A nice little ego boost came my way this week. In the May 2023 issue of Locus, short fiction reviewer Karen Bunham called my story “Aalund’s Final Mission” in the March/April Analog “a solid entry” and “the climax is well done.” Only two stories from that issue made Ms. Bunham’s Recommended Reading list this month. …
A little ego boost to share, from Locus Magazine Read More »
Analog is the highest-circulation and longest-lived science fiction magazine on the market today. Its first editor of note, John W. Campbell, channelized much of what we think of as traditional science fiction, publishing authors like Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. (He also believed L. Ron Hubbard was onto something with Dianetics). Campbell’s successor, Ben Bova, …
Interstellar Travel: Laser Sails and Tractor Beams If Einstein is right, then it’s impossible to get to Alpha Centauri in less than 4.3 years. If Newton is right, then getting there in a fraction of a human lifetime, though possible, is extremely difficult. Tsiolkovsky’s Rocket Equation tells us you would need an immense amount of …
Interstellar Travel: Laser Sails and Tractor Beams Read More »
Quoting Nick Land, expat Brit philosopher in Shanghai, “The cosmic reality visible to us is characterized by an intense, efficient aversion to the existence of advanced civilizations.” He calls whatever it is that prevents the existence of advanced civilizations “The Great Filter.” Longtime science fiction readers familiar with Gregory Benford’s Galactic Center series or Fred …
While researching a story I’m currently writing about terraforming, I found The Paul Birch Web Archive. If you’re looking for big, hard science fiction ideas, follow the link now and get your mind expanded. Want to speed up Venus’ rotation to give it a day 24 hours long, at the low low price of $20 …
I’m pleased to let you know that I have a new science fiction short novel coming out on September 25, 2014. It’s got intrigue, a love story, and an homage to Lawrence Durrell’s tetralogy The Alexandria Quartet, all wrapped up in my distinctive flavor of sf speculation. You can preorder the ebook now or buy …
Quick note: this blog post may look familiar to my mailing list subscribers. It was one of those exclusive, pre-release bonuses my mailing list subscribers received almost three weeks ago, and almost a week before Operation Iago became available. You can get similar bonus content about my next books by subscribing now. Scroll down on …
So far in the series, we’ve gotten a range for N, the number of detectable civilizations in the galaxy, to [5e-7 to 8e-6] * f_c * L. Today’s post will estimate the value of f_c, the fraction of intelligent species that go on to develop a civilization detectable (through electromagnetic transmissions and/or probes travelling at …
The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation – From Intelligence to High-Tech Civ (f_c) Read More »
As a longtime sf fan, one of the toughest realizations I ever came to is that Space settlements will never happen for economic reasons. In part, the costs of getting to space are too high. Charles Stross has discussed the costs at great length here. To get one person to the Moon, bringing along the …
