An Open-Challenge to SF Lit Fandom

The “Killer Bees” Letter – redux! (It’s more urgent and pertinent than ever…)

Science Fiction conquered the world. By far the most popular and lucrative sectors in cinema and gaming – for example – emerged like mighty titans from the tiny-despised larvae of sci fi pulps and novels bound by cheap mucilage. Oh, there is much to enjoy in these offspring SF Media. But only rarely do they convey the depth and breadth of character, or plot, or detailed world-building, or thoughtfulness that can be conveyed by the best literary SF.

And so a question for SF-Lit fans and readers. Will love of Poul Anderson, Ursula LeGuin, Alice Sheldon and Robert Sheckley fade away, when we’re gone? Or might we – the generation who mainlined on Lovecraft and McCaffrey and Silverberg – perhaps find a way to pass that love on to new generations?

That was the aim of a project that once seemed almost to gain traction in the SF fandom community. And maybe – just maybe – it’s time to try again, before the novel-and-story-reading generation shuffles off into obscurity, taking with us our love of black-squiggles-on-a-page.

Back in the 90s – along with fellow science fiction authors like the recently-late Greg Bear and Gregory Benford – I issued the “Killer Bees Letter” to the science fictional community asking that fan organizations start to act on their own charters, to “spread love of reading and science fiction to new generations.” We proposed that fan organizations might begin with the easiest and most efficient way to reach young readers.

No, I am not talking about standing outside a middle school in a trench coat, offering Heinlein or Andre Norton juveniles. (“The first one’s free!”) In fact the simpler (and far more legal) method – that was tried out in several places to great effect – is to start by ‘adopting’ just a few local teachers and librarians, those who are friendliest to science fiction, and helping them to accomplish what they already want to do!

In part, this could involve offering those SF-friendly educators one day passes to local science fiction conventions, enabling them to attend a special academic session (e.g. ‘teaching SF to young folks’) one morning… followed by half a dozen afternoon passes for their most-promising students and parents. Expensive? How, exactly? The marginal cost to the fan organization would be almost nil. In fact, the chance those kids will thereupon spread the word is worth trying!

The possible benefits – e.g. reversing the aging and decay of fandom – might be huge. And they were substantial… in the few places it was tried, back in the 90s. Alas, all-too few.

And so, here below is that original “Killer Bees Challenge” letter, as it was re-issued in 2003. Sadly, it is even more pertinent, today.

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Using Science Fiction To Help Turn Kids on to Reading… And the Future!

© 2002 by David Brin

Consider the ages from twelve to fifteen, when a person’s sense of wonder can bloom or else wither, starved by ennui or seared by fashionable cynicism. Often it’s some small thing that can make a difference. An inspiring teacher or role model. A team effort or memorable adventure.

Sometimes even the right book or film can ignite a fire that lasts a lifetime.

For many of us, it was futuristic or speculative literature that helped cast our minds far beyond family, city, or oppressive peers… not to mention the limitations that others seemed bent on imposing, shackling our dreams. Whether in stories that spanned outer space, or adventures in cyberspace, or thoughtful ruminations about the mental life of dolphins or aliens, we discovered that the universe is larger than the local Mall. Both more dangerous and more filled with possibilities.

Once the sole province of nerdy young men, science fiction has become a central pert of our culture’s myth-making engine, now engaging girls, women, and adults of all ages and inclinations. Yet the breadth of SF and its ultimate importance can be difficult for a non-aficionado to grasp. After all, isn’t it all just spaceships, lasers and all that childish stuff?

Well, no it isn’t. As with any branch of human storytelling, science fiction has a spectrum of quality and depth, ranging from shallow Star Wars romps to the dark, serious explorations and world-shifting works of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Mary Shelley. A key element is fascination with change and how human beings respond when challenged by it. In other words, there is no genre more relevant to this rapidly transforming world we live in, where citizens are called upon to contemplate issues that would have boggled their grandparents.

Environmental degradation, the extinction and creation of new species, cloning, artificial intelligence, instant access to all archived knowledge and the looming prospect a generation – perhaps the very next one – that may have to wrestle with the implications of physical immortality.

Heady stuff! And you’d never imagine that any of it was under serious contemplation, if your idea of “sci-fi” came from movies! But these and a myriad other subjects are probed at the literary end of science fiction. In fact, some of the kids in today’s classrooms are wrestling with concepts at the very cutting edge — imbedded in tales they devour between colorful paper covers. Books that explore the edges of tolerance, like those of Octavia Butler and Alice Sheldon. Books that ponder biological destiny, penned by Greg Bear and Joan Slonczewski, or the physical sciences, by Robert Forward and Gregory Benford. Books designed by Julie Czerneda and Hal Clement to revolve around teaching themes. And those by Heinlein, Clarke and Kress and Bradbury, that instruct almost invisibly, because the authors were teachers at heart.

If high-end science fiction provokes wonder, thought and a sense of vigorous involvement with the world, can it be worth adding your arsenal of tricks and tools, ready to offer that hard-to-reach kid? Especially as an alternative to the violent fare in video games and the wretched pabulum that is on TV? What can be more relevant to bright teens, in their rapid-pulsed flux, than a literature that explores ideas and the possible consequences of change?

I can’t offer a tutorial on high-quality SF in this short space. So let’s do the next best thing – offer a short list of ways to help teachers, librarians and others bridge the gap between the simpleminded sci-fi images that are so popular in movies these days, and the real literary Science Fiction, where ideas flow and readers engage in truly exploratory adventures of the mind.

Using Web-based sites to create useful curriculum aids.

A new effort has begun, aimed at creating online resources for teachers wanting to bring good science fiction into their classrooms, as a way to excite topic-specific interest among students. Some use classic SF stories and novels to illustrate topics that are already in a teacher’s official study program. A teacher in Barstow, California created a good example, using my novel, The Postman, to elicit class discussions on issues in both literature and civics. Other teachers use stories to illustrate points in physics, chemistry, history, etc. When their materials – study guides and question sets – are distributed on the Web, they become a permanent help to teachers everywhere.

Here are just a few examples of sites for teaching science fiction.

Julie H. Czerneda’s Tales from the Wonder Zone helps teachers combine great stories with science curricula.

Teaching Science Fiction: Recommendations and Lesson Plans

Science Fiction Research Association

Using Science Fiction to Teach Science

Using Science Fiction in the Classroom

Creating new and better books for kids to read.

Consider this quandary. Science fiction images and adventures are more popular than ever, especially with young people. Yet, very little high quality science fiction is aimed straight for the vast market of adventure-minded teens. There is a market! Witness the success of Star Wars novelizations. Still, these factory-made series are missing something. Their exploits often follow the same hackneyed plot style. While the brightest teens soon graduate to reading more challenging books for grownups, many are discouraged by a scarcity of good, intelligent tales written just for them.

Some years back, I posted a list of Science Fiction Books for Young Adults.

Creating grass roots activism

Finally, there is the issue of what today’s science fiction fan community might do to help.

Fans are a special breed who maintain a belief that the future is a place that can be explored with brave adventures of the mind – adventures that may even help us avoid errors, the way George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and others gave warnings that helped divert us from dangerous paths.

The rest of this note is addressed to these aficionados of strong literary science fiction:

We’ve all heard about declining literacy in America. Sherry Gotleib tells that when she first opened the Change of Hobbit bookstore, in L.A., it thronged when the local junior high let out. Over time, these customers stayed loyal… but weren’t replaced. In the store’s final years, Sherry’s average customer was gray-flecked or balding, and the few teens who showed up focused on media or comics.

Polls show an aging of the SF readership. Science fiction themes are popular – in films, comix and games – but the genre’s literary heart faces demographic collapse. Worst of all, countless kids forget how to say the most beautiful word in any language – “Wow!”

That is where it all finally comes around. No altruism is more effective than the kind that begins at home.

Each of us lives near some school where bright kids now languish — bored, bullied, or unmotivated. Who among us can’t recall facing the same crisis once, in our own lives? For many, it was science fiction that helped us turn the corner. Science fiction welcomed us home.

As a community of science fiction fans and professionals, shouldn’t we make it our chief socially responsible activity to help expose another generation to a love of ‘the good stuff?’

For the last decade, ever since Greg Benford, Greg Bear and I first made this proposal, a number of SF oriented clubs and fan groups have focused their con-auctions, fund-raisers and charity drives toward raising helping SF literacy in their own communities. In many cases this meant “adopting” a local junior high school English teacher and/or librarian, finding out their needs and doing some of the following:

• Recruiting guest speakers to visit classes or school assemblies, giving inspirational talks about science, writing, or history… anything to fire enthusiasm and imagination at an age when these are precious, flickering things.
• Donating funds to buy SF books and sponsoring a reading club and/or writing contests, to encourage a love of SF and the creativity that helps produce more of it.
• Persuading bookstores to offer prizes and discounts for teens.
• Holding a special session at every local con, to which teachers and librarians are invited for free, to share ideas with fans and pros — then carefully using one-day passes to attract some of the brightest local teens+guardians to the con.

