So I gotta ask, why is it that in fiction whenever some person or entity claims to be Beyond Good and Evil, it's invariably because they're doing some evil shit? How come we never see some amoral individual saving orphans, saving lives or saving the world because good evil don't make no difference to them?

"It means there's normal people, like your mom. There's people like me who train, study, barter and bargain their way into certain skills and powers. And then there are liminal people. You and yours are born with some of the weirdest collections of gifts and curses ever assembled on this planet." - Entropy of Bones, Ayize Jama-Everett
The second ( Read more... )

If transhumanism is about how technology will help us solve the problems inherent to human nature and cyberpunk is about how technology won’t, then technothrillers are about how we'll never get to find out one way or the other.

Fast-forward to the year 2100. Assume that people still exist and still produce human-comprehensible popular entertainments. Assume that they still have the same impulse that leads us to write and enjoy stories starring Irene Adler and Nikola Tesla, the pulp impulse. Which characters (and hell, colourful RL personages) from our era (let's say, 1950 ( Read more... )

Since I can't delete the weaksauce behind the cut, I'll post something slightly less annoying.

(Thought of on July 8 2006): post-singularity civilizations must find it hilarious when ancient (STL, LMAO!) Berserkers (see: Fermi Paradox, Saberhagen) show up out of the dark, looking to start some shit. Perhaps there’s a subculture/subroutine/cosmic ( Read more... )

The OP: Consider the classical elements: honorable warriors, master-killing villains, training montages, surface-tension-defying martial arts and secret techniques with names like Palm of Forty Sorrows and Dragon Bowing Before Amazon ( Read more... )

ideaspace fictionsuit goes on ... now!!
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Very important Question! Mission-critical:

"What falls into the toilet bowl when Galactus takes a dump?"

"Do you know what that gun on your hip looks like to me? A red pill, officer, a red pill."

"A chicken in every pot, an iPod in every ear!"

"Mediocrity is the human condition, motherfucker."

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ideaspace ( Read more... )

I recently joined a public library (for the first time in my life oddly enough). First book I borrowed was Bruce Sterling's The Artificial Kid. I imagine I should have picked something more momentous but hey. Next up were Olympos (which I've finally finished) and Pandora's Star which presents a future I could describe as "The Culture ... with Money ( Read more... )

2005 - The Singularity (Orion's Arm, Accelerando, Lady of Mazes and more)

2004 - Magic vs. Technology (no specific examples)

2003 - Mortals dedicated to the deaths of specific immortals (Higa, Blade of the Immortal2002 - Immortal characters and scarily competent mortals ( Read more... )

Who is Johnny California?

I mean it. Who the fuck is this guy? In '04 I ran into his explanation of the Speed Force. It blew the brains out the back of my skull first time I read it.

Is he a deniable sockpuppet for someone already published or something? Or is he just an invisible auteur?