Word: fictions
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Lethem is one of those novelists who get better book by book, from his early science-fiction noodlings to the hard-boiled, atmospheric Motherless Brooklyn. The Fortress of Solitude is a glorious, chaotic, raw novel, and God knows there are any number of ways to pick it apart. Lethem has adopted a furiously literary, poetic style that would look overwrought in the pages of an undergraduate literary magazine, and he gambles on a risky element of magical realism: the boys discover a magic ring that intermittently (it's capricious) gives them superpowers. But Lethem grabs and captures 1970s New York...
Robots In 1960 General Motors was the first to put one on an assembly line; before long, robots would invade manufacturing, taking over tedious tasks and unleashing a generation of science-fiction authors who envisioned man's defeat at the hands of the machines...
...Milch, the times felt right for the story. "In the aftermath of 9/11, people are so guarded emotionally, savaged by what they experienced through TV," he says. When fiction can't possibly trump the headlines, taking viewers out of a contemporary setting can help them check their disbelief at the door. Don't expect chaste, old-fashioned behavior, though; there's already buzz about the skin, violence and language. "I'm just trying to get that world right," says Milch, who helped bring nudity to prime time in NYPD Blue. "When a man was killed in Deadwood...
Cult-classic science-fiction novel--check. Comic novel about environmentalists--check. Best-selling thriller--also check. What is there left for Neal Stephenson--author of Snow Crash, Zodiac and Cryptonomicon, among other novels--to write? The answer is The Baroque Cycle, a stunning 3,000-page trilogy about 17th century scientists that will defy any category, genre, precedent or label--except for genius. (That's right, I'm using the g-word...
...somewhat smaller scale, but with no less attention to detail (dig those beveled corners!), "Project: Telstar" (AdHouse Books; 184 pp.; $16.95) features robot and space stories by a group of cartoonists not normally associated with science fiction. Gregory Benton creates a credible New York during the last days of Earth. Gigantic floods aren't enough to make some people move: they still buy toilet paper and pull giant worms off each other. Other contributors (there are over 25) only tangentially refer to space. Mark Burriur's "Piano Music" tells of a lonely piano teacher and the painting of outer space...