Saturday, November 17, 2012

A.E. Housman



Have you read Nancy Kress's story "Mithridates, He Died Old" in the January 2013 issue of Asimov's?  (Excerpt available here.) In the introduction, she mentions that "A.E. Housman is one of my favorite poets. ... His poem ‘Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff,’ which is actually about the mythical king Mithridates, has fascinated me for forty years, and I was so happy to write a story using its famous last line."

("Terence, This is Stupid Stuff" is part of Housman's long work "A Shropshire Lad.")

I started thinking about other science fiction works that have drawn on Housman's words. Here are a few:

For a Breath I Tarry by Roger Zelazny (a line from A Shropshire Lad)
Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke (line from a Housman poem)
When Heaven Fell by William Barton (Housman poem at the beginning of the book)

Do you know of any others?

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Last day for this deal



Life has spread across the stars, and everyone enjoys a long life. However, only those who are Earth-born are truly immortal. But what happens when the immortals of Earth are suddenly faced with their destruction? Hanosz Prime, a near-immortal (though not truly so, not being of true Earth stock), travels to mankind’s ancient home to discover the ultimate answer to humanity’s end.

A Silverberg story in the tradition of the old classics, with an accompanying novella by up-and-coming writer Alvaro Zinos-Amaro.

This book is part of The Stellar Guild.

Book launch special: You can get this e-book today (November 4) for 99 cents ... click here.
 


Time hacking?



Waiting to see 1:59 a.m. turn into 1:00 a.m.

If you could go either back or forward in time at any point but with a limit of one hour, would you go into the future or into the past? Think of all the possibilities!