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I'm allergic to strong accents in fiction just because they are a huge barrier to entry. When I have to read a page multiple times to figure out what a character is saying, that's usually when I put down the book. (If that makes me an uncultured philistine, so be it.) That said, this is...

I am not a big fan of highly systematized magic in literature because it feels too much like an RPG: "Perrier looked to the sky as he began to conjure a Sphere of Annihilation. Lightning arced overhead with a thundering crash, and he smiled with glee. The weather effect would grant his spell an...

Definitely going to try to give it a go. Have a storyline all laid out and stuff.

As long as you're INSIDE of Einsteinian space-time, the speed of light is an absolute limit and you have to deal with time dilation. (time reversal if you ever exceeded the speed of light) This is because space and time are inseparably linked. If Alice and Bob are moving extremely rapidly...

Promethium sounds oddball now, but you'd sound really silly in 50 years if it turned out to be a common part of smartphones or tennis shoes or jetpacks (and everyone jetpacks to work). Star Trek had the same issue where warp drives were originally powered by Lithium (an exotic and useless...

I don't think there's anything wrong with starting off a book with action and killing to "hook" the reader. (and yes, Consider Phlebas is a great example of how it's done correctly) Starting a major character off in a crisis situation (often a seemingly unwinnable situation) lets you show off...

I'm not a vascular surgeon but I know a few and have observed a few amputations, so I'll put in my $0.02. The tourniquet is the fastest, most effective way to stop any sort of bleeding. That's why tourniquets have been a standard medical practice for countless millennia. The reason that...

I think the reason that sequels are so popular is because, even if you only intend to write a single story, you will generally invest a large amount of time into research and worldbuilding. This is not limited to "speculative fiction"; building interesting people, organizations, and...

4x H2 + CO2 = 2x H2O + CH4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanogenesis It's theorized that Earth's atmosphere (ignoring the N2 which is mostly inert) started off dominated by H2, with all of the oxygen locked up in H2O, CO2 and minerals. Primitive bacteria first metabolized H2 into CH4...

I don't think that hydrogen-CO2 respiration is nearly as energetic as carbohydrate-O2 respiration. O2 is a really powerful oxidant. Aerobic organisms can grow to much higher levels of complexity because we have more energy available to us.

Hasn't crushingly powerful artificial gravity been used as a weapon in everything from Ringworld (or one of the other Niven books, I forget which) to Star Trek to Babylon 5? That makes it one of the "oldest tricks in the book" IMO. (although it is puzzling how often they don't use weaponized...

I beg to differ. Precipitation, evaporation, and ocean currents are all driven by differences in temperature. If a planet has very variable climate cycles thanks to a highly eccentric orbit, it should have much stronger oceanic currents and better-oxygenated seas.

Needle guns are a popular theme in science fiction because a needle-shaped projectile has better penetration than an equal-mass round projectile, allowing relatively low-velocity needles to penetrate flesh. If the needle is fairly brittle then it may be lethal against unarmored humans while...

If you want to fight effectively, you will almost certainly try to avoid "floating about". Staying near hard surfaces allows you to take cover behind corners and such, while floating freely leaves you exposed. So you can safely assume some sort of magnetic +/- adhesive ability in combat...

Any spaceship/starship plausibly capable of safe interplanetary/interstellar travel is going to be MUCH sturdier than the flimsy structures we are launching into space with current-day tech. A starship that can realistically travel long distances will be built to withstand impacts from space...

The idea of turning a miracle cure into a horrible plague is one of the "Older Than Dirt" fictional concepts, but it would seem more original if you at least chose a different illness. Curing cancer is so very cliched... and Alzheimer's will forever be associated with "Planet of the Apes"...

Say you have a bunch of planets with highly elliptical orbits. Their orbits would all cross each other, and planets could approach each other very closely. During those close approaches, gravity would cause them to exchange energy with each other, altering their orbits unpredictably. If an...

Pretty sure that diamonds are non-conductive. That was supposed to be the point of the joke.

My densified nano-diamond blade laughs at your puny ampere of current.

You can always hang around in one spot by firing thrusters, but it would be an unbelievably vast expenditure of energy and fuel. Or you could use some kind of "non-inertial" propulsion (otherwise known as "let's ignore the laws of gravity and acceleration") which depending on your overall tech...