Book picks similar to
The History of the Science Fiction Magazine by Mike Ashley
sci-fi
anthologies
sf
non-fiction
The Runaway Skyscraper
Murray Leinster - 1853
He wanted to talk about Wells's "Time Machine" but he knew that'd be no use -- these folks didn't read that sort of thing. "If the earth had settled down, we'd have been lower. If it had settled to one side, we'd have been moved one way or another, but as it's settled back in the Fourth Dimension, we're going back in time." "Then --""We're in a runaway skyscraper, bound for some time back before the discovery of America!
Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths
Eva M. Thury - 2004
Featuring original texts from sources around the world, it includes readings from Greek and Roman classics (by Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, and other writers); Nordic mythology (by Snorri Sturluson); Hindu culture (The Ramayana); and from such ancient works as The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible. Selections from Native-American sources and fairy tales and stories from Africa, Germany, and the United States are also included. In addition, authors Eva Thury and Margaret Devinney draw comparisons between classical myths and such contemporary cultural phenomena as The X Files, Star Trek, and Mother Goose. They also incorporate readings by Carl Jung, Levi-Strauss, Victor Turner, and other scholars who consider mythic material from different analytical perspectives. Finally, works by Milton, Keats, Updike, and Joyce are presented as examples of modern literary texts with mythological roots. The selections are organized into seven topical sections: myths of creation and destruction; hero and trickster myths; ritual and myth; myths and dreams; folktale and myth; modern American myths; and myths and literature. Introduction to Mythology: Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Myths employs an innovative pedagogical structure to help students unravel the complex web of literary allusions often found in mythological texts. Extensive marginal notes provide cross-references and explanations of terms and culture-specific concepts, while a glossary of deities, suggested readings for each chapter, and more than 200 illustrations, photographs, and maps further enhance the volume. Ideal for courses in classical and world mythology, this text can also be used in world culture, world literature, and comparative religion courses. An Instructor's Manual and a Student's Website featuring chapter objectives and summaries, key terms, study questions, self-tests, and off-site links of interest will accompany the book.
Indelible in the Hippocampus: Writings from the Me Too Movement
Shelly Oria - 2019
Christine Blasey-Ford when she testified to congress in September 2018 about the men who victimized her. A year earlier, in October 2017, the hashtag #MeToo shone a light on the internalized, normalized sexual harassment and abuse that'd been ubiquitous for women for generations.Among the first books to emerge from the #MeToo movement, Indelible in the Hippocampus is a truly intersectional collection of essays, fiction, and poetry. These original texts sound the voices of black, Latinx, Asian, queer, and trans writers, to name but a few, and says "me too" 22 times. Whether reflecting on their teenage selves or their modern-day workplaces, each contributor approaches the subject with unforgettable authenticity and strength.Together these pieces create a portrait of cultural sea-change, offering the reader a deeper understanding of this complex, galvanizing pivot in contemporary consciousness.Featuring Kaitlyn Greenidge, Melissa Febos, Syreeta McFadden, Rebecca Schiff, Diana Spechler, Hossannah Asuncion, Nelly Reifler, Courtney Zoffness, Quito Ziegler, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Jolie Holland, Lynn Melnick, Caitlin Delohery, Caitlin Donohue, Gabrielle Bellot, Karissa Chen, Elissa Schappell, Samantha Hunt, Honor Moore, Donka Kelly, and Hafizah Geter
The Anthropocene Reviewed
John GreenJohn Green - 2021
In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.
Looking for Jake
China MiévilleCristina Jurado - 2003
Now from this brilliant young writer comes a groundbreaking collection of stories, many of them previously unavailable in the United States, and including four never-before-published tales–one set in Miéville’s signature fantasy world of New Crobuzon. Among the fourteen superb fictions are“Jack”–Following the events of his acclaimed novel Perdido Street Station, this tale of twisted attachment and horrific revenge traces the rise and fall of the Remade Robin Hood known as Jack Half-a-Prayer. “Familiar”–Spurned by its creator, a sorceress’s familiar embarks on a strange and unsettling odyssey of self-discovery in a coming-of-age story like no other.
