Three weeks in Europe means a lot of time on planes and trains, so I actually got to read some fiction for a change. I’m stuck in a meeting all day today, and need a morale boost on the way in, so I’ll go back to my book-blogging roots and type up the books that… Continue reading What I Read on My Summer Vacation
Category: SF
Very Belated LonCon Write-Up
I’m up way too early with jet lag, looking over Twitter, and ran into Nick Falkner’s report on the TED panel I moderated at Worldcon, which reminded me that I never did write anything about the con. Late is probably still better than never, so here are some quick long-after-the-fact comments about my program items:… Continue reading Very Belated LonCon Write-Up
My LonCon Schedule
Since lots of other people are posting their Worldcon progrm(me) schedules, I might as well share mine, too. Frankly, I find it a little baffling: Kaffeeklatsch Thursday 18:00 – 19:00, London Suite 5 (ExCeL) Kay Kenyon, Chad Orzel Banksian Saturday 11:00 – 12:00, Capital Suite 9 (ExCeL) ‘Banksian’ has become a commonplace descriptor in SF… Continue reading My LonCon Schedule
Hugo Nominated Short Fiction: A Great Year for “No Award”
As previously noted, I’m going to the Wordlcon in London this August, and as such will be voting on this year’s Hugo Awards. The publishers provided a packet with at least bits of all the fiction nominees, so I’ve been reading through them at bedtime, and over the weekend finished all the regular nominees– I… Continue reading Hugo Nominated Short Fiction: A Great Year for “No Award”
Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman Series
One of the very best treatments of the scientific method in fiction that I’ve read– I suspect it may be the best, but years on the Internet make me want to hedge everything– is the Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein. The main character, Rowan, is a Steerswoman, a member of an order dedicated to collecting… Continue reading Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman Series
Dark Energy, Faster-Than-Light Travel, and Fine Structure Bombs
Last week’s talks were using sci-fi space travel as a hook to talk about relativity, and my original idea for the talk was to explain how faster-than-light travel ultimately ends up violating causality. Some observers will see effects happening before the events that cause them, and that’s just weird. In How to Teach Relativity to… Continue reading Dark Energy, Faster-Than-Light Travel, and Fine Structure Bombs
In Which I Read Hard Science Fiction
Astonishingly, in the last few weeks, I’ve actually found time to read some– gasp— novels. In particular, I finished two books that probably belong in the “Hard SF” genre: A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias and Lockstep by Karl Schroeder. Both Jim and Karl are people I’ve met many times at cons; I’ve enjoyed… Continue reading In Which I Read Hard Science Fiction
Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson [Library of Babel]
I’ve gotten out of the habit of blogging about the books I read for fun here, mostly because I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading for fun. Not for lack of desire, but because between my job and the kids and the massive amounts of research reading for the book-in-progress, I haven’t had time.… Continue reading Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson [Library of Babel]
Direct and Indirect Heating: Why Don’t Power Plants Change Local Climate?
This past weekend, I was at Boskone, where I appeared on a few science-y panels. One of these was on the possibility of beaming power down from space: Energy From Space Beam me down some juice, Scotty? Let’s talk about the possibilities — and practicalities — of really long-distance power transmission. Tom Easton (M), Jordin… Continue reading Direct and Indirect Heating: Why Don’t Power Plants Change Local Climate?
The Inspiring Power of You’re Doing It Wrong
I’ve got a bunch of browser tabs open on my various computers that have been there for weeks, one of which is Alastair Reynolds on writing science fiction. This is mostly a response to a not-terribly-interesting complaint that the science fiction genre has been “exhausted,” but there was a bit in there that resonated with… Continue reading The Inspiring Power of You’re Doing It Wrong