Today’s Rocketeer is meant to shift your vantage point of perception. I hope it will. Read “Feminism…what?” over on Substack and ladies, see if you can’t relate to what I’ve written here.
Tag: Science Fiction
Mystical Tourism in Science Fiction: Consciousness Travel
It’s Wednesday and that means that The Rockeeter is out today with a new article! Time travel, consciousness travel, parallel travel, even some “quantum leaping”–yup, they’re all in there. See for yourself over on Substack!
New article — “Pulp History — The Thrills of 1931”
I didn’t know too much about Ned L. Pines before writing this article. Of course, I was familiar with the Thrilling group of pulp magazines (I’m very fond of Thrilling Wonder Stories), and some of his other titles, Captain Future, for example. What I discovered was an ambitious and competent publisher who made a big mark on the Depression-era pulp magazine industry. This month we celebrate the 90th anniversaries of his first three magazines — Thrilling Detective, Thrilling Love, and Thrilling Adventures. FIND OUT MORE about Ned L. Pines at…
New Article — “Allen Steele — Captain Future and Beyond”
One of the best parts of being a journalist is that you get to talk to interesting people. Allen Steele and I have a few things in common. We’re about the same age, have a long history writing for, or about, science fiction, and we both have a thing for Edmond Hamilton’s character, Captain Future. (And yes, I know, other people wrote Cap. Future besides Hamilton, but his stories were the best…no one wrote Curt Newton and the Futuremen like he did.) Contemporary author, Allen Steele, has written several new…
New article — “A Hero Named Mayhem”
My newest article, “A Hero Named Mayhem,” has just gone live over at the online magazine, Black Gate. It’s a fun one, reviewing a long-forgotten science fiction series published in AMAZING STORIES back in the 1950’s. The eleven “Johnny Mayhem” stories were extremely popular with readers, had many die-hard fans, and remain fun to read today! Here’s how my article begins: “Johnny Mayhem, man of a thousand faces, leaping from body to body, putting right things that had once went…no wait! That’s the television show, Quantum Leap, which ran from…
New Black Gate article and a surprise pick-up!
There’s no doubt that H. Beam Piper’s “Paratime” stories are some of my favorites. I like stories about time and multi-dimensional travel and his are some of the best. My second article for the online magazine “Black Gate” is now live. You can read, “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen: Piper’s Connecticut Yankee Tale” right here. As an added bit of excitement for the article’s release it was immediately picked up by a science fiction news aggregator — File 770, Mike Glyer’s News of SF Fandom and has a nice mention in…
Into the Quantum With H. Beam Piper
I’m delighted to announce that I have my first article up on the online magazine, “Black Gate.” It’s about H. Beam Piper’s stories of time and multiple-reality travel. This subject is near and dear to my heart and my thinking seems to align pretty closely to Piper’s in many ways. One of the books I’m working on, a follow-up to ANCHOR, is right in this line. But more about that at another time. For today, let’s delve Into the Quantum with H. Beam Piper over at Black Gate!
Super-Science Kids: First Fandom Experience, part 2
Enter First Fandom Experience At PulpFest 2019, I discovered an extraordinary project called, First Fandom Experience. Father and son, David and Daniel Ritter, are dedicated pulp fans and collectors with a special interest in the early days of science fiction fandom. They, along with core team members—John L. Coker III, Sam McDonald, Doug Ellis and Kate Baxter—have created a database of materials which they make available through their website, books, and on social media. Part 1 of this interview, published on the PulpFest blog in September, was a general introduction…
Happy Birthday, H. G. Wells!
Happy Birthday to H.G. Wells, one of the undisputed giants of science fiction (actually “scientific romance” to be more accurate.*) Among his many stories were: “War of the Worlds” (1898), “The Island of Doctor Moreau” (1896), “The Invisible Man” (1897), “Things to Come” (1935), and of course, “The Time Machine” (1895). He was a Utopianist and wrote on the subject often. The image here is NOT of Wells himself, but Malcolm McDowell playing Wells in the 1979 movie, “Time After Time.” (It’s one of my favorites and McDowell is just…
PulpFest Profiles: David & Daniel Ritter & First Fandom Experience
If you follow me at all, you know about my fascination with early science fiction. Perhaps I was born into the wrong era or maybe it’s something in my astrological chart. Who knows? Either way, I find the early stories very compelling (well, not all of them, of course, but many) and feel that some of their themes can be successfully used to reinvigorate the contemporary trend of dystopian science fiction. When I first met David and Daniel Ritter at PulpFest 2019, I was surprised and delighted. Their First Fandom…