Category Archives: Science Fiction

Image of Earth from space

Thinking about Gaia

In this month of Earth Day and marching for science and climate, I’m thinking about Gaia. A hashtag popped up on Twitter last week: #ifonlytheearthcouldspeak ...
Frozen Planet

Grieving for a whole planet

When I saw the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, I couldn’t get past that moment when Princess Leia sees her home planet, Alderaan, ...
An Alternate History reading list for this moment

An Alternate History reading list for this moment

Are we living in an alternate branch of history? I’ve been asking myself that question since waking up the morning of November 9, with the ...
Cloudbound and Barsk covers

Other Times, Other Worlds—Fran Wilde & Lawrence M. Schoen

I’m excited to be part of All But True’s next author event, “Other Times, Other Worlds,” with two award-winning science fiction authors: Fran Wilde and ...
storytelling around the fire

Ursula K. Le Guin: Telling makes the world

Maria Popova has written on her wonderful website Brain Pickings about Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay on the nature of speech, “Telling is Listening.” This brought ...
The witches of A Wrinkle in Time

The radical leaps of A Wrinkle in Time

I was in sixth grade when I was swept up in the world of A Wrinkle in Time, part of the first generation of girls ...
LifeAfterLife3

Kate Atkinson and quantum physics

Kate Atkinson has now won the Costa Book Award twice in the past three years—for her companion novels, A God in Ruins (2015) and the stunning ...
Remembering Sun Ra

Remembering Sun Ra

Space is the Place—the wild space-fantasy film starring Sun Ra, the legendary experimental jazz artist—came out in 1974. It follows Sun Ra and his Arkestra ...
Tesla cover image

Nikola Tesla’s hidden contribution

Nikola Tesla is a hero to geeks everywhere, who will be celebrating his birthday this week. World-famous in his lifetime, the prodigiously gifted inventor fell ...
Gravity and the Noosphere

Gravity and the Noosphere

I loved seeing Gravity. In my opinion, the Planet Earth should be nominated for a supporting-player Oscar. I drank in the massive, stunning views of ...