Second paragraph of third article ("龙马精神 Dragon Horse Vitality Spirit", by Yen Ooi): Genres are in general difficult to define, but CSF is especially complicated. Both the terms Chinese and science fiction defy any clear definition, yet are used so commonly that every user has their own pre-assumed definition. One popular assumption in the West is ( Read more... )

With a new year coming, it's a good time to think about how the year 2020 looked from the distant vantage point of science fiction from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (I'm therefore not going to mention the 2010 Doctor Who episodes, The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood. Oops, I just did.) So here's a survey of sf stories set next year, ( Read more... )

At the recent Worldcon, I was asked to moderate a panel on “Using SFF as sandboxes for ideas on politics and society“, with co-panellists Eyal Kless from Israel, Sam Hawke from Australia and Taiyo Fujii from Japan. It was quite an experience to run a discussion between participants with such varied backgrounds, and I am afraid that I did not keep ( Read more... )

I was on the road last week, and will be again next week, so blogging will be light until things settle down ( Read more... )

I was a bit surprised the other day to discover someone who describes himself as "The Leading Hispanic Voice in Science Fiction". How could that possibly be quantified, I wondered? It is probably not too difficult to be *A* Leading Voice of whatever kind one might want to be. But *The* Leading Voice surely requires some numerical evidence ( Read more... )

As we look forward to 2018, science fiction has already been there. Here are six portrayals of 2018 from books, television and film, imagining the coming year as utopia, dystopia, or something in between.

Lauren Beukes’ first novel, Moxyland (2008), is set in a cyberpunk South Africa of 2018, where your phone is your identity (much more true now ( Read more... )

You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com

The Trip - a 48 Hour Film: Winner of Best Film Washington, DC from Tracy Mathews on Vimeo.
Most impressed by my colleagues in Washington DC, who won last month's 48 Hour Film Project (48HFP), a competition in which groups must create a short film from scratch in a single weekend, with this short (6 minutes plus credits) film about time travel made ( Read more... )

There's been a nice sequence of posts in the last few days (Victor Milán, Steve Wright, Kyra of File 770) listing five sf novels that they feel are neglected. I thought I should join in, and running through my LibraryThing catalogue, these are the least popular novels that I have rated with at least four stars, in alphabetical order by author. I ( Read more... )

Global leaders throw political support behind polio eradication and transition
G20 backs ending polio.
(tags: polio )

Science fiction’s new golden age in China
Indeed.
(tags: China sf )

Implementing Brexit: Immigration
@instituteforgov: "A new immigration system will not be ready by the time we formally leave the EU."
(tags: brexit ukpolitics eu migration )

The Eurosearch Song Contest - Google analysis
Brilliant stuff!
(tags: eurovision internet )

Reflections From the Bid Chair
The origin of the @Dublin2019 Worldcon.
(tags: sf ( Read more... )