Does Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe count as a future history a la Heinlein, Asimov and (stretching a point) Clarke?

The Hainish Cycle seems sufficiently distanced from Earth not to count.

I've long had trouble with the word "ethics" - if only from my work using Emmanuel Levinas on ethics as first philosophy preceding ontology, and being told by some that that isn't ethics. I have a work ethic (god, yes), and I try to behave ethically, although it bites me on the ass half the time ( Read more... )

I wrote some while back about a book I'm reviewing (note that's friends locked) - and I read a few more chapters tonight between coffee with brisingamen and the start of Brideshead Revisited (of which more later) and then after In Bruges waiting for the bus (ditto).

I've been told to write a review to a length which suits its importance.

AvoidI'm guessing ( Read more... )

There's been a lot of wibbling about how to turn women onto sf - inspired by this set of suggestions: http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/explaining_science_fiction_to.php But as I always say in situations like this - what about the men? It's like the pendulum's swung too far!! So thank you to julieandrews for this: http://julieandrews. ( Read more... )

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The story so far: once upon a time sf was a despised genre loved by boys never read by girls, and it was looked down by on everybody with good taste. We would say, Canticle for Leibowitz isn't crap, and then they would say, no, but then it isn't sf. And we would say, what about Gulliver and Thomas More and Lucian of Samosa, lo even unto Plato's ( Read more... )

Letter to The Times, The harsh realities of science fiction, here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article2664835.ece