Tag Archives: science fiction

Roswell High, #1-3: The Beginning

Posted on August 4, 2025 by smellincoffee

The scene: a kitchsy diner in Roswell, New Mexico, with a strong “aliens and UFO” theme: the tables are shaped like flying saucers, and the waitresses strut around in Star Trek-esque skirts. Two men at a far table begin arguing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

When the Moon Hits Your Eye

Posted on July 31, 2025 by smellincoffee

John Scalzi meets Randall Monroe in a comic SF novel with an insane premise: the Moon has been replaced by a giant orb of cheese. Or, to use NASA’s language, it has “assumed an organic matrix”. How? Who knows?! It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Saturday Shorts: The Hammer of God

Posted on June 28, 2025 by smellincoffee

TIME magazine, unlike many other older magazines, never had a tradition of publishing short fiction — until golden age of SF author Arthur C. Clarke offered to change that. “The Hammer of God” takes us a century into the future, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Content & Context

Posted on June 23, 2025 by smellincoffee

Content collects several of Cory Doctorow’s favorite pieces of his written on “technology, creativity, copyright, and the future”, clumping in the mid-2000s. The content is mixed in medium, but united in message: herein are essays, speeches, and interviews that cover … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Saturday Shorts – Clarke and Asimov

Posted on June 21, 2025 by smellincoffee

Today’s short story is a pair of stories, chosen because they share a common theme. The first, Arthur C. Clarke’s “Into the Comet”, opens on a science ship in despair. The Challenger was commissioned to investigate Randall’s Comet, a long-period … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

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 →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments