Page 25 - Robert Silverberg News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Was John Brunner’s life a tragedy? In some undeniable senses, yes. Possessed of enormous talents, but also an array of character faults, he became his own worst enemy and his later-era career suffered immensely—in large part due to one poor decision to stake too much effort and hopes on a mainstream novel that took too long to write and then failed to sell ( The Great Steamboat Race). And atop those business setbacks, his health was poor and he died awfully young—only age 60—in a cosmically apt but somewhat inglorious setting: the 1995 Worldcon. But on the other hand, now that we have...

Abstract This essay gives a brief overview of the events of 26-27 August 1883, when the volcanic island of Krakatoa in Indonesia exploded; it generated tsunamis which killed over 36,000 people, was heard 3,000 miles away, and produced measurable changes in sea level and air pressure across the world. The essay then discusses the findings of the Royal Society’s Report on Krakatoa, and the reports in the periodical press of lurid sunsets resulting from Krakatoa’s dust moving through the atmosphere. It closes by examining literature inspired by Krakatoa, including a letter by Gerard Manley H...

Illustration by Andrea Ventura. Omelas, the utopian setting of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1973 short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” is built on deception. Le Guin introduces the city on a day of celebration, dwelling on its merry crowds, gorgeous architecture, and picturesque proximity to a bay and snow-capped mountains. As the narrator roves through this vista, describing the sights with pride and wonder, the admiration grows defensive. “Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy?” the narrator asks. “Then let me describe one more thing.” The deception...

Why the breezy prequel Dunk and Egg could revitalise the Game of Thrones franchise After several false starts, HBO is onto a winner if they adapt George RR Martin's tales about the adventures of a knight and his squire Game of Thrones prequel The Hedge Knight, part of the Dunk and Egg series It’s coming up to two years since the dreadful final season of Game of Thrones: six episodes of such escalating awfulness they obliterated the entire culture of fandom that the series had accumulated.  In the intervening spell, American network HBO has made various attempts to breathe fresh life into t...

Science Fiction & Fantasy   — by Arley Sorg — If you Google “author with most Hugo awards” the answer Google pushes on you is that Robert A. Heinlein won four Hugo awards in his lifetime for Best Novel. Not counting retroactive awards, his last win was in 1967. If you squint you will see another result: Lois McMaster Bujold, four wins for Best Novel with overall sixteen Hugo nominations and seven wins. You have to pay attention to find Connie Willis, despite the fact that the correct answer to the question is actually “Connie Willis”: eleven Hugo Award wins and twenty-four fict...