5 Tips for Finding a Good Science Fiction Book

So you want to read a good science fiction book. But how do you find a good one?

Follow these handy tips and you will soon be lost in new worlds.

TIP #1: Pick Subject Matter That Sparks Your Interest

It's not enough to say you'd simply like to read a science fiction book. Like all classifications of literature, sci-fi covers a very broad spectrum of topics and any individual science fiction story might revolve around specific ideas. The trick is to pick a story that plays with ideas that spark your own interest. For example, science fiction ...

Read the full post >

'The Daughter Star': A Shiny Start to a New Sci-Fi Series

Freighter pilot Marta Grayline is caught in the middle of an impending war between her home planet Nea and its neighbor Adastre. When the war starts, she has nowhere to go but back to her family home in Gideon, a traditionalist, backward country in Nea, where women have little freedom. Away from her beloved job, her friends and her Adastran girlfriend and at odds with her conservative family, Marta feels incredibly isolated in Gideon. So, when the opportunity arises for her and her younger sister, Beth, to join the Novan Emergency Fleet, she takes it, no questions asked.  

I love ...

Read the full post >

‘The Legend of Drizzt’: A Neverwinter Tale by R.A. Salvatore

Drizzt Do'Urden is a Dark Elf from the drow city of Menzoberranzan. Unlike his people, Drizzt swore off evil in favor of being a hero—of sorts. He prefers friendships and adventuring over the murder and violence his people thrive upon. First appearing in The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and later in the prequel, Homeland, Drizzt has come to be one of the most popular and enduring characters of the Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Tales series of books. Now, he appears in a new original graphic novel, The Legend of Drizzt, from IDW and Wizards of the Coast.

It's difficult ...

Read the full post >

Pop Culture Facts You Probably Didn't Know Were Created by Science Fiction Writers

If one were to peruse the magazine stands, newspaper media coverage and talk-show couches with an eye towards science fiction, it wouldn't take long to determine that science fiction is a predominant force. Science fiction films continually make lists of top-grossing films and garner lots of media attention, especially as blockbusters like Iron Man 3, Oblivion, Star Trek: Into Darkness and Man of Steel hit theaters this season.

But what about literary science fiction? Don't books deserve their due? That's unlikely to happen any time soon. Unless you are J.K. Rowing or Stephen King, genre authors ...

Read the full post >

The Book Smugglers' Guide to Fantasy (for Young Readers)

Recently, we Book Smugglers started a feature called Old School Wednesdays in which we review books that are at least 5 years old. Based on the strong response we saw to the feature, we also started a monthly readalong (determined by popular vote)—last month, the selected title was The Naming by Alison Croggon. Unfortunately, The Naming was derivative, bland, and...well, boring (starred Kirkus review, we disagree with you). In the ensuing discussion, someone requested that we create a list of titles that would be a better introduction to the fantasy genre (of the epic variety) for young readers ...

Read the full post >

Changing the Playing Field: H.L. Gold & 'Galaxy Science Fiction'

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, science fiction periodicals exploded in popularity. Leading the pack was John W. Campbell Jr. and his rein at Astounding Science Fiction, which helped to usher in the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. However, while Astounding set trends and remained popular, other magazines overtook it, namely Horace Gold and his Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, which helped to bring in some of the mid-century’s most revolutionary novels that have come to define the genre.

Horace Leonard Gold was born on April 26th, 1914 in Montreal, Canada, immigrating to the United States at the age of ...

Read the full post >

Recent Novels That Use Time Travel to Great Effect

One of my favorite themes in science fiction is time travel. This is a trope that is often used and abused in television and film, and even sometimes in books, though books tend to explore the consequences of time travel to greater depths. It seems like there are two kinds of time travel stories: Those that use it as an incidental convenience to put two anachronistic elements together (like putting a modern-day person in medieval times), and those stories that make time travel integral to the plot and deal with the idea and effects of time travel head-on. It's ...

Read the full post >

Jack Vance, Inventor of Worlds

On May 26^th, Damon Knight Science Fiction Grandmaster Jack Vance passed away at the age of 96 in Oakland, Calif. Influencing numerous authors in a career that spanned over six decades, Vance was a major figure in the post-war genre field, who was known for his excellently drawn worlds and command of language.

John Holbrook Vance was born on August 28^th, 1916 in the Pacific Heights of San Francisco, one of five children to a well off-family. At the age of five, the Vances moved to a property acquired by his grandfather, known as Green Lodge Ranch, where ...

Read the full post >

The Book Smugglers' Most Coveted Speculative Fiction Titles at BEA 2013

At the time this post goes live, we Book Smugglers will be attending BookExpo America (May 29-June 1) for the fourth time. BEA is one of the biggest publishing events in the world, during which thousands of professionals—authors, publishers, librarians, journalists and bloggers—congregate to talk business and discuss trends and upcoming releases. And of course, two of the biggest draws of BEA are the galleys and author signings made available to attendees.

Although BEA might not be the usual destination for the Speculative Fiction aficionados (as there are numerous cons and gatherings that specifically cater to this particular ...

