Monthly Archives: January 2017
Review: Classic Science Fiction, Volume 1
Classic Science Fiction, Volume 1 I picked up volume 2, volume 3, volume 4, and volume 5 during a sale, so I decided to complete the series by going back for volume 1. There are three stories in this volume that fit with the rest of the series: they are by well-known authors, and were mostly published in the […]
Review: Intergalactic Empires
Isaac Asimov’s Intergalactic Empires I’ve recently posted several articles about using a galactic empire as a story setting, and now it’s time to go old-school. Back in the old days, a galactic empire didn’t cut it, a real man’s empire had to be INTERgalactic. Short Stories Chalice of Death by Robert Silverberg (1957) Humanity once […]
Setting: Galactic Empire, part 4
In part 1, I described the enormous scale of a galactic empire. In part 2, I discussed the impact of FTL technology on the empire’s economy. In part 3, I wrote about the purpose of the empire, and ways it could be managed. Now, I ask: how does our empire maintain military and political control? […]
Setting: Galactic Empire, part 3
In part 1, I described the enormous scale of a galactic empire. In part 2, I discussed the economic impact of FTL technology on its economy. Now I ask: what is the point of our galactic empire? Why do some of the characters in the story support it and defend it? The empire’s purpose may […]
Setting: Galactic Empire, part 2
In part 1, I wrote about the enormous scale of a galactic empire. If we’re going to turn that empire into a decent setting for a story, we’ll need to understand its economics. The first thing we need to know is what type of FTL (Faster Than Light) technology it has. Without FTL, the planets […]
Setting: Galactic Empire, part 1
A while ago, I decided I wanted to read some science fiction about a galaxy-spanning empire. I briefly browsed Amazon’s kindle offerings under “galactic empire”, but all I found was military sci-fi where the galaxy-spanning nature of the empire wasn’t a major element in the story. Thinking back to classic sci-fi, I’m only coming up […]
Submit Your 2016 Nominations
Originally posted on Planetary Awards:
Happy New Year — it’s time to nominate your favorite science fiction and fantasy writing for the 2016 Planetary Awards. We’re doing only two categories this year: Shorter story (under 40,000 words/160 paperback pages) Longer story (novels) If you’re a book blogger, book podcaster, or booktuber, the nomination process is…
Planetary Defense Command 