Category Archives: Science

The Handmaid’s Tale

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

Is The Handmaid’s Tale sci-fi? It’s not marketed as such, nor does the book cover pronounce it to be so, but that’s how it was sold to me. Now that I’ve finished it, I feel like the question might be … Continue reading →

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Not What If: What If Not

Posted on September 6, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

This isn’t a novel, but the second volume of a contemporary annual design publication called the Task Newsletter, a project by Emmet Byrne, Alex DeArmond, and Jon Sueda. I include it here because Issue #2 is devoted to “Mundane Science … Continue reading →

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Citizen of the Galaxy

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

Part of Bob Heinlein’s storied “Juvenile” series for Scribner’s, Citizen of the Galaxy is a Grade-A galactic bildungsroman. By virtue of it nominally being a book for kids, it skirts some of the more roguish Heinlein themes (fawning speculation over … Continue reading →

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The Reefs of Space

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

Not in the wildest stoner prognostications of Carl Sagan, nor the fetid dreams of any sci-fi writer ever before or since, has there been anything like the The Reefs of Space. Not the book, which is fairly standard, but the … Continue reading →

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Again, Dangerous Visions

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

One thing that hasn’t been discussed yet on this blog is the major role that editors have historically played in the sci-fi scene. Since the genre was shaped by decades of magazine publishing, the editors of those magazines — rags … Continue reading →

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Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

Inventing a future reality is easy. Anyone can say, “in the year 10,000 AD humans will have evolved into telepathic knights,” but to populate that reality with the names of TV shows is much more difficult. I think the particular … Continue reading →

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Computer One

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

Warwick Collins, among other things, is a one-time yacht designer now hell-bent on selling his alternate evolutionary theory to the scientific establishment. Computer One, an exercise in singularity paranoia, is his only sci-fi novel. Computer One is more of a … Continue reading →

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The Female Man

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

In the hotel room carpeting that is my life, The Female Man was a major event. It’s among the most important-feeling events of my career as a reader, but it’s also the kind of book that sounds crummy on paper. … Continue reading →

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Recommended Reading

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

We are far from the halcyon days of mimeographed fan-zines, paperbacks, and magazines, which used to be the lifeblood of science-fiction. These were rich with epistolary rants from readers and first-run stories, crummy illustrations of sensuous monsters and their prey; … Continue reading →

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The Puppet Masters

Posted on March 11, 2009 by Claire L. Evans

In the opening passage of The Puppet Masters, Robert A. Heinlein asks, “Were they truly intelligent? By themselves, that is? I don’t know and I don’t know how we can ever find out. If they were not truly intelligent, I … Continue reading →

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