The Wild Imagination of Eighties Sci-Fi That Hollywood Lost
I was sorting through a dusty box at a garage sale in Capitol Hill last month when my fingers hit something familiar – the worn...
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Why Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem Actually Makes Cosmic Horror Accessible
I’ve been recommending Liu Cixin’s *Three-Body Problem* to hesitant sci-fi readers for about a decade now, and I’ve learned something interesting: the people who bounce...
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The Sci-Fi Writers Who Made Me Question Everything I Thought I Knew About the Genre
Three weeks ago, I did something I haven’t done in probably fifteen years — I walked into Powell’s Books and headed straight for the “New...
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When Science Fiction Goes Spectacularly Wrong: A Librarian’s Guide to Beautiful Disasters
You know, after thirty years of reading science fiction and about fifteen years writing about it, I thought I’d seen every possible way the genre...
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Why I Keep Reading Dystopian Sci-Fi Despite Rolling My Eyes at Every New One
Look, I need to confess something that’s been bothering me for years. Every time someone announces another dystopian sci-fi novel, I do this thing where...
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The Tangible Magic: Why I Still Choose Practical Effects Over Perfect CGI
There’s something about holding my dad’s old paperback copy of “Dune” that feels different from reading it on a screen – and honestly, that same...
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Why I Still Get Goosebumps Watching Model Spaceships Crash Into Each Other
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, especially after rewatching *The Thing* for probably the twentieth time last weekend. There’s something about those old...
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Hard Science vs. Good Story: My Forty Years of Figuring Out What Actually Matters
You know, after reading sci-fi for nearly five decades, I’ve gotten into more arguments about scientific accuracy than any reasonable librarian should. Just last month,...
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Why Every Sci-Fi Story I Love Eventually Asks “What Makes You Human?”
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately while reshelfing books in the stacks – how every great science fiction story I’ve encountered in fifty...
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The AI Villains That Shaped My Nightmares (And Why They Matter More Than Ever)
You know, after five decades of reading sci-fi, I’ve watched our relationship with artificial intelligence evolve from simple robotic servants to something far more complex...