One of the most common ways for someone to start reading science fiction is picking up one of Robert A. Heinlein’s “juveniles”—a 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 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.

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

I’ve seen yet another argument break out about what counts as “hard” SF. Some people think “hardness” is a yes or no property and are indignant if some work is excluded. So it’s 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

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

I talked about science fiction, government, and anarchy with Dan “Taxation is Theft” Behrman. Why do we have governments, what do people get out of them, and how can we get away from having too much government? How is fiction useful for thinking about these problems? Can we cut out the middleman and just sell… Continue reading Anarchy and Government Interview with Dan Behrman

I have a story in the anthology Again, Hazardous Imaginings. It’s a collection of science fiction stories chosen to push against the taboos of the current literary establishment. My contribution is a . . . less than elegant take on how to deal with the dangers of unconstrained artificial intelligence development.

Fire on Iron by Andrew Fox: A horror/fantasy tale set in the Mississippi River theater of the American Civil War. A Union captain takes his ironclad on a secret mission, only to be caught up in the supernatural machinations of an African sorcerer wanting revenge on those who took him as a slave. Tales Around… Continue reading November Book Reviews

Where Is My Flying Car? By J. Storrs HallIt’s rare enough for me to change my mind that it’s worth noting when it happens. I’ve tackled the “Where’s my flying car?” question many times both online and on panels. I’ve pointed out that there have been prototypes built, and they’d failed commercially, because what you… Continue reading October Book Reviews

Richard Paolinelli interviewed me about the Superversive nature of my stories.