2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey traces the development of man from his nascence, learning to manipulate and create tools, and posits mankind's future with the rise of the Starchild.

Last Tango in Cyberspace - Steven Kotler

Books Received: Last Tango in Cyberspace. St. Martin's Press: 2019

Steven Kotler's influences in Last Tango in Cyberspace are ever present, like neon kanji at night, floating above densely-packed Tokyo streets. Yes, the book is a love song composed to William Gibson and Thomas Pynchon. Kotler imitates the right writers, has a prose style that makes the read worth it by itself, and is an inventive thinker. The only major weakness here is that the book is missing dramatic tension. Because so much of the book is a direct homage to Kotler's literary forebears, while reading Last Tango, you're never quite free of the nagging thought about how would things have played out had Gibson or Pynchon penned it.

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is incredibly enjoyable science fiction.

But why? What makes it so enjoyable? Let's explore.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells - A Rapid Interpretation

"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories. And those that carry us forward, are dreams." - H. G. Wells, The Time Machine

Traveling in time means almost nothing in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Well, it's a fun way to tell a story. But past that, time traveling is merely a literary conceit, a way to tell a story that considers social, economic, and political realities of 19th-century England. This post will consider the action of the novel and time traveling from an economic and political perspective, thus making a Marxist interpretation. No bore of the worlds here, we've got some ideas to ideate, so let's go.

Best Sci Fi Movies Ever | Top 100

Film as Spectacle

Sci-fi movies often look real enough that we're convinced of the possibility of the worlds we're shown. The silver screen presents visions of utopian futures, dystopian presents, and worlds to explore. The one consideration to keep when viewing SF is that the screen subtly pivots the genre away from its role as the literature of ideas and gives it an operative function of creating spectacle.