The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (part 1)

Today I’m going to break my own rules. You see, at the time of writing Iain Banks has recently died. Continue reading →

The Festival of Graves by Zhu Lin

The ‘once-powerful old figure in a changed world’ is a common trope, and can be played to quite poignant effect Continue reading →

Writ in Water, or the Gingerbread Man by Avram Davidson

Davidson’s later work has a unique style that is a joy to behold, dancing through half a dozen different lines Continue reading →

A Birch Tree, A White Fox by Elena Arsenieva

There is a planet on which you cannot speak. It is a desert with a breathable atmosphere, speckled with oases. Continue reading →

The Gift of the Prodigal by Peter Taylor

This appears to be a story studied in class, given that a couple of Q&A websites have posted questions like: Continue reading →

The Million-Dollar Wound by Dean Whitlock

While technically taking place in Bolivia, the feel of the setting oozes Vietnam. The U.S. has a draft in place, Continue reading →

The Crystal Spheres by David Brin

The Fermi paradox asks why, if aliens exist, they haven’t contacted us yet. While a vast number of explanations have Continue reading →

The Adder by Fred Chappell

In most Lovecraftian fiction the cosmic horror is either played straight – and therefore horrific – or played for laughs, Continue reading →