Science Fiction: Stories and Contexts
Heather Masri - 2008
Heather Masri, editor of Science Fiction: Stories and Contexts, has prepared an anthology that recognizes, and is designed to meet, the needs of students and instructors in an introductory survey course in science fiction.Grouped into major themes, her comprehensive selection of fiction — enjoyable and captivating stories, notable for their literary, philosophical, and cultural richness — are by classic and emerging writers from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The stories are uniquely complemented by contextual documents that suggest the scholarly, theoretical, and historical currents that drove the development of the genre, and informative editorial matter that contributes to the book’s flexibility for instructors and usefulness for students.
Hard Vacuum
Simon Cantan - 2013
A science-fiction series as over-the-top as the best action movies ever were.Kyra Sarin has survived five years of the hardest fighting mankind has ever seen. On her way back to Earth, to finally see her children again, the space station she stops at is taken over by terrorists. It’s the last mistake they’re ever going to make.Hard Vacuum is the first book in the Kyra Sarin series. Sweary, gory, and fast, the action is non-stop.Hard Vacuum will leave you gasping for more. Grab a copy today!This novelette also contains a special offer to get the second book in the series for free by joining the author's mailing list!
In the Court of King Crimson
Sid Smith - 2002
chart hit. The band followed it with 40 further albums of consistently challenging, distinctive and innovative music. Drawing on hours of new interviews, and encouraged by Crimson supremo Robert Fripp, the author traces the band’s turbulent history year by year, track by track.
Serial Killers: Shocking, Gripping True Crime Stories of the Most Evil Murderers
Brian Innes - 2017
Yet they endlessy fascinate and continue to capture the public's attention with their strange charisma and deadly deeds. From Jack the Ripper to Ted Bundy and the Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, these killers transfix us with their ability to commit utterly savage acts of cruelty and depravity. Only with modern police detection methods and psychological profiling, have these figures that have existed throughout human history finally been identified in the deadliest category: serial killers. These methods, the killers' characters and their crimes are described here in fascinating and terrifyingly gripping detail.
The whole history of serial killers is brought to life in 50 chapters, including:
Herman Webster Mudget, Devil in the White City
John Christie, 10 Rillington Place murders
Zodiac Killer
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, The Moors Murderers
Ted Bundy
Fred and Rosemary West
Jeffrey Dahmer
Aileen Wuornos
Harold Shipman, Dr Death
Going Interstellar
Les JohnsonMike Resnick - 2012
It may be that we have to get out of Dodge before the lights go out on Earth. How can we accomplish this? Wonderful questions. Now get ready for some answers. Here is the science behind interstellar propulsion: reports from top tier scientists and engineers on starflight propulsion techniques that use only means and methods that we currently know are scientifically possible. Here are in-depth essays on antimatter containment, solar sails, and fusion propulsion. And the human consequences? Here is speculation by a magnificent array of award-winning SF writers on what an interstellar voyage might look like, might feel like—might be like. It’s an all-star cast abounding with Hugo and Nebula award winners: Ben Bova, Mike Resnick, Jack McDevitt, Michael Bishop, Sarah Hoyt and more. Comprehensive Teacher's Guide available.
The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories
Marina Keegan - 2014
She had a play that was to be produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at the New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash.As her family, friends, and classmates, deep in grief, joined to create a memorial service for Marina, her unforgettable last essay for the Yale Daily News, “The Opposite of Loneliness,” went viral, receiving more than 1.4 million hits. She had struck a chord.Even though she was just twenty-two when she died, Marina left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation. The Opposite of Loneliness is an assemblage of Marina’s essays and stories that, like The Last Lecture, articulates the universal struggle that all of us face as we figure out what we aspire to be and how we can harness our talents to make an impact on the world.
