When someone thinks of maps in speculative fiction books, the mind always goes first to the fantasy genre, and the city/country/continent/world maps that go along with it. I love those maps, and my recently released epic fantasy novel, The Dragon Hand, featured one such map. However, science fiction stories can make good use of maps asContinue reading “Galaxy Ascendant 3 Map Reveal”
Tag Archives: Star Trek
Modern Star Trek, Star Wars, and the Problem of Creativity
I’m pleased to share the fact that I have a new guest post up on the prestigious Castalia House blog, on the topic of modern Star Trek, Star Wars, and their creative problems. Check it out over on the Castalia House site!
Let’s Talk About The Orville
Having slogged through two long reviews/rants about the “official” Star Trek show currently airing (not on TV though), I can now reward myself by talking about the REAL spiritual successor to the Star Trek I grew up on and have loved for pretty much my whole life, The Orville. A lot has been said already about this show, andContinue reading “Let’s Talk About The Orville”
Review/Rant: Star Trek: Discovery (Episodes 3&4)
As promised, I’m doing another review of ST:D. I honestly haven;t been looking forward to it, but seeing as episodes 3&4 are the true first episodes of this series, and there is so, so much wrong here as well. I don’t plan on reviewing the rest, though I may try and find and watch moreContinue reading “Review/Rant: Star Trek: Discovery (Episodes 3&4)”
Review/Rant: Star Trek: Discovery (Episodes 1&2)
Ooookay. After hyping this a bit on Twitter, I really hope this delivers. Before we get to the ST:D, however, a bit of background. I was practically raised on Star Trek. My parents have been huge fans of the original series since well before I was born, and they own the entire thing on VHS. Yes,Continue reading “Review/Rant: Star Trek: Discovery (Episodes 1&2)”
Alien Lives Matter: Introducing the Burroughs Test
I was recently made aware of this excellent post over at SuperversiveSF by Nate Winchester (thanks to Rawle Nyanzi for bringing it to my attention.) In the article, Nate addresses the “current year” issue of “representation” in fiction, that being where people on the Left, primarily SJWs, make the “diversity” of a film’s cast aContinue reading “Alien Lives Matter: Introducing the Burroughs Test”
Writing Non-Human Characters Part 2: Pitfalls to Avoid
Now that I’ve hopefully made the case for writing non-human characters in the first place, we can move on to the actual creative process. And I figured best to get the negative parts of it out of the way first, hence pitfalls. I will preface this by saying that while the pitfalls I will discussContinue reading “Writing Non-Human Characters Part 2: Pitfalls to Avoid”
Writing Non-Human Characters Part 1: Why Do It?
More than four years ago, I wrote a fairly popular post on writing non-human characters, which I think shows that I am far from the only writer interested in writing such characters. I think now is as good a time as any to revisit the topic and expand on it. Also, to be clear, forContinue reading “Writing Non-Human Characters Part 1: Why Do It?”
Why I Write Space Opera, and Why it’s Awesome
The question, “Why do you write [insert genre, type of story]?” is one that writers can be certain someone will as at one point or another. So, I think I’ll get the jump on that question, or at least on one of my answers, as I also write fantasy, and plan to write historical fantasyContinue reading “Why I Write Space Opera, and Why it’s Awesome”
It’s #SpaceOperaWeek, but Where are the Aliens?
So, Tor.com decided that this week is Space Opera Week (#SpaceOperaWeek on Twitter), though thus far it seems that I and a few other fellow members of the #PulpRevolution have been dominating the hashtag, though that may be unsurprising, as Tor is using contributors who aren’t fans of the genre. Jon Del Arroz, author ofContinue reading “It’s #SpaceOperaWeek, but Where are the Aliens?”
Writing, Ascendant 