‘Be careful, Aggie! Remember, ‘The Doctor is a Master of Deceit”.’ ‘Aggie?’ said the Doctor thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what that’s short for.’ The girl’s nostrils flared proudly. ‘My full name is Agony-Without-End-Shall-Be-The-Doctor’s-Punishment.’ ‘Ah,’ said the Doctor. ‘You know, Leela, just between ourselves, I’m starting to feel that I’m not entirely welcome here.’ Rejoice! Season 8
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. –Robert Heinlein, 1973 That quote is featured in the introduction to this book. If it offended you, well guess what, it was supposed to. Harlan Ellison has made a career out of, if
Imagine a world that’s run on magic and steam. Fill it with a collection of races so different from each other that they might as well be alien species. Then picture a pirate fleet that takes every ship it captures and adds it to the collection of ships already bolted together into a miles-wide floating island. What
San Diego Comic Con starts in two days, and the entire cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron will be there. To get us in the mood, lets review an Iron Man graphic novel, shall we? At the start of Iron Man Volume 2, Tony Stark is literally flying high: saving an alien world from space pirates and
If you’ve had anything to do with science fiction over the last thirty years, chances are you’ve seen or read something by Peter David. The man has written for movie and TV, dozens of original novels, thousands of comic book issues, and generally has something new coming out about once a month. My introduction to all things Peter David
Every religion lies. Every moral precept is a delusion. Even the stars are a mirage. The truth is darkness, and the only thing that matters is making a statement before one enters it. Cutting the skin of the world and leaving a scar. That’s all history is, after all: scar tissue. That quote should give
Around this time of year all the book publishers start talking about what you should be reading over the next couple of months. “Great Beach Books”, “Perfect Summer Reading”. No one gets very specific about the criteria though. Should the books be light and easy to read? Linked to big news stories or the latest
Scott Westerfeld is one of the kings of Young Adult books. He’s written four different series; “Midnighters”, “Peeps”, “Leviathan”, and the hugely popular 4-book saga “Uglies”. And I’ve read exactly…none of them. Yes, I know that’s a big oversight, especially since Westerfeld spent about four years at the top of my list of favorite authors. The Magazine of Fantasy
Human beings set out to encounter other worlds, other civilizations, without having fully gotten to know their own hidden recesses, their blind alleys, well shafts, dark barricaded doors. Stanislaw Lem is one of those authors who’s name has been floating around in my “must read” list for way too long. The only one of his works