As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Sci Fi

Announcement: Emerald Keep, by A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder

by
Emerald Keep

Torquere authors A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder has a new sci fi book out: When Emerald Keeper Teeka returns to the city of Reghdad and leaves the harsh desert behind, he finds that not all dangers come from the Great Valley. The dangerous Daymonth is nearly upon them and no one can survive on the surface of the planet — but Senior Hunter Quill Mayer is trying to get to Reghdad, and Teeka, before the start of it. Even if he makes it, Emerald Keep denies Teeka’s Contract with Senior Hunter Quill, and Teeka discovers his enemy is more … Read more

Announcement: Cosmic Encounters

by
Cosmic Encounters

QSFer Nicolette deSada alerted us to a new erotic sci fi anthology she’s in: From across the universe these stories have come together to guide readers through a whole gambit of erotic pairings and interactions all with a science fiction twist. Be it mutated humans or aliens from far flung worlds there is something for everyone. Excerpt Happily Ever After… The Dwarf was looking dispiritedly through the wanted ads in The Stage when Snow White came in, shaking the cold and wet off her coat. “Anything?” she asked brightly, feigning a smile. “Not a one,” he replied glumly. “Oh well, … Read more

Announcement: Under Glass, by Rebecca Cohen

by
Under Glass

QSF author Rebecca Cohen has a new sci fi book out: Creating planets and guarding the stars leaves novice planet builder Kai Faewiva lonely. For members of Kai’s species who are born with an organ called a caerellon, their true love, their Sun or Moon, is identified at birth. But the novices are people who have lost their perfect love, and Kai’s Sun is long dead, killed in an accident when he was five years old. Or so everyone thought. After recovering from another bout of the unidentified illness he has battled for years, Kai returns to work. But his … Read more

Will Driverless Cars Give Us Motion Sickness?

by
Motion Sickness

We’ve heard a lot of questions about what the future of driverless cars will bring, but here is a new one: What if this great advance in transportation technology makes us motion-sick? That’s a very likely possibility, argue Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. Plenty of people — almost always passengers — already get motion-sick in cars. But Sivak and Schoettle point out in a new paper that driverless cars, by their very design, will contribute to three of the big factors that make our stomachs turn. The first is that we’re more … Read more

Falling For Your AI

by
Her

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Tam Ames: “Virtual intelligence? AI? Have we discussed this? But could you have a romance between a human and software? Using virtual technology to have sex or communicate, but no physical body? Would we want to in the future? Could a good author really make readers believe it’s “real” romance?” So far tyhe best example I’ve seen of this is the movie “Her” – which very convincingly explored a near-future romance between what the movie called an “operating system” and a human. Downside – it was MF… LOL. So what do you think? I’ll defer … Read more

Gay Superheroes

by
Stripling Warrior

Let’s check out the Superman/Batman end of the sci fi pool today. When I was in my early teens, I started collecting comic books, and I was fascinated by Superman – good looking guy, great muscles, and really good inside too. But in my wildest youth fantasies, I couldn’t have imagined a gay superhero at the time. But now they’re popping out all over – and not just gay ones – lesbian, bisexual – maybe even transgender. And just this morning I saw an article about a crowdfunding effort for a gay Mormon superhero (photo above)! So here are my … Read more

Parks on Buildings – Is This Where Nature Goes?

by
Facebook Park

From Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page: Today we moved into our new Facebook building in Menlo Park, California. Our goal was to create the perfect engineering space for our teams to work together. We wanted our space to create the same sense of community and connection among our teams that we try to enable with our services across the world. To do this, we designed the largest open floor plan in the world — a single room that fits thousands of people. There are lots of small spaces where people can work together, and it’s easy for people to move around … Read more

Announcement: The Secret History of Another Rome, by Bear

by
The Secret History of Another Rome

QSFer Ruff Bear has a new Sci Fi book out: In the mid-2600s, Ranulf becomes Supreme Pontiff of the Empire of Rome at Alexandria, a patriarchy run by priest-bureaucrats called Librarians. After twenty-two years on the throne, Ranulf’s memories flood back to him, from the time he moved to Alexandria with his mother to his present situation resulting from his choices, his training and his relationships. Ranulf’s life has been a quest for truth, not the half-truths of the Librarians and their Secret History, but an understanding of how action rather than static dogma is the path to the future. … Read more

Announcement: Foolish Encounters

by
Foolish Encounters

A new anthology includes a bunch of QSFers: An April Fool’s anthology, born from an event where authors submitted their most outrageous prompts, Foolish Encounters is a Rainbow Gold Anthology from Wilde City Press: An accident, a chance encounter, a thought blurted out, a boat blown off course, a change in direction that suddenly runs into the line of fire – the smallest misstep can change everything. These foolish encounters are the moments around which lives pivot and sometimes spin out of control. Join us for tales of imprudent choices and bad decisions that can lead just as easily to … Read more

“Normal” is Queer

by
Normal

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette – “Queer is what’s different from the local custom peak, not necessarily preferring a partner of the same sex. “What can you do with a culture where something else is the “queer” trait? How does that compare and contrast with the experiences of homosexual people in contemporary culture? “Frex, in the Northern culture of Torn World, nobody cares if you like to rub bits with a same-sex partner (although they do push procreation for survival reasons), but wanting to keep the *same* partner forever is weird. In Terramagne, the weird pairings are someone … Read more