Tag: Science Fiction

Various and Sundry

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by… and maybe some deflector shields

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Rockets and starships and especially naval ships getting spacefaring analogues occupy my thoughts from time to time. Okay, a lot of the time. I know I’m not alone in this gentle obsession, so it was nice to come across this lengthy article by Jeff “Hageshii01” Venancio all about military ship types in actual naval history and how they’ve been applied in science fiction settings. This is probably a good time to mention that, if you…

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Various and Sundry Writing

The Clarke Centennial

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

100 years ago today, in a small town in England, Arthur Clarke was born. Perhaps he’ll always be best known by the public at large for 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is certainly how I was first introduced to his work. Later, when I had a chance to delve deeper into my Dad’s collection of 50s paperbacks, I came across Childhood’s End and later still, “The Star” — a very short story that nevertheless haunts…

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Writing

Going Faster than the Speed of Light with Imaginary Numbers

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

For many of us writing science fiction, a common decision point is how hard or soft we should make the world(s) we’re building. A perennial area is whether we allow faster-than-light travel or not (i.e., warping, folding space, entering stargates, traveling through hyperspace, etc.). Scientist and science fiction author Catherine Asaro explains her own journey in coming up with a way to have interstellar ships that can move at the speed of narrative without  willfully ignoring…

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Writing

Space Opera Tropes

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Speculative fiction writer Charles Stross has written a blog post about space opera clichés which has been brought to my attention by one of the denizens of MOSF. I haven’t read too much of Charles Stross, though I like his imaginative and subtly disturbing short story, “Rogue Farm.” It sounds like he enjoys being a bit harder with his sci-fi and space opera than some, which comes through in this list. For that reason, I…

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Writing

Recommended Reading: The Hugo Awards and the Pop Culture Zeitgeist

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Amy Wallace expands and updates her look at this year’s Hugo Awards and the people involved that she first reported on in August. I found the first version very illuminating and this latest version is just that or more so: really going into some of the personalities and passions on the different sides. It’s certainly true that you should write from your own perspective. Chasing trends is generally not an ingredient in a unique voice.…

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