In fiction, it’s easy to portray the future as a utopia or a dystopia.
But in Liza Monroy’s science fiction novel The Distractions (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), she presents a society that is both at the same time. And it’s a balance she employs in other aspects of the story as well.
In the following email interview, Monroy discusses what inspired and influenced this sci-fi story.
While 2024 wasn’t as good a year for video games as 2023, it also wasn’t as bad a year as 2023. Hence why my “Worst Games Of 2023” list had 8 games, and this list just has 3.
Though this may say more about me than the year in question.
Here’s my “list” (so to speak) of the worst games I played this year.
Just as 2022 wasn’t as good a year for video games as 2023, so too was 2024 not as good a year for them as 2023.
Which isn’t to say there wasn’t anything worth playing this year.
Here, in the order I played them, are my favorite games of 2024.
As someone who grew up on the original Star Trek, I remember well the episode in which two planets are at war, but instead of killing each other with weapons, they do it virtually, with computers, and then ask the “impacted” citizens to step in disintegration chambers (1967’s “A Taste Of Armageddon”).
It’s something I immediately thought of when preparing to interview author Alexander Darwin about his science fantasy novel Blacklight Born (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the third and final novel in The Combat Codes Trilogy, in which nations go to war, but through 1-on-1 duels.
Though as Darwin says in the following email interview, his inspiration for this series, and this final installment, was something other than a certain episode from a classic sci-fi show.
While it sometimes seems pop stars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift can do anything they set their mind to, I’m not sure, if push came to shove, that they’d be able to save us from an alien invasion.
But I’m happy to be proven wrong. Especially in book form.
Which brings me to Alex White’s new science fiction space opera novel Ardent Violet And The Infinite Eye (paperback, Kindle), in which one of the main characters trying save humanity from aliens is an ultra-glam enby pop star.
In the following email interview, White talks about who, and what, inspired and influenced this novel, the second book in The Starmetal Symphony Trilogy after 2022’s August Kitko And The Mechas From Space,
More than 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. And yet, when it comes to planet-based science fiction stories, most take place on dry land, either here on Earth or on some other world.
But in the new short story anthology Depth Charge (paperback, Kindle), iconic science fiction writers including Arthur C. Clarke, James Blish, and Fritz Leiber give us tales that are all set underwater, at least in part.
In the following email interview, co-editors Hank Davis and Jamie Ibson talk about how this collection came together, how the stories were chosen, and which they think could work really well in theaters alongside Avatar, Aquaman, and other movies that are all wet.
Not every moral question has a right answer. Or no wrong one.
Take the question that inspired author Brad C. Anderson to write his new novel, Ashme’s Song (paperback, Kindle): “Is a hero someone who dies for their country or someone who gathers their family and gets them someplace safe?”
In the following email interview, Anderson talks about how that question inspired this story, which combines elements of science fiction, cyberpunk, political thrillers, and space opera into what he calls “spacethrillerpunk.”
When the good people at Zen Studios make their original pinball tables for Pinball FX (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), they always pair realistic physics with unrealistic mechanics by, say, having the ball move like it would in real life, but on a table that has Mechagodzilla firing laser beam warning shots or K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider doing donuts.
But when it comes to their versions of classic pinball tables originally made by the iconic pinball company Williams, they have typically been faithful to the originals, both mechanically and aesthetically.
The operative word there being “typically.” That’s because for the three tables Zen have remade for Williams Pinball Volume 8— Banzai Run, Black Knight 2000, and Earthshaker! — they’ve added some unrealistic (but optional) mechanics to these classics…and not everyone will be happy with the results.
We all know the story of Aladdin. Well, the Disney version, anyway.
But while author Samit Basu knows that version, too, his love of Aladdin goes back further than Disney’s 1992 animated movie. Which is partially why he wrote The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport, a humorous science fiction space opera / science fantasy / adventure story inspired by the original Middle-Eastern folk tale character from One Thousand And One Nights.
With The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport now available in paperback — a year after originally being released in hardcover and for Kindle — I spoke to Basu via email to discuss what else inspired and influenced this sci-fi story, his plans for possible sequels, and why he made one of the central characters a monkey-bot.