Science Fiction 101

Woo-hoo, we've reached FIFTY EPISODES! This time we have another one of our (made-up) time-honored traditions: reviewing a current science fiction magazine. We usually do this once a year, to keep on top of current SF trends - and also to compare & contrast current magazines with the SF magazines of the past. In our last episode, we went back 50 years to review ANALOG from 1974. This time, we're bang up-to-date (almost) with a very recent issue of the very same magazine. Analog is the longest-continuously-running SF magazine, having been around under various titles since the 1930s! What will we make of Analog 's longstanding reputation for "hard SF"? How does the magazine stack up against its wholly online competitors such as Clarkesworld and Uncanny ? How does it stack up against its former self? No quiz this time, but we finish off with our usual round-up of recommendations of past/present/future science fiction. Among the items mentioned in today's sho...

In time-honored tradition, for our December episode we go hurtling back in time to review a science fiction magazine from the past. Get your flares, platform shoes and ghettoblasters ready as we head back to November 1974. We're picking on Analog magazine, just because we've never reviewed it before. And it's only the longest-running SF magazine in exsitence. It started in 1930 as Astounding Stories , was renamed Analog in the 1960s, and continues under that name to this day. As we join it in 1974, it's in the early years of the editorship of Ben Bova, and is beginning to modernise. If you'd like to browse through the issue with us, you can download it as a PDF from this link . Other items mentioned in this episode include: Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man (1953) Joe Haldeman's The Forever War (1974) Cinefex magazine, now legitimately on the Internet Archive Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) Star Wars: Skeleton Crew   Ted Chiang's essay on genera...

In this new episode of the pod, we come bang up to date with a review of a current science fiction magazine. Uncanny has won multiple awards, and so have some of its finest short stories. We're hoping this issue of the magazine (no. 55, Nov/Dec 2023) will live up to Uncanny 's stellar reputation. If you want to read along with us, you can find the entire issue online for free at the magazine's official website, here . You can also buy issues of the magazine for convenient reading on portable devices, and you can become one of their Patreon supporters. Here are links to some of the other things mentioned in this episode: The non-fiction book A City on Mars by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith ( www.acityonmars.com ) The Murderbot series comes to Apple TV+ The Doctor Who sixtieth anniversary specials Margaret Cavendish may be the earliest science fiction novelist in history Agatha Christie wrote at least one book which can be considered science fiction Star Trek - Deep Space ...

It being the end of the year, Colin and Phil continue their annual tradition of travelling back in time to read an old science fiction magazine. This time, they stop off in 1968 - the height of the "new wave" in science fiction - and pick up an issue of New Worlds magazine from December 1968. If you'd like to read along, you can find a PDF of that magazine issue here, courtesy of the Luminist website: ⁠ https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/SF/NW_1968_12.pdf ⁠ And if you'd like to join in our 1960s science fiction movie quiz, you'll find that on Youtube , here: ⁠ https://youtu.be/vAFs4PfLCVw?si=ZYb1o02iABx7QI3Z ⁠ Other items mentioned in this episode: Live in the science fictional past, at Galactic Journey , where it's always fifty-five years ago! The classic short space documentary " Universe ", which influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey in multiple ways The Guardian 's controversial (because inaccurate!) article on missing Doctor Who episod...

Following on from last episode, where we reviewed an old issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , this time we come bang up to date (more or less) and review the Nov/Dec 2022 issue of the very same magazine.   How does the current issue look? Will we be impressed or depressed? Has F&SF changed in sixty years? Read along with us! We always welcome your comments, so please let us know what you think of the magazine. You can buy F&SF in print and in ebook form. The official website is at http://www.fandsf.com/ Find out about the history of F&SF - one of the longest running current SF magazines - here .  Also featured in this episode of the pod, we have a quiz taken from Radio Times - see the full version of the quiz (which Phil cut down for the pod) here . Among the items mentioned in our regular past/present/future section: Ray Bradbury's short story "Rocket Summer", featured on Phil's other podcast Back to the Moon by Homer Hickam Glass...

It's December, and so according to the tradition we invented this time last year, we go back into the past and review an old science fiction magazine - to see how the field has changed over time, and to see if those old stories still hold up. This year, we tackle the December 1962 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. If you'd like to skim the pages with us, you can find the entire issue online here . We also have a science fiction cat quiz, believe it or not. And our usual round-up of past/present/future items which have caught our attention recently, which include the following: The Girl With All The Gifts (2016 film) Habitats , a (successful) Kickstarter for an "optimistic" SF magazine Andor , the Star Wars TV series Phil's February 2023 talk on Fahrenheit 451 , part of Wolverhampton's Literature Festival Beginning Operations , the omnibus volume collecting James White's "Sector General" series If you join us for the 1962 mag...