Tag Archives: science fiction

Blog

Science fiction’s stars of tomorrow – who do you rate?

4 Comments

The SF Signal gang have been running another of their ‘Mind Meld’ pieces. This time they asked a bunch of genre notables which up-and-coming writers they thought would be the next generation of sf’s big hitters. Here’s the final list, based on frequency of mentions:

  • Paolo Bacigalupi (4 mentions)
  • Darryl Gregory (4)
  • Benjamin Rosenbaum (3 mentions)
  • Cory Doctorow (3)
  • Jay Lake (3)
  • David Moles (3)
  • Chris Roberson (3)
  • Vandana Singh (3)
  • Elizabeth Bear (2 mentions)
  • Alan DeNiro (2)
  • Alex Irvine (2)
  • Ted Kosmatka (2)
  • Paul Melko (2)
  • Naomi Novik (2)
  • Tim Pratt (2)
  • Jason Stoddard (2)
  • Karen Traviss (2)
  • Scott Westerfeld (2)

We’re pleased to see two Futurismic alumni in that list – Jay Lake and Jason Stoddard. No mention of Tobias Buckell, though, which seems surprising to me – and not just because he used to blog here, either.

There’s also a lively discussion thread going on, with plenty of other writers pitching in with their suggestions and refutations. What about you guys – who would Futurismic‘s readers add to (or remove from) that list?

Fiction

VERITAS NOS LIBERABIT by Kristin Janz

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This month’s story comes from Kristin Janz, who took a rather different approach to narrative structure; “Veritas Nos Liberabit” is a story told in emails about how emails can tell stories.

So read on, and don’t forget to leave Kristin some feedback in the comments at the bottom. Enjoy!

Veritas Nos Liberabit

by Kristin Janz

From: jess hentzchel <jessicahentzchel@gmail.com>
Sent: August 1, 20__ (12:42 a.m., EDT)
To: Amy Pearson <apearson@eslpharm.com>
Subject: Dancing bear – kind of funny (fwd)
Attachments: dancingbear.gif

Amy – Check out the dancing bear, it’s sort of cute.

#

From: Amy Pearson <apearson@eslpharm.com>
Sent: August 1, 20__ (9:23 a.m., EDT)
To: jess hentzchel <jessicahentzchel@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Dancing bear – kind of funny (fwd)

This isn’t like you, Jess. Forwarding cute animated graphics of anthropomorphic predators? What next, angel poetry penned by senile old ladies in the Midwest? Or – heaven forbid – “Footprints”?

So it’s official. David is getting divorced. I overheard him telling Vikram in the cafeteria this morning.

Amy

#

From: Jonathan Lu <jlu@eslpharm.com>
Sent: August 1, 20__ (9:31 a.m., EDT)
To: Amy Pearson <apearson@eslpharm.com>
CC: Medicinal Chemistry
Subject: Re: Dancing bear – kind of funny (fwd)

> Jonathan – Check out the dancing bear, it’s sort of cute.

Amy, why you send this to me? I don’t know what it means, Veritas Nos Liberabit. It is French?

#

Continue reading VERITAS NOS LIBERABIT by Kristin Janz →

Blasphemous Geometries

A virus with space-shoes – SF, YA and all that

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Welcome back to Blasphemous Geometries – science fiction criticism that goes where sex ed. teachers fear to tread.

Blasphemous Geometries by Jonathan McCalmont

This month Jonathan McCalmont looks at the entanglement of science fiction with Young Adult literature, and wonders whether YA is the latest victim of science fiction’s aggressive expansionist tendencies. Continue reading A virus with space-shoes – SF, YA and all that →

Blog

Science fiction series that suck

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Complete series of Nero Wolfe booksOver at io9, Charlie Jane Anders digs for the root cause of an accepted truism of genre (and, I think, all) writing: the longer a series gets, the more it starts to suck.

I guess you could put it down to the law of diminishing returns, which is far from being exclusive to media and entertainment. But whatever the cause, there are a number of cases where all but the most ardent uncritical fanboy starts thinking “you should have let it be”. [image by deadeyebart]

Anders uses the obvious (but extremely valid) example of the seemingly endless Dune saga; while I’ll agree that Frank Herbert‘s sequels were less than brilliant, their level of suck completely pales when held up against the Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson continuations.

Personally, as much as I’d jump in front of a speeding train for Douglas Adams it was plain to see by the last few Hitchhikers books that he should have moved on and focussed on some of his other ideas. Also, dreadful sequels and series in general are the main reason I gave up television completely eight years ago.

And if you want uncompromising sequel-rage, you should try asking Jonathan McCalmont about Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake books …

What are the sequels you love to hate? And which ones have you continued with – despite the suck?