Say you were offered the chance to be introduced to the great love of your life, your absolute perfect soul mate. The two of you will be perfect together– compatible personalities, the same taste in movies and books, sex so good you’ll temporarily lose the power of speech– but you’ll only be together for five… Continue reading Hypothetical Scenario: Love and Death
Category: SF
Greetings, Gentlebeings!
Because I’m a Bad Person: (Context here, here, and here, Flickr group here.)
Literary Poll: Nanotechnology in Fiction?
A reader writes in with a literary query: I was asked to teach a 400-level course on Nanotechnology at my U. In addition to the usual technical content, I would like to include a critical view of how nanotechnology is portrayed in popular culture. So I am looking for suitable works that can be examined.… Continue reading Literary Poll: Nanotechnology in Fiction?
Prospective Hugo Nomination Update
The Hugo Award nomination deadline is fast approaching, so I’ve been doing a bunch of reading to make sure I’ve covered a reasonable range of potential nominees. I’ve been really bad about book-logging recently, but I thought I’d at least post some brief comments on my crash reading here, for those who are just dying… Continue reading Prospective Hugo Nomination Update
Boskone 45 Wrap-Up
Since basically nobody reads my inside-baseball stuff about SF, I’ll put the details below the fold. Short version: Kate and I went to Boskone this past weekend, and it was good.
Quantum Teleportation (for Dogs)
I gave a talk at Boskone in the prime Sunday 10 am slot, on quantum teleportation. I read the opening dialogue from Chapter 8 of the book, and then did a half-hour (or so) explanation of the real physics behind quantum teleportation. If you weren’t one of the thirty-ish people who watched at least part… Continue reading Quantum Teleportation (for Dogs)
Boskone 45 Schedule
Kate and I will be attending Boskone agains next week, and the preliminary program has been posted. Kate’s posted her thoughts on what looks interesting, and mine are below the fold:
Tell Me What to Nominate
It’s Hugo nomination season again, which means that I need to come up with a list of works to suggest for SF’s premier fan-voted award. It also means that there are lots of publications out there putting out lists of recommended works to help potential Hugo voters narrow their ballots. Last year, there was a… Continue reading Tell Me What to Nominate
My Boskone Schedule
I’ll be on programming at Boskone again this year, and got my preliminary schedule over the weekend: Satur 10am Tunguska at 100 Guy Consolmagno, Jeff Hecht, Chad Orzel On June 30, 1908, an exploding asteroid leveled 2000 square kilometers of Siberian forest, producing a fireball from the sky which knocked pine trees over like matchsticks… Continue reading My Boskone Schedule
Buy The Dragon Never Sleeps! Buy it Now!
Amazon conveniently informed me today of a very positive development in SF: Night Shade Books is republishing Glen Cook’s space opera novel The Dragon Never Sleeps, which I reviewed quite some time ago. I’ve re-read it since then, and if anything, my opinion of it improved. It’s “New Space Opera” written years before there was… Continue reading Buy The Dragon Never Sleeps! Buy it Now!