SciFi Mind - Issue 3 The Book of the New Sun - Part 2

Here's Part 2 of my overview of Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun

scifimind.substack.com/p/scifi-mind...

#scifi #genewolfe

SciFi Mind - Issue 2 The Book of the New Sun - Part 1

I've started a Substack newsletter (it's free) to continue my writing about genre and occasionally offer original stories. I've got the first couple of newsletters up, but I'll be adding new issues every week. Check it out!

scifimind.substack.com/p/scifi-mind...

#scifi

Great Artemis images of the moon

mossandfog.com/incredible-n...

#artemis2 #moon

SciFi Mind Visions of Future Worlds

I've switched my work to a free Substack newsletter. The old scifimind site is still up, though, so there shouldn't be any problem finding reviews and stories there. The first newsletter brings back one of the first essays I wrote - on Olaf Stapledon
scifimind.substack.com/publish/post...
#scifi

This Brutal Moon by Bethany Jacobs This is a book—and a trilogy—that can be characterised in very different ways.

Reading a brilliant review of This Brutal Moon by Bethany Jacobs, conclusion of her Kindom trilogy. The review shows how the greater themes and forces at work in this system of planets are skillfully realized in detailed character work.

strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

#scifi #spaceopera

Film Review: The Bride! A smart, visceral, unapologetic cry of rebellion The rules of the game are ambiguous from the beginning. Speaking from beyond the grave, Mar...

Excellent review of Bride: "The Bride! is a movie about the power of movies, and about the trope of the instrumentalized woman, and about the injustice of being robbed of your voice and the exhilaration of seizing it back."
www.nerds-feather.com/2026/03/film...
#scifi

Great update and background by Rachel Cordasco on who's publishing science fiction in translation

www.sfintranslation.com?p=16357

#scifi

Kingdom come How George R.R. Martin and Game of Thrones took over popular culture

Excellent essay by Andrew Lipton on George Martin's struggle to finish the Game of Thrones novels.

www.andrewliptak.com/george-rr-ma...

#gameofthrones #SFF

Screen Sunday: round-up Before I turn my back on 2025, I’m catching up on all the films I saw in the second half of the year (a stack, thanks to the Inverness Film Festival in November). There’s 3 new favourites, ma…

Wonderfully quirky movie sketches for 2025 by imyril:
onemore.org/2026/01/18/s...
#movies

Review: Stranger Things Season 5 Volume II & Finale The Duffer brothers stick the landing, bringing a close to nine years of epic storytelling Volume II of the Stranger Things final season dro...

A fine, balanced review of Stranger Things season 5 by Haley Zapel - especially about the evolution of the show from small budget to Marvel-size money and excessive CGI

www.nerds-feather.com/2026/01/revi...

#scifi #strangerthings

Interesting review of Plur1bus by Arturo Serrano: "This is what grief feels like. The genius trick of Plur1bus is that it takes the “as if” feeling and makes it literal."

www.nerds-feather.com/2025/12/ther...

#scifi

Stories for the masses The Mass Market paperback format is ending with a whimper

Great essay by Andrew Liptak on the loss of mass market paperbacks - "there are fewer opportunities to buy stories from new authors, and fewer places for people to encounter books in their everyday lives."
www.andrewliptak.com/mass-market-...

#books

After Book of the New Sun I couldn't resist the audiobook of Urth of the New Sun - where the Christian parallels get a bit overwhelming. Now it's time to read all five novels in print before I try to write something about them. Probably a foolhardy project, but that's what I like to do.

#scifi

Photo of Melania Trump in a gold-lined room holding a baby next to an ornate, gold-plated baby carriage. Caption reads: “Affordability is a hoax! — Donald Trump.”

Trump’s “Golden Era” is only for the super wealthy.

I completed Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, via excellent audiobooks narrated by Jonathan Davis. So now I can join the thousands of fans re-reading and trying to figure out what it all means.

#scifimonth

Film Review: One Battle After Another Paul Thomas Anderson has made an absolute masterpiece about rebellion, standing up to power, and hope. I went into One Battle After Another...

