(The red carpet for next week's Hugo awards...)   The Hugo, the Hugo, the Hugo, oh, the Hugo.   It’s the oldest award in science ...

An unquantifiable transition, Lin Yutang’s coming to the US meant huge changes in the West’s perception of the East.   Making numerou...

Number 33 of the Science Fiction Masterworks series, Brian Aldiss’ 1958 Non-Stop is indeed a classic of the genre (variant title: S...

Many are the reviews declaring Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun to be incomprehensible rubbish.   Certainly not a book (or series, d...

There recently has been a (revival of the?) discussion regarding the place and value of sex and violence in books in epic fantasy.  T...

Viriconium Nights , a 1985 collection of short stories by M. John Harrison, is to Viriconium what Tales from Earthsea is to Ursula L...

Some may say manipulative, others artful.   Some say subversive, others expansive.   Still others say opaque, and others colorful.   But no ...

This review needs to start with a caveat: readers with a genre-only background who loved The Pastel City and are looking for a conti...

M. John Harrison’s Viriconium is a quiet monument in speculative fiction.   Fully utilizing yet playing with genre, the books are fa...

Since starting this blog a miniscule two years ago, I've struggled backstage to put in words that literary quality which separates reall...