The Science Fictional World

We find ourselves in conflicted times – Manichean days, where battle lines are routinely drawn and in all walks of life, it seems, we must choose: are you with us, or agin us? Are you […]

Regular Readers will know that we’re huge fans of NASA’s remarkable Astronomy Picture of the Day feature (APOD). We encourage anyone interested in astronomy to visit regularly or add it to their RSS feed. And […]

Today is a great day to celebrate a great man.  We’re sure you’ve seen something about it in the media, and we wanted to throw our hats into the ring and add our voice to […]

On this day in 1951, American writer and playwright Harry Sinclair Lewis died in Rome, Italy. Sinclair Lewis was well regarded for his satirical novels and, in 1930, became the first US winner of the […]

Sometimes a news item catches your eye that is so thoroughly science fictional that you have to just stop and admire the awesomeness of the universe and the tool with which we seek to understand […]

Four score and two years ago, today, the great Carl Sagan was born. Author of just the one SF novel, Contact, Sagan is nonetheless rightly revered by science fiction fans for his tireless evangelizing on […]

It is almost a trope of the genre that SF writers must spend part of every interview defending the ‘predictions’ SF has got wrong by pointing out (again and again and again …) that SF […]

On October 4th, 1957, the Space Race burst into life, with early honours going to the Soviet Union. The launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, was a landmark in our species’ history – […]

So just short of four dozen years ago, this happened: A great day in human history, which  – it could be argued –  has never been bettered. Millions of kids around the world watched Neil […]

On this day, fifty-five years ago, US President John F. Kennedy gave a speech to the US congress in which he lit the blue touch paper on the greatest journey the human race has thus […]

On this day, 101 years ago, George Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Although best known for his magnum opus Citizen Kane, regularly at or near the top of ‘Best Film of All Time’ […]

Q: When is a new title not a new title? A: When it was first published almost 130 years ago! We are delighted to present an SF Gateway edition of Edwin A. Abbott‘s Flatland, the […]