California at the End of the World
Touring around California, you could be forgiven for thinking you’re living in the future, and not just because of the Silicon Valley wizardry that surrounds us all. We also have to thank Hollywood’s movie magic, which has turned the state into a backdrop for countless science fiction films presenting futures both terrible and wondrous. It’s…
Take a wild trip to our nearest stellar neighbor in Proxima
Set centuries from now on a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, Stephen Baxter’s Proxima is an epic hard scifi story with no shortage of futuristic and cosmic wonders. Often considered as the closest successor of Arthur C. Clarke, Baxter is a master of unabashedly hard science fiction, focused on epic visions of scientific wonders in a…
The Landscapes Of Suburbia Are The Real Science Fiction
Science fiction is often charged with naïve technological optimism and historical amnesia. But for present-day Californians struggling with a wide range of environmental and social problems, science fiction might just provide the perspective we need to successfully pivot from the boom times of the twentieth century to the messy prospect of the century ahead. It…
The True Literature of California Is Science Fiction
Kim Stanley Robinson is the author of many works of science fiction, including The Three Californias, a trilogy of novels about southern California; the Mars Trilogy; 2312, a novel about climate change; and his most recent novel, Shaman. Robinson is one of California’s best-known and well-loved, living science fiction writers. A prolific writer, author of…
Stanisaw Lem’s Summa Technologiae portrays a grim and sober singularity
Stanislaw Lem’s Summa Technologiae was first published in 1964 in Poland. Now, some 50 years later, the publication of the English translation by Joanna Zylinska is finally making Lem’s thoughts about science, technology, and the future accessible to Western readers. Lem, who passed away in 2006, is known and loved by science fiction readers worldwide.…
