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By: Andy Johnson
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  • Words about books, boardgames, music, film and videogames by Andy Johnson.
    © 2023 Andy Johnson
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Episodes
  • #146 Digging up the future: Icehenge (1984) by Kim Stanley Robinson
    Feb 27 2025

    A moving meditation on revolution, knowledge, and human longevity

    Kim Stanley Robinson has been a major fixture of American SF for 30 years. Best known for his Mars trilogy from the 1990s, each of his recent novels has been a major event, and he is a particularly important figure in climate fiction.

    This episode takes a look at an early and lesser known book by KSR. Icehenge was first published in 1984, and consists of a wide-ranging tour of the future of our solar system. Over the course of three linked novellas, Robinson examines the thorny topics of revolution, knowledge, and human longevity. All are linked to the structure of the title, a giant mysterious artefact discovered on the surface of Pluto.

    Also in this episode: responding to a listener message about Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel (1954), Andy Weir, and the film Phase IV (1974).

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    13 mins
  • #145 Heavy weather: Mission of Gravity (1954) by Hal Clement
    Feb 20 2025

    The classic which helped to define hard science fiction

    Whatever your definition of "hard science fiction", Hal Clement's 1954 novel Mission of Gravity is sure to meet it. Rich with meaty discussions of the hard sciences, and written with a stern adherence to scientific plausibility, Clement's third novel is one of the definitive works of hard SF.

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    9 mins
  • #144 Beating the odds: The Grand Wheel (1977) by Barrington J. Bayley
    Feb 13 2025

    In which life, the universe, and everything are just a game

    In his 1976 novel The Garments of Caean, Barrington J. Bayley applied his unique approach to a space opera centred on clothes with strange powers. For his next trick, as critic Rhys Hughes put it, "having swept through a stellar Savile Row", Bayley "turned his sights on Monte Carlo". The Grand Wheel is another odd space adventure, in which its gambler protagonist infiltrates an organisation that might be willing to risk the future of the human species on the turn of a card.

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    For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

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    7 mins

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