The SFF Chronicles Science Fiction & Fantasy Community

After reading a post from @Al Jackson over in the Andre Norton thread about how he, as a child, was reading more 'adult' science fiction like Galaxy Magazine made me think, has science fiction gotten too adult for its own good? Has it become too serious to make young readers become fans? Fantasy doesn't seem to have this problem, just science fiction. Thoughts?

I doubt this will be anywhere as popular as the thread that inspired it, currently at 131 replies. There's a reason I haven't posted in it (at least to my knowledge). I think the real world is amazing enough! I wonder why some real places haven't been used in mainstream fiction. One friend often asks if I've been to Skyrim for real (it's probably why I'm happy not to play Skyrim/Zelda-esque games these days - I used to a lot before I started travelling).

It's...

'We don't get aliens in Sheffield.' In a South Yorkshire city, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmin Khan, and Graham O'Brien are about to have their lives changed for ever, as a mysterious woman, unable to remember her own name, falls from the night sky. Can they believe a word she says? And can she help solve the strange events taking place across the city?

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New Doctor, new companions, new writer, new timeslot, new theme music, and easily the darkest episode of...

There is the old adage about not judging a book by the cover, and this is one of those novels where I did just that. I am not one for reading the blurb on the back, feeling that it sometimes can give away something of the story I am about to read. So I settled down to read Heart Blade expecting it to be something totally different to what it was, for some reason, but this was not a bad thing, because I probably enjoyed it more because of it.

In some ways the...

Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton

AD 2204. A derelict alien spacecraft has been found on a remote planet. A group of explorers are gathered together to investigate the wreck and the strange secrets it contains. For each of them, it has been a strange and stressful road that has led to this time and place. And, centuries in the future, they are revered as the “Five...

I've been reading through some old threads from when I first joined whilst putting off doing the housework.
I'm pretty shocked how much my tastes have changed over the years.

Some of the authors I mentioned are still very much part of my life, Feist, Donaldson, Brookes, King, Dennis Wheatley, Williams who I'll reread or buy.

Others have dropped of the radar,
Hobb, Keyes, Canavan, Barclay...

A lot of space news over the past week or so.

1. Asteroid rocks

The big news has been the successful touchdown of landers by the Japanese Hayabusa 2 probe, with three out of four now successfully on the asteroid Ryugu.

The first images are quite extraordinary: New asteroid rover images released

and a...

October 2018 seventy-five word challenge (submissions thread

RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title

ONE entry per person

NO links, commentary or extraneous material in the posts, please -- the stories must stand on their own

WHEN WRITING YOUR STORY, PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM

All stories Copyright 2018 by their respective authors
who...

Another month, another set of books to work through.

The main novel I'm reading is The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge, a story about the iron age Britons during the first century AD - and the Roman conquest that came. I tried one of her other books but didn't get sucked in, but this one has a wonderfully rich setting - so that even when not much seems to be happening (such as at the start!) the novelty of living this life really gets under my...

An email from Amazon today announces that Createspace and Amazon Direct Publishing are to merge into a single service.

Accounts from Createspace will be moved to KDP, and existing KDP publishers will get the expanded publishing options that Createspace originally provided, not least to bookshops, plus easier sale of paperbacks to Canada and Australia.

Here's a copy of the email:

Hello,

We’re excited to announce that CreateSpace (CSP) and Kindle Direct...

Bradbury City, Mars. Hak Veil used to pilot ships through the blackness between worlds, acting as a highly-trained combat operative. After a few things went wrong, he's wound up abandoned on the Red Planet, trying to find a way of getting back to Earth. His unique abilities allow him to find work in the most unlikely of places and his new job is a doozy: playing bodyguard to a pen-pusher, one of a team sent to audit the colony's finances on behalf of the colonial...

A flood of interesting news this week:

1. Spock's homeworld found

A planet has been found orbiting 40 Eridani A - which, according to the original Star Trek canon, is the system where Spock's home world of Vulcan is: Exoplanet News: Astronomers have found Vulcan!

This book is different.

The basic plot is that Cheris, an infantry captain, is tasked to command an attack on an impenetrable fortress - under the guidance of a general who not only has never lost a battle, but is also considered psychotic.

And that's just the start.

The opening chapters contain so many unfamiliar terms that at first I wondered if the author wasn't simply making it all up as he went along. However, the strong character voice pushes the story...

This has kind of gotten by me. Looks like Denis Villeneuve is casting Dune and I saw somewhere mention of production start date of March.
Now not surprised , Dune , should have more buzz appeal than Blade Runner 2049* did. (Tho Villeneuve says in interviews that Alcon did marketing surveys for that film and they were positive). Even tho Blade Runner 2049 slumped at the box office, I can see Legendary...

I'm finally able to put together a new news digest after a quiet run last week.

1. Saturn's towering hexgon

Remember that the planet Saturn has a giant cloud formation in the shape of a hexagon at its north pole? Well, apparently that hexagon creates a vortex that rises hundreds of kilometers above the surrounding cloud layer: Saturn's famous hexagon may tower above the...

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is exactly what it says on the tin. It is the story of a murder publicly announced before the event and observed by the whole town who do little beyond verbal protestations to stop it. What it is not is Marquez’s signature magical realism; this is pure realism and, to my astonishment, I only discovered after reading it that it is in fact very closely based upon real events that occurred to a family known to Marquez in 1951. The story...

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories is a collection of short stories, most of which are set in the same world as Susanna Clarke’s novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. If you’re not familiar with the novel (or the BBC TV adaptation), it takes place in late 18th-, early 19th-century England and features a mix of magic, faeries and historical figures, including the Duke of Wellington.

This collection of stories is, in short, frustrating...

A pseudo-Victorian setting. A deep and mystical shamanism. And a wonderfully intricate plot.

Welcome to The Empyreus Proof.

The Goddess Project was an original and excellent book, but the sequel manages to be even better.

All the familiar characters are back - Orc and Cass, Tashi, Ranga... and quite a few others. If I have one minor complaint about this book is that there are a lot of new character names to get used to and quickly. However, the...

I have long wanted to like Aliette de Bodard's books, largely because every time I read about one of them it sounds like one of the greatest ideas ever. Aztec Noir? Genius. Angels and alchemists duking it out over a post-war Paris? Intriguing.

Sherlock Holmes reimagined as the adventures of a scholar and spaceship mind in a future Sino-Vietnamese Empire? Why aren't all novel elevator pitches like this?

Sadly, The Tea Master and the Detective is only a...