Tag Archives: scifi

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Top ten skiffy gizmos verging on reality

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Either it’s a slow week over at New Scientist, or they decided to throw us science fictional types a bone… either way, we’ll point out their top ten list of science fiction gadgets and devices that are nearing reality*.

As such lists do, it includes the gloriously impractical (e.g. the long-fabled jetpack) alongside a couple of genuinely useful items (like a universal audio translator and an artificial gill for breathing under water).

It’s a shame there aren’t more things like reliable sources of drinkable water, effective renewable energy generators and cures for diseases… but that’s us science fiction geeks for you, always with our head in the clouds. If you could pick any sf-nal technology to make a reality, what would it be?

* It would appear, possibly unsurprisingly, that the New Scientist definition of ‘reality’ is one that includes you having a lot of money.

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More future art: Razer

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Via Irene Gallo at Tor.com (who, as Tor’s art director, surely knows exactly what the hell she is talking about), here’s some more awesome near-future science fictional artwork from a contributor to the ConceptArt forums who goes by the name of Razer:

gunmen in a corridor by Razer

cyberpunk shootout by Razer

futuristic city skyline by Razer

The guy has a knack with the gritty street-level stuff as well as the large-scale vision, and the thread where Razer posted these has literally dozens of other images from our cyberpunk tomorrows right out into outer space, all of which are pretty bloody impressive – to this fumble-fingered non-artist, at least.

I’m getting more and more tempted to do some sort of regular art slot here at Futurismic… what think you, readers?

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Electric Velocipede and Night Shade Books get it on

Electric Velocipede cover art for double-issue 15 and 16Great news for genre fiction fans of all stripes: Night Shade Books are teaming up with the excellent short fiction and poetry magazine Electric Velocipede. You can read the whole press release announcement if you like, but I’ll pick out the following part for those of Futurismic‘s readers resident in the US:

In celebration of this momentous alliance, Night Shade Books and Electric Velocipede are proud to announce a subscription drive: sign up for a one year subscription or renewal, and we’ll send you your choice of any two in-print Night Shade paperbacks or trade hardcovers! Just list your selections in the comments field when placing your order. Sorry, this offer applies only to United States subscribers only.

That’s a pretty good deal right there; Night Shade have put out some great novels and collections (I particularly recommend Walter Jon Williams‘ Implied Spaces), and Electric Velocipede has never disappointed me in the two years I’ve been a subscriber.

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Is “sci-fi” still a dirty word?

The gals and guys over at io9 have reheated the perennial debate of whether or not ‘science fiction’ is an accurate or useful descriptive name for the genre, with a side excursion into ‘is it OK to say sci-fi?’

As pointed out by plenty of commenters there, it’s not really a very important question. However, I am unable to get on my high horse about it, because I do tend to get sniffy when people who don’t know anything about the genre beyond Trek and Wars dismiss my book collection as ‘sci-fi’… and don’t get me started on people who say “oh, proper science fiction… like Heroes, yeah?” [image by Jim Linwood]

But from a marketing perspective, there’s a worthwhile question at the root of the debate: is the label of science fiction (however you contract or recast it) a kiss of commercial death? The massive success of Michael Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union – very carefully not marketed as science fiction, but embraced by the genre scene nonetheless – seems to suggest that the public can stomach the material of the genre.

So maybe it’s the internecine bitching over ephemera that puts them off?

Blasphemous Geometries

The Many Roads – and Solitary Path – to Believable Science Fiction

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Back in black like an Australian hard rock band long past its sell-by date, it’s Blasphemous Geometries.

Blasphemous Geometries by Jonathan McCalmont

This month, Jonathan McCalmont addresses the issue of believability in science fiction – is the truth of a text based in its scientific accuracy, or somewhere else?

Continue reading The Many Roads – and Solitary Path – to Believable Science Fiction →