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Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker: Seeing the Whole of Things

By John Folk-Williams

Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker

Considering the convulsing world of 1937 on the eve of World War II, Olaf Stapledon introduced Star Maker with a powerful rationale for science fiction in a time of crisis: “…[P]erhaps the attempt to see our turbulent world against a background of stars may, after all, increase, not lessen, the significance of the present human […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: cosmic mind, galaxy, myth, Olaf Stapledon, sentient beings, Star Maker, telepathy, universe

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home: Dialogue Between Present and Future

By John Folk-Williams

Ursula K. LrGuin Always Coming Home

When Samuel R. Delany reviewed Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home on its publication in 1985, he referred to science fiction as a dialogue between present and future. That happens to be a good way of thinking about this unique work. It is part imaginary ethnography and part literary anthology of a people, the […]

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Always Coming Hom, ceremonial life, culture, nature, power, story-telling, technology, Ursula K. Le Guin

Linda Nagata Edges: Contending Human and Alien Minds

By John Folk-Williams

Linda Nagata's Edges

“Against a starscape, a smudge of white light. A faint gleam, devoid of detail.” With those few words Linda Nagata begins Edges, picking up a story of human survival in a hostile universe she last explored over twenty years ago. Nagata published six science fiction novels between 1995 – 2003 but then took a long […]

Filed Under: Indie SciFi, Reviews Tagged With: alien minds, Inverted Frontier, Linda Nagata, Nanotech Succession, neural network, robotic spaceships, subminds

Doris Lessing: Shikasta

By John Folk-Williams

Doris Lessing: Shikasta

In an era when science fiction insists on “showing” rather than “telling”, Doris Lessing’s Canopus in Argos: Archives series challenges readers to think differently. In five books, starting with Shikasta in 1979, she produced an epic scale work more in the vein of Olaf Stapledon’s universal histories than current best-sellers, and no less dazzling and […]

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: apocalypse, colonialism, Doris Lessing, galactic empires, Shikasta, sufism

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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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Beautiful essay by Aiden Moher: "fantastic adventures become lenses through which we can learn lessons of humility, strength, passion, and love." Becoming Gandalf by @adribbleofink http://astrolabe.aidanmoher.com/issues/becoming-gandalf-548489 via @revue

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Reading LeGuin quote "We’ll need writers who can remember freedom – poets, visionaries – realists of a larger reality.” Becoming Gandalf by @adribbleofink http://astrolabe.aidanmoher.com/issues/becoming-gandalf-548489 via @revue

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Review - The Sin of America by Catherynne M. Valente https://beforewegoblog.com/review-the-sin-of-america-by-catherynne-m-valente/ via @BethTabler

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4 of 5 stars to Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3866979013

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"This is an excellent story, despite a few rough edges, that pulled me in more deeply, the more it upset my initial expectations of how epic fantasies unfold." Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa https://www.scifimind.com/son-of-the-storm-by-suyi-davies-okungbowa/ via @SFMind #sff #scifi #SonoftheStorm

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