There is self-interest here. Authors who give talks often acquire new fans. Local conventions that sponsor a SF club may soon have new con-com members. If your charity auction sends $500 to the “Special Wish Fund,” you’ll get a thank-you note; but hand the same amount over to a stunned librarian and the photo will make your local paper!

Some committees, such as the Baltimore-based Worldcon, organized nationwide contests for SF-related stories, essays and artwork created by teens across North America, with awards and prizes to be presented at their convention.  Others – in the Northeast especially – have followed suit. But we’ve only just begun.

Teacher/librarian mini-conference

One thing local conventions can do: Most fan organizations have in their charters a major provision for “outreach and education.” Yet, this seldom gets priority. Here is a relatively painless approach, already tried with success at several conventions, offering a win-win situation for all. The Saturday morning SF-education mini-conference.

It starts by simply gathering all the routine “SF/youth/education” panels into a cohesive group, then making a real effort to invite area teachers and librarians to attend that part of the con for free. (With reasonable upgrades for those wanting to stay.) Some teachers can then be recruited to help adjust next year’s program to their needs. In a year or two, the mini-conference can be granting credential credit with momentum all its own. Moreover, it can be a money-maker for the convention, as attendees convert their free half-day memberships and tell their friends! Later, corporate sponsorships become a real possibility.

With teachers and librarians aboard, you can generate great projects that involve kids in creative ways, for example by running a science fiction reading/writing/art contest in area schools, involving several grade levels, culminating in a grand awards ceremony at the local con. (With reasonable con memberships available to the winners, their parents, friends….)

This kind of thing has worked already! At science fiction conventions held in Baltimore, in Chicago, in Philadelphia and Salt Lake City.

If nothing else, running a focused “SF & Education Mini-conference” sure beats scattering the usual youth-and education related panels all over the weekend. It seems worthwhile to focus some effort on the future, since that’s what SF is all about.

So there it is. A general outline of some efforts that are currently underway, to use the most American form of literature – Science Fiction – in the cause of helping kids learn. So far, it is only a rough outline, with some sincere efforts being made along the way. This letter is not so much a prescription as a call for people to think about possibilities… how the literature that is most about foresight and hope can somehow influence both young people and society at large to do the one thing that separates humans from all other creatures of Earth, Sky or Sea…

Think ahead….  With respect,

David Brin

Six Science Fiction Questions

I’ve been answering quite a few queries over on the question and answer site Quora. Here are a few selected questions about science fiction, dystopias, fantasy, and more…

How plausible do you find Huxley’s Brave New World?

Your question is exactly the one asked by Huxley himself, and by his top-caste character, World Director Mustafa Mond., who accepts that change may inevitably come to his tightly organized world. That is one of many contrasts with Orwell’s 1984. Where one party controls with fear and pain, the other does with eugenics, conditioning and pleasure, lots of pleasure.

Note what happens when some alphas start asking inconvenient questions. Are they killed? No, they are sent to “the Islands” where they can study, experiment and keep arguing for changes to be made. This shows that Huxley’s directors are aware that change may come, but demand a steep burden of proof… while seeing value in those who question. A lot like Huxley himself.

For years, Orwell was deemed the one making a plausible prediction. But today the scientific and skilled classes and even the “prols” have so much potential power in their hands – making today’s “terrorists” seem lame by comparison – that no government can risk for long angering those castes or abusing them. Not for long. (Hence the utter stupidity of today’s oligarchs, who wage war on science and all the fact professions. Nothing else could show as starkly how deeply stupid the oligarchy is.)

No, any dictatorship in the future will have to be like Brave New World… or an augmented China … committed to keeping the populace content.

For more see my essay: George Orwell and the Self-Preventing Prophecy.

Which science fiction scenarios do you find the most disturbing?

The Matrix, for suggesting that advanced AI’s would be spectacularly self-defeating and stupid. The novel, Revolt in 2100 by Heinlein, for predicting with stunning accuracy how America might go crazy. The film Idiocracy, for coming true before our eyes.

Almost anything by Philip K Dick, for questioning our perception of reality. Orwell’s 1984 for prescribing tech empowerment of older means of despotism based on terror.  Huxley’s Brave New World for showing how the same thing could happen with pleasure and fun.

And hey, what’s my novel The Postman… chopped liver? Its premise is coming true before your very eyes.

Which science fiction book offers the most likely scenario to a better world?

If you want prescriptive preaching, set in plausible tomorrows and above average writing, try almost anything by Kim Stanley Robinson (his latest is New York 2140). He chides and finger wags, like LeGuin. But his aim is always to propose A Better Way. (I agree with him a lot… but he gives up too easily on regulated market enterprise.)

Iain Banks novels show alluring, post scarcity societies. (See his culture series: Consider Phlebas.)  So does Star Trek!. So does Robert Heinlein’s prescriptive utopia Beyond This Horizon. (Ignore the silly gun stuff at the beginning.)

My own novels Earth and Existence offer ruminations on the path ahead.

What do you consider to be the best Sci Fi/TV franchise?

Stargate was by far the best and most thorough exploration of a science fictional premise. It was tightly consistent and episodes all correlated with each other in a series of very well-managed plot and character arcs, while always striving to at least nod in the direction of scientific plausibility. It was also successful at engendering massive numbers of hours of diverse stories at a fairly low budget.

A final point about Stargate… it is one of the only SF franchises to revolve around a motif that is essentially optimistic. Of course, the equally good Star Trek had all of those traits, with a bit lower score on consistency, but even more hours and even more optimistic.

Ranking in the same general area – with similar qualities – would by Babylon Five.

See where I explain why optimism is so hard to do, in sci fi and hence so rare in my article: The Idiot Plot.

An excellent SF TV franchise at the opposite end of the optimism scale would be the remake of Battlestar Galactica. The premise and universe remained kinda dumb. But it had the best damn writing team imaginable. You had to watch.

And The Expanse has similar qualities.

What is the most interesting magic system from fantasy or science fiction?

Most magical systems rely upon a short list of basic fulcra:

1- similarity — make something similar to the object you seek to control. A voodoo doll of a person. Or a model of a valley where you want rain to fall.

2- contagion – add something that was part of the object to control. Add a person’a real hair trimmings to the voodoo doll.

3- True Names. Related to similarity. You gain power if you know the object’s full (or even hidden) names.

4- Appeal to powers…Invoke mighty spirits – or God – by offering what they want. Something valuable, ranging from a human sacrifice all the way to promising to be a good boy or girl.

5- Art… a florid- dynamic-dramatic VERBAL INCANTATION helps… it is the technique used by cable news and politicians – especially one side – to dazzle millions into magical thinking and hostility to fact-based and scientific systems. Other art enhancements could be visual or musical.

Note that all of these seemed to be reasonable things for our ancestors to try, even though magic almost never worked. Why? First, because these are all methods that work… on our fellow human beings! Persuasion uses all of them and other humans are the most important part of the environment. It was just an extrapolation for people to believe they could also persuade the capricious and deadly forces of nature.

Second, pattern seeking. We invest our hopes into an incantation… and shrug off when it fails, but shout with confirmation, if the thing we wanted happens.

All told, magic has been a horrid sickness that hobbled humans for ages, preventing us from honestly separating what work from what doesn’t. But we are all descended from priests and shamans who got extra food and mates because they pulled off this mumbo-jumbo really well. Their genes flow through our brains, today. No wonder there’s a War on Science!

But if you truly want a different system of magic, try my fun novel The Practice Effect! 😉

What is your most promising science fictional concept?

I suppose most people would cite the “Uplift” of pre-sapient creatures like dolphins and apes to full partnership in our civilization. It looks more likely by the day.

In my novel Earth, I posited both gravity lasers and a way the planet itself could become self-aware.

In Sundiver it’s — well — a way to go to the Sun.

In Existence it is the ultimate implication of self-replicating interstellar probes.

But my favorite is the machine I wish I had, from Kiln People, in which you can make 5 or 6 cheap, temporary clay “ditto” copies of yourself, each day, so that every single thing you needed to do, that day, could get done. I want that. I need that!

== See more questions on Quora, follow the links for more answers and lively discussions of each of these questions, or follow me on Quora.

Science Fiction, Cool War and Civil War

Science fiction – or more accurately, speculative fiction –  has a rich tradition of exploring What if... scenarios, exploring alternative paths of important historical events, asking questions such as, “What if the South had won the Civil War?” or “What if America had lost World War II?”

