Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 202
April 10, 2012
Review of J. Elder’s Spectra…
(J. Elder, Spectra, ISBN 9781927085103)
In the old days of sci-fi, many of the subgenres were ill defined. The two basic genres, science fiction and fantasy, could often be found in the old magazines, but cyberpunk, militaristic sci-fi, and so forth were either not invented yet or were being created. Sci-fi was often divided into hard sci-fi and space opera. The first referred to novels like Hoyle’s The Black Cloud—in other words, novels that didn’t stray too far from known science and technol...
Review of J. Elder's Spectra…
(J. Elder, Spectra, ISBN 9781927085103)
In the old days of sci-fi, many of the subgenres were ill defined. The two basic genres, science fiction and fantasy, could often be found in the old magazines, but cyberpunk, militaristic sci-fi, and so forth were either not invented yet or were being created. Sci-fi was often divided into hard sci-fi and space opera. The first referred to novels like Hoyle's The Black Cloud—in other words, novels that didn't stray too far from known science and...
April 6, 2012
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #23…
#135: Two new eBooks for your spring and summer reading! Angels Need Not Apply, the sequel to The Midas Bomb, pits your favorite NYPD detectives Chen and Castilblanco against terrorists and a Mexican cartel. Castilblanco gets personal when an FBI agent's son is murdered. Chen steps out of her stoic oriental shell to have a hot and heavy romance.
Sing a Samba Galactica, the sequel to Survivors of the Chaos, is an epic sci-fi saga that takes you on a whirlwind tour around the galaxy. Learn w...
April 5, 2012
The incredible Mr. Romney…
The Romney campaign reminds me of that eerie psychological thriller starring Matt Damon, The Talented Mr. Ripley. I'm not suggesting that Mittens is a psychotic killer. I am suggesting that he can be anyone you want him to be. Just ask him a political question and he will (1) analyze the hell out of your question to figure out what your position is, and (2) return an answer that you can categorize as reinforcing your position. In this manner, he can assume the personality of everyone...
April 3, 2012
Lottery fever…
To quote the inimitable pig, it's all over, folks! Last I heard (and it was all over the news), three winning tickets were sold in Illinois, Kansas, and Maryland. Mega Millions fever shoved the Supreme Court debate on Obamacare, high gas prices, and Obama's announcement that we can get along without Iranian oil out of the news. These are things that are more important to people's lives than a few people winning big in the lottery, even if it is $640 million shared three ways (about $213...
March 30, 2012
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #22…
#130: The blog site indiebookspot.com has interviewed me. To see more about what makes your favorite author tick, see: Steve's interview. I recommend this site to all indie readers and authors.
#131: The writers for the TV series Lost, now writing ABC's Once Upon A Time, have carried creative license too far once again. In Lost, they lost viewers with their flashforwards, the opposite of flashbacks (the show lived off the latter). Viewers were also disillusioned by the strange ending of...
March 29, 2012
Creativity and imagination…
Scott, a frequent commenter to my blog posts, stated in one of his comments, the following: "It almost seems like you have to be a scientist or almost one to write good SF today!" At the risk of taking him out of context, this is the theme of today's post. To paraphrase Scott, how do we reconcile a scientist's no-nonsense focused pursuit of good data and elegant theories with the creativity and imagination of a master storyteller? Is there cause and effect here? Or, do we just have the s...
March 27, 2012
Comments on immigration policies…
In my post about health coverage last week, I mentioned that immigration has also disappeared as a 2012 electoral topic. Immigration policies are complex and their appearances on the political stage have often degenerated into a lot of heated rhetoric. Moreover, there is a health care policy component to them. At the risk of making some readers furious with me, let me throw out some ideas. Caveat emptor: I'm no expert. However, the politicos have buried their heads in the sand once...
March 22, 2012
Obamacare and electoral posturing…
The 15-second slogan trumpeted by GOP candidates runs something like "Down with Obamacare! yadda-yadda-yadda"—except for Mr. Romney, who tiptoes through the quicksand of trying not to remind GOP voters that Obamacare is basically Massachusetts' Romneycare. Mr. Romney, in fact, has a blander slogan, more like "Take back the power to decide your own healthcare choices yadda-yadda-yadda." Lost in all of this posturing and pandering to the far right is the real reason that the infamous 1%, be t...
March 20, 2012
Science and sci-fi…
Einstein's special theory of relativity differs from ordinary Galilean relativity in that the scientist who ended up looking like a beat poet made the assumption that the speed of light is constant in all inertial reference frames. That and the key word "inertial" makes the theory "special," as opposed to "general." (This is an over-simplification—the general theory is really a non-quantum theory of gravity, generalizing Newtonian gravity). Back in September, physicists associated with...
