Category Archives: science fiction

Saturday Shorts — This Long Vigil

Posted on June 14, 2025 by smellincoffee

Amid the deep, cold black of space, the generation ship Hermes cruises her way toward finding a new home for humanity at Tau Ceti. Or, at least the thousand souls who are aboard her. Unusually, though, these are not the … Continue reading →

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SHELLI: MurderMind

Posted on June 13, 2025 by smellincoffee

One of my favorite reads of 2024 was SHELLI, a SF mystery featuring a pair of detectives — one human, one synthetic — who investigated crimes relating to sythentic lifeforms, i.e. androids. Jake and Shelli are back in MurderMind, but … Continue reading →

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A Closed and Common Orbit

Posted on November 26, 2024 by smellincoffee

A Closed and Common Orbit follows closely on the heels of Becky Chambers’ A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, but departs from the good ship Wayfarer to tell instead two coming-of-age stories that prove conjoined. One character is … Continue reading →

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A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Posted on November 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

Rosemary Harper is a newly certified clerk, fresh from college, signing aboard the good ship Wayfarer for her first gig. It’s going to be a long one, too: galactic politics have just opened up the possibility of a lucrative job … Continue reading →

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Eruption

Posted on November 21, 2024 by smellincoffee

There’s trouble brewing in paradise. Rumblings and earthquakes and the swelling of Mauna Loa indicate that an eruption is imminent, and it may be a big one, threatening the single urban area on Hawaii’s Big Island. Unfortunately, the situation is … Continue reading →

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The Illustrated Man

Posted on November 18, 2024 by smellincoffee

I’ve read to encounter a Bradbury piece that didn’t give me food for though, and The Illustrated Man is no exception. A collection of short stories framed by a mysteriously-tattooed stranger showing off his array of colorful and ever-changing ‘illustrations’, … Continue reading →

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Firefly: Lifesigns + SciFi Prompt 7

Posted on November 7, 2024 by smellincoffee

SciFi Month prompt #7 is, “What’s your favorite SF book read in the last year”, which is easy: Influx by Daniel Suarez. The ending was too “make this a movie, you guys, Michael Bay will make it EPIC”, but the … Continue reading →

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SciFi Prompt #4 — and, the worst novel I’ve read this year

Posted on November 4, 2024 by smellincoffee

Today’s SciFi prompt is “Little Blue Dot”, or books about coming and going from “this fragile Earth, our island home”. Contact comes to mind immediately, and given that today is Carl Sagan’s birthday, I can’t imagine a better response.  Contact … Continue reading →

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The War of the Worlds as witnessed by Teddy Roosevelt

Posted on November 2, 2024 by smellincoffee

There came suddenly a blinding flash of flame from the pit, andanother and another, and the whole delegation met with a terrible instant death, forty souls in all. The fiery beam also ignited adjacent trees and brought down a portion … Continue reading →

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Deck Z

Posted on September 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

(Don’t worry, I only read two of these.) Captain Smith is preparing for his triumphant final voyage, captaining the Titanic in her first trip across the Atlantic. Unfortunately for him, those nasty Germans are going to muck things up. Smith … Continue reading →

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