Category Archives: Science

Waldo & Magic, Inc.

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

Arthur C. Clarke, among other things, is famous for a set of axioms known as “Clarke’s Laws.” The most quoted of these is undoubtedly Clarke’s Third Law, which states that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This idea … Continue reading →

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The Lathe of Heaven

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

In his essay Man, Android and Machine, Philip K. Dick expounds at length on a vintage neurological point, the so-called “appositional mind” (what we now call the left and right brains). Dick loved the idea of a mind divided into … Continue reading →

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Search the Sky

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

On a future and much-decayed Earth, Of babies there’s long been a dearth — But everyone cheers When a spaceship appears packed with goods of immeasurable worth. Something has gone wrong with mankind: evolution has gone deaf and blind. One … Continue reading →

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Transformations: Understanding World History Through Science Fiction

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

Transformations: Understanding World History Through Science Fiction is a book that pairs a range of science fiction stories with elementary “review sections” about world events, ostensibly to lure teenagers into being interested in history. Whether it achieves this goal is … Continue reading →

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Farmer In The Sky

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

Before we begin: I don’t know why I love the “juvenile” Robert Heinlein books so much. They’re a dime-a-dozen at used book stores. I can tear through them in a day, and I know that I should be reading something … Continue reading →

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When Science Asks, “What If?”

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

I’m very excited to announce the latest fruit of my ongoing collaboration with SEED Magazine — a web-only article justifying the cultural and scientific import of science fiction. Being written for a primarily scientific audience, there are large sections of … Continue reading →

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Photos: De Profundis Ad Astra

Posted on January 13, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

In my opinion, the 1960s were the best time to be a sci-fi buff. Everything was new: the unfolding space race was not only beginning to justify decades of literary speculation about space travel, but it was also ratcheting astronauts … Continue reading →

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Dying Inside

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Claire L. Evans

Dying Inside is one of science fiction’s great genre classics, although hopefully the edition currently in handsome reprinting will hip the mainstream to the fact that it’s also a great American novel. The story of an aging telepath gradually losing … Continue reading →

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The World of Null-A

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

Actual Reading Notes: Whoa, this book is deceptively complex: a wildly convoluted and impossible story told very plainly, with an almost maddening lack of detail — lacking the atmospheric fuzz and hypertext of more contemporary sci-fi — we’re told very … Continue reading →

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Mercury Station

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

I first met Mark von Schlegell in 2004, an eternity ago, on a blurry, neon-tonic night in Los Angeles, probably one of the banner nights for my endless (and this, I admit, is personal) migratory-birdlike longing for a return to … Continue reading →

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