Walter Scott's review of Frankenstein gives a nice sense of the emerging consciousness of something like science fiction as a particular class of storytelling.

[www.rc.umd.edu]

ETA: wow, I just got bored while re-reading my own comment.
Tell it to John Donne. Also: yay, women in computer science.
Thanks Swenson! I must have been only seven or eight the first time I played Zork and I never stopped hoping I would find ancient tunnel system under my neighborhood.

I wrote an essay about some of my gaming inspirations that just posted at the Mulholland Books blog: [www.mulhollandbooks.com]

- Austin
When I was writing Soon I Will Be Invincible I mostly had Jonathan Lethem's book Fortress of Solitude in mind - I'm always surprised people don't remember that book more.

I have another superhero book forthcoming and it's quite different - I didn't want to come back to that genre unless I felt I had something genuinely new to say there. I think it's going to be cool.
Does anyone else feel like they're listening to the System Shock soundtrack?
@Athensjail: Supposedly he and Denzel Washington have *competing* Hannibal projects. Carthago Delenda Est!
All I want from Vin Diesel is the Hannibal Barca biopic he's working on.
This is clearly an artist who hated drawing feet.
@bluehinter: Trilogy of Failure, I like that! We should issue a boxed set.
I haven't thought about that the Change War in forever! Is it me or is Leiber kind of a forgotten man of SF/F literature? Because of his sexual politics, maybe? I suppose Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road was a tribute.
@cletar: I so much wish I could talk about what's going on with the Invincible movie. It's definitely being worked on. #bookvortex
I loved the "Giant Headset" devices. I never tried the arcade version (Dactyl Nightmare?) but on the PC games I tried (System Shock, Flight Unlimited), they produced a vivid illusion of being in a space, even on pretty low resolution display. It's too bad they never found a commercial niche - too expensive, not enough software support. Someday they'll come back!
@Goodnightbabytron: Now that you raise this, I think you're right - this may deserve follow-up posts. Also t-shirts.
To those who covet: my sister does these on a retail basis, smaller scale - hemoglobin, insulin, enzymes of all sorts. Custom work. She can hook you up.

[www.bathsheba.com]

@Annalee Newitz: I can't even look at that stuff. Hell I couldn't even watch Adaptation.
@Grey_Area: Wait, there I am. My first thought was of Joe-Jim from Orphans of the Sky.
How do you guys watch these early?
a) Beak
b) Spiral
c) Emma Frost (let's face it)
@bluewyvern: I'm seeing Warren on Friday and will bug him about it. Someone needs to make a sequel - I bet EA owns the rights from when it bought Origin.
I thought this was going to be about the old Origin game "Martian Dreams" - an early Warren Spector game, steampunk about fifteen years before it became fashionable.