Science Fiction

Award-winning science fiction writer Mike Resnick asked 29 of the genre’s most side-splitting writers which of their stories was their favorite and the responses became This is my Funniest, the hilarious anthology that was so outrageous, so satisfying, that comic science fiction fans wanted more!

Editor Resnick answers their plea with another collection of stories, This is my Funniest 2. This time around there are new authors, new stories, and new introductions that provide refreshing insight into the authors’ stories, their writing, and themselves.

Discover the secret of the teaching staff at Effingdale High (tasteless cafeteria food may be no accident). Prepare to be entertained by a few Frankenstein-like monsters that seem to understand the Christmas spirit better than their human masters. Cringe while Princess Karelia is forced to kiss hundreds of frogs. And most of all, enjoy reading this collection of laugh-out-loud essays from science fiction’s top comedic writers.

Contributors include:

Mike Resnick
Rob Goulart
Mercedes Lackey
Janis Ian
Jack Dann
Gregory Benford
Kevin J. Anderson
Kay Kenyon
Alan Dean Foster
Tobias S. Buckell
D. S. Moen
Eric Flint

Terry Busson
Linda Dunn
Dean Wesley Smith
Sarah Hoyt
Michael Bishop
Chris Roberson
Barbara Delaplace
Michael J. Flynn
Pat Cadigan
Anthony R. Lewis
Louise Marley

Greg Bear
John Betancourt
Frank M. Robinson
Larry Niven
Joe Pumilia
and Bill Wallace
David Drake
Gene Wolf
and Brian Hopkins

Mike Resnick is the winner of five Hugos, as well as other major awards in the USA, France, Japan, Spain, Croatia, and Poland, and according to Locus currently stands fourth on the all-time award list. He is the author of 52 novels, 200 short stories, 14 collections, two screenplays, and has edited 44 anthologies. His work has been translated into 22 languages.

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This is My Funniest: Leading Science Fiction Writers Present Their Funniest Stories Ever

October 2006

Edited by Mike Resnick

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What do science fiction's top comic writers all have in common? They're all in this book! THIS IS MY FUNNIEST collects 29 short stories all chosen by their authors - the top names in science fiction - as the funniest story they've ever written. Each author has also written an introduction to preface their offering, providing insight into their selection, their writing and themselves. Contributors include Robert Silverberg, Spider Robinson, David Brin, Connie Willis, Esther Friesner, Harry Turtledove and many more, with stories such as "Amanda and the Alien," "Too Hot to Hoot," "Ickies in the Mirrorshades," "The Soul Selects Her Own Society," "Sweet, Savage Sorcerer," and "Myth Manners' Guide to Greek Missology #1 Andromeda and Persius."

Contributors include:

Harry Harrison
William Tenn
Jane Yolen
Howard Waldrop
Barry Malzberg
Laura Resnick
David Gerrold
Spider Robinson
Robert Silverberg
James Patrick Kelly

Jody Lynn Nye
Tom Gerencer
Michael Swanwick
Esther Friesner
Gardner Dozois
Jack McDevitt
Ralph Roberts
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Bill Fawcett
Josepha Sherman

Nancy Kress
David Brin
Walter Jon Williams
Joe Haldeman
Mike Resnick
Harry Turtledove
Connie Willis
Robert Sheckley
Nick DiChario

Mike Resnick is the winner of five Hugos, plus other major awards in the USA, France, Japan, Spain, Croatia, and Poland, and according to Locus currently stands fourth on the all-time award list. He is the author of 52 novels, 200 short stories, 14 collections, two screenplays, and has edited 44 anthologies. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages.

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So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica

October 2006

Edited by Richard Hatch, Battlestar Galactica's Apollo and Tom Zarek

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In 2003 the Sci Fi Channel released its original miniseries based on the classic 70’s science fiction show Battlestar Galactica. This re-imagination of the original series provided 180 minutes of incredible television that kept the audience’s rapt attention. It was obvious that they had a winner on their hands; the next year eager fans got an entire season. The show has been approved for a third season and there is currently serious talk of NBC picking it up. Science fiction is known for raising difficult questions; Battlestar Galactica is no exception. At times shocking and intense, the show tackles such topics as martial law, power and corruption, torture and interrogation tactics, artificial intelligence, and ultimately what it is to be human. How do you maintain faith in the gods when you’re enmeshed in an Armageddon of your own making? Is Zarek a terrorist or a freedom fighter? What are the identity politics of a Cylon who looks human? Is torturing a Cylon any worse than putting one out the air lock? What ethical complexities crop up when one misstep could mean the annihilation of the human race? SO SAY WE ALL provides an in-depth, intelligent exploration of the questions that make Battlestar Galactica such an engaging, thought-provoking show.