Just a few of the multitude of novels diving into divergent paths for the American Civil War include Harry Turtledove’s The Guns of the South, Terry Bisson’s Fire on the Mountain, and Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee. The recent, best-selling Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters posits that the Civil War never happened and slavery persists in regions of America. Even politician Newt Gingrich has written in this genre: his novel Gettysburg, co-written with William R. Forstchen, explores how history might have unfolded if the Confederacy had won this crucial battle. In a more outlandish speculation, William Forstchen’s Lost Regiment series, beginning with Rally Cry, envisions a Civil War era Union regiment transported through time and space to an alien world.

But science fiction more often projects into the future. Something deeply human keeps us both fascinated and worried about tomorrow’s dangers. Several recent novels have foreshadowed a possible – and plausible – hot phase of the recurring American Civil War. I’ve written extensively about what I view as ongoing Phases of our American Civil War; luckily most segments of this persistent animosity have been tepid or cool, though the 1860s fever was near devastating. Indeed, I fear, with current tensions, the possibility that something could go volcanic. This was portrayed – in retrospect – by my post-apocalyptic novel The Postman, which has been receiving a surge of attention lately, for its depiction of “holnists” whose rationalizations sound very much like those of Steve Bannon.

One novel I’ve touted lately is Tears of Abraham, by Sean T Smith, which chillingly takes you toward a disturbingly hot second Civil War, a deadly struggle of countryman against countryman. What would happen if the U.S. split apart into warring states — set off by a far-reaching conspiracy? A president who declares martial law as states take steps toward secession. This page turner offers vivid, believable action and characters, along with sober, thoughtful insights into what it may mean — when the chips are down — to be an American. What divides us… and what unites us?

This seems particularly relevant considering the deep divides across America during the election cycle of 2016, where Red States and Blue States were more bifurcated than ever, seemingly unable to fully comprehend the opinions and problems of their own neighbors.

Another science fiction vision that came to mind, given evidence of recent efforts by foreign powers to sabotage our democracy and economy, is The Cool War, published by science fiction master Frederik Pohl back in 1981. This tale portrays ongoing slow-simmering international tensions, a series of shadow wars where rival countries seek to sabotage the economy and markets of their enemies — and allies. In fact, I deem no novel to be of more immediate pertinence to any member of our defense and intelligence communities.

Wars, cool, cold or hot? David Rothkopf, editor of Foreign Affairs, distinguishes them, commenting, “The purpose of the Cold War was to gain an advantage come the next hot war or, possibly, to forestall it. The purpose of Cool War is to be able to strike out constantly without triggering hot war, while making hot wars less desirable (much as did nuclear technology during the Cold War days) or even necessary.”

In a similar vein, the near-future thriller Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War by P.W. Singer and August Cole envisions a revived Cold War, with rising tensions between the United States, China and Russia. An all-too believable war played out not just on land and sea, but also in space and cyberspace.

Returning to parallel universes, Philip K. Dick’s alternate history of World War II,  The Man in the High Castle — follows a scenario where the Nazis have won the war; it has been vividly adapted in the recent television series of the same name by Amazon. I’ve also explored that dark aftermath where the Nazis won World War II in my graphic novel, The Life Eaters. Connie Willis has revisited World War II in her novel, Blackout. Three time travelers find themselves stranded in London during the Blitz, facing air raids and bombing raids.

Another book just hitting the shelves –  American War by Omar El Akkad – is a dystopian novel about a Second American Civil War breaking out in 2074. The United States has been largely undone by devastating ecological collapse, a presidential assassination, the onset of a virulent plague arising from a weaponized virus, and a militantly divided North and South. The novel vividly portrays a doomed country wracked by vicious guerrilla raids, refugee camps interning displaced citizens, accompanied by relentless violence and death.

Whew! One can only hope that dark visions from these nightmarish scenarios might serve as self-preventing prophecies — much as George Orwell’s prophetic 1984 girded many to fight against the rise of any possible Big Brother to their last breath. Can we resist the divisions that threaten our country?

Indeed, our civilization’s ultimate success may depend on our foresight — perceiving potential problems we are able to navigate, mistakes we manage to avoid. Science fiction has often served to shine a light to reveal possible — and catastrophic — pitfalls in our shared future.

Warnings we would be wise to heed… and wounds we would be wise to heal.

 

Fifteen authors (and a few more)

I was recently asked on social media to name fifteen authors, from whom I would automatically purchase books… without question. Now, I took this to mean authors who are still living (and publishing) — which eliminates a great many old favorites from science fiction, such as Robert Sheckley, Roger Zelazny, Octavia Butler, Alice (Tiptree) Sheldon, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and innumerable others.

Of course, fifteen is such a small (and arbitrary) number! But that was the challenge, so I’ll stick to it. This list focuses largely on science fiction, yet I’ve included a few nonfiction authors as well.

In no particular order, here’s my list. I’ve annotated one particular book written by each author as just one example of their many fine works:

1. Vernor Vinge (Rainbows End)
2. Kevin Kelly (The Inevitable)
3. Kim Stanley Robinson (2312)
4. Michael Chabon (Moonglow)
5. Nancy Kress (Beggars in Spain)
6. C.J. Cherryh (Downbelow Station)
7. Tim Powers (The Drawing of the Dark)
8. Robert J. Sawyer (Quantum Night)
9. China Mieville (The City and the City)
10. Greg Egan (Diaspora)
11. Gregory Benford (Timescape)
12. Greg Bear (Eon)
13. Rebecca Solnit (A Paradise Built in Hell)
14. Peter Diamandis (Abundance)
15. Liu Cixin (The Three Body Problem)

For a longer list, I would most certainly add Joe Haldeman, Larry Niven, Nalo Hopkinson, Jack McDevitt, Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross, Stephen Baxter, Neal Stephenson, Ursula LeGuin, Connie Willis, Peter Hamilton, John Scalzi… and the great Robert Silverberg to name just a few.

How can I stop? So many of the books are like old friends… and so many of the authors are old friends.

You can see my more extensive list of Recommended Science Fiction and Fantasy Tales on my blog, and a list of recommended SF titles on my website.

Dark Futures from Science Fiction

More and more, it seems we are living in a sci fi story. In darker moments, I am reminded of Ray Bradbury’s great story “The Sound of Thunder.” A tale of time travel and the Butterfly Effect and profoundly altering the course of history. Terrifying… and clearly prophetic. 

Watch a short — and moving — film version here from the Ray Bradbury Theater.

See this list from Tor: a wide-ranging list of science fiction and fantasy novels that explore issues of religion and god – including Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, Walter M. Miller’s classic A Canticle for Leibowitz, Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man and Arthur C. Clarke’s The Nine Billion Names of God.

Brief looks at books, old and new…

 A long overlooked book — Swastika Night, by the English author Katharine Burdekin, was first published in 1937 under the male pseudonym Murray Constantine. This dark dystopia, which predates Orwell’s 1984, portrays a nightmarishly feudal Europe, in which Hilter’s fascism and male dominance have reigned supreme for seven centuries. In this chilling alternate reality, all “inferior races” such as the Jews, have been wiped out; Christians are persecuted and despised. All pre-war history, art and books have been destroyed; Hitler has been elevated to a god. Boys are removed from their mother’s care at 18 months, indoctrinated in a male culture of violence and brutality. Women are regarded as sub-human, caged, subjugated and kept docile and ignorant; rape is not just acceptable but expected. When Alfred, an English subject, is presented with a secret pre-war history, he begins to question Nazi ideology and power… but most have  lost the ability to think for themselves.

Death’s End: Cixin Liu’s new novel wraps up his brilliant Three Body trilogy, which began with the Hugo Award winning The Three Body Problem (translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu). Explaining his most recent work, Cixin Liu writes, “I put in the idea of altering the natural laws of the universe in interstellar warfare, and consequently, the universe and its laws are seen as the leftover mess from a feast of the gods, a strange universe in which the Solar System falls into ruin in a morbid, poetic manner…” Read a selection of this vivid book on Tor’s website.

Annihilation and its sequels Authority and Acceptance form the Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff Vandemeer. These surreal thrillers offer spine tingling suspense and dark layers of intrigue. The mysterious wilderness of Area X has been sealed off, abandoned for thirty years for unknown reasons. Eleven expeditions across the border have failed. Now four women are sent across the border. Known only by their professions (Biologist, Psychologist, Surveyor, Anthropologist), their mission rapidly begins to fall apart …Everything seems wrong — as they find themselves transformed, their memories altered, unsure what is real and who to trust. Whatever has encroached upon Area X…it must be stopped… before the world becomes Area X. A chilling, haunting tale that will pull you in… and won’t let go.

