Tag Archives: scifi

Action v. SciFi [Movies]

By Matt Mitchell | Published: September 5, 2008
In a conversation today about science fiction movies, a person I was talking with challenged me on the “realism” in scifi movies. And of course I kind of had to shake my head. To me, scifi is realistic. It’s the modern action movie that’s traipsed over into the category of I-can-no-longer-suspend-my-disbelief-to-believe-this-is-possible. SciFi movies are futuristic, [...]
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Irmth the Eleventh

By Matt Mitchell | Published: May 23, 2008
While I’m thinking about it, I’ve had dreams before that have ended up being incorporated into various stories I’ve written. For instance, one morning I woke up with a clear line in my head, which may not make any sense to you (it didn’t to my wife), but nevertheless I liked it and I thought [...]
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Ken McConnell

By Matt Mitchell | Published: May 23, 2008
Internet pal and fellow writer Ken McConnell’s debut story, “The Renoke,” is up at SpaceWesterns.com. It’s a nicely creepy story and it’s science fiction; you can’t get much better than that.
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Douglas Adams Tribute

By Matt Mitchell | Published: May 23, 2008
Someone should put together an anthology of humorous science fiction. Maybe even make it a tribute to Douglas Adams, the man who proved that humor and scific was possible. It’s been almost 30 years since the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first published, and Adams remains the only successful author of humorous SciFic that [...]
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The Greatest Science Fiction Gadgets

By Matt Mitchell | Published: May 6, 2008
What makes science fiction great? Yes, the story, and yes, the characters, but don’t forget all those nifty gadgets! Equipped with this list of goodies, you could go anywhere, create anything, know everything, have a faithful, useful friend, and look really cool the whole time. These are the items that represent SciFi’s greatest imaginings:  Lightsaber Star Wars, by George Lucas It’s a weapon at heart, but so [...]
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Old Man’s War

By Matt Mitchell | Published: May 1, 2008
**Spoiler Alert**  Something I’ve been thinking about lately: SciFi movies, more of them, please? Oh, and try and make them better, k? Here’s an idea: Old Man’s War, by John Scalzi, a book that is utterly primed for adaptation, and I don’t even see much of a way for them to ruin it. Look at the Hollywood history [...]
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Writing the Near Future

By Matt Mitchell | Published: April 23, 2008
I am really loving io9. If you don’t read it, get on over there because they are consistently putting out great content. Today, for instance, they’ve posted a little space porn, some comics industry opinion, and this bit of writing advice, on “how to bring the weird” in your near-future SciFi stories. This is another [...]
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New Short Story = Lightning in a Bottle

By Matt Mitchell | Published: April 6, 2008
Just put the finishing touches on a new short story, SciFi with a hint of horror. I have to say I’m pretty excited about it, too. The preliminary idea I had a couple of years ago, one of those story bones I wrote down, saved the file and looked at every now and then to [...]
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Tor

By Matt Mitchell | Published: March 19, 2008
Okay; who else is excited about this? I’m getting free e-books in my email, free artwork, and, if you read the fine print in those emails or visit Tor.com nowadays you get this little message: Something new is coming. A science fiction and fantasy site not quite like any you’ve seen before, mixing news, commentary, original stories [...]
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The Difference Between SciFi and Fantasy

By Matt Mitchell | Published: January 8, 2008
Generally, I like to refer to things that I write as “Speculative” fiction, because I often utilize rules of SciFi and fantasy in the same piece, that is, I write fiction with fantastic elements but I expound on the details as if it were SciFi. Is that a bad thing? There was a time when [...]
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Brouhaha Brews in the Ranks of the SFWA

By Matt Mitchell | Published: December 2, 2007
In a tumultuous series of blog posts, begun by Charlie Stross, and then spreading to John Scalzi, Warren Ellis and Cory Doctorow, it seems the SFWA is once again churning amidst its members’ dissention. For an outsider looking in, it’s got a kind of soap opera appeal, especially since the SFWA is the beacon to [...]
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