Sir Patrick Stewart: A Tribute
Sir Patrick Stewart died on October 28, 2026, at 86. I first saw him as Sejanus in I, Claudius, and in my mind he's the reason Star Trek kept going.
Tag: Science Fiction
Science fiction earns its ideas by taking them seriously. These articles cover world building, the physics and logic that hold a story together, and writing futures that feel earned instead of decorated.
ADHDA Year in the Bank: ADHD, Face Blindness and the Freedom to Walk Out | The Impossible Puzzles Show, Episode 326
Richard Lowe's fourth regular appearance on The Impossible Puzzles Show with Mike Merkur: living with ADHD and autism unmedicated, why a year in the bank is the way out of a job you hate, face blindness and rejection sensitive dysphoria,…
Grief and LossWalter Koenig: A Tribute
Walter Koenig died on October 25, 2026, at 90. I watched him as Ensign Chekov when Star Trek first aired, and to me he epitomized the idealism of the show.
American DecayI Joined the Science Fiction Book Club 30 Times
I joined the Science Fiction Book Club about 30 times: take the introductory books, buy the minimum, quit, rejoin. The club printed hardcovers nobody else would, then turned into crap and stopped taking orders in 2025. Here's its story, and…
1960sGene Roddenberry Day: The Pilot Who Pitched the Stars
Gene Roddenberry was born on August 19, 1921, in El Paso, Texas. He flew bombers, survived an airliner crash, wrote speeches for the Los Angeles police chief, and then sold NBC a western set in space. The show he built…
Reading LifeStranger in a Strange Land
Robert Heinlein's 1961 novel about Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians who comes to Earth and looks at humanity from the outside. It won the Hugo Award, gave the language the word grok, and was the first science…
Reading LifePodkayne of Mars
Heinlein's 1963 novel about Podkayne Fries, a fifteen-year-old girl from Mars traveling to Earth with her troublemaking younger brother. It's best known now for the fight over its ending. Heinlein lost that fight, and his readers eventually won it back.
Reading LifeI, Robot
Isaac Asimov's 1950 collection of nine robot stories, framed as the memories of robopsychologist Susan Calvin. It's where the Three Laws of Robotics took hold, and it's where I started reading Asimov at about eight years old.
Reading LifePa’an
Kenn Brody's science fiction thriller about Aura, an artificial intelligence contacted by the most advanced civilization in the galaxy, while a criminal group seizes the world's fissile material. Kenn was a founding member of the critique group I started in…
Reading LifeThe Sage of Sagittarius
Kenn Brody's science fiction novel about Zila Aropova Biddey, sent across the galaxy by a mysterious Sage to find the origin of LUCA, the common ancestor of all life. What she finds instead is an ancient entity that opposes life…
Reading LifeRadio
A 2016 science fiction novelette by Kenn Brody. Shannon Redwine wants to be a video reporter, so she has a ham radio mentor surgically install a broadcaster in her, and what she puts on the air makes powerful enemies.
Character DevelopmentThe Mary Sue: How a 1973 Star Trek Parody Became a Writing Term
Mary Sue started as a one-page joke in a 1973 Star Trek fanzine. Here's the story behind the parody, how the name spread, what a Mary Sue really is, and when the label is fair.