Afterparty, by Daryl Gregory An all-too plausible future where desktop printers can customize and manufacture designer drugs. Lyda Rose was part of the scientific team that set out to cure schizophrenia, manipulating the brain’s biochemistry with a pharmaceutical called Numinous. However, the drug had unintended consequences, causing people to see god, or at least hallucinations of their own personal version of god. When Lyda is released from a mental institution (along with an angel doctor that only she can see), she tracks down the drug pushers who have released the drug onto the streets.

The Burning Light by Bradley P. Beaulieu and Rob Ziegler is a post-apocalyptic tale set amid the canals flooding the hollowed ruins of New York City, overrun by scavengers, pirates and slavers. The ruthless Colonel Melody Chu has a singular obsession, stopping the epidemic of the “Light.” Chu relentlessly drives her squad of exiled soldiers to track down junkies addicted to the ecstasy of the Light – as well as the “vectors” – often children, who give people access to it. The Light can make you feel like you’re touching infinity… but it also kills. Chu knew: “She had personally stared into the Burning Light – and the Light had stared back. She knew it was coming.” And yet, controlled, the Light may usher the next stage of humanity… This short novel presents a vividly textured, if dire future.

And finally… an interesting and fun article discusses how various robot apocalypse scenarios play out in the movies.

 

New bill makes it harder to sell autographed memorabilia in California

 

I often hold up California as the dynamic leader in U.S. governance… e.g having the best election laws in the country, that have reduced radical partisanship, encouraging pragmatism and negotiation and yes, with the minority of moderate Republicans. It helps that Gov. Jerry Brown – while liberal and dynamic and busy, is also skeptical of meddlesome over-reach for its own sake. He vetoes fairly often.

All told, California is an utter refutation of the Foxite song that “divided government that does nothing is best.” Idiots. And yet… here’s a bill that Jerry shoulda trashed.

California’s new Assembly Bill 1570, ‘Sale of Autographed Memorabilia‘ law requires a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) for any signed item worth more than $5. Failure to issue the COA could make the seller liable for ten times the value in damages.

Besides brick and mortar stores, note that this bill applies also to “any dealer engaged in mail-order, telephone-order, or online business for the sale of collectibles in or from this state.”

Though I imagine that this bill was targeted primarily at sports memorabilia and movie schlock, where forgery is a real problem and ‘autograph mills’ pump out massive numbers of celebrity collectibles, it will be particularly hard on small booksellers and comic book sellers.

Specifically, California booksellers worry that it will make it more difficult to hold author signings or sell author-signed collectible books. In addition, bookstores may already be in possession of inventories of hundreds or thousands of autographed books.

Note that the seller can not just toss in a standard boilerplate form. Consider the rather onerous bookkeeping details required by this bill, set to go into effect January 1, 2017:

The Certificate of Authority must, “in at least 10-point boldface type” (1) Describe the collectible and specify the name of the personality who autographed it. (2) Either specify the purchase price and date of sale or be accompanied by a separate invoice setting forth that information. (3) Contain an express warranty, which shall be conclusively presumed to be part of the bargain, of the authenticity of the collectible… (4) Specify whether the collectible is offered as one of a limited edition… (5) Indicate whether the dealer is surety bonded… (6) Indicate the last four digits of the dealer’s resale certificate number… (7) Indicate whether the item was autographed in the presence of the dealer and specify the date and location of, and the name of a witness to, the autograph signing. (8) Indicate whether the item was obtained or purchased from a third party. If so, indicate the name and address of this third party. (9) Include an identifying serial number that corresponds to an identifying number printed on the collectible item, if any….

Furthermore, “the dealer shall retain a copy of the certificate of authenticity for not less than seven years.” That’s a lot of paperwork, particularly for small independent booksellers.

As an author, I often sign all the remaining inventory at a bookstore after personalizing books for fans. I now need a witness to my signing?

This bill also affects the individual consumer, who may wish to resell an item they purchased earlier. How many people will have obtained, or held on to the appropriate paperwork?

The law is dumb and troglodytic. The first obvious change is to increase the minimum value. It’s an absurd amount of bookkeeping for items valued at just over $5. And books should be excluded. At a time when small bookstores are already struggling, let’s not act in any way to discourage reading and literacy and love of books.

If provenance is a problem, a piece of paper won’t solve it. Most are not worth the paper they’re printed on. Of course, certificates can be forged as easily as collectibles. If you must verify, take a picture each time you sign an item and file the jpeg using a correlation app that will find that specific item by the shape of the signature – different each time! Much easier to do and to comply with the law and it can actually work! Correlating and verifying. Best of all it is not a stone-age 20th century “solution.”

When passing a new bill, one must always consider: Who’s going to enforce this bill… and at what cost?

== Politics of the situation ==

Fortunately, this is California. The law will be amended next year. Then amended again till the public and stakeholders care too little to make much noise. It is called real, functioning democracy. If you object to aspects of this law, contact your state legislator.

What this kind of bill demonstrates is that the Democratic-Republican divide is not left-vs-right… Democrats often de-regulate much more than GOPpers do. No, it is manic-vs-depressive. The Democratic-run California legislature rushes about in a frenzy, adapting the state’s laws to 21st Century conditions (it’s their job!), then modifying the modifications under comment/complaint from citizens and companies… then getting more feedback in public hearings and modifying again… Busy, busy, busy. And sometimes drawing vetoes from the liberal-but-pragmatic chief executive. But for the most part, it’s good or neutral stuff.)

Sure, manic is vexing, sometimes, like this silly autograph bill. But we move forward. Unlike the U.S. Congress, which has become utterly dysfunctional, unable to pass even a basic budget. Unable to hold hearings about pressing matters or even issue subpoenas… except In pathetically partisan-nonsensical witch hunts. The laziest Congresses in U.S. history. Except for trillions of gushing tax gifts to the rich, and awful wars, can you name any accomplishments?

 

Brief looks at Recent Science Fiction

So many new books from so many fine authors! Some brief reviews of recent science fiction novels, ranging from star-spanning space opera to haunting urban fantasy, to mind-blowing short story collections.

 Corsair, by James Cambias (author of the excellent A Darkling Sea) offers a sci fi thriller – a near-future tale of space pirates, computer hackers and terrorists. Nuclear fusion has, at last, become a reality on Earth – powered by helium extracted by robots from the lunar regolith. (Controversial if this will ever be economically feasible… but I’m willing to go along for the ride.) The tricky part is returning the shipments to Earth – the helium payloads an attractive target for pirates. The amoral genius cyberhacker, David Schwartz (aka Captain Black), seeks to redirect the payload to international waters where real pirates can claim it. The U.S. Orbital Command backs away from battle, but Air Force officer Elizabeth Santiago (with whom Schwartz had a brief affair back at MIT) goes rogue, determined to foil his efforts. The plot twists as Schwartz is double-crossed after he teams up with hard-core terrorists.

Time Salvager, by Wesley Chu is a dystopian far future action tale. Humanity has largely abandoned a toxic Earth and established colonies in the outer solar system. But society has fallen through a Great Decay; brutal wars and plague have left civilization teetering on the edge. Their only hope lies with time traveling Chronmen — who undertake dangerous raids into the past to recover precious artifacts and power sources. To avoid timeline anomalies, they arrive just before known disaster strikes. Hard drinking Chronman James Griffin-Mars sets off on a final mission, and breaks the Time Laws, bringing back a female scientist from Earth’s past. They become fugitives, escaping the reach of the law and powerful megacorporations. A fun read, Time Salvager, the first of a trilogy been optioned by Paramount, with Michael Bay to direct.

 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by newcomer Becky Chambers has received a lot of press. Humans have abandoned their inhospitable homeworld, and joined the Galactic Commons — but they find themselves at the bottom of the totem pole in this fragile alliance among sentient aliens. Seeking to escape her family’s shame, Rosemary Harper joins the interspecies crew of the Wayfarer, a tunneling starship on a mission to punch wormholes through hyperspace to establish contact with a distant planet. On this long space-road trip, the story focuses on the backstories and relationships of the crew, their solidarity tested by the stress of a long voyage through galactic zones on the verge of war.

 Dark Orbit, by Carolyn Ives Gilman In this universe, interstellar travel is possible, not through FTL, but by lightbeam; individuals are disassembled and reassembled upon arrival. Those who are willing to leave friends and family behind to leap across time and space are called Wasters; in contrast, the Planters stay rooted in their own timeframe. Exoethologist Sara Callicot is recruited to travel by questship to a newly discovered habitable planet, Iris, with its unusual gravity fluctuations rooted in elevated concentrations of dark matter. The crew makes a mess of First Contact with the crystalline planet’s strange, blind sentient beings. A mix of hard science, philosophy and mysticism, Dark Orbit delves into human consciousness and human nature.

