The Pedestrian
Back in 1952, the great American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury published a short story called “The Pedestrian” in a small antifascist publication. The story, which was based on Bradbury’s…
Solarpunk the Future
Cyberpunk was cool. Steampunk was hip. Get ready for Solarpunk. This new emerging genre of art and fiction imagines a future where DIY environmental sustainability dictates the design of everything…
How Pulp Magazines Conquered Publishing
The phrase "Pulp Fiction" brings to mind Quentin Tarantino's movie of the same name. But real-life pulp fiction is much stranger, and more colorful, than you ever realized. We talk…
Whatcha Reading, Michael Hobbes?, by Martin McClellan
Michael Hobbes is a Seattle-based journalist, writer, and supremely-talented untangler of our culture’s messiest cultural hairballs. He is the other half (the first being Sarah Marshall, who did this column…
Buried Alive!
Being buried alive was one of the most common phobias of the Victorian era. Fear of premature interment in a coffin inspired the creation of the London Association for the…
Drabbleclassics 29 – Primary Pollinator (191)
This week for Drabbleclassics Bart Epstein brings your Primary Pollinator, by Nicole Kimberling. When Dr. Lopez came for me, I was plunging the geo lab toilet. She carried a red…
The sci-fi of another language
The meaning of science fiction stories are often tough to pin down. Do they depict the future or the present? Are they personal or political? Imaginative or reality-based? Also, is…
The End Of The World with Josh Clark
This episode of The End of the World podcast had me thinking a lot about a book I just finished, Knocking on Heaven’s Door by Sharman Apt Russell, the boundless…
Martha Wells, “Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries”
Wells has incorporated aspects of herself in Murderbot, a fact that resonates with readers. “I have some problems with anxiety and OCD and I’ve put those into the character… and…
Drabblecast 384 – The Cats of Ulthar
I’ve been getting into fiction podcasts lately and one I really love is Drabblecast. Check out this episode.