Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 7, Art.

Free photo 16872076 © SaÅ¡a Prudkov - Dreamstime.com You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at ‘Art’. What art is can’t be defined adequately in a post of this type, and that isn’t the purpose of this piece anyway. Let’s, for the sake of this small post, decide that art is …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 6, Animals, as Pets.

A neighbour's pet dog. You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at ‘Animals, as Pets’. Bet this’ll prove a contentious post: people often treat their pets with more love and care than they do their children and siblings. As someone who’s had pets as varied as goldfish, rabbits, and dogs, I’ve …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 5, AI.

https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-photo-jcurz/download   You’ll find the introduction to this series here. This post looks at ‘Artificial Intelligence’. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an area still under development and, in common with almost all new technologies, it has an undefined future. This makes it both a dream and a nightmare when it comes to science fiction. Several big names …

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Futuristic Fiction: #Research for #Writers, Part 3, Advertising.

If you want to read the introduction to this series, you’ll find it here. This post looks at ‘Advertising’. Why advertising? Who does it benefit? How will future advertising be presented? How will it look, feel, sound? At present, advertising, marketing, promotion, call it what you will (they’re all methods of persuading people to buy), …

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Dust & Lightning, by Rebecca Crunden: #BookReview.

124 pages Dystopian Science Fiction This science fiction novella is listed under the ‘dystopian’ tag. However, it contains the currently essential ingredient, hope, so leaves the reader in an uplifted mood after a journey through some pretty dire times. It’s a well-written piece, with very few editing needs. Most importantly (to me, anyway) it’s easy …

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Divided States of America, by Aithal: #BookReview.

345 pages Time Travel/First Contact/Science Fiction. The Galaxy Series Book 3 This is the third in a series. The book is a worthy work, but I found it slow to start. That may be because I haven’t read the previous two. Once the first chapters are done, the story starts to move at a good …

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The Star Protocol, by the Marett Brothers: #BookReview.

318 pages Science Fiction Adventure/Military Science Fiction As flagged by the sub-genres in which this book is listed, it’s a science fiction tale full of action, much of which is military in tone. But it’s also a lot more than that. The story combines ancient history, via an archaeologist and his daughter, with the idea …

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Exiles, by Daniel Blythe: #Book Review.

494 Pages Science Fiction/Children’s/Colonisation In this quite extraordinary novel we have a piece of science fiction that could well become a literary classic. The combination of figurative language, timeless universal themes, and adventure shown through the eyes of carefully realised and presented characters places this work high above many in the genre. In fact, it …

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The Fantastic #Fantasticon 2019!

Fantastic Books Publshing book store Every year an event celebrating science fiction, fantasy, gaming, technology, cosplay and the enjoyment of life comes up. Fantasticon is a convention drawing equal numbers of regulars and newcomers and I’ve attended every year so far. The audience awaits action on the stage. The event is hosted by Dan Grubb, …

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Rijel 12: The Rise of New Australia, by King Everett Medlin: #BookReview.

316 pages Space Exploration/Science Fiction An enormously complex and wide-ranging story with a cast of characters from all over the galaxy, this is essentially a tale of survival against the odds. Male criminals, of human and different alien species, are incarcerated on a hostile uninhabited planet as punishment for their crimes. They are treated as …

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Gravity’s Arrow, by Jack Mann: #BookReview.

508 pages Teen and YA/Science Fiction Adventure/Metaphysical and Visionary This complex and intriguing book is full of action. It’s also packed with thought-provoking discussions among the many fascinating characters. These come as natural parts of the story and we are led into them through both the action and the well-drawn natural exchanges of the players. …

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The Corona Book of Science Fiction, edited by Max Bantleman: #BookReview.

202 pages Science Fiction Anthologies This is a collection of 16 short stories by some very talented writers. I enjoyed every one of these varied tales. There’s humour, horror, dystopia, AI, time travel, romance, aliens, corruption, robotics, love, and the greed inspired by empire here. None of these stories disappointed me. There are variations in style, …

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Traveller Inceptio, by Rob Shackleford: #BookReview.

432 pages Science Fiction and Fantasy/Time Travel I read the sample offered by Amazon, as I often do before deciding whether to read a book. In this case, it seemed promising, so I went ahead, having been offered a review copy by the author. Unfortunately, although the premise sounds fascinating and the first couple of …

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Kill Code, by Clive Fleury: #BookReview.

220 pages Dystopian Science fiction This is action-packed dystopian scifi populated with great characters. The story moves quickly and most of it is character driven. There’s plenty of tension throughout, and many challenging situations for the protagonists to face. One or two sequences I thought bordered on the incredible, but, as a whole, the book …

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Game Changers of the Apocalypse, by Mark Kirkbride: #BookReview.

Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic Horror 299 pages As far as I can recall, I’ve never read a book in the post-apocalypse genre before, so it’s probable there are recognisable conventions of which I’m unaware. That said, any book should generally be accessible to all readers if possible. This one took some getting into for me. Once I …

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