Leon Stevens's Blog, page 3
September 11, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part IX)
In Grade 5, our teacher read Madeleine L’Engle’s, A Wrinkle in Time, which enthralled me and the rest of the class, but when I getting into science fiction the late-70s, there were not many female sci-fi authors that I was aware of.
Some of my favorite Star Trek (TOS) were written by D.C. Fontana (Dorothy Catherine Fontana), who used the gender neutral sounding name so her writing would be judged on merit in the male-dominated writing circle in the 60s. Alice Mary Norton, who wrote under the pseudonym Andre Norton was another author I had read.
But it wasn’t until much later I discovered Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake”, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”.
Two of the most prominent sci-fi writers today are Martha Well of Murderbot fame, and Becky Chambers whose novels and novellas have won multiple awards. I’m glad that both these authors see worth in the novella length book and that they are being rewarded for it.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 10, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part VIII)
A 200 year old Louis Wu is celebrating his birthday when a two-headed, three-legged Pierson Puppeteer arrived to offer him a job to travel to a ringworld—a constructed ring about the diameter of earth’s orbit rotating around a star—to investigate whether this habitable artificial world poses a threat to the Puppeteer’s migration away from their home world which will be destroyed but their exploding sun in the future.
But wait, there’s more. Accompanying them will be a Kzin warrior, a cat-like species, and Teela Brown, a human female who through generations of birthright lotter winners has been deemed have inherited “luck”.
The payment? They will be given the ship—The Lying Bastard, a ship faster than any other ship known—that they will use to travel to the ringworld.
Intrigued? Niven had me at “two-headed, three-legged Pierson Puppeteer” or was it, “a constructed ring about the diameter of earth’s orbit rotating around a star?“
Niven has written many books, short stories, and has collaborated with other authors. If you only read one book by this author, Ringword is the one.
But there are others…
Not my shelf.-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 9, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part VII)
This was the first Vonnegut story I read. Not the last.
In the year 2081 everyone is equal. The Handicapper General sees to that. If you are stronger, you are weighted down with chains and slabs of iron. 20/20 eyesight? Glasses to blur your vision, etc. It’s Vonnegut’s satire at its finest.
I was a teen when I read it and then I looked for other books by this American author. Most people know Slaughterhouse Five, but Breakfast of Champions is my favorite, followed by Sirens of Titan, and Cat’s Cradle.
Some argue that he isn’t science fiction, but I consider many of his stories to be. Cat’s Cradle is about a of a substance called ice-nine which is solid at room temperature and will cause water to freeze instantly. SlaughterHouse Five has the main character jumping back and forth in time.
Sounds like sci-fi to me.
Vonnegut’s writing is witty, strange, satirical, and no one writes like him, but I like to think I am able to emulate him just a bit.
“Science is magic that works”
-Kurt Vonnegut
“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’”
-From Vonnegut’s 1965 novel ‘God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater’.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 8, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part VI)
In 1982 if you had a video game console, all the neighbourhood kids would be in your basement, much to the annoyance of your parents who would shout the time honoured phrase:
Go play outside and don’t come back until supper!
We did that too. the joy of growing up in the 80s was that no one knew where you were and couldn’t get ahold of you anyway.
But more than likely if we weren’t at the other kid’s place who had an Atari, Colecovision, or Activision, we were at the arcade. Ours was above the local arena and featured, Pacman, Joust, Dig Dug, and Frogger.
Then TRON happened. What we all wanted. To get sucked into a video game and have to use our hard earned skills (and many many quarters) to fight our way to victory.
It was a bold move for Disney to make a movie about cyberspace, a concept that was new to kids and stretched our imagination. Explaining it to the parents is the equivalent of someone telling you what a blockchain is.
Disney had money so the special effects were mind blowing. To keep equilibrium though, they also produced the stinker, The Black Hole featuring plywood robots*.
So on the day our arcade got new TRON game, we were lined up with our pockets full of quarters.
Ah, the 80s.
-Leon
*Before you fact check me, yes I know that this movie that gets 42% on Rotten Tomatoes was released a few years earlier, but that doesn’t make the post as humorous.
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 7, 2025
Songs for Sci-fi September: Space Music
The opening chords of John Williams’ theme from Star Wars is instantly recognizable. I remember being in a movie theatre and hearing a cheer erupt in the darkness when the music began following the iconic scrolling story recap.
Before Williams, there was Courage. Alexander Courage, who wrote another recognizable piece of music.
The first song I remember that mentioned something about space was probably Rocket Man by Elton John.
Next might be Space Oddity by David Bowie.
Before The Police’s Walking on the Moon, Canadian band Prism released, Spaceship Superstar in 1977.
Who can forget Mr. Roboto which made us think we knew how the speak Japanese.
I have to believe that Daft Punk was influenced by that video.
If you have time, The Planets by Gustav Holst is worth a listen, but I’ll only include Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity. It will only take 8 minutes out of your day.
I became familiar with the piece of music later on, after my love of science fiction had developed but since it was written in 1915, I though I could sneak it in.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
books.linesbyleon.com/Newslettersignup
Join my email listSubmitting form
RECEIVE A FREE EBOOK WHEN YOU SUBCRIBE TO MY WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Processing… Success! You're on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 6, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part V)
The only thing I remember about reading this book was that it was long. I was probably 14 or 15 at the time and it was a book I had heard about from a friend or from the Starlog magazine:
Remember those?Almost Arthurian in tone (the book not the magazine), the story reads like a medieval tale of knights and royalty, rather than a sci-fi epic. Still there are elements of futuristic technology that clearly place it in the science fiction realm.
I never however, got into the sequels.
There have been two movies based on the book, one in the 80s directed by David Lynch (of Twin Peaks fame) starring Kyle McLaughlin (also of Twin Peaks fame) and featuring Patrick Stewart who had not yet become his most famous character.
