Classic… landmark… masterpiece. Clarke. Childhood’s End.

Coming from just about the middle of the 20th century (1953), Clarke’s Childhood’s End is not only a prime example of a science fiction classic, but even more, it deserves to be called a science fiction masterpiece. It’s quite simply one of the best sf novels I’ve ever read, and I keep wondering what [...]

Short clip: Frank Herbert speaks about Dune

Here’s a very short video I found of a television interview with Frank Herbert, the only such video I’ve been able to find. I don’t know the date on this, but I’d guess it’s from sometime in the late 70’s or early 80’s. I wish I could find the whole interview, assuming there [...]

Sucking the blood out of the vampire legend

I’ve been out of the vampire “loop” for quite some time; the last vampire novel I read was Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned back around 1990. Since then, I haven’t felt much urgency about seeking out that kind of literature. As fas as I’m concerned, Rice’s series (at least the first [...]

Star Trek: Creating the Classic (Roddenberry interview, 1986)

Here’s a nice little interview with Gene Roddenberry on Good Morning America from 1986, talking about the creation of Star Trek and some of the issues related to it.
I really liked this comment:
Mass communications is our language today, between one another; and we can’t say, “well let’s not really talk about anything serious on [...]

Clement’s “heavy” classic: Mission of Gravity

My list of famous older science fiction books to read has once again become one item shorter. (That’s a bit of a rhetorical flourish, I admit; I don’t actually have such a list. But you know what I mean.) While not necessarily one of the deepest novels I’ve ever read, [...]

Vinge’s Peace War — an oxymoron, maybe; a good book, definitely

My second experience with Vernor Vinge goes back back to one of his earlier novels, The Peace War from 1984. While I didn’t like it quite as much as the other book of his I’ve read, it was nevertheless a fine novel with intriguing ideas, believable characters, and an engaging plot.
The Peace War weaves [...]