Oh the Mundanity!

Oh the Mundanity!

Author JD Cowan sifts through the wreckage of the Mundane Sci Fi Movement so we don't have to. Take, for instance, one of the offspring of his ideas. As of 2019, the Mundane Science Fiction movement is 15 years old. Never heard of it? Then you understand how much of…
December 13, 201910 Comments
Astounding Campbell Memory-Holing

Astounding Campbell Memory-Holing

In light of the World Con voters circling the wagons to snub my readers in 2016, this announcement from the editor of Analog is as amusing as it is predictable. H/t P. Alexander Named for Campbell, whose writing and role as editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later renamed Analog Science Fiction…
August 28, 201926 Comments
Hard Theology

Hard Theology

Science fiction grand master John C. Wright poses a long overdue question in his recent post on hard science fiction. Heinlein never penned a sequel where the bastard children of Mike the Martian, six-fingered giants educated in Martian psionic arts by the ghost of their dead patriarch, overthrow and trample…
April 5, 201926 Comments
White Knighting for Campbell

White Knighting for Campbell

The Unz Review shows how the Right all too often rushes to enshrine earlier Leftist subversion simply because it precedes current Leftist subversion. This time, the subject of misguided right wing hagiography is John W. Campbell, Jr. Alec Nevala-Lee, an Asian-American science fiction writer, has here written something remarkable: an intentionally…
April 2, 201912 Comments
The Curse of Fandom

The Curse of Fandom

There are those who describe the fandom phenomenon as the circuses part of the bread and circuses of our age. That's not entirely accurate. Ancient Roman plebs didn't worship the gladiators sent out to distract them from their empire's fall. In the crumbling American Empire, geek culture has been deployed…
March 29, 201921 Comments
Sci-Fidolatry

Sci-Fidolatry

Hollywood atheists spent the 70s, 80s, and 90s preaching a counter-gospel through movies and TV shows that went like this: "Religion has been holding humanity back. We'll usher in a bright, sexy utopia of pure reason once we free ourselves of bronze age superstition." You couldn't pick up a DAW…
March 8, 20196 Comments
The Amazon Age

The Amazon Age

Pulp Archivist takes to Twitter to ask: Oldpub is dead. The Amazon age is truly upon us. How do publishers make money? You might say, "by selling books," and you'd be wrong. Books aren't commodities like TVs and toothpaste. They're pure information. Nobody buys just one book, and eBooks have…
March 4, 201916 Comments
Metal Fiction: #AGundam4Us

Metal Fiction: #AGundam4Us

Image by Shoji Kawamori It is my sincere honor to welcome Metal Fiction into the growing ranks of #AGundam4Us. Here I reproduce Brent's call to arms in full. I fell in love with mecha back in the 80s: Transformers, Mighty Orbots, Challenge of the GoBots, Robotech, Voltron, BattleTech… I watched/read/played…
November 26, 20182 Comments
Galaxy Ascendant

Galaxy Ascendant

Author Yakov Merkin announces the exciting Indiegogo campaign for the third installment in his galaxy-spanning sci-fi series, Galaxy Ascendant. Do you miss the days when grand, epic sci-fi franchises like Star Wars and Mass Effect were good? Do you want grand-scope, creative, action-packed, and FUN space opera fiction? Then come…
November 2, 20184 Comments
The Army Will Make Mecha Real

The Army Will Make Mecha Real

Previously I reported that the Russians are developing real-life bipedal combat mechs not unlike AT-STs from Star Wars. Now, the US Army is getting in on the act, only they're going bigger. Think AT-ATs. The U.S. Army is looking to finally replace their M1 Abrams battle tank as rival nations…
October 12, 20189 Comments