Born in Santa Monica, California, Richard Hatch is best known for his portrayal of Apollo on the original Battlestar Galactica and Tom Zarek on the revised Battlestar Galactica. Hatch was studying classical piano at the age of eight, and knew he wanted to carve out a career as a performer before he reached his teens. After attending Harbor College in San Pedro, he joined a Los Angeles repertory company with which he traveled to New York City in 1967. He performed in the plays “Song of Walt Whitman,” “Young Rebels” and a production called “Exercise,” which Hatch directed. Hatch was cast as the original Philip Brent on All My Children in 1970 and later played Inspector Dan Robbins on the television series The Streets of San Francisco.

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Boarding the Enterprise: Transporters, Tribbles and the Vulcan Death Grip in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek
August 2006

Edited by David Gerrold and Robert J. Sawyer

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Forty years and a few generations later,
Star Trek is still stunning fans and breaking ground

The Star Trek series continues to boldly go where no other science fiction property has dared to tread. It has influenced a legion of fans and brought science fiction into the homes of millions, through television shows and movies.

In Boarding the Enterprise, Star Trek writers themselves and the writers and scientists they inspired remember and celebrate Star Trek’s influence on our society with a mix of humor and nostalgia.

Star Trek has shaped our image of television and continues to mold our view of the real-world. And now Boarding the Enterprise takes a look at all that and more...

Topics Include:

Communications and media theorist Paul Levinson shows how the unprecedented success of the “seventy-nine jewels” in syndication changed the way we look at television forever
Star Trek writer D. C. Fontana remembers Gene Roddenberry, and her days on the set behind-the-scenes.
Science fiction novelist Allen Steele praises the series’ writers, and the strong science fiction tradition that made Star Trek so great
Cultural theorist Eric Greene details the Star Trek’s complex dialogue regarding the Vietnam War, highlighting the show’s evolving stances on interventionist politics and the relevancy of American cultural myths
Fan-fiction author Melissa Dickinson explains why we feel compelled to write our own stories about Kirk, Spock and the rest, almost forty years after the original series ended

Contributors Include:

Michael A. Burstein
Don DeBrandt
David DeGraff
Melissa Dickinson
D. C. Fontana

Eric Greene
Paul Levinson
Robert A. Metzger
Adam Roberts
Norman Spinrad

Allen Steele
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Howard Weinstein
Lyle Zynda

David Gerrold is the author of the Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated The Man Who Folded Himself, When Harlie Was One and the Chtorr, Dingillian and Star Wolf series. He also wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode of Star Trek, which was voted the most popular Star Trek episode of all time.

Robert J. Sawyer is the author of several science fiction novels, including the Nebula Award-winning The Terminal Experiment and the Hugo Award-nominated Calculating God.

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Star Wars on Trial: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Debate the Most Popular Science Fiction Films of All Time
June 2006

Edited by David Brin and Matthew Woodring Stover

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Star Wars is Under Fire!

The most profitable and arguably the most popular science fiction series of all time finally stands trial!

The release of Star Wars in 1977 redefined science fiction cinema forever. With revenues of more than four billion dollars for the films alone, Star Wars mainstreamed science fiction in the minds of both corporate executives and the general public. Star Wars redefined science fiction publishing as well. The incredible success of Star Wars, its impact on science fiction publishing and its strengths and its flaws, have aroused strong opinions and powerful emotions within the science fiction community.

Star Wars on Trial finally settles the arguments that have been raging for nearly 30 years. Leading science fiction writers will debate every aspect of the Star Wars epics, from politics to religion, from the impact on bookstore shelf space to the overall logic of the saga. Is George Lucas a hero for finally bringing science fiction’s message to a mass audience, or is he a villain who doesn’t truly understand the genre he claims to be working in?

With Hugo Award winner and New York Times bestselling author David Brin heading up the prosecution and Matthew Woodring Stover, New York Times bestselling author, leading the defense, this debate promises to be intense, illuminating and great fun for both fans and detractors of what is considered by many to be the most important science fiction property of our time.

Is Star Wars guilty or innocent of the following eight charges?

The politics of Star Wars are anti-democratic and elitist
While claiming mythic significance, Star Wars portrays no admirable religious or ethical beliefs
Star Wars novels are poor substitutes for real science fiction and are driving real SF off the shelves
Science fiction filmmaking has been reduced by Star Wars to poorly written special effects extravaganzas
Star Wars has dumbed down the perception of science fiction in the popular imagination
Star Wars pretends to be science fiction, but is really fantasy
Women in Star Wars are portrayed as fundamentally weak
The plot holes and logical gaps in Star Wars make it ill-suited for an intelligent viewer

Contributors Include:

Lou Anders
Bruce Bethke
Jeanne Cavelos
Don DeBrandt
Keith DeCandido
Richard Garfinkle
John Hemry

Tanya Huff
Scott Lynch
Nick Mamatas
Bob Metzger
Adam Roberts
Kristine Katherine Rusch

Laura Resnick
Bill Spangler
Karen Traviss
Ken Wharton
John C. Wright

David Brin is the bestselling Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of such books as Kiln People, Earth and the Campbell Award winning The Postman.

