Life is long, history short

So I was reading Alan Furst’s new novel “The Spies of Warsaw” when I was struck by a particular passage.   A typical Furst protagonist, the world-weary French Colonel Mercier, is attending a grand reception in Warsaw with a typical Furst heroine, the luscious and mysterious Anna Szarbeck.  It’s 1937, and war is coming. She’s chatting [...]

Are SF writers Lettuce or Whiskey?

Alexander Jablokov lists on his blog “Five reasons writers don’t improve with age”.   It’s a depressing thought for an SF writer like him, although he’s one of note, but is it true?   Are writers more like lettuce, best when picked fresh off the field, or whiskey, aged for decades in their cellars? We can [...]

Living in the Anthroposphere

So I was planting tulip bulbs a few weeks ago when it occurred to me – this is the first time in weeks that I’ve touched something not man-made.  Almost everything in our day-to-day environs is an artifact.  Our clothes – woven from some fiber.  Our tools – stamped or cast from metal or plastic.    [...]

Is SF Bloating As It Leaves the Main Sequence?

So I was perusing a typically wry and colorful Jack Vance novel from the 60s, when I noticed that the whole book was only 170 pages.  A lot of them were in those days.  It was only half the thickness of a typical recent paperback.  I did a quick check of the word count on [...]