Tag Archives: time travel
Magazine: Astounding Frontiers #2
Astounding Frontiers, Issue #2 With its second issue, Astounding Frontiers moved almost entirely to a serial-story format. I’ve seen very few serious attempts to bring back serials, so it will be interesting to see how this magazine does. I don’t think it’s fair to compare episodes of a serial to stand-alone short stories, so I […]
Magazine: Red Sun, issues #2 and #3
I warm up the temporal transporter and double-check the contents of the box I’m sending. If I can get my collection of Red Sun magazine into the hands of the right person at the right moment in history, I might end bad science fiction forever. Red lights flash and a klaxon sounds, warning of an […]
Podcast: The Overcast
The Overcast is a podcast, based in the Pacific Northwest, which puts out a short story every two weeks or so. It must be as rainy as they say in that part of the country, as there are approximately one gigazillion podcasts there which have named themselves “The Overcast”. I haphazardly selected seven stories from […]
Magazine: Just a Minor Malfunction, issue #3
Just a Minor Malfunction, issue #3 Short Stories Left to Her Own Devices by James Armer. A spaceship AI downloads its personality into a robot body, so it can explore a moon when the ship and its human passengers leave. A fresh copy of the AI is left on the spaceship without the developed personality. Day […]
Magazine: Phantaxis Nov 2016
Phantaxis Nov 2016 The following intro story will confuse you if you haven’t read my spaghetti western intro story: My phone rings, waking me up at 5AM on a Saturday. Resisting the urge to throw it against the wall, I answer it. “You better have a good reason for calling.” “Oh, I do indeed, sir. […]
Mini-Review: Snapshot
Snapshot Snapshot is a novella-length story, roughly two and a half hours of audiobook, which I’m estimating would make it about 80 pages long if it were offered as a paperback (ebook and audio are the only current options). Although Brandon Sanderson has published many books through the big houses, he chose to self-publish this […]
Magazine: Compelling Science Fiction #3
Compelling Science Fiction Love ’em or hate ’em, the Four Apes are back for tonight’s intro story: We pieced together that the bad guys were going to steal the gold from Fort Knox, and we wanted to throw a monkey wrench in their plans. The problem was, we didn’t know how or when they planned […]
Magazine: Space and Time, issue 125
Space and Time Magazine, issue 125 A steward shows me onto the cruise ship’s bridge and introduces me to the Captain, who reaches out to shake my hand. “You’re that science journalist I’ve been hearing so much about.” “Science-fiction book-blogger, actually. I’ve heard your ship’s library has a copy of Space and Time Magazine that I’d […]
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 […]
Movie: The Possible
The Possible Last weekend, I posted a blistering review of Uncanny Magazine. I used the phrases “nonsense, bordering on gibberish” and “scatterbrained babbling”, and that was just on the first story. So, I thought I’d write something positive tonight. This movie popped into my head for no apparent reason. Although it involves time travel, it […]
Magazine: Shoreline of Infinity #4
Shoreline of Infinity #4 I perform a final check of my shark cage and SCUBA gear as our boat bobs up and down on a Scottish lake. The constable lies on the deck, drooling. I probably shouldn’t have darted him with enough tranquilizer to calm an angry plesiosaur, but he wouldn’t shut up about needing […]
Magazine: Nebula Rift V4N1
Nebula Rift I’m not writing a silly intro story for this review, because I want to talk about the magazine’s business model. (OK, enough booing, settle down.) Most science fiction magazines pay a per-word rate to their authors. For “pro” magazines, this is six cents or more per word. For “semi-pro” magazines, it is typically one […]
Review: Classic Science Fiction, Volume 3
Classic Science Fiction, Volume 3 I enjoyed this collection far more than Volume 2, even though both collections are from roughly the same time period, and each has a story about insects and a story about the Sun. WARNING: SPOILER DRAGONS AHEAD WE CAN EVEN SPOIL SEVENTY-YEAR-OLD STORIES N Day by Philip Latham (1946) — […]
Review: The Awakening
The Awakening One dung Beetle (1 out of 4 rating) Abducted humans wake up aboard an alien spaceship. The aliens have been collecting apex predators from various planets, but for some reason the predators are waking up and running loose on the ship. Plus, an automated defense system is trying to kill all life on […]
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #58
I keep my eyes on the rearview mirror as I speed across the Australian outback. Most of the pursuing vehicles are burning wreckage fading into the distance, but two are still on my tail. If I gunned the V-8 interceptor’s engine I’d lose them, but my fuel gauge is hovering just above ‘E’, so I’m […]
Magazine: Analog Dec 2015
Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2015 I’m in the space station’s control room, watching two progress bars on a computer monitor. One is labeled “Analog magazine download”. The other is labeled “Space station auto-destruct”. The two appear to be perfectly synchronized. — Novelette: A Case of Identity by Edward Lerner. An AI private detective […]
Review: The Power of Six
Three flying saucers (3 out of 4 rating) I’ve been wanting to read something by Nicholas Rossis for a while, as he’s a frequent visitor to this blog and seems like a really nice guy. I had planned to write about The Power of Six, his short story collection, as the first post of a […]
Review: A World Out of Time
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) When you read a Larry Niven novel, you shouldn’t expect memorable characters. You should expect big-picture science fiction concepts, with characters who serve as vehicles to carry you through the sci-fi landscape. I’m OK with that; I think there’s a place for stories focused on ideas and […]
Movie: Edge of Tomorrow
Four Royal Crowns (4 out of 4 rating) A spoiler-free blog post for people who haven’t seen the movie This is the first movie review here at PDC. As you may know, PDC is currently headquartered in a non-western country, and either because the country isn’t considered important in Hollywood, or due to the […]
Review: The Mighty Peculiar Incident at Muddy Creek
Two nuclear missiles (2 out of 4 rating) This story throws a science fiction twist into a western setting. The story is written well, and the western setting will seem familiar to anyone who has watched western movies, but I didn’t feel that the science fiction element was taken far enough. The author has a […]
Planetary Defense Command 