Hail St Haley's review of One Battle After Another

www.nerds-feather.com/2025/10/film...

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester Alfred Bester wrote two important science fiction novels in the 1950s - The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination. While I have some reservations

For SF from 1956 The Stars My Destination is quite amazing.

www.scifimind.com/the-stars-my...

#scifi

Why is every Democratic Governor not standing with him & saying this in unison?

Next step they publicly call on every Repub governor to join them in denouncing the regime's blatant authoritarianism. Sure Repubs won't join but it's how you shift the narrative!

Why are Dems so bad at politics!? 🤯

Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler Ray Nayler’s haunting novel, Where the Axe Is Buried, draws us into a dystopian world governed in most countries by AIs, and in one Federation, by a

Another masterpiece from Ray Nayler: Where the Axe Is Buried

www.scifimind.com/where-the-ax...

#scifi

The Folded Sky (White Space Book 3) by Elizabeth Bear Elizabeth Bear’s The Folded Sky, the third novel in her White Space series, tells a stand-alone story, full of grand space opera tropes, including

Rough month re health, except for a great family visit and seeing an unforgettable staging of Cabaret at the Guthrie - and reading Elizabeth Bear's The Folded Sky - which I really liked:

www.scifimind.com/the-folded-s...

#scifi #spaceopera

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester In 1953 Alfred Bester won the first Hugo award for his novel, The Demolished Man. It’s easy to see why. This is a fast-paced story in an interesting

A classic that would be great if not for the bizarre ideas about women and psychology: Bester's The Demolished Man

www.scifimind.com/the-demolish...

#scifi

Film Review: Superman (2025) Who knew you could laugh during a Superman movie? After the long night of the Snyderverse, the new Superman  feels like a much-needed palate...

Great review - celebrating Superman &co for the right reasons

#scifi
www.nerds-feather.com/2025/07/film...

Sleep Phase by Mohamed Kheir, Translated by Robin Moger Mohamed Kheir’s Sleep Phase, beautifully translated by Robin Moger (who also translated Kheir's story collection, Slipping) brought to mind related

Mohamed Kheir's Sleep Phase is a beautiful short novel in an excellent translation - even more interesting than his story collection Slipping.
#scifi
www.scifimind.com/sleep-phase-...

Rebellions Are Built on Hope: Andor S2E10 In season two, I never expected to become such a fan of Luthen and Kleya. In some ways, episode nine is the end of Andor season two in that...

My favorite in a series covering each episode in season 2 of Andor
#scifi #andor

www.nerds-feather.com/2025/07/rebe...

Atomic Age Anxiety: Why 1950s Sci-Fi B-Movies Still Matter Today The 1950s were steeped in Cold War paranoia, nuclear dread, and a dawning awareness that human progress could be as destructive as it was miraculous. While A-list sci-fi films like The Day the Earth S...

I grew up with the Cold War brainwashing and nuclear dread these films depict and saw many of them when they came out - they're worth taking a look at for the reasons this good article describes - in many ways we're back there, only worse.

#scifi
www.scifipulse.net/atomic-age-a...

The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older Malka Older, activist, scholar, teacher, international humanitarian worker and author of The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses is one of my culture heroes

Another great installment in the Mossa and Pleiti series by Malka Older:

#scifi

www.scifimind.com/the-potency-...

How French ‘merveilleux-scientifique’ fiction reframed reality | Aeon Essays With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago

Great article on post-Jules Verne French science fiction that I had never heard of before.

#scifi

aeon.co/essays/how-f...

Malka Older, one of my culture heroes, has a new book in the Mossa and Pleiti sci-fi mystery series - The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses. I'm working on a review. Anyone else read it yet? What did you think?

Andor and the Reimagining of Star Wars Star Wars, as a franchise, is almost 50 years old. It remains extraordinarily popular - as much or more than any other cinematic universe. A...

Excellent essay on Andor and Star Wars generally. I agree that Andor is a masterpiece, even if it were taken out of its SW context.

www.nerds-feather.com/2025/06/ando...

#scifi #spaceopera

Thank you! That's a new one to me - I'll check it out soon -