Tag Archives: sci-fi

Science Fiction Story Anthology from Starship Sofa

by Editor

01 Front_Section.inddThe wonderful science fiction podcasting site, Starship Sofa, in celebration of its 100th episode, has published its first collection of stories as a book. Not just an ordinary book. It’s a book filled with fantastic illustrations and gorgeous layout that hearkens back to the pulp publications of the 1930s through 1950s. It even has vintage advertisements!

The best part is that you can either buy the book or read it as a free ebook in an excellent ebook viewer.

Some of the authors featured are Michael Moorcock, Alastair Reynolds, Ken Scholes, Ruth Nestvold, Elizabeth Bear, and more.

UFO Sighting Sci-Fi From India

by Editor

All UFO sightings and reports of them are works of science fiction and should be judged on their artistic merits. Some are simply genius. The whole Area 51 alien ship landing story in the U.S. is terrific science fiction and fascinates me every time I read about it. This little video from India is extremely good science fiction. It has a cheerfulness sorely lacking in most sci-fi produced in the U.S. Our sci-fi has become big, self-important, thumping, overbearing and deadly dull. This video shows a tiny glimpse of the future of science fiction as I see it. The best science fiction will be made on a cell phone. Trust me, if it’s got Will Smith, it ain’t science fiction.

Via weeimage

Moon: A Science Fiction Film Trailer

by Editor

Moon is a new science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones. It stars Sam Rockwell as a man administering a lonely moon base for a shift that lasts several years. The trailer looks pretty good, but I’m not sold on it. I do like to see a serious science fiction film getting projected in theaters after the horrific damage that’s been done to the genre by clever little men like George Lucas.  In fact, I blame Lucas more than Tolkien for the fact that every bookstore loads its science fiction shelves with sword fantasy books.  As soon as the idiotic Obi Wan Kenobi pulled out a lightsaber, the sci-fi film genre was doomed. But this thing looks from its trailer to be a mashup of homages to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running and Solaris. I just don’t get into ‘homage’ movies.  A little subtle homage is fine.  But this trailer is just packed to the gills with barely altered rips right out of these classic films. No serious science fiction director makes a movie that’s an homage to other movies. Stanley Kubrick would have choked on a chess piece if someone had suggested such a thing to him.  So, I’m sure I’ll give this movie a chance and go see it, but I fear that it will be exactly the movie it appears to be in its trailer.  The effects do have that wonderful super-reality quality to them that 2001 and television show Space 1999 had.

Audio Story: Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X

by Editor

Here’s an excellent audio download of one of the old Tom Swift adventure books, Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X.  The reading is by Roy Trumbull at the Story Spieler Podcast.

The Tom Swift adventure books are a series that began in 1910 and continue in some form today.  This particular book was written in 1961.  Tom is a young inventor who dreams up all sorts of high-tech devices and craft in order to win the day.

Apparently, computer developer Steve Wozniak grew up reading the books and credits them with inspiring free and open creative thinking.