1984 is often regarded as the original dystopia, but Orwell himself acknowledged that the novel was somewhat derivative. His inspiration? Yevgeny Zamyatin’s 1921 novel We, evolutionary ancestor of the totalitarian sci-fi stories so popular today. It’s easy to dismiss the book as cliched until one places it on the continuum of speculative fiction and remembers that … More Review: “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
NASA’s New Horizons mission completed its historic flyby of Pluto yesterday, giving us our first close-up look at the dwarf planet that marks the exit ramp from our solar system into the galaxy beyond. Earth began receiving images today (yes, a day later; it’s a very long-distance call). The pictures will give us our closet … More Pluto: Planet of the Nerds?
New climate analysis, published today in the inaugural issue of Science Advances, indicates the drying of the US will be much more extreme than expected, bringing the worst droughts in a millennium. And our current water strategies may not be sufficient to manage the change. Severe drought a thousand years ago is probably what drove ancient Americans to abandon … More Ink-Stained Cassandras: When News Steals Your Sci-Fi
This novel begins with the discovery of holy relics, which makes it worth recounting the way in which the book came into my possession. Last summer we took a beach vacation with my parents. The rental house anticipated rainy days with puzzles, games, and a motley assortment of books. Amid the dated spy novels, paperback … More Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz
Wild Type 