The Big Sheep, by Robert Kroese, is a noir/science fiction/mystery/humorous offering, drawing upon flavors of Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). The novel is set in 2039 in a divided, post-Collapse Los Angeles, with a Disincorporated Zone left to the rule of gangs and warlords. But there are aircars! When a genetically altered, oversized sheep goes missing, PI “Phenomenological Inquisitor” Erasmus Keane and his Watson-like assistant Blake Fowler set out to investigate. Things get complicated when they take on a second case, helping celebrity-actress Priya Mistry unravel just who is threatening to kill her. But the next time they meet her, she has doesn’t recognize them. A fun, witty read.

Infomocracy, by Malka Older This political thriller envisions a near future where nations are dead, borders are open, and war is a thing of the past. A new world order in the form of micro-democracy has taken hold. Global elections focus around “centenals,” groupings of 100,000 people — who select governments led by corporate giants (PhilipMorris, Sony-Mitsubishi) or ideological parties (Policy1st, Heritage, Liberty). The coveted prize for the regime winning the most centenals worldwide — the Supermajority. Information rules — for every aspect of life (and the elections) is moderated by the all-powerful search engine known as “The Information.” A major election is underway, when sabotage shuts down Information and global communication. Mistrust grows as our main characters gather intel on propaganda, misinformation and fraud in a system that fails to live up to its idealistic promise. See an extensive review by Annalee Newitz.

Lock In, a fast-paced, near-future crime thriller story from John Scalzi. A global pandemic has left millions of people (known as Hadens) paralyzed, in a perpetual state of “lock in.” While their body remains bedridden, neural network implants in their brains enable them to maneuver through the outside world using personal robotic units (Threeps) — or by temporarily inhabiting the bodies of other rare humans known as Integrators. The story begins, of course, with a dead body… found in the presence of an Integrator, whose professional code of ethics forbids him from revealing if his body was at work for a Haden client when the murder occurred. Our main character is a Haden, a novice FBI agent operating through his Threep, determined to unravel layers of conspiracy and intrigue, even as he becomes a target.

== Short Story Collections ==

 Central Station, by Lavie Tidhar, is set amid the rundown neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, aswarm with masses of poor refugees, cyborgs, robotniks begging for spare parts… as well as data vampires, robot priests and digital entities known as ‘Others’. Rising above the center of the teeming city is the towering Central Station spaceport, a link to the interplanetary colonies where much of humanity has gone. Brain nodes connect nearly everyone to the incessant chatter of man, machine and AI in the vast memory stream — the ‘Conversation’. And certain genetically-modified children possess near magical powers to read minds and tap into the torrent of data streams. Tidhar presents a richly constructed future in this beautifully crafted world.

Ted Chiang has released his latest short story collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, speculations about the nature of man, machine and alien. In “Tower of Babylon”, one of my favorites and winner of the 1990 Nebula Award, Sumerian workers labor to reach for the skies and shatter through the vault of the heavens… only to find the unexpected. His novella, “Story of Your Life” won the 1999 Nebula for novella; it explores initial attempts to communicate with alien minds who perceive reality and the flow of time very differently than humans. “Understand” offers a dark take on a “Flowers for Algernon” – style intelligence boost, as two hyper-enhanced minds work toward contrary purposes.

My own latest collection, Insistence of Vision, offers tales of possible tomorrows: “If you like your SF hopeful, with a side order of forward-thinking ‘what-ifery,’ this is the collection for you.” — Tangent Online.

== Fantasy and more ==

 Uprooted, by Naomi Novik won this year’s Nebula Award and Locus Award for best novel. Every ten years the local sorcerer (named Dragon) selects a young woman to be his assistant; afterward she is returned, unharmed, but they girls never again fit into the life of their valley village at the edge of a dark and sinister Wood. Novik offers an updated take on this familiar fairy tale premise when the plain and clumsy, but forceful Agnieszka is chosen. For she turns out to have powers even greater than the wizard in fighting back the dark powers that have long threatened her homeland.

 Shadowshaper, by Daniel José Older, is a coming of age offering, nominated for the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature, a tale of magical realism set in the ethnic neighborhoods of modern Brooklyn. When summer begins, teenaged Sierra Santiago is painting an oversized image of a dragon on an abandoned junklot building. Mysteriously, neighboring murals begin to fade and their shapes shift – while several of the neighborhood old timers disappear. Sierra begins to discover her own power, as she sense layers of shadowshaping magic operating below the surface. She uncovers secrets haunting her family’s past that refuse to stay hidden.

And finally…. Back to the Future! Omni Reboot offers a listing of time travel books for you, with entries by Connie Willis, Stephen King, Joe Haldeman, Alfred Bester, Iain Banks and Kurt Vonnegut.

Explore Science Fiction: The Literature of the Future

Explore the outer reaches of Science Fiction!

Whether you’re a science fiction pro, a teacher or occasional reader, these websites offer a wealth of background, history and insight into the genre, ranging from timelines of the future to lists of great books, from literature maps to compilations of spaceships, as well as sites that help with writing and world-building. Plus links to science fiction podcasts, SF publishers, fanzines, online magazines and more.

Plus, see updates on two new Science Fiction Museums set to open… Enjoy!

History of Science Fiction: this fantastically detailed graphic by Ward Shelley charts the evolution of the genre of Science Fiction, showing its roots in the fantastic tales of legend, fables and mythology, through the filter of the Enlightenment and the tales of Verne, Wells and Kafka, onward to the emergence of Space Opera, CyberPunk, and Horror.. with side branches extending to SF’nal films  such as Star Wars and Star Trek.

Literature Map: The Tourist Map of Literature. Enter your favorite author to get relevant author suggestions for similar books to explore. For example, try: What do other readers of Robert A. Heinlein like to read? This map suggests books by Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny and David Brin.

A Flowchart to NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books:  SF Signal has created a decision tree flowchart to help you work through NPR’s list of top SFF books, asking branching questions such as: Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction? Do you like cyberpunk? Are you ready to blast off into space? What kind of aliens do you like?

A Plotting of Fiction Genres: This guide from Fast Co. charts connections between various literary genres, ranging from Crime to Horror, from Thriller to Paranormal to Hard SF.

100 Great (and accessible) Science Fiction Short Stories by Women: a list of classic stories (many available online) from Zenna Henderson, Pamela Sargent, Octavia Butler, CJ Cherryh and other excellent authors.

A compilation of Lists of Science Fiction books: with links to Best-of lists by NPR, The Guardian, io9 and numerous other lists of books to sample, from classics to new authors.

Links useful for teaching science fiction: how to use SF in the classroom. Plus, see resources for using science fiction to teach science.

Greatest Science Fiction & Fantasy books lists my own personal favorite novels, with entries by Heinlein, Sheckley, Brunner, Bester, Bear and Benford, plus my list of Recommended Science Fiction for Young Adults.

An extensive listing of Science Fiction authors on Twitter.

==Timelines of Sci Fi ==

Timeline of the Far Future: BBC offers this graphic on peering deeply into our future: What could happen in a thousand years? A million? A quintillion? Or a hundred quintillion?

The Future According to Films: This site (by TremulantDesign) offers an extensive timeline based on the visions of Science Fictional movies, ranging from Blade Runner to Rollerball, Surrogates to Terminator and Lost in Space.

A Visual Timeline of the Future Based on Famous Fiction: Brainpickings offers this graphic (created by designer Giorgia Lupi), which charts the year each novel was published against the future date the book portrays: for instance, Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, published 1966, set around 2075 — extending out to 802701, setting for H.G. Wells The Time Machine.

Stories of the Past and Future: xkcd maps settings of literary works as a function of the date of publication. Which futuristic visions are now obsolete (2001, Space 1999…and which are still plausible? The chart also shows period fiction.

Illustrated Timeline of Robots: this timeline (from Pinfographics) charts the appearance in literature of robots, ranging from Karel Capek’s R.U.R. to Robbie, the Dalek, the Iron Giant, Bender and WALL-E.

Prediction or Influence? A chart of Sci Fi books that predicted the future.

== Spaceships and Rockets ==

Atomic Rockets: A truly detailed site (from Winchell Chung) devoted to rocket and spaceship design, and getting the science right in science fiction. An excellent resource for authors seeking scientific accuracy, help with equations. It offers designs and illustrations behind rocket design, space stations, spacesuits, weapons and much more!

Historic Spacecraft: An amazing site of space history, with photos, info, updates and drawings by Richard Kruse, covering space probes, rockets, rovers, launch pads, and timelines, cut-away views, and more.

Fastest Sci Fi Ships in the universe: This chart from Blastr (by Fat Wallet) compares fifty of the fastest rockets, spacecraft and battleships, with entries from Battlestar Galactica, Prometheus, Transformers, Star Trek, Halo, Star Wars and Doctor Who.

