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science fiction

Announcement: Somewhere Out There

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Somewhere Out There

QSF author and Publisher Angelia Sparrow’s press Inkstained Succubus has a new sci fi anthology out: At its best, science fiction presents us not just with a vision of the future, but with more understanding of ourselves and how to get to that future. It presents us with ways to think about relationships and people. And this time, it’s about the shapes of relationships. In these eight stories, we run the gamut. Whether a shipboard fantasy about a captain that turns into more or the new fiancé meeting the former spouse, people remain people, with loves and confusion. Sometimes the … Read more

“Bone Rider” by J. Fally

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Genre: MM Urban Science Fiction Length: Novel   WHEN THE main characters in a novel are a cowboy, a Russian, and an alien, you know it’s going to be awesome. McClane is a highly sophisticated piece of alien bionic technology, called “bone riders”, and is self aware. In order to save himself from what he feels will be his destruction, he crash lands his spaceship on Earth, and invades a truck driver’s body to stay safe. Riley Cooper is on the run from his mob boyfriend–ex boyfriend–and he really didn’t need another complication in his life. But McClane shows up … Read more

The Midweek Mingle: QUILTBAG+ Tropes

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It’s no secret that QUILTBAG+ characters in fiction have been widely misrepresented. And it’s no secret that it’s a big issue that needs solving. Personally, I think speculative fiction is the perfect battleground for that fight. In speculative fiction, we craft worlds from the ground up. Worlds, characters, cultures—more than any other genre, sci-fi and fantasy give the writer complete control over every aspect of their fictional playground. Not to mention we have a history of QUILTBAG+ representation to bring to play, and a history of tackling society’s issues in our fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation comes to mind. … Read more

The Big Sleep

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It’s said that humans are the only organism on the planet who are aware of their own deaths. That’s a bit tough to verify, since we can’t ask cetaceans and cephalopods, elephants and other primates if they’re aware that someday they’re going to die. We do know that humans are aware, though, and for writers, it’s always lurking in the backs of our creation processes. When we write LGBT fiction and especially romance based fiction, a lot of us shy away from the subject because many of us grew up during the literary period where the LGBT character always died … Read more

The Midweek Mingle

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I’ve been to a lot of conventions over the years, on both sides of the table. And doing that, I’ve met a lot of convention organizers. I count some of them among my acquaintances, and some of them among my friends. But either way, we talk to each other, and the conversation often turns to the inevitable topic of their particular SF/F convention. Now, you should know that I live in Washington, which I considered as a whole to be a very liberal state. All about freedoms and rights and all that. We’ve legalized same sex marriage, and have some … Read more

Announcement: The Secret History of Another Rome, by Bear

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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: Desert World Allegiances, by Lyn Gala

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Desert World Allegiances

DSPP author and QSFer Lyn Gala has a new sci fi book out (second edition): Livre once offered Planetary Alliance miners and workers a small fortune if they helped terraform the mineral rich planet. People flocked to the world, but then a civil war cut the desert planet off from all resources. Half-terraformed and clinging to the edge of existence, Livre devolved into a world where death was accepted as part of life, water resources were scarce and constantly dwindling, and neighbors tried to help each other hold off the inevitable as the desert fought to take back the few … Read more

The Midweek Mingle: The BSB

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“You got your sci-fi in my QUILTBAG+ manifesto!” “You got your QUILTBAG+ manifesto in my sci-fi!” And that, my friends, is the gist of the Midweek Mingle (I promise, this’ll be the only post with an intro like this.). Every Wednesday, I’ll be bringing you posts on bringing in the QUILTBAG+ community, both into your writing and into the sci-fi and fantasy community we all know and love. But enough of that. Let’s get into the meat of this.   For several years now, every time I go to Radcon, I’ve been on panels about gender and sexuality, or building … Read more

Announcement – Pandemonia: Combustible, by Darcy Abriel

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Pandemonia: Combustible

Amber Quill Press author and QSFer Darcy Abriel has a new sci fi book out: Earth of 4035 is a wasteland populated with sectors of penal colonies, seeded through the generations by its life-long inhabitants of criminals, lunatics, political prisoners, and DNA-spliced mutants, all ruled by a powerful conglomerate of scientific researchers called the Nucleate. One such sector, Pandemonia, is situated on the former European continent in the vicinity of Paris, now a hunting ground of a world gone horribly awry. Drayce Eth, of dragogen-spliced DNA creation, rules one quandrant of Old Paris with a strong hand. He has never … Read more

Announcement: Taijiku, by Elizabeth Andre

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Taijiku

Elizabeth Andre has a new sci fi book out: Angela’s past is more than a little rocky, and that rocky path has led her to finish up her juvenile detention sentence on the Yemaya, an alien underwater ship devoted to observation and research. Part of its maintenance crew, at the bottom rung of the status ladder, Angela doesn’t see much excitement forthcoming. But that was before encountering the fearsome Taijiku or meeting her crew mate Stella, leaving Angela with a completely different problem and unable to say which is the greater challenge: giant sea monsters or falling in love. Excerpt … Read more