Science fiction

Official website of science fiction author Cliff Ball. Promoting a new novel, Out of Time.

The story is about a cloned scientist who invents the means to time travel and the adventures he and his time traveling crew have through 20th century history, including quite possibly causing the Roswell Incident in 1947.

These books, it should be admitted, are deeply awful, and as portrayals of their authors' ids, they're more than a little alarming. You don't want to look, but you can't look away. The awfulness becomes sublime. So why am I commenting about this? Well, because I feel a little like Richard Dreyfuss in JAWS, during the scar scene: "I got that beat." Permit me to introduce John Ringo.

So you've snapped up Michael Chabon's Nebula Award winning novel The Yiddish Policeman's Union, and now you want more thoughtful alternate histories to fill your brain and bookshelf. While there are literally hundreds of alternate histories out there (many of them written by various Michael Moorcocks and Harry Turtledoves in different timelines), a few standouts will help you get into the genre.

Winners of this year's Nebula Awards, presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, were announced this evening, Saturday April 26, 2008. Best novel: Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Click through to see short story and cinema winners.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) will be handing out the Nebula Awards Saturday evening, 26 April 2008, at a ceremony in Austin, Texas. SFScope is not in Texas, but SFWA has announced that there will be a live feed of the ceremony available on line.

Talk about an innovative way to get the edge on your competition! Beginning in May, a digital version of each issue of SFX Magazine will be beamed into outer space, where it will bounce around the stars forever.

Write for SFX and your work is guaranteed to live on in perpetuity. :)

The results of this year’s Tiptree Award have been announced. The winner is The Carhullan Army (Daughters of the North in the U.S.) by Sarah Hall. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is given for for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender, and is intended to reward those women and men who are bold enough to contemplate shifts and changes in gender.

I understand (second-hand, since I don't surf much) that there is some concern out there in InterNet Land that the Hugo ballot features only four women nominees this year (last year there was only one). As it happens, gender distribution of SF writers is something I keep track of.

Just because there are no short story outlets for historical fiction doesn't mean you can dump your story about Genghis Khan in a science fiction magazine just by adding a time traveler. The grammar becomes very difficult. Or became difficult? Or will become difficult? Or will have became difficult? Ah, screw it. It makes me want to go back in time and kill H.G. Wells grandfather.

When a stroke felled publisher Jim Baen at age 62 and left Baen Books leaderless in June 2006, speculation ran wild about the future of the renowned independent science fiction and fantasy press. Though Jim Baen’s absence is keenly felt, his legacy and company have proved sturdy even without his direct guidance.