Since I'm not making it easy and posting a snippet on Thursdays (I won't even be able to write much until Mid-May) I am going to continue to make it hard, and provide links to reading material. Yep, I'm so mean making you have to pick, and click.
Science Fantasy
To begin with, my First Reader has his weekly column up at the Otherwhere Gazette, all about Christopher Stasheff and the science fantasy sub-genre that was born from Lester del Rey's dismissal of it. Don't write it, the man said. Stasheff, Landis, and many others, promptly created a slew of books with wizards, warlocks, and science all mixed together. You can read the whole thing here. I was able to interview Stasheff last year, which you can read here.
Science Philosophy
Secondly, one of my fellow Hugo Nominees was joking around with me, and I asked him for links so I could send readers to check out his site. I'm not a big podcast person, although I used to be. This coming summer I'm commuting again, and I'll have to start putting his stuff on my phone to listen during the drive. The SciPhi Show is a weekly broadcast about science fiction and philosophy, which ought to be great listening. Jason Rennie was also part of the team that produces the SciPhi Journal, which published an excellent tale by Lou Antonelli. I haven't yet read the story, but after reading what Lou has to say about it, I'm very much looking forward to reading it.
Aunt Nellie
And last, but certainly not least, I leave you with a quote.
" In my opinion, s-f readers (and writers, too) have become a bunch of old Aunt Nellies hell-bent on preserving the status-quo, glorifying the present norm, and ready to crucify anybody who dares rock the boat by thinking. Astounding science fiction? It's astounding that anybody would think that s-f could astound anybody but an idiot. Galactic s-f? I haven't read anything much recently that looked beyond the rut that s-f writers have blundered into and refuse to leave. I don't know what happened to us when s-f "came of age," but the sense of wonder got left behind, and maybe so did I. I want s-f to be a "marketplace of ideas," but who's thinking these days? Heinlein, yes, and Sturgeon, and a few others, but let's exterminate these vermin before they infect us with some awesome disease that might shake us out of our lethargy! "
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James V McConnell in defense of Starship Troopers, 1959.