I’m starting a mailing list to give away a short story each month. The first story, “Justice,” looks at how far Supreme Court packing could go. Check it out, and please subscribe if you’d like more.
Author: Karl Gallagher
John W. Campbell vs. The Pulps
There’s some writers out there who push a conspiracy theory that “John W. Campbell murdered pulp fiction”. JWC didn’t kill the fantasy adventure pulps. They were destroyed by something else that happened at the same time JWC took over Astounding: World War Two. The war took millions of readers away from their pulp collections and… Continue reading John W. Campbell vs. The Pulps
New Release: Captain Trader Helmsman Spy
Niko Landry needs to infiltrate the Censorate to find a weakness before it launches its next assault. The Censor bans maps of hyperspace, forcing freighters to find their way by word of mouth. He and his crew will pretend to be ordinary traders while finding out all the secrets they can. Any mistake could leave… Continue reading New Release: Captain Trader Helmsman Spy
Between Home and Ruin & Seize What’s Held Dear are Award Finalists
I’m pleased to announce that my novels π΅ππ‘π€πππ π»πππ πππ π π’ππ and ππππ§π πβππ‘’π π»πππ π·πππ are finalists for the Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian Science Fiction Novel. π΅ππ‘π€πππ π»πππ πππ π π’ππ is the struggle of a newly discovered free world to survive against a government that erases history to suppress any challenge to its… Continue reading Between Home and Ruin & Seize What’s Held Dear are Award Finalists
Plans Gang Agley
At the end of Seize What’s Held Dear, I promised the next book, Captain Trader Helmsman Spy, would be out this winter. I do have a full draft of CTHS and am working with a cover artist to get it ready to publish. But it’s not coming out this winter. Unfortunately, when I set up… Continue reading Plans Gang Agley
The Secrets of the Heinlein Juvenile
One of the most common ways for someone to start reading science fiction is picking up one of Robert A. Heinleinβs βjuvenilesββa series of novels aimed at teen readers. Fans tell stories of finding one in the library or having their father hand them a copy. My father died too young to push books on… Continue reading The Secrets of the Heinlein Juvenile
New Release: Seize What’s Held Dear
New book out: Seize What’s Held Dear (book 3 in Fall of the Censor): A dozen cities nuked. Millions dead. The Fierans are burning for revenge. Marcus Landry is eager to fight the Censorate, but desperate to protect the innocents oppressed by Censorate rule . . . including his beloved, trapped behind enemy lines.
Storm Between the Stars is a Finalist for the Prometheus Award
The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced the finalists for this year’s Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian Science Fiction novel. My novel Storm Between the Stars is included along with Who Can Own the Stars? by Mackey Chandler, The War Whisperer, Book 5: The Hook, by Barry B. Longyear, Braintrust: Requiem, by Marc Stiegler, and Heaven’s… Continue reading Storm Between the Stars is a Finalist for the Prometheus Award
The Mohs Scale of SF Hardness
I’ve seen yet another argument break out about what counts as βhardβ SF. Some people think βhardnessβ is a yes or no property and are indignant if some work is excluded. So itβs time to go over the Mohs Scale of SF Hardness. (For non-geologists, the Mohs scale is a way of rating the hardness… Continue reading The Mohs Scale of SF Hardness
New Release: Between Home and Ruin
The sequel to Storm Between the Stars is out today: Between Home and Ruin. The Censorate erases all information over a lifetime old. The newly discovered Fierans must give up the art and history they preserved from Old Earth . . . or face war. This is the second book in the Fall of the… Continue reading New Release: Between Home and Ruin