Matthew Woodring Stover is best known for his critically acclaimed dark fantasies Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle and is also the controversial author of Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Traitor and Star Wars: Shatterpoint. He was selected to pen the novelization of the 3^rd Episode in the saga, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction
September 2005

The Hugo Award-Winning Autobiography

Jack Williamson

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“Nobody now can feel the thrill of finding science fiction the way we did then, because then it was new, its wonder not yet worn thin with repetition or tarnished with mistrust in the whole human enterprise.”

—Jack Williamson, Wonder’s Child

Science fiction legend Jack Williamson’s classic autobiography is much more than the story of a single man’s life and work; it is an amazing look at the entire 20th century from the perspective of a man on a “long search for endurable compromise with society.”

Born in 1908, Williamson often felt at odds with the world around him and began writing science fiction as a method of escape. His tentative entrance into the field—his first story was published in 1928 in Hugo Gernsbach’s legendary Amazing Stories—soon transformed him from a pulp writer into one of the Grand Masters of science fiction.

First published in 1984, this new version has been updated with 20 years of new material, plus a portion of Williamson’s diary from World War II.

It is impossible to separate Jack Williamson from science fiction; Wonder’s Child serves as a biography of both.

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Farscape Forever! Sex, Drugs and Killer Muppets
September 2005

Edited by Glenn Yeffeth

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Wanted:

For crossing boundaries,

breaking new ground

and inspiring fervent devotion in its viewers.

The most innovative science fiction program to hit television in decades, Farscape was the show that fans wouldn’t let die. In Farscape Forever! SF authors, scientists and critics celebrate the show’s uniqueness, honesty and willingness to take risks, including:

SF reviewer and author Justina Robson on fetishism, post-imperialism and the pleasure principle
Novelist Tee Morris on what would have happened if NASA had been in charge of Project Farscape
Scientist and author Thomas Easton on how to design your own Moya
Acclaimed novelist Jim Butcher on why crackers really don’t matter
Author Roxanne Longstreet Conrad on the best vacation spots in the Uncharted Territories
Critic Michael Marano on the reason for the show’s remarkable realism: the puppets
Writer Jeanne Cavelos on the show’s penchant to confound expectations and raise the stakes—and why it just may be the smartest thing any show has ever done

Other contributors include:

Amy Berner
Patricia Bray
Charlene Brusso
Doranna Durgin

P. N. Elrod
K. Stoddard Hayes
Rick Klaw
Kevin Andrew Murphy
Jody Lynn Nye

Jean Rabe
Josepha Sherman
Bill Spangler
Kelley Walters
Martha Wells

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The War of the Worlds: Fresh Perspectives on the H. G. Wells Classic

Includes Original The War of the Worlds Novella

May 2005

Edited by Glenn Yeffeth

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Introduction by Robert Silverberg

H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, one of the great classics of science fiction, is as vivid and powerful today as the day it was written. In this collection, fourteen of science fiction’s greatest talents come together to discuss, with insight and humor, one of science fiction’s most important works.

Essays include:

“H. G. Wells’ Enduring Mythos of Mars,” in which Stephen Baxter provides the history of man’s investigations of Mars and explains why Wells was right after all
“Just Who Were Those Martians, Anyway?” in which Lawrence Watt-Evans explains how ridiculously incompetent the Martians were as interplanetary invaders, and why
“In Woking’s Image,” in which Mercedes Lackey takes us to a different alien world: Wells’ hometown of Woking during the late 19^th century
“The Tiniest Assassins,” in which Mike Resnick suggests that Wells gets one tiny thing wrong
The Hugo-winning “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” (the only reprint in this anthology), in which Connie Willis describes the unfortunate encounter between Emily Dickinson and Wells’ Martians

Other contributors include:

David Gerrold
Fred Saberhagen
Pamela Sargent

Robert Silverberg
Ian Watson
Jack Williamson

Robert Charles Wilson
George Zebrowski
David Zindell

H. G. Wells is considered by many to be the originator of science fiction as we know it today. A novelist, journalist, sociologist and historian, Wells’ best known works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898).

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The Anthology at the End of the Universe: Leading Science Fiction Authors on Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

April 2005

Edited by Glenn Yeffeth

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Douglas Adams’ classic series seems to explain everything there is to know about our universe. But it still leaves some of the most critical questions unanswered…

What is the real meaning of the towel? Why is sanity such a galactic disadvantage? What do Douglas Adams and Margaret Thatcher have in common? Why can’t you program your VCR and how did Adams predict this? What qualities do Ford and Arthur share with Laurel & Hardy?

