
In the summer of 2013, Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett published The Long War, the second volume of their Long Earth science-fiction series, about parallel worlds that can be “stepped” into. By the...
View ArticleNK Jemisin: the fantasy writer upending the ‘racist and sexist status quo’
“It’s human nature that we come in our own flavours,” fantasy author NK Jemisin tells the Guardian, “and it doesn’t make any sense to write a monochromatic or monocultural story, unless you’re doing...
View ArticleThe Puppies are taking science fiction’s Hugo awards back in time
The clock is ticking for the public vote in this year’s Hugo awards, which celebrate excellence in science fiction. Sixteen categories are up for grabs, from best novel to short fiction, fan writing,...
View ArticleApocalypse how? Sci-fi’s rich history of post-disaster futures
The Book of Revelation, full of “hail and fire mingled with blood”, great stars falling from heaven and “two hundred thousand thousand” horsemen, is a cornerstone of apocalypse narratives. The word...
View ArticleUrsula Le Guin’s advice for aspiring writers: ‘There are no recipes’
The acclaimed science fiction novelist Ursula Le Guin, revealing that she no longer has the “vigour and stamina” to write another novel, has launched an online fiction writing workshop – and has been...
View ArticleAles Kot, the writer taking comic books to mindbending new dimensions
At 28 years old, Ales Kot is at the forefront of a new generation of writers injecting fresh psychedelic and philosophical blood into American comics. His reality-bending, mind-expanding work,...
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