Here’s what I’m reading today in science fiction: Lou Diamond Phillips — yes, the actor guy! — has published a science-fiction retelling of the old folk tale “The Tinderbox.” In the original story, there are three dogs of varying sizes. In Phillips’ work, the “dogs” are high-tech devices of which I will speak no further.…
This is a short prompt-driven story for a writing challenge I’ve joined. The prompt is Red Lipstick: “Will you shut up and put the damn stuff on already?” Tel ran a hand through his hair and glared at his drummer, blue eyes narrowed. Jason’s brown eyes blazed right back. “I didn’t sign up for this,…
Robert Heinlein once wrote a book called The Number of the Beast, a fun frolic about a scientist who invents a time/space device and his family. However, unbeknownst to most of his fans, Heinlein also wrote a parallel novel called The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes. The two novels begin…
There’s practically nobody on the face of the planet who doesn’t know what’s been going on these past few weeks. Saw a sign in a bookstore: The Post-Apocalypse section has now been moved to Current Events. That seems to sum it up for me. It’s been over 100 years, since the end of World War…
I know, I know: old news. But I didn’t read the book nor watch the movie when it first came out. I usually don’t care for books about video gaming, but I kept hearing good things about this one, so I dipped a toe in. Earnest Cline quickly pulls you into the world of the…
I’ve picked up a fun series by John Varley recently. It’s about the science invented by a Cajun idiot-savant which allows apparently free energy and near light-speed travel. In the first book, Red Thunder, a group of teenagers (nearly ready for college) befriend an alcoholic space pilot and his cousin, a super-genius with a head…
I was just re-reading Anne’s delightful duo: Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. It’s easy to forget how much you love a book until you slip back between its covers and rediscover the characters and the world. On the planet Pern, deadly Threads periodically fall from the skies, searing all life they touch. Only the great fire-breathing dragons…
One good place to go for ongoing UFO research is MUFON. This stands for Mutual UFO Network. They’re actively collecting reports of UFO sightings. Who knows? Maybe some of them have spotted a velyr …
No alien story is complete without a gander at the Roswell Incident. On July 8, 1947, the Air Force released a statement saying they’d captured a “flying disc.” The very next day, that statement was retracted and they claimed it was actually a weather balloon. This is a good article about the incident, from the…
Of course, any story with Roswell has to include Area 51. I learned a couple of interesting facts about the site (from this article: 15 Far-Out Facts About Area 51). During Area 51’s heyday as a testing site, engineer Kelly Johnson had an idea to convince government workers and their families to pick up and…