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sci fi

For Readers: Now or Later?

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sci fi world

Sci fi can take many forms. Some of it is set in the present or near future – the movie “Her” was a great example of this. Watching the film, it was easy to believe the events portrayed could take place in the next few years. Some go a little farther out. The Martian is a good example of this – we’re in the future, but still recognizably our future. And still others go much farther afield, with only a tenuous connection (or none at all) to the world we know. Do you prefer reading LGBTIQ sci fi that is … Read more

Announcement: Soul’s Blood, by Stephen Graham King

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Soul's Blood

QSFer Stephen Graham King has a new sci fi book out: Equal parts troubleshooters and troublemakers, Keene and Lexa-Blue, along with the sentient ship, Maverick Heart, have been known to solve a problem or two. For the right price, that is. But even they aren’t prepared for a desperate summons from a love Keene thought long past. For Daevin Adisi is now the Technarch of Brighter Light, one of the Pan Galactum’s most profitable corporate colony states, which teeters on the brink of war with Sotari, descendants of a people changed by nanogenetic experimentation. Seeking only to live a quiet, … Read more

For Readers: What is Steampunk?

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Steampunk Fantasy

Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Richard Wood: Do you consider steampunk to be Fantasy or SF? To me it can be either depending on how written and the overall story line. it’s a good question. Some subgenres generally fit pretty neatly into a larger one – space travel or time travel generally fits well with sci fi in general, and urban fantasy is genewrally a good fit for fantasy (though there are always exceptions. My initial reaction is that steampunk fits under sci fi… but then, maybe not… could it also fit under fantasy or paranormal? So my questions … Read more

Announcement: Delphini: Damage Control, by Hannah Walker

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Delphini: Damage Control

QSFer Hannah Walker has a new Sci Fi book out: May your journey be swift and uneventful, may you all get one step closer to your truemates and may good triumph over evil. Remember love conquers all. When Dax and Bell crash land on an unknown planet they only have one objective— find their friends and fellow Avanti. Of course, Bell needs to heal up from his injuries first, then they have to work out where to go. Their biggest problem is— they hadn’t counted on the world they landed on being quite as large as it was. Along the … Read more

Announcement: Red, by Belinda McBride

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Red

QSFer Belinda McBride has a new sci fi book out: Once upon a time, a young prince met a handsome stranger, and they fell in love… But that’s another story completely. Once upon a time, the world as we knew it changed. First came the droughts and the climate went insane. Deserts flooded and lush rain forests withered and died. Sickness ravaged the population, followed by war. Men became twisted monsters and women died by the score. Those who survived, fled. And then things got very bad. After a decade, Stephan the Hunter is back in town, his brutal gaze … Read more

For Readers: Which Do You Like Best?

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Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Richard Wood: Speculative fiction is an umbrella term for a number of genres that speculate on what could be in our world and beyond. We cover four of these at QSF – SF, Fantasy, Paranormal, and Horror. My own favorites are Sci Fi and Fantasy – I’ve always loved the generally optimistic nature of these two genres, especially sci fi, when it supposes that we will live in a wider and fairer world some day than we do today. Of the four general categories of stories this group covers, SF, Fantasy, Paranormal, and Horror; … Read more

New UK Virtual Reality Rollercoaster Galactica in 2016

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Galactica

UK theme park Alton Towers has unveiled a new virtual reality rollercoaster called Galactica, to be opened in April this year. It is the first new opening since the crash of its Smiler coaster last year, which injured 16 people and resulted in leg amputations for two victims. The incident saw visitor numbers plummet. Story at Gay Star News

The Future is Here – In a Belt

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The Welt

Last year’s CES brought us Belty, a monstrosity of a wearable that aimed to track changes in your waistline as a means of delivering health insights. It was hideous. This year Samsung is trying something similar, and it miraculously succeeded. Samsung’s smart belt looks indistinguishable from a standard belt, but contains an array of sensors packed into the back of its buckle and a micro USB port for charging on its side. There’s just one catch: it’s called the Welt … as in wellness belt. Editor’s Note: Fodder for a great horror story. “You need to be thinner,” the Belt … Read more

For Readers: Favorite Sci Fi Subgenres

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sci fi genres

There are many flavors of science fiction. There’s the classic sci fi of Clarke and Bradbury and Asimov, the steam driven anachronism of steam punk, the virtual world of cyberpunk, alternative histories in which things turned out very differently, hard sci fi that deals with space ships and fission and fusion, and romantic sci fi where the relationships are often as important (if not more so) than the science. These are just a few, So what’s your favorite subgenre of sci fi, and why? Give a few examples (extra points for LGBT works!). Authors, feel free to participate in this … Read more