…until now. The Anthology at the End of the Universe finally answers all of your Hitchhiker’s questions, and probably quite a few that you never even considered.

Contributors include:

Cory Doctorow on how the Guide really exists, how it works and where to find it
Lawrence Watt-Evans, who finally provides a satisfactory explanation of Vogon poetry and outlines a history of the truly inept purveyors of art
Don DeBrandt, who proves that God exists in Adams’ universe, identifies who He is, explains what His plans are and reveals once and for all why He is obsessed with fish
Jacqueline Carey on the Hitchhiker’s Guide, British humor and “getting it”
Stephen Baxter on how Adams borrowed the classic tropes of science fiction, returning them twisted, inverted and mangled … so we can never quite view them the same way again
Mike Byrne, who describes Adams’ almost uncanny foresight of computer design (and mis-design)
Adam Roberts, who explains the real meaning of 42 and how it answers the pesky question of life, the universe and everything

Other contributors include:

Maria Alexander
Amy Berner
Bruce Bethke
Marie-Catherine Caillava
Adam-Troy Castro

Vox Day
Don DeBrandt
A.M. Dellamonica
Marguerite Krause

Selina Rosen
John Shirley
Susan Sizemore
Mark W. Tiedemann

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Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly

April 2005

Edited by "Mutant Enemy" screenwriter Jane Espenson

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Firefly’s early demise left fans with a deep sense of loss and plenty of unanswered questions. From what was wrong with the pilot to what was right with the Reavers, from the use of Chinese to how correspondence between Joss and network executives might have gone, from a philosopher’s perspective on “Objects in Space” to a sex therapist’s analysis of Inara, Finding Serenity is filled with writing as exciting, funny and enthralling as the show itself.

Finding Serenity includes:

Mercedes Lackey on the nature of freedom in Firefly
Roxanne Longstreet Conrad on how the crew of Serenity could kick the Enterprise crew’s butts any day
Leigh Adams Wright on the fate of the ’verse’s Chinese people
Tanya Huff on Zoe as the ultimate warrior woman
Michelle Sagara West on television finally getting marriage right
Kevin M. Sullivan's unofficial glossary of Firefly Chinese
And Jewel Staite (“Kaylee”) offers a behind-the-scenes insider look and talks about her favorite episodes

Other contributors include:

Ginjer Buchanan
Joy Davidson
Don Debrandt
Keith R.A. DeCandido

Larry Dixon
David Gerrold
Jennifer Goltz
Nancy Holder

Robert B. Taylor
John C. Wright
Lyle Zynda

Jane Espenson wrote the script for the Firefly episode “Shindig,” in addition to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes “Band Candy,” “Earshot,” “Superstar,” “Storytellers” and “Conversations with Dead People.” She has also written for Angel, Deep Space Nine, Ellen, Gilmore Girls, Tru Calling and Star Trek. Espenson has a development deal with 20^th Century Fox Productions writing pilots and dreaming of her own show. She lives in Los Angeles.

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The Crazy Years: Reflections of a Science Fiction Original

November 2004

Spider Robinson

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A collection of witty, irreverent essays on subjects running the gamut from the space program to airport bans on smoking are included in this anthology from SF favorite Spider Robinson.

Robinson takes today's world to task for the idiocy of computer design, the downside to the Internet, nonsmoking restaurants and the illegal status of marijuana. Foreword by Lawrence Block.

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Stepping Through the Stargate: Science, Archaeology and the Military in Stargate SG-1

October 2004

Edited by P.N. Elrod and Roxanne Conrad

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What mindset is at the heart of the television series Stargate SG-1? What really goes into the creation of each episode?

Featuring essays from such noted contributors as archaeologist Sue Linder-Linsley, astronomer Sten Odenwald, parasitologist Francine M. Terry, philosopher Daniel Dennet and science fiction author Melanie A. Fletcher, this collection delves into every aspect of the series with the same humor and intellectual curiosity of the show itself. Stepping Through the Stargate also includes commentaries from the show's special effects head James Tichenor and actor Tom McBeath.

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Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix

April 2003

Edited by Glenn Yeffeth

Introduction by David Gerrold

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How many layers of meaning lie in The Matrix? As the Wachowskis have said: "More than you will ever know."

Since its blockbuster release, The Matrix has astounded and enthralled its fan with its subtle allusions and seemingly infinite depth. The Wachowski brothers deliberately integrated a myriad of philosophical and religious themes with futuristic science and technology.

Taking the Red Pill is a though-provoking, mind-expanding thrill ride through The Matrix, examining the technology, spiritual themes and philosophical dilemmas presented in the film. Renowned scientists, technologists, philosophers, scholars and science fiction authors provide engaging and provocative perspectives. Taking the Red Pill will change how you view The Matrix and the world around you.

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