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

I’m pleased to announce that my novels 𝐵𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑢𝑖𝑛 and 𝑆𝑒𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑟 are finalists for the Prometheus Award for Best Libertarian Science Fiction Novel. 𝐵𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝐻𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑢𝑖𝑛 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

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

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.