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This category is for blog articles about writing. Fiction, non-fiction, and all genres are discussed here.

  1. A Larger Universe

    James L. Gillaspy's "A Larger Universe" is an excellent young adult SF adventure novel. I say young adult because the story reminds me of Heinlein's YA books. Only this book succeeds where many others have failed. It follows the adventures of a young boy Tommy who matures in the care of some not so normal foster parents after he is kidnapped. I won't spoil any more of the story than that because half the fun is reading how Tommy's character becomes a young man and blossoms into far more ...

    Updated 01-26-2012 at 12:49 AM by Kodai Okuda

    Categories
    The Art of Writing
  2. Siege of Titan (Star Crusades Book 1)



    Allow me to start by saying that I used to rarely give reviews for books, but now I'm going through and sampling science fiction books of the Independent variety to formulate a list of Premium SF novels to help readers know what to buy.
    When I judge a Science Fiction work I do so using the Campbellian model.
    That model being the kinds of science fiction that John Woods Campbell of Astounding magazine published and/or wrote.
    In short, I determine whether ...
    Categories
    The Art of Writing
  3. Rune Logic

    Book Review:

    Rune Logic by Leslie Woodsdavis

    Review by Kodai Okuda:

    Let me start by saying that I rarely give reviews for a book, and when I do judge Science Fiction I do so using the Campbellian model.
    That model being the kinds of science fiction that John Woods Campbell of Astounding magazine published and/or wrote.
    In short, I determine whether it's Hard SF or not and will rate it accordingly.
    I dislike Soft SF (unless it is ...
    Categories
    The Art of Writing
  4. Premium Independent Science Fiction



    The following is a compilation of the best science fiction books offered by Independent publishers and authors. This list is not a "top (insert number here)" type list and is based not only on basic grammatical editing criteria but also story content. It will grow as I read and review new books of the SF genre. New listings will be added to this post as I complete them. Individual reviews for SF books (even those that do not make this list) will be posted in the ...
  5. Who Was John Campbell?

    That's a good question...I hope this short article will answer it for most people.
    To better understand the concept of Campbellian science fiction, one must understand who John Campbell was and how he viewed the genre of Sci-Fi.
    John Woods Campbell Jr. began his career in Sci-Fi writing as a young student attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1930 with two stories published in the pulp fanzine of the day Amazing. Oddly enough, his first short story appeared in ...