Publications of the type:
How should one review a book of reviews? The constraints of deadlines mean that one is obliged to read a collection like Bearings in a way that may not ideally suit its purpose: critical collections, for this reader at least, are better dipped in and out of over time than (ahem) wolfed down in one…
In the closing essay of this curate’s egg of an anthology, researcher Rose White points out the risks of discussing sexual topics in academia. “If you talk about pornography, and you use your real name, you are marked,” she says [pp 241]. It’s maybe only slightly overstating the case to say that the same has…
The definition of hard sf is almost as slippery as that of science fiction in general, but few who’ve read any of his work would contend that Greg Egan is not an exemplary practitioner of the subgenre. His work in both the short and long forms is defined by plots grounded in cutting-edge research or…
I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a science fiction novel that included explicit dates in the text. Refusing to anchor one’s novel into the temporal flow of reality ensures the author can avoid the pointed fingers and hoots of “you got it wrong!,” not to mention make an easier claim for its…
If poetry in general is a niche art with values inscrutable to outsiders, then perhaps science fiction poetry is doubly so. Treated with disdain by the mainstream surrounding it—except when favoured poets make forays into its territory, at which point the reassessments of genre so familiar from reviews of sf novels by otherwise mainstream writers…
“What is steampunk?” asks the jacket blurb header, and it’s a reasonable question that has kept plenty of fans and pundits busy since the style’s recent renaissance. Like any other genre definition, it’s going to be contentious—has anyone actually settled on a satisfactory definition of science fiction itself yet? Personal taste is always going to…
After a long stint running and hosting the latest successful artificial reality game produced by Great Big Idea, a company owned and run by one of her gamer friends from college, Dagmar is looking forward to a few weeks luxurious downtime in Jakarta. Her holiday halts as soon as she arrives, to find Bali’s currency…
Paul Melko’s first two published novels share a concern with the multiplicity of identity, as well as a utilitarian writing style; nonetheless, they are very different books. In Singularity’s Ring the geek rapture has been and gone, the hive-mind Community vanishing with it, leaving a small population on Earth’s surface and a massive Big Dumb…
Ellen Starke is regrowing her body, but there’s something not right in her head. Given how little of it was rescued from the star-yacht crash that supposedly killed her mother, Eleanor, it’s a wonder she’s alive at all . . . and getting her head back into the hands of the family business was an adventure in…
David Levy’s Love & Sex With Robots had an unexpected effect on me; I discovered that I’m a romantic after all. No, wait—it’s not what you think! I haven’t suddenly developed an abiding adoration of androids as a result of Levy’s points. Quite the opposite: I’ve always believed that I have a very rational and…