The Smell of Kerosene: A Test Pilot's Odyssey - NASA Research Pilot Stories, XB-70 Tragic Collision, M2-F1 Lifting Body, YF-12 Blackbird, Apollo LLRV Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (NASA SP-4108)
Donald L. Mallick - 2012
This book puts the reader in the pilot's seat for a "day at the office" unlike any other. It recounts the tragic 1966 mid-air collision with the XB-70; describes flights of the lifting body and YF-12 blackbird, and details work with the Apollo Lunar Landing Research Vehicle.The Smell of Kerosene tells the dramatic story of a NASA research pilot who logged over 11,000 flight hours in more than 125 types of aircraft. Donald Mallick gives the reader fascinating firsthand descriptions of his early naval flight training, carrier operations, and his research flying career with NASA and its predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).Mallick joined the NACA as a research pilot at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory at Hampton, Virginia, where he flew modified helicopters and jets, and witnessed the NACA's evolution into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.After transferring to the NASA Flight Research Center (now NASA Dryden Flight Research Center) at Edwards, California, he became involved with projects that further pushed the boundaries of aerospace technology. These included the giant delta-winged XB-70 supersonic research airplane, the wingless M2-F1 lifting body vehicle, and the triple-sonic YF-12 Blackbird. Mallick also test flew the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) and helped develop techniques used in training astronauts to land on the Moon.Excerpt: " I was onboard an airliner, on 28 January 1986, when I heard the news that the Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded 73 seconds after launch that morning. Even knowing the complexity and risk involved in Shuttle operations, I was shocked by the news. The shuttle commander, Dick Scobee, had been an Air Force test pilot at Edwards and flown a number of research missions at NASA Dryden. I grieved for all the crew, but especially Dick, who I knew best. I can still recall his broad grin when he visited the Dryden pilot's office following the announcement of his selection as an astronaut. He showed great pride in his selection, and I congratulated him heartily. The results of the accident review board were hard to accept. The commission that investigated the accident blamed the Shuttle loss on poor management decisions. Challenger had been launched against the recommendations of knowledgeable technical personnel who insisted that low temperatures that day increased the chance of hot gas leakage around the seals of the solid rocket boosters. The commission found that the decision making process leading to the launch was flawed and that launch temperature constraints were waived at the expense of flight safety. It was a black day for NASA. I could sense a change in people's attitude concerning the space program. After the Challenger accident report was released, the public's pride in and respect for NASA diminished. At Dryden, we had always striven not to allow the desire to "get a flight off" to interfere with good judgment on flight safety. It was a cardinal rule. There were occasions when visiting Headquarters personnel and other VIPs were on hand to witness a test flight and we had to cancel the event due to some technical problem. We forced ourselves to avoid the desire to "press on" just to meet a schedule or impress a visiting VIP."
What If?: The World's Foremost Historians Imagine What Might Have Been
Robert CowleyLewis H. Lapham - 1999
In these twenty never-before-published essays, some of the keenest minds of our time ask the big, tantalizing questions: Where might we be if history had not unfolded the way it did? Why, how, and when was our fortune made real? The answers are surprising, sometimes frightening, and always entertaining..
H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror
Stephen JonesIrvin S. Cobb - 1993
Throughout Lovecraft acknowledges those writers and stories that are the very finest that the horror field has to offer: Edgar Allen Poe, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Guy de Maupassant, and Arthur Conan Doyle, among others. Stephen Jones is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, three Bram Stoker Awards, three International Horror Guild Award, and a fifteen-time recipient of the British Fantasy Award. He lives in London.
The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
Toni Morrison - 2019
It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11; the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, "black matter(s)," and human rights. She looks at enduring matters of culture: the role of the artist in society, the literary imagination, the Afro-American presence in American literature, and in her Nobel lecture, the power of language itself. And here too is piercing commentary on her own work (including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise) and that of others, among them, painter and collagist Romare Bearden, author Toni Cade Bambara, and theater director Peter Sellars. In all, The Source of Self-Regard is a luminous and essential addition to Toni Morrison's oeuvre.