Size comparison of Science Fictional Spaceships: an epic illustration by Dirk Lochel that shows side by side comparisons of spacecraft from Star Trek to Star Wars, Dr. Who to Stargate and Starship Troopers. Really fun to explore.

Spaceship Alphabet: Do you know your sci fi spaceship ABCs? An illustration by Scott Markley that charts craft ranging from Andromeda to Death Star to Yamata and Z’gal.

== Some fun and useful sites  ==

Sci Fi World Generator: Create a new world. Specify the percent water and ice for your planet; choose a radius and rotation rate, and this site will generate a plausible atmosphere, geologic composition, and suggest details such as atmospheric pressure, gravity, escape velocity — and see what your world looks like.

Fifty years of Visionary SciFi Computer Interfaces: This info graphic on Glow Media charts futuristic visions of computer interfaces, ranging from the flashing lights of Lost in Space, to the tricorders of Star Trek, from the immersive VR of Minority Report to the holograms of Avatar.

From Doctor Who to Superman, Princess Leia to Arthur Dent: a chart of science fictional characters who have survived their planet’s destruction.

Worldbuilding links: lists websites, resources and suggestions for constructing your world for fiction or gaming. See more: Advice for Writers.

Top 100 Things I’d Do if I Ever Became an Evil Overlord: As if you haven’t thought about this! “Shooting is not too good for my enemies.” This list by Peter Anspach addresses many of the cliched images from books and movies.

Have fun with this: Pulp-o-Mizer generates customizable retro pulp magazine covers.

== Sites of Science Fiction ==

Worlds Without End: An extensive resource for everything about Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, with compilations of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Clarke and Stoker Award lists, Classics of SF, plus book reviews and author interviews, pages devoted to authors and publishers. They also have a BookTrackr to chart your personal reading lists. Plus lists of YA books, and lists of Banned SFF.

Strange Horizons: an online magazine of speculative fiction, featuring short stories of science fiction, fantasy and horror, as well as book reviews, interviews and nonfiction articles.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction offers a wealth of info about the field: with an Author A-Z, plus entries for films, games, comics, awards, fanzines…and much more to explore!

io9: We come from the Future: the go-to site for all the latest news about popular culture and futurism, covering science fiction books, shows, comics, and movies, by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz.

Lightspeed: an online science fiction and fantasy magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams. Lightspeed includes stories, both reprints and originals, author interviews, podcasts and nonfiction articles.

SF Signal: Winner of the Hugo Award for best fanzine, this site offers reviews of books and movies, as well as Sci Fi podcasts, and columns on writing, comics anime and more.

Clarkesworld: A Hugo-award winning science fiction and fantasy magazine (published by Neil Clarke), with short stories, podcasts, articles and interviews.

Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine: the award-winning SF magazine, now available online, with reviews, new short fiction and news.

Tor.com offers new SF short stories by top authors, book reviews and extensive coverage of what ‘s new in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Baen Books offers updates on new Science Fiction and Fantasy releases, plus e-books and author interviews.

Locus Online offers news, book reviews and columns covering what’s new in Science Fiction. Locus also maintains a list of upcoming Science Fiction Conventions across the world.

SFFWorld.com offers news, articles, discussion forums, author interviews, book and movie reviews, short stories, book give-aways, advice on writing, and guest posts.

SF Chronicles: This British site offers discussion forums to meet up and converse about writing, your favorite authors, books, TV shows and films, along with encouragement and advice for aspiring authors.

SFWA: The website of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America has information for writers, educators, and readers, including advice and legal resources for writers.  As does the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA).

== Sci Fi Centers & Musuems ==

Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction: This website (developed by Jim Gunn at the University of Kansas) offers news, background, essays, and courses on Science Fiction, covering the craft of writing and marketing books, with an emphasis on education: AboutSF offers resources for teachers about using Science Fiction in the classroom.

The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination: This new center at the University of California, San Diego (founded by Sheldon Brown) aims to bring science, art, literature and technology in order to better understand the nature of human imagination. It hosts seminars, speeches and research.

The Museum of Science Fiction (MOSF): This new museum, set to open in Washington D.C., (founded by Greg Viggiano) will feature interactive exhibits on the literature and media of science fiction that will entertain and educate — and open our eyes to the possibilities of the future.

The Hollywood Sci Fi Museum: This interactive, educational museum is set to open in 2018 in Hollywood, California (founded by Huston Huddleston), and will present exhibits from science fiction TV shows and films that will include a Hall of Interactive Robots, and a Hall of Spaceships.

The Heinlein Society: dedicated to preserving the legacy of the great Robert A. Heinlein and paying it forward, with scholarships, blood drives and educational materials. Support this worthy cause.

The Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University (directed by Ed Finn) explores the intersection of science and the fantastic, hosting seminars, workshops and publishing anthologies such as Hieroglyph.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame inside the Experience Music Project in Seattle, honors the greats of SF literature.

== Sci Fi Podcasts ==

 Starship Sofa: An Audio Science Fiction Magazine presents podcasts of SF short stories. Host Tony Smith also conducts author interviews, discussions, reviews and non-fiction articles.

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy: an interview and talk show focusing on fantasy and science fiction books, movies, games and comics (run by David Barr Kirtley and John Joseph Adams).

Escape Pod offers weekly podcasts of science fiction short stories (edited by Norm Sherman).

GeeksOn is a podcast covering topics for…geeks. Science Fiction, movies, role playing games, comics, anime and more…

Once and Future Podcast: a weekly discussion about fantasy and science fiction books, as well as author inteviews (hosted by Anton Strout).

== A few more links ==

Goodreads Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club: Join other readers to discuss and rate books. Get book recommendations and create a bookshelf of your favorite books.

SciFi on Reddit: reader-suggested links to what’s new and noteworthy in science fiction.

Templeton Gate offers news and reviews covering speculative fiction books, shows, movies and comics.

Directory of Science Fiction sites with links to SF fanzines, online magazines and more.

Science Fiction Authors on Twitter

A sampling of Science Fiction – or Speculative Fiction — authors on Twitter, many with interesting things to say about books, the craft of writing, SF news, as well as science and the future.

In alphabetic order (compiled by Anonymous), the brief descriptions and selected works don’t begin to do justice to these fantastic authors. Yes, the list veers toward the SF end of SFF, with emphasis on writers of novels, rather than short stories. Apologies for the those who have been inadvertently left off. And many well-known authors, Connie Willis or Kim Stanley Robinson, don’t have accounts (probably because they’re busy writing)…

Daniel Abraham, Best-selling author and producer, half of the James S.A. Corey team (The Expanse, Leviathan Wakes) @AbrahamHanover

John Joseph Adams, editor of Science Fiction anthologies (Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Brave New Worlds) @JohnJosephAdams

Saladin Ahmed, Locus Award winning author (Throne of the Crescent Moon, Engraved on the Eye) @saladinahmed

Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut, Lunar Module pilot and moonwalker, as well as a SF author, collaborating with John Barnes (Encounter with Tiber, The Return) @TheRealBuzz

Charlie Jane Anders, Founding editor of io9, short story writer and award-winning Science Fiction author (All the Birds in the Sky) @charliejane

Lou Anders, Science Fiction author and Hugo Award winning editor (Frostborn, Nightborn) @LouAnders

Kevin J. Anderson, Best-selling Science Fiction author (The Sisterhood of Dune, Hellhole)   @TheKJA

Lou Aronica, Science Fiction author, editor and publisher (Blue, Differential Equations) @laronica

Catherine Asaro, Nebula Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Saga of the Skolian Empire, The Quantum Rose)   @Catherine_Asaro

Madeline Ashby, Science Fiction author and consultant (Company Town, iD) @MadelineAshby

Neal Asher, English Science Fiction author (The Departure, Zero Point)  @nealasher

Margaret E. Atwood, Booker Prize, Arthur C. Clarke Award winning author and poet (The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake) @MargaretAtwood

Paolo Bacigalupi, Locus, Hugo and Nebula Award wining Science Fiction author (The Windup Girl, The Water Knife)  @paolobacigalupi

John Barnes, Science Fiction and YA author  (Tales of the Madman Underground, Meeting Infinity) @JohnBarnesSF

Steven Barnes, Science Fiction author and frequent collaborator with Niven and Pournelle (Beowulf’s Children, Lion’s Blood) @StevenBarnes1

Elizabeth Bear, Hugo and John W. Campbell Award winning Science Fiction author  (Hammered, Blood and Iron) @matociquala

Greg Bear, Nebula, Locus and Hugo Award winning Science Fiction author (Darwin’s Radio, Queen of Angels) @greg_bear

Chris Beckett, Arthur C. Clarke Award winning Science fiction author (Dark Eden, The Holy Machine) @chriszbeckett

Lauren Beukes, South African SF author, comics writer and journalist (Broken Monsters, The Shining Girls) @laurenbeukes

