To finish up my re-reading of Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation trilogy, this week I’m looking at his Second Foundation. The novel, published in this form in 1953, is a reprinting of two novellas published in Astounding magazine in 1948-50. This third novel may not have quite the dramatic impact of The Mule (in Foundation and […]
Julia: A Retelling of George Orwell’s 1984 by Sandra Newman
I hesitated to put up this review of Julia by Sandra Newman since I recently indicated that my reviewing time, limited due to illness, would be devoted to books that really inspired me in some way. Well, this one didn’t, but it was the last commitment I made to NetGalley, so I wrote a brief […]
Neom by Lavie Tidhar – A Review
In the helpful afterward to his hauntingly beautiful new novel, Neom, Lavie Tidhar describes his process of writing it as one of discovery. He wrote about a robot going to the flower market of the bustling city of Neom to buy a single rose. But why? He had to write another story to answer that […]
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov – A Review for #VintageSciFiMonth
Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity combines ideas about time travel with a questioning of the direction humanity could or should take over millions of years. However, the big issues about society, the development of humanity and the nature of Eternity are left to the end when a powerful turnabout occurs where expectations and assumptions […]
Philip K. Dick on What Is Science Fiction? #SciFiMonth
Philip K. Dick on What Is Science Fiction? continues an occasional series exploring how writers have thought about their craft and what it means. Instead of looking for pedantic definitions, I’m examining the ideas about science fiction that some of the best writers have offered, not as definitions but as reflections on their chosen genre […]
Linda Nagata’s Pacific Storm: A Review
I put off reading Linda Nagata’s Pacific Storm for a while because I was so enamored of her far future epics that I wondered about a nearish-future thriller set in Hawai’i awaiting the arrival of a powerful hurricane. Well, once I got into the story, I couldn’t let go. Pacific Storm has that feel-it-in-yours-bones tension […]
