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It's been ten years since the last Stainless Steel Rat book, and now Harry Harrison is back with another tale of "Slippery" Jim diGriz. John T. Ottinger ventures into Harrison's dangerous world, and lives to tell the tale. Spoilers below... More »
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We live in an absurd universe. And once you throw in stuff like time travel, fiction can get even sillier than real life. But how can you write speculative fiction that lives up to our ridiculous world, without being dumb? More »
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LibraryThing's science fiction group had a great discussion about "wrong book, wrong time" situations, where you hate a book, but much later, you rediscover it and fall in love. What books are you glad you gave a second chance to? More »
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Classic science fiction author Harry Harrison says America is becoming a totalitarian state, and praised Russia for its interest in literature, according to an interview published in the Russian newspaper Pravda. The Stainless Steel Rat author, visiting Moscow for a convention, said America violates its own constitution and behaves undemocratically towards the rest of the world, but any totalitarian regime "is bound to collapse sooner or later." He didn't actually praise Russia's government, but did say Russians are much more avid readers, and science fiction consumers, than Americans. But he criticized Russian science fiction for emphasizing ideas over action or characters. [Pravda] More »
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The first time I ever read the word "anti-hero," it was in an article about science fiction, and it's always seemed a very science fictional type of word — like anti-matter, or anti-gravity. Science fiction has its share of one-dimensional white hats, but the characters who capture our imagination are usually the morally blurred rascals, who have their own best interests at heart. You never quite know what an anti-hero will do next. Here's our guide to the roots of science fiction's greatest anti-heroes. More »
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Click to viewIn a few centuries, everybody will be a rube. Centuries of in-breeding in deep space will remove everyone's street smarts and turn people seriously gullible. That's the only explanation for why anybody would ever get taken in by some of the grifters you run into in science fiction, who practically have a sign around their neck that says "CON ARTIST!!!" With the three exclamation marks and everything. Here's our round-up of some of the most obvious and least crafty con-men and women in SF. More »
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Science fiction has three iconic images that definite the genre: aliens, rockets, and rayguns. Whether due to our obsession with phallic guns, or the idea that a laser pistol is just too cool to pass up, the scifi gun has endured since H.G. Wells introduced them as a "Heat-Ray" in 1898's War of the Worlds. As good old Han Solo would later say, "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Read on for our list of the best things that go PEW PEW PEW! More »
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