Aliette de Bodard, Software engineer, Nebula and Locus Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author (House of Shattered Wings, In Morningstar’s Shadow) @aliettedb

Ben Bova, Six time winner of the Hugo Award;  Science Fiction and non-fiction author and Editor (Grand Tour series, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame)  @BenBova

David Brin, Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Campbell Award winning Science Fiction author (Startide Rising, The Postman)  @davidbrin

Tobias S. Buckell, Science Fiction author (Sly Mongoose, Halo: The Cole Protocol) @tobiasbuckell

Emma Bull, Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Falcon, Bone Dance) @coffeeem

Monica Byrne, Upcoming Science Fiction author and playwright (The Girl in the Road) @monicabyrne13

Pat Cadigan, Arthur C. Clarke Award winning Science Fiction author (Synners, Fools)  @Cadigan

Christian Cantrell, Software developer and Science Fiction author (Containment, Equinox) @cantrell

Orson Scott Card, Hugo and Nebula Award wining Science Fiction author (Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead) @orsonscottcard

Jeff Carlson, Science Fiction and thriller author (Plague Year, Plague War)  @authorjcarlson

Adam-Troy Castro, Science Fiction, Fantasy and YA author (Tangled Strings, Emissaries from the Dead) @adamtroycastro

Becky Chambers Science Fiction author (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed & Common Orbit) @beckysaysawr

C.J. Cherryh, Hugo and Locus Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Cyteen, The Pride of Chanur) account no longer exists

Wesley Chu, John W. Campbell Award winning Science Fiction author (Time Salvager, Time Siege) @wes_chu

Liu Cixin , Chinese Science Fiction author, winner of the Hugo Award and the Galaxy Award (The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest) @liu_cixin

Ernest Cline, Best-selling author and screenwriter (Ready Player One, Armada) @erniecline

Peter Clines, Science Fiction and horror author (The Fold, 14) @PeterClines

August Cole, Senior Fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center, director of The Art of the Future  (Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War, War Stories from the Future (ed.)) @august_cole

Eoin Colfer, Young adult Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Artemis Fowl, The Supernatualist)   @eoincolfer

Brenda Cooper, Science Fiction author (The Silver Ship and the Sea, Wings of Creation)   @brendacooper

James S.A. Corey, New York Times best-selling pseudonym (The Expanse, Nemesis Games) @JamesSACorey

Paul Cornell, Award-winning author and screenwriter for Doctor Who (The Severed Streets, Who Killed Sherlock Holmes) @Paul_Cornell

Bruce Coville, author of Young Adult fiction (My Teacher Is An Alien, Aliens Ate My Homework) @brucecoville

Katherine Cramer, Science Fiction author and editor (The Hard SF Renaissance, The Year’s Best SF Series) @KathrynECramer

Justin Cronin, New York Times best-selling author, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award (The Passage, The Twelve) @jccronin

Julie Czernada, Science Fiction and Fantasy author and editor (This Gulf of Time and Stars, No Place Like Home) @julieczernada

Jack Dann Award-winning Science Fiction and Historical fiction author (The Memory Cathedral, The Silent) @jackmdann

Ellen Datlow, Hugo Award winning Science Fiction and Horror editor (The Best Horror of the Year, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror)  @EllenDatlow

Cory Doctorow, John W. Campbell and Locus Award winning Science Fiction author (Little Brother, Makers)   @doctorow

Diane Duane, Young adult and Science Fiction and Fantasy author (So You Want to Be a Wizard, Wizard’s Dilemma, plus many Star Trek novels) @dduane

Tananarive Due, Science Fiction, fantasy and mystery author, screenwriter and producer (Ghost Summer, The Lake ) @TananariveDue

Scott Edelman, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror author and editor (What Will Come After, What We Still Talk About)  @scottedelman

Amal El-Mohtar Hugo, Nebula, Locus award winning author (The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories) @tithenai

Kate Elliott, Fantasy and Science Fiction author (The Crown of Stars, Cold Steel) @KateElliottSFF

Eric Flint, Science Fiction author and editor. Writer of alternate histories. (1632, 1636: The Saxon Uprising)  @EricFlint

Gregory Frost, Fantasy and Science Fiction (Lyrec, Shadowbridge)  @gregory_frost

Neil Gaiman, Locus, Hugo and Nebula Award winning Science Fiction Author (American Gods, Coraline). Also Graphic Novels (The Sandman)  @neilhimself

Charles E. Gannon, Professor and Best-selling and Nebula nominated author (Fire with Fire, Raising Caine) @cegannon1

David Gerrold, Hugo and Nebula Award winning Science Fiction author and screenwriter (The Man Who Folded Himself, The Martian Child) @DavidGerrold

William Gibson, Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Award winning Science Fiction and Cyberpunk author (Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive)  @GreatDismal

Max Gladstone, Science Fiction/Fantasy author (Full Fathom Five, Last First Snow) @maxgladstone

Kathleen Goonan, John W. Campbell Award winning Science Fiction author (In War Times, This Shared Dream) @KathleenGoonan

Steven Gould, New York Times best-selling Science Fiction author and short story writer (Jumper, Reflex) @StevenGould

Daryl Gregory, Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Afterparty, Harrison Squared) @darylwriterguy

Nicola Griffith, Nebula and James Tiptree Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author and editor (Ammonite, With Her Body)  @nicolaz

Lev Grossman, John W. Campbell Award winning Fantasy and Young Adult author (The Magicians, The Magician King)  @leverus

Eileen Gunn, Nebula Award winning Science Fiction author and editor (Stable Strategies and Others, The Wiscon Chronicles) @eileen_gunn

Elizabeth Hand, Nebula and World Fantasy Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Walking the Moon, Winterlong) @Liz_Hand

William Hertling, Science Fiction author (Avogadro Corp., A.I. Apocalypse) @hertling

Nancy Holder, Bram Stoker Award wining Science Fiction and Horror Author (Pretty Little Devils, Wicked: Revelation), as well as works in the Buffyverse  @nancyholder

Nalo Hopkinson, Aurora and Locus Award winning Fantasy and Science Fiction author (The New Moon’s Arms, So Long Been Dreaming)  @nalohopkinson

Jason M. Hough, Best-selling author (The Darwin Elevator, Zero World) @JasonMHough

Hugh Howey, Best-selling Science Fiction author (Wool, Sand) @hughhowey

Meg Howrey, author of nonfiction and science fiction (The Wanderers, Blind Sight) @MegHowrey

N.K. Jemison, Locus Award winning author, Hugo nominee and short story writer  (The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Killing Moon) @nkjemisin

Guy Gavriel Kay, Canadian author, poet, and producer (River of Stars, Children of Earth and Sky) @guygavrielkay

Kay Kenyon, Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Maximum Ice, The Braided World)  @KayKenyon

T. Jackson King, Science Fiction Author and reporter (Stellar Assassin, Escape from Aliens) @TJacksonKing

Dani Kollin, Prometheus Award winning Science Fiction author, with brother Eytan Kollin (The Unincorporated Man, The Unincorporated Woman) @dkollin

Ted Kosmatka, Science Fiction writer (The Flicker Men, The Games) @TKosmatka

Mary Robinette Kowal, John W. Campbell Award winning Author and puppeteer (Shades of Milk and Honey, Forest of Memory) @MaryRobinette

Nancy Kress, Hugo and Nebula Award winning Science Fiction author (Beggars in Spain, Probability Space) @nancykress

Mur Lafferty, Campbell Award and Parsec winning author and podcaster  (Six Wakes, Playing for Keeps) @mightymur

Margo Lanagan, World Fantasy Award winning author (Yellowcake, Tender Morsels ) @margolanagan

Ann Leckie, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author (Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Mercy) @ann_leckie

Ursula K. Le Guin,  Booker Prize, Hugo, Nebula, Locus Award winning science fiction and fantasy author (The Left Hand of Darkness, Lavinia) @ursulaleguin

Paul Levinson, Locus Award winning Science Fiction author (Silk Code, The Plot to Save Socrates) @PaulLev

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Science Fiction author (Hero, To Kiss or To Kill) @JLichtenberg

Charles de Lint, Fantasy and Horror author (The Onion Girl, Widdershins)  @cdelint

Ken Liu, Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy award winning author and translator (Grace of Kings, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories) @kyliu99

Ian McDonald, British Science Fiction author , winner of the Hugo, Locus, Philip K. Dick and John W. Campbell awards (Luna: New Moon, The Dervish House) @ianmcdonald

Seanan McGuire, John W. Campbell Award winning science fiction author, who also writes under the name Mira Grant (Feed, Symbiont)  @seananmcguire

Maureen McHugh, Hugo, Locus and James Tiptree Jr. Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author (China Mountain Zhang, Half the Day is Night) @maureenmcq

