From Madison Avenue to Venus, the space merchants rule

Widely regarded as a classic of the genre, Pohl and Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants (1953) takes critical aim at the increasing commercialization of society, and particularly one of the main tools used to drive it: the advertising industry. Woven into this framework is commentary on many related topics such as overpopulation, depletion of natural [...]

Simak’s Cemetery World

I read one of Simak’s books (Way Station) when I was a teenager, and I recall that way back then I rather liked it. On the other hand, that’s been a long time ago and I couldn’t remember anything concrete about that story or Simak’s stlye. So I decided it was time to [...]

“…living in an SF scenario.”

I found this article at the UK’s Times Online, “Why don’t we love science fiction?” I’m sure we’ve all read plenty of articles about the snobbishness of the literary establishment toward SF, and why SF is important and worthwhile, and this is another of the same type. Of course with me, they’re preaching [...]

The Listeners, for anyone who’s listening

James Gunn’s The Listeners, published in 1972, is a fictional tale of a SETI-style program to search for transmissions from intelligent alien civilizations. I have always seen this book described as almost a sister to Carl Sagan’s Contact; and I wish I could provide some comparison, but I can’t since I’ve never read the [...]

What was your introduction to sci-fi?

I certainly hope it was more elegant and, umm… cleaner than in this story Nancy Kress shares about one of her fans. Of course, if the young lady had to go through that to get some good science fiction, at least she was lucky enough to find such a superb novel. One could [...]

Sheckley gains high status with me

Here’s another “first book I’ve read by this author” situation; and wouldn’t you know it, it turned me into an instant Robert Sheckley fan. Gotta love it when that happens.
The Status Civilization (1960) is yet another utopian/dystopian story, taking on the issues of conformity and societal pressure to subordinate the individual to the group. [...]