Category Archives: science fiction

Robert Sheckley, MINDSWAP (1966)

Posted on Tuesday 12 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Robert Sheckley was a science fiction writer who debuted in the early 1950s, right about the time Philip K. Dick that did. They were both prolific short story writers through the ’50s, each publishing several stories a year, in the … Continue reading →

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PKD: The Man in the High Castle

Posted on Friday 8 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

I am going to begin posting relatively *brief* comments about books I’ve read lately, to keep up with what I’ve been reading. My extensive book summaries with comments take a long time to set up; by waiting to post anything … Continue reading →

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Thinking About SF: Classic Erosion

Posted on Wednesday 6 October 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

What do Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Star Trek TOS, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series have in common?

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Ls&Cs: Computer world views; science fiction vs. fantasy

Posted on Friday 24 September 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

A couple non-political posts today.

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Notes and Quotes: Robert A. Heinlein’s BETWEEN PLANETS

Posted on Friday 5 March 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

This is the fifth of Heinlein’s so-called “juveniles,” what would be called YA (young adult) books today, that Heinlein published from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. I posted about the second of them, SPACE CADET, here last year, … Continue reading →

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Notes and Quotes: Arthur C. Clarke’s THE DEEP RANGE (1957)

Posted on Sunday 24 January 2021 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a relatively quick take on a 1950s novel I reread this past week — not as long or as polished as my Black Gate reviews have been. (I’ll be resuming those in February.) THE DEEP RANGE was the 8th … Continue reading →

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Heinlein, SPACE CADET (1948)

Posted on Sunday 2 August 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m reviewing detailed notes of books I’ve read in recent years but not yet posted about, and boiling them down into summaries and comments more useful to readers than if I simply posted all the detailed notes. (And in truth, … Continue reading →

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Frederik Pohl, THE GOLD AT THE STARBOW’S END (1972)

Posted on Saturday 27 June 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a nice companion book to Pohl’s novel GATEWAY, because one of the five stories here is a prelude that novel. That story and three of the others were all published in various magazines in 1972; the fifth was … Continue reading →

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Frederik Pohl: GATEWAY (1977)

Posted on Tuesday 23 June 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

[expanded 24jun20 5pm] I need to catch up on book notes. I’m not a fast reader, and am busy with other things throughout the week, reading perhaps 3 hours a day at best, but still get through about 2 books … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Nature and Human Brains; Science Fiction and Mental Resiliency

Posted on Friday 19 June 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Scientific American, Caleb A. Scharf: A Failure of Imagination, subtitled, “Nature does not have to play fair with our puny human brains.” A favorite theme of mine: how there’s more to the universe than humans are aware of; how there … Continue reading →

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