Edward M. Lerner's Blog: SF and Nonsense, page 29

Cosmic!

Last year I participated in a funding-raising event for the Arlington (Virginia) Planetarium (see the latter part of Of philosophy and planetaria). I had a great time, and am delighted to report the planetarium has a repeat event (with a different topic) this year, and that I'm again able to take part.

So: Sunday, March 20, I'll be one of the panelists at "Predicting the Future: How Well Does Speculative Fiction Anticipate Future Technology?" (Afterward, authors will be available briefly to si...

Lies, all lies!

 Can nothing be trusted anymore? "Astronaut Ice Cream was never eaten by astronauts in space."

About as creamy as it looks :-((Mind you, it's vile stuff: like chemically flavored dust that's been compacted by some tremendous force. No one not seriously taste-impaired would voluntarily eat this stuff more than once. But it's the principle of the thing.)====================== from Edward M. Lerner's "SF and Nonsense"

Greetings, Known Space fans!

Tor Books has just (re-)released, as a two-novel combination, Larry Niven's Ringworld's Children and (by the both of us) Fleet of Worlds. That's quite the volume!

(I use "volume" loosely -- the combo is available as an ebook, too, of course. We're not cavemen.)

Click for the two-ferRingworld's Children is the last of four Niven-only Ringworld novels. Fleet of Worlds, which opens 200 years before Ringworld, begins our acclaimed companion series -- while revealing more about the famed Puppeteers...

Making space for a space program

From the Department of the Sadly Obvious: "NASA officials admit Space Launch System is a rocket without a plan." This was, essentially, the content of an all-hands meeting last month at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. SLS, of course, is the heavy launch system being built to replace the cancelled Constellation heavy launch system, which was being built to replace the canceled-without-a-replacement-on-hand space shuttle.

All dressed up with nowhere to go?Is this NASA's fault? Denying reality for...

Double jeopardy

Today's snailmail brought the April 2016 issue of Analog . Stranger things have happened than spotting my name on the zine's cover (*) -- although IIRC, the juxtaposition with a dinosaur is new. I'm quite certain that "Soap Opera," my novelette in this issue, is dinosaur-free.

(*) Don't take that to mean I'm blase about it. It's an honor.

But that's not the news ...

Over the years, Analog has hosted my fiction at every length, from the shortest of short stories through serialized novels. For the...

Leggo my LIGO

Mind-blowingly awesome.

I can't get over my excitement at today's announcement by the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory) team. If, somehow, you've missed it: a century after gravitational waves were first predicted as a consequence of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, gravitational waves have been detected. Adding to the wondrousness of the announcement is that this particular detection also provides the first-ever direct confirmation that black holes -- another impl...

The write stuff? Of science, fiction, and language

Looking for some good SF to read? You might check out this compilation of scientists' preferences in the genre. Such lists pop up regularly; this latest example is from Down Under. See: "Australian Scientists Choose Their Favourite Science Fiction Books."

There's nothing to read, and precious little to view -- you do not want to get me started on "reality" TV -- without writers. On the subject of writers, here's something to make you think (at the least, to smile): "5 Things TV Writers Apparen...

Getting physical (again)

I haven't posted physics news for weeks, and there is much to catch up on. This should give us a good start.

Now with hidden dimensions!A battle is underway for the soul of physics. That battle rages over the proper balance and relationship between theory and experiment, and the extent to which the subjective beauty of the mathematics underpinning any particular theory matters.

Me? I'm all for bold theorizing -- it offers great grist for the SF-authorial mill -- but when wearing my physicist ha...

Modesty precludes any comment ...

Popular genre website Tangent Online just posted a combination review/interview of last year's InterstellarNet: Enigma. Take a look, and you'll see why I'm (delightedly) speechless.

Okay, okay. You twisted my arm. I'll permit myself one short excerpt: 

From the personal travails of a single human fighting against unknown and powerful forces, to the unraveling of a galactic-scale conspiracy involving the origin of several intelligent races, mankind among them, you’ve made InterstellarNet: E...

SF news: the good, the cautionary, and the sad

First up, the Museum of Science Fiction posted their 4Q15 report. One highlight: MoSF's interim/mobile museum will open in Fall 2016 in Rosslyn, VA. (For the non-Washingtonians among you, that's just across the Potomac River from DC.)

Like your SF on the big screen? Then check out "8 Original Sci-Fi Films to Look Forward to in 2016." ("Original" may be code for "obscure," but that's okay. Among last year's indie films, I quite enjoyed Ex Machina and Predestination.)

Looking for a good book? Che...