The second iteration of the story was recently released in 2021, written and directed by Denis Villeneuve of the Blade Runner sequel. I attempted to watch it but it didn’t hook me, maybe because it had already been done and wasn’t necessary.
Probably the most famous aspect of this new film was the ill-conceived sandworm popcorn bucket, which I won’t post here because …
Well, be my guest if you want to Google it.
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 5, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part IV)
Battlestar Galactica came out in 1978, jumping on the science fiction craze created by Star Wars. There were some very obvious parallels in the characters:
Starbuck = Luke
Apollo = Han
Adama = Obi-Wan
Athena = Leia
Baltar = Vader
Cylons = Stormtroopers
The Vipers looked a bit like X-Wings and the Cylon Cruisers had a Tie Fighter feel:
It definitely did not have the Star Wars production feel and the writing and characters were a bit campy at times. It was a TV serial which meant the episodes were sequential, meaning that in re-runs, you might miss an important event that made the plot make sense, but during it’s original airing, we’d be glued to the set to see if they were going it make it to—
Oops, spoiler alert. Continue at your own risk.
The premise of the show was that the 12 colonies, after being attacked by the Cylons, were going to find the lost 13th colony which had settled on Earth. There was a lot of Egyptian symbols in the show giving the ancient astronaut theory a platform long before the History Channel pumped out their own series.
Oh, the Cylon base ship kinda looks like a half completed Death Star.
The series was rebooted in 2004, and true television marketing to young nerdy boys, made the Cylons look like this:
OK, not all of them looked like that. some of them looked like this:
Jeez, there she is again…
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 4, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part III)
The narrator of the book meets a tattooed man at travelling carnival. Each tattoo, when stared at, tells a different tale.
This was the first science fiction book that I remember reading on my own. It has been a long time since I have read it, so give me a moment to refresh my memory of the short stories.
[sounds of flipping pages]
Interesting. A few do ring a bell. One story, Kaleidoscope, ends with an astronaut burning up in Earth’s atmosphere after having to abandon the spaceship he was in. What’s more interesting is that in my short story collection, one of my stories ends in a much similar way, but when I wrote it, I wasn’t remembering Bradbury’s story.
Another familiar story was about living on Venus which he described as a damp rainforest where people lived in domed cities. The constant rain outside was so relentless that it could drive a person insane.
I think that unconsciously I wrote a collection of stories that mimicked one of my favorite books. In the following years I read more of Bradbury’s books, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked this Way Comes, and The Martian Chronicles to name the obvious.
“People ask me to predict the Future, when all I want to do is prevent it.”
– Ray Bradbury (1982)
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 3, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part II)
In a galaxy far, far away, or crammed into my hippie uncle’s van with six other cousins? He said he’d take us to the drive-in but he wasn’t going to pay for everyone so five of us hid in the various cupboards/nooks/crannies as he snuck us all in.
Ah, 1977. Good times.
Star wars was the first movie I remember that you had to see it more times than your other friends in order to be the coolest one. I think I got up to 7 that first year.
I won’t go into the plot because everyone has seen it, right? Um, yes. You at the back? No? You haven’t seen it? Well, go see it. We’ll wait.
[music]
Done? And? Yes, I know it is pretty damn good. Yes. There are more. Episodes IV, V, and VI are the first three, then Episodes I, II, and III came out next, but you can skip those because once you see Jar-Jar, you’ll never unsee Jar-Jar.
No. If you want, but don’t say I didn’t warn you, but take my advice and watch Episodes VII, VIII, and IX which were made after Disney bought the rights from Lucas. No I’m not going to wait for you to watch all of those, because then you’ll want to watch Rogue One, and Solo.
No, there’s a couple of series after that. Yes, Disney is milking the franchise for all it’s worth.
Anyway, back to the original. One thing that made this movie special was that I did not know any of the actors, so for me they were their characters and that is something that is rare today. There were also cool effects done way before CGI was a thing and in my opinion still stand up today.
Oh and as a side note, I always thought the stormtroopers were robots…
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
September 2, 2025
Sci-fi September: Science Fiction Influences (Part I)
Space 1999: Nuclear waste is now safely stored on the moon … or is it? Well, yes, it is being stored on the moon, but as for safely? There’s not going to be much of a show unless there’s a problem and a bunch of it blows up, hurtling the moon out of Earth’s orbit and into deep space.
As a kid, I didn’t question any of the inconstancies and unbelievable events. It didn’t take long (one episode) for them to find an alien race, so they must have been travelling really fast, a speed that would have killed them all, but then we wouldn’t have a show, would we? And every alien they met spoke English—with a British accent of course.
Their uniforms were a bland beige with a zipper down the left arm sleeve which to my recollection were never used.
Their commlocks, a communicator and door unlocker all in one, with a little video screen in the top (not shown) were bulky and looked oddly like the first cellphone called the brick. The stun gun was nothing like I have ever seen before, but that’s not surprising since I was only 8 at the time, so I really had no frame of reference. I did have one that shot water, not lasers.
The best part of the show? The Eagle Transporter. The ultimate SUV. That’s Space Utility Vehicle. When we get back to the moon for real, I really hope they build these things.
Wait. That wasn’t the best part of the show. They were a close second only to being able to sit on the couch with my dad every Saturday to watch it.
In book news:
#1?
Yes, it is in the free category, but “Yay!” I just hope that those downloaded copies don’t sit unread on people’s Kindles, and of course, they choose to read the whole trilogy.
(Free for one more day, Sept. 2nd) Get it on Amazon
-Leon
Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words, and his latest sci-fi mystery, Euphrates Vanished.
My new book page: http://books.linesbyleon.com/
Free books? Sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter and choose one or more!
