The story of Leo Szilárd, nuclear scientist and science fiction writer
Not only was Leo Szilárd an influential nuclear researcher — he also dabbled in tales of sentient dolphins. Peggy Kolm offers an overview of his career. In retrospect, it would appear that among the various recommendations made by the President’s Science Advisory Committee there was only one which has borne fruit. At some point or…
Remembering Octavia Butler, SciFi Pioneer
When an interviewer asked Hugo- and Macarthur-winning novelist Octavia Butler what she thought of her books being classed as science fiction, she said, “Really, it doesn’t matter. A good story is a good story.” In honor of Women’s History Month, here is (some of) the story of Butler’s life. Butler grew up in Pasadena, raised…
Are book genres being replaced by tags?
Back when I was Literary Fiction guy, I had a conversation about books with a girl I knew who was, if not exactly well-read, did certainly read books regularly. In the course of the conversation I mentioned Don DeLillo and Dave Eggers, and she referred to them off-handedly as “people no one had ever heard…