Arrakis and Single Biome Planets (part 1)
Are single Biome planets feasible? Maybe if you have 45,000 Super Star Destroyers in the garage
If Space Doesn’t Work This Way, Try With the Death Star
Why spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship? Why, indeed.
Rogue Stars in Science and Fiction
Rogue stars are fascinating objects, even though a certain confusion exists about what they are and the way they can interact with our solar system. And SF, while contributing to their popularity, has made things even worse
Tatooine in Real Space
Would there, could there be inhabitable planets with more than one sun, like the iconic Tatooine?
Warp-drive and Exoplanets
The science in science fiction is often misleading, if not missing….
Karel Čapek: SF Pioneer
Rediscovering Lovecraft’s “direct contemporary” – Karl Capek
David Whitaker – Unsung Hero of Doctor Who
Every so often in life, a moment of serendipity occurs when everyone involved in a project creates something marvellous. The birth of Doctor Who, fifty years ago this week, is one of those moments.
Movie Review — Is That What Scientology Does to Them?
After Earth – a sci fi film masquerading as a science fiction film
Interview with Peter F. Hamilton, author of Great North Road
Peter F. Hamilton is one of Britain’s best-selling SF authors. Hamilton’s novels hark back to the great days of science fiction, reveling in big ideas and unafraid to tackle hard science.
Interview with Pat Mills, Founder of 2000AD
Over four decades Pat Mills has been a major force in keeping the British comics industry alive. I caught up with him to chat about the reappearance of one of his most enduringly popular characters, the Celtic barbarian, Sláine.
Dirk Gently Revisited
Back in 1978, a young comedy sketch writer sent a script to the BBC’s flagship SF show, Doctor Who. Far from setting hearts fluttering with excitement, its demands for special effects such as time sinks, flying cars and planets that devoured other worlds caused frustrated executives to scream in horror. However, script editor Anthony Root […]
A Commissioning Editor Speaks: David Moore of Abaddon Books
Britain’s Abaddon Books is a seething brew of villainous steampunk, sleek spaceships, cruel sorcery, and blood-soaked horror. I tracked their commissioning editor David Moore down to his lair, where I forced him to unravel a cracked and crumbling papyrus to reveal an ancient secret: what does a commissioning editor do all day? Thanks for speaking to Amazing […]
My top 10 SF and fantasy picks for the big-screen treatment
Science fiction and fantasy are taking over the realm of the Hollywood summer blockbuster, no question about it. Marvel Studios is gearing up to launch the Avengers franchise into space with the forthcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film, Neill Blomkamp’s about to wow audiences with his sophomore full-length feature, Elysium, and Christopher Nolan’s next movie is […]
The Safest Place There Is
“The safest place there is. . . .” It’s a dubious, quizzical line, delivered by Lois Smith near the end of her one unforgettable scene as the self-proclaimed mother of Precrime. Dubious because we’re talking about the reliability of the human mind; quizzical because it’s a Philip K. Dick adaptation. But it’s a line, I’d […]
The Fire Must Be Kept Burning
Last Saturday, I spent my morning on the couch with a debilitating migraine, wondering what karmic injustice I’d committed in order to deserve being so miserable on my weekend off. But like the glass-half-full seeker of silver linings that I am, I whipped out the Prometheus 4-Disc Collector’s Edition Blu-ray I’d gotten as a gift […]
Flash Fiction
We are inundated by fiction. Every trip to the few remaining bookshops has more and more books marching along the shelves, magically procreating like the enchanted brooms in Disney’s Fantasia. There are so many books and so little time, especially when most of our reading now takes place online, in reading web articles and ever-shorter […]
Metadrama and Science Fiction in Affleck’s Argo
I had given some thought to doing an Oscars recap this week, tallying the various gains and losses of the science fiction and fantasy fields within that most prestigious of movie awards ceremonies. But given the controversy surrounding the show’s perceived undercurrent of sexism and other ugly mentalities, primarily attributed to the show’s host, I […]