Read the full post >

The Discworld Graphic Novels

Few authors can combine humor with fantasy or science fiction and do it well, but Terry Pratchett combines all three brilliantly in his Discworld books. The first two of those books, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, are available as a single graphic novel from Harper called The Discworld Graphic Novels. Illustrated by Steven Ross, adapted by Scott Rockwell, lettered by Vickie Williams and edited by David Campiti, The Discworld Graphic Novels captures the satire and wit of the original books.

The Colour of Magic: Rincewind is a wizard. Unfortunately, he is not a very good wizard. He ...

Read the full post >

Science Fiction & Fantasy Books: June 2013 Highlights & Top Picks

Here's a look at some of the science fiction and fantasy book highlights hitting the bookstore shelves in June.

SF/F/H with Wide Appeal

Do you consider yourself a casual reader of science fiction and fantasy? Maybe that will change when you read one of these sf/f books that promise to have wide appeal. For starters, check out The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes, which features a serial killer who uses time travel to disappear after he does his dastardly deeds. In Lexicon, Max Barry posits a world where school children are taught to harness the hidden ...

Read the full post >

Zombie Apocalypse by Numbers

Dang, she’s so cool.

Dang, don’t think that.

Dang, why?

Because of on account of this being the most horrible time to get a crush on a girl.

Oh. Right. Daaaang.

On Halloween, the world ends.

Michael and his younger brother Patrick have been on the run for weeks, following the rules of “the Game” and evading the “bellows” who threaten to tear the flesh from their bones. A shadowy Game Master gives Michael missions and clues on how to navigate the post-apocalyptic world, with the ultimate goal of getting to the “Safe Zone”—if Michael can follow ...

Read the full post >

The Nomadic Alfred Bester, Renaissance Man

Science fiction is loaded with important authors, and you can hardly swing a stick in the crowded forest without hitting one author who's influenced hundreds of others. However, if you speak with enough genre writers, one name will likely come up often: Alfred Bester. "Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction," wrote Harry Harrison, while others such as James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), Samuel R. Delany, Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, Joe Haldeman, Robert Silverberg and Bruce Sterling have lined up to emphasize the importance of Bester's fiction ...

Read the full post >

What Scares You About Science Fiction?

I listened to a podcast entitled Gripping Science Tales Need Not Be Science Fiction on NPR recently. It included interviews with cosmologist Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist Brian Greene and novelist Ian McEwan. The discussion was predominantly about the depiction of science in fiction. They clarify that their focus is specifically on fiction stories that happen to include real-life science as opposed to science fiction which, they imply, overhypes and skews science. This position both pleased and irked me at the same time.

It pleased me because there is an obvious enthusiasm about the presence of science elements in fiction. I ...

Read the full post >

Still a Stranger After All

“The word for 'book' in all the known languages of the earth is vallon, 'chamber of words'...”

I suspect that once in a while every reviewer comes across a book for which they will have no idea what to write. A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar is one of those books. On the one hand, it is an affecting book that speaks of the power of literacy, of reading, and of stories. On the other, it is a distancing and wholly unengaging story.

A Stranger in Olondria chronicles the life of Jevick of Tyom, from his adventures as a ...

Read the full post >

‘At The Mountains of Madness’: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Last time, I took a look at The Lovecraft Anthology, edited by Dan Lockwood. This time around, I'm looking at another graphic novel based on a Lovecraft book: At The Mountains of Madness, adapted and illustrated by I.N.J. Culbard (Deadbeats, The New Deadwardians). 

Published by Sterling, this volume adapts Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness in a classic style reminiscent of Hergé's Tintin. In the story, Professor Dyer leads an expedition to Antarctica in September of 1930. With a biologist, engineer, physicist and meteorologist, and a geologist on board, their mission is to take core ...

Read the full post >

When Short Fiction Grows into a Novel

Science fiction writers are often asked where they get their ideas, as if there is some patented and repeatable formula or process. Sadly, that's not the case. Coming up with ideas is not an easy game and there's no real answer to the question. This is why curmudgeonly-but-lovable Harlan Ellison, when asked where he gets his ideas, responds with "Schenectady."

Since story ideas are often hard to come by, it may not be surprising that when an author does come up with one, they may later choose to build upon that story. If the original idea was told ...

Read the full post >

Austen meets Glamour in 'Without a Summer'

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.”

—Jane Austen, Emma

Read the full post >

The Futurians and the 1939 World Science Fiction Convention

The Futurians were pissed. It was July 2^nd 1939, and the first ever World Science Fiction Convention, Nycon I, was about to begin. The convention was held in conjunction with the New York World's Fair, with an appropriate theme: “The World of Tomorrow.”  Long anticipated by the region’s fans, six members of the fan group—Donald Wollheim, Frederik Pohl, John Michel, Robert A. W. Lowndes and Jack Gillespie—weren't allowed through the doors by James Taurasi, one of the convention’s organizers. The confrontation was the culmination of a series of rivalries and personality conflicts that ...

Read the full post >

More SF/F Books to Read Before You See Them on Screen

A few weeks back, we looked at books that are being adapted to the big screen. It's a pretty sure bet that these will actually make it to theaters since salaries have been paid, the filming has either wrapped or is in progress, and in-theater premiere dates have been set...all of which means that the movies studios would like to recoup their investments through movie ticket sales. The only way to do that is to actually get them into theaters where (hopefully) millions of moviegoers will hand over their hard-earned money for 90 minutes of escapist entertainment.

Why ...

Read the full post >