Will McIntosh, Hugo Award winning Science Fiction and YA author (Burning Midnight, Soft Apocalypse) @WillMcIntoshSF

Vonda N. McIntyre, Hugo and Nebula Award winning Science Fiction author (Dreamsnake, The Moon and the Sun), also many novels in the Star Trek Universe @vondanmcintyre

Ken MacLeod, Scottish Science Fiction author (The Stone Canal, The Sky Road)  @amendlocke

George R. R. Martin, Best-selling Hugo and Nebula Award winning Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror author (Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons) @GeorgeRRMartin

Elizabeth Moon, Nebula and Robert A. Heinlein Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author (The Speed of Dark, Kings of the North) @emoontx

Richard K. Morgan, Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist (Altered Carbon, Thirteen) @quellist1

James Morrow, Award winning Science Fiction author (Towing Jehovah, Galapagos Regained( @jimmorrow11

Ramez Naam, Tehnologist, public speaker and author  of nonfiction as well as Philip K. Dick and Prometheus Award winning Science Fiction (Nexus, Apex, Crux) @ramez

Linda Nagata, Nebula and Locus Award winning Science Fiction author  (Vast, Memory)  @LindaNagata

Annalee Newitz, founder of io9, tech editor at Ars Technica, non-fiction author (Scatter, Autonomous) @Annaleen

Emma Newman, Author of urban fantasy and science fiction (Planetfall, After Atlas) @EmApocalyptic

Garth Nix, Australian fantasy and YA novelist (Shade’s Children, To Hold the Bridge) @garthnix

Naomi Novik, Hugo and John W. Campbell Award winning author of alternate history (Crucible of Gold, Tongues of Serpents) @naominovik

Nnedi Okorafor, Professor of creative writing and Hugo Award winning author (The Book of Phoenix, Lagoon) @Nnedi

Daniel José Older, Author of urban fantasy and young adult novels (Shadowshaper, Bone Street Rumba) @djolder

Malka Older, Science Fiction and thriller author (Infomocracy, Null States) @m_older

Peter Orullian, writer of epic fantasy (Trial of Intentions, The Unremembered) @PeterOrullian

Ada Palmer, Historian, author of science fiction & fantasy (Too Like the Lightning, Seven Surrenders) @Ada_Palmer

Eliot Peper, editor, writer of science fiction thrillers (Cumulus, Neon Fever Dream) @eliotpeper

Gareth L. Powell, Winner of the BSFA Award for best novel (Ack-Ack Macaque, The Recollection) @garethlpowell

Sir Terry Pratchett may be the greatest writer of fantasy and comedy, winner of the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, now deceased (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic) @terryandrob

Tim Pratt, Hugo Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author (Spell Games, Dead Reign)   @timpratt

Cherie Priest, Locus Award winning Science Fiction and Horror author (Boneshaker, Fatham)   @cmpriest

Hannu Rajaniemi, Locus and John W. Campbell Award winning Science Fiction author and mathematician (The Fractal Prince, The Causal Angel) @hannu

Cat Rambo, Fantasy and Science Fiction author and editor (Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight)  @catrambo

Marguerite Reed, Philip K. Dick Special Citation award winning author  (Archangel) @MargueriteReed9

Mike Resnick, Multiple Hugo and Locus Award winning Science Fiction author (Starship: Mutiny, Santiago)  @ResnickMike

Alastair Reynolds, Former ESA scientist, Science Fiction author (The Medusa Chronicles, Blue Remembered Earth) @AquilaRift

Rudy Rucker, Philip K. Dick Award winning Science Fiction author and mathematician (Software, Realware)  @rudytheelder

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Hugo Award winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author and editor (Hitler’s Angel, Totally Spellbound) , as well as works in the Star Trek universe @KristineRusch

Geoff Ryman, Professor of writing, author of Science Fiction, fantasy and historic novels (Was, The Unconquered Country) @geoffryman

Brandon Sanderson, Science Fiction,  fantasy and  author (Calamity, Firefight) @BrandSanderson

Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo, Nebula and John W. Campbell  Award winning Science Fiction author (Rollback, Flashforward) @RobertJSawyer

John Scalzi, John W. Campbell and Hugo Award winning author (Fuzzy Nation, Old Man’s War)   @scalzi

Lawrence M. Schoen, Award-winning author (Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard, Buffalito Destiny) @klingonguy

Karl Schroeder, Aurora Award winning Science Fiction author (Permanence, The Sunless Countries)  @KarlSchroeder

Nisi Shawl, award-winning author of SFF and alternate history (EverFair, Something More and More) @NisiShawl

Scott Sigler, Parsec Award winning Science Fiction and Horror author (Infected, Contagious)  @scottsigler

Dean Wesley Smith, Science Fiction author (Laying the Music to Rest, The Hunted) @DeanWesleySmith

Michael Stackpole, Science Fiction and Fantasy author and Game Designer (I, Jedi, Evil Trimphant) @MikeStackpole

Bruce Sterling, Hugo and Campbell Award winning Science Fiction and Cyberpunk author (Distraction, The Caryatids) @bruces

Neal Stephenson, Hugo, Locus and Prometheus Award winning Science Fiction author (Quicksilver, The Diamond Age) @nealstephenson

Charles Stross, Locus and Hugo Award winning Science Fiction author (Halting State, Rule 34) @cstross

Daniel Suarez, New York Times best-selling author of high-tech, science fiction thrillers (Change Agent, Daemon) @itsDanielSuarez

Tom Sweterlitsch author of science fiction thrillers (The Gone World, Tomorrow and Tomorrow) @LetterSwitch

Rachel Swirsky, Nebula Award winning short story writer (How the World Became Quiet, A Memory of Wind)  @rachelswirsky

Lavie Tidhar, Seiun Award and World Fantasy Award winning author (Central Station, A Man Lies Dreaming) @lavietidhar

Ian Tregillis, Physicist and Science Fiction author (The Rising, The Mechanical) @ITregillis

Hayden Trenholm, Science Fiction and mystery writer ( Blood & Water, Strangers Among Us) @HaydenTrenholm

Harry Turtledove, Writer of alternate history, fantasy and science fiction (Guns of the South, How Few Remain ) @HNTurtledove

Catherynne Valente, James Tiptree, Andre Norton award winning SF and Fantasy author (Space Opera, Radiance) @catvalente

Jeff VanderMeer, Fantasy and Science Fiction author (Finch, Annihilation) @jeffvandermeer

Andy Weir, Best-selling Science Fiction author (The Martian, Artemis) @andyweirauthor

Scott Westerfeld, Young adult and Science Fiction author (Leviathon, Uglies)  @ScottWesterfeld

Fran Wilde, Andre Norton Award winning Science fiction and fantasy author (Updraft, Cloudbound) @fran_wilde

Daniel H. Wilson, Roboticist and New York Times best-selling author (Robopocalypse, Robogenesis) @danielwilsonpdx

G. Willow Wilson, World Fantasy Award winning and Graphic Novel author (Alif the Unseen, The Butterfly Mosque) @GWillowWilson

Gary K.Wolfe, Science Fiction editor and critic @garykwolfe

Alyssa Wong, Nebula Award winning author of science fiction and horror (A Fist of Permutations and Wildflowers ) @crashwong

Charles Yu, Science Fiction novelist and short story writer (How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Third Class Superhero) @charles_yu

Liz Ziemska, Literary agent and SFF author (Mandelbrot the Magnificent) @Ziemska

Leni Zumas, Science fiction author and professor (Red Clocks, The Listeners) @lenizumas

Other Science Fiction sites:

SFX Magazine, Sci Fi and Fantasy Magazine  @SFXmagazine

StarShipSofa Podcast of Science Fiction stories @StarShipSofa

Locus Magazine, Science Fiction and Fantasy News @LocusChat

SF Signal, a Science Fiction blog @sfsignal

The Hugo Awards, News on the Hugos @TheHugoAwards

io9, Commentary and updates on Science, Science Fiction and Media @io9

SFWA Authors, Blog posts from members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America   @SFWAauthors

Clarkesworld, Online Science Fiction Magazine @clarkesworld

Tor Books, Science Fiction and Fantasy News @torbooks

Baen Books, Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing @BaenBooks

Ace Science Fiction, Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing @AceRocBooks

Museum of Science Fiction, to open in Washington DC @Museum_SciFi

Hollywood Science Fiction Museum, to open in Hollywood, @hollywoodscifi

Novum Future, Science fiction news and podcast, @NovumPodcast

Fantasy Faction, Fantasy Book Reviews @FantasyFaction

B&N SF & F, Barnes & Noble Science Fiction & Fantasy @BNSciFi

SF Encyclopedia, Updates from the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction @SFEncyclopedia

SF Editor’s Picks, editor’s Science Fiction recommendations @SFEditorsPicks