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Science Books for Science Fiction Readers – 2

By John Folk-Williams

Hiroshima Diary science books for science fiction readers

This second post in my series of science books for science fiction readers moves from the inner space of the human mind to ideas of expanding human life across the galaxy. From Kip Thorne’s astrophysics and Antonio Damasio’s neurobiology to Freeman Dyson’s essays on space and the diary of a doctor in the aftermath of […]

Filed Under: Science Books for SFF Readers Tagged With: Antonio Damasio, apocalypse, black holes, consciousness, Freeman Dyson, Hiroshima, Kip Thorne, radiation poisoning, relativity, space travel, time warps

Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A New Species Emerges

By John Folk-Williams

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler Xenogenesis Trilogy

Prepare for a deep dive into the most intimate details of human-alien contact in Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy. Step by step she takes you through the initial encounters between a human, Lilith Iyapo, and her Oankali captors (Dawn), the coming of age of a construct resulting from this union (Adulthood Rites) and the reconciliation […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Reviews, Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: alien life forms, apocalypse, colonialism, gender, human emotion, Octavia E. Butler, sexuality, slavery, species, xenogenesis trilogy

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany: Poet in Dystopia

By John Folk-Williams

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany seems to have many detractors as a work of science fiction but I find it a powerful portrait of a fractured mind, of a poet in dystopia, of a city broken the way its main narrator feels he might be breaking. Known mostly as the Kid, because he has forgotten […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: city, Dhalgren, dystopia, language, memory, mental health, poet, reality, Samuel R. Delany, sex

The Lost Solace Series by Karl Drinkwater: A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Lost Solace, the Solace Series by Karl Drinkwater

Karl Drinkwater starts off his Lost Solace series in a daring way. A deserter named Opal has stolen a ship with an experimental AI, which she names Clarissa, and sets off to a location in deep space. There she finds a mystery ship, a luxury liner abandoned and strangely altered. Could it be the one? […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Indie SciFi, Reviews Tagged With: alien life forms, artificial intelligence, family, lost space ships, neutron stars, rebirth, relationships

Comet Weather by Liz Williams: A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Comet Weather by Liz Williams

I guess I’m a bit late to join the Wyrd & Wonder group, but Liz Williams’ beautiful fantasy, Comet Weather, has won me over completely from my hard edged science fictional ways. Sad to think, I never would have known about Liz Williams, or discovered this latest novels of hers, if Alastair Reynolds hadn’t mentioned […]

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: comet, Comet Weather, cosmic forces, England, Liz Williams, spirits, star

The Book of Strange New Things: The Alien Language of Human Connection

By John Folk-Williams

Alien Language of Human Emotion The Book of Strange New Things

There is a powerful moment in Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange New Things, when Peter Leigh, transported across light years to minister to a alien congregation on the planet Oasis, delivers a moving eulogy about a man he has hardly known. The scene captures Peter’s ability to get to the core of the life […]

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: alien, alien language, human emotion, Michel Faber, space colonies

Purpose and Redemption in the Embers of War Series by Gareth L. Powell

By John Folk-Williams

Embers of War Series Purpose and Redemption

It’s no wonder that, in the vastness of space and amid the destruction of planets and whole populations, finding purpose and redemption for past misdeeds should preoccupy so many rootless characters in Gareth L. Powell’s Embers of War series. With his considerable talent Powell combines space opera action with these deeper shades of meaning. It’s […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Reviews Tagged With: artificial intelligence, memory, purpose, redemption, robotic spaceships, sentient beings, space opera

Red Desert Series by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli: A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Red Desert Point of No Return by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli

Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli’s Red Desert four-part series reads like a single captivating novel with a fascinating character named Anna Persson at its core. She’s an exobiologist sent on a mission to colonize Mars, yet her impulsive, angry, headstrong nature breaks the psychological mold of an astronaut and plunges her into one difficult situation after […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Indie SciFi, Reviews, Science Fiction in Translation Tagged With: alien minds, first contact, Mars, space colonies

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Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

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"On with Vintage Science Fiction Month! H.G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come (1933) purports to be the history of the next hundred and fifty years of human experience." The Shape of Things to Come by H.G. Wells https://www.scifimind.com/shape-of-things-to-come-by-h-g-wells/ via @SFMind #VintageSciFiMonth #scifi #sff

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A late-comer to the worlds of science fiction, John Folk-Williams circled around it, first by blogging (primarily through Storied Mind) about inner struggles and the mind’s way of distorting reality. Then he turned directly to SFF as an amazing medium for re-envisioning the mind and the worlds it creates. He started this blog as a way to experiment with writing science fiction and to learn from its many masterful practitioners.

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