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| Original cover art by Boris Vallejo and Frank Freas (also see). |
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| draft blog posts |
Temporal Archives
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2010
2017
Currently, there are a dozen blog posts that I started in 2017 but have not yet completed. With luck, those embryonic blog posts will have birth dates either in the last few days of 2017 or in early 2018.
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| Ekcolir's mission into the past |
During January of 2017, I investigated the fates of Trysta and Ekcolir. Trysta and Ekcolir played important roles in shaping the timeline of our world. They were both sent back into the far past of Earth and they died there, although they did manage to live on as artificial lifeforms (Syon and Rilocke).
Retro-Reading
In January I also had several blog posts about older science fiction stories. One of the great aspects of the Internet Age is that the original literature of science fiction, as published in pulp magazines, in now becoming available to science fiction fans: we can now download PDF and CBR digitized copies of the old Sci Fi magazines.
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| retro-reading |
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| Norman Winters awakens in the future |
2017 was a year for celebrating the science fiction of Arthur Clarke. His 1948 story "Inheritance" is about a man who has a vision of the future.
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February
In 2017, I was honoring the 25th year since the death of Asimov. One of Asimov's old stories that I read and blogged about is "Hostess". In the same blog post, I mentioned a story called The Perfect Host , a novella by Theodore Sturgeon and Sturgeon's short story 'Rule of Three' was published in Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1951 (download). Since Sturgeon was born in 1918, I will be celebrating his science fiction during 2018.
In "Hostess", Asimov imagined a new type of infectious pathogen: what would seem to be similar to a retrovirus. I'm intrigued by the idea that Asimov was able to adapt story ideas from other writers and craft them into more scientifically plausible narratives of a type that appeal to a science nerd such as me.
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March
During March, two blog posts were short stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe: "Hierion Confinement" and "Exit Edit".
In "Hierion Confinement", evidence for the existence of hierions must be concealed from Earthlings. The story takes place in Deep Time, during a previous Reality when time travel still existed during the operation of the LHC facility.
In "Exit Edit", the Editor of the Exode Saga finally finds a way to leave Earth, at a time in our future after the Secret History of Humanity has already been told to the people of Earth.
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April
In April, I blogged about how I am incorporating Isaac Asimov into my current writing project, A Search Beyond. Soon after his death, an artificial life copy of Asimov appears on Tar'tron and begins to investigate the human-like creatures who live in the Galactic Core. Asimov visits several worlds of the Core and eventually makes the long journey to the Andromeda Galaxy.
25 years after "his" death, the Asimov Replicoid returns to Earth. He must explore the Reality in Deep Time that is known as the Asimov Reality. To do so, he makes use of a virtual reality "copy" of the Asimov Reality. The Asimov Replicoid must "enter" into the AR Simulation in order to learn how humans were provided with a functional Bimanoid Interface.
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May
In May, I had another Jack Vance tribute post. One of Vance's famous characters is the "mad poet", Navarth, who tries to protect his ward, Zan Zu, from the Demon Prince, Viole Falushe. Navarth lives on Earth and at one time he tried to hide Zan Zu in Edmonton. Vance's Demon Prince novels are set 1,500 years in our future, at a time when Edmonton has become a destination for pilgrims who want to see the "Sacred Shin".
I have no idea what Vance imagined the "Sacred Shin" to be. For him, I don't think it mattered. Unable to resist creating a meaning for the "Sacred Shin", I imagine that it is a pillar of stone that contains important microfossils. These ancient fossils provide clues to the presence of alien visitors on Earth long ago. It is fun to imagine a religion that involves the idea of alien visitors who are responsible for the course of life's evolution leading to we humans.
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June
It is easy to select my favorite blog post from June of 2017. I like to imagine that Ivory Fersoni wrote a book called M1A2R3S in which she provided an account of how humans visited Mars and established a base of operations on that world.
Within the Exode Saga, the word "on" can have several meanings. 1) it might actually mean "inside" Mars (under the surface) and 2) such a base might only be associated with the planet Mars while actually residing within the Hierion Domain.
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July
In July, I began an investigation of the role of telepathy in the works of Jack Vance, such as his novel Araminta Station. I like to imagine that in a previous Reality (The Ekcolir Reality), Vance was able to reveal more about the future of the human species than was the case here in the Final Reality.
August
In August, I had several blog posts celebrating the science fiction of Jack Vance. One of these is a short story in which Isaac Asimov must send a message back through time to Jack Vance.
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| Merlank, the lone continent of Trullion. |
The final blog post for August concerned The Alice Investigations. During the lifetime of Alice Wroke, humans knew very little about hierions and sedrons. Eventually, in the far future when humans had spread to Alastor Cluster and made contact with the Phari, a new science, the Pantechnic Metaphysic, allowed humans to understand that the universe extends beyond the Hadronic Domain.
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September
In September I continued exploration of telepathy in the future of Humanity as described by Vance in his Demon Prices saga. At what rate do telepathic signals move through the universe?
The was also a September blog post concerning the use of an Asimov Replicoid to shape the development of the science fiction genre in the Ekcolir Reality.
October
In October I selected a winner in my annual search for an interesting science fiction story from Hollywood. The 2017 SIHA winner was The Discovery.
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November
In November, I was prompted to blog about Asimov's original Foundation stories. It is always fun to see how new generations of science fiction fans respond to older science fiction stories. Also, it is worth remembering that Asimov began writing at a young age and his early stories have problems. For my 2018 retro-reading, I'm going to go back for a look at Asimov's first published story.
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Continuing the retro theme, I also blogged about Gene Roddenberry's first known science fiction sale for television: an alien invasion story. As usual, I could not resist imagining how in a previous Reality, that story idea could have been expanded and might have become famous.
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| Arthur C. Clarke b.1917 |
While approaching the end of 2017, I've been contemplating the best mothod for telling the Exode Saga. One December blog post concerned this issue and the possible need to "give both sides" in the pek/bumpha debate a fair chance to defend their philosophical position.
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| 1771 |
Also in December, I posted my end of the year tribute to Arthur Clarke, who was born in December 1917.
Related Reading: 2016 year in review - the 2018 year in blogging.
Next: a special New Year 2018 pulp magazine cover.
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| visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
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