science fiction | M Thomas Apple Author Page

The Ultima Thule Awakens! (Well, OK, New Horizons Awakens, Fine…)

December 31, 2018
MThomas

It’s been a long 13 years.

Remember New Horizons? The Little Probe That Could?

No?

You know, the photos of Pluto, Formerly Known As the Ninth Planet?

Doesn’t ring a bell?

Hmpf. Go read about about it.

Anyway, by sheer chance, New Horizons happens to be close enough to grab some pictures of an object in the Kuiper Belt (which looks like KEW-per or KWEE-per but is actually pronounced KAI-per and is completely unrelated to former SF Giants player and current announcer Duane).

Ever wanted to see a peanut-shaped tiny rock (or rocks)

Only half a day left!

Read all about it, uh, pretty much anywhere online, really:

Not anthropomorphic but anthropogenic climate change SF

December 24, 2018
MThomas

Yes, climate change is real.

Yes, some of these five classic SF novels from Tor are really about pollution and not climate change per se.

Yes, that doesn’t really matter.

The Sheep Look Up is still the best of the bunch. And (not surprisingly) somewhat prophetic.

Le plus chose change…

(P.S. Happy Yuletide. Bwah ha ha…)

Who’s up for some Mars skating?

December 23, 2018
MThomas

MarsSkating

Just in time for Christmas!

The Korolev Crater, 51 miles wide and over a mile deep of ice. Perfect spot to place a colony or two.

Or play a massive game of ice hockey. Game on!

Two of the greatest Science Fiction authors of all time, were both born on this day December 16 – Arthur C. Clarke in 1917 and Philip K. Dick in 1928.

Note that I always put “Sir” in quotes, because, basically, $%# that BS. Clarke may have conceived of (NOT invented) the satellite, but PDK (NOT a “Sir”) has had infinitely more influence on modern society.

So I’m calling PKD “Esq.” Also a Pope. Remember that “All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.” Hail Eris!

Anyway, thanks to blackwings666 for the reminder…

via SCIENCE FICTION LEGENDS: ARTHUR C. CLARKE & PHILIP K. DICK — blackwings666

“Feel-bad Seventies Sci-Fi” — The influence on and by changing societies

December 10, 2018
MThomas

I love ’70s sci-fi movies. Partly it’s because the early ’80s was the advent of the VHS/VCR and cable TV, and in late elementary school I was introduce to these movies for the first time.

Don’t even get me started about late ’70s / early ’80s sci-fi TV shows. Buck Rogers and the original Battlestar Galactica. Gil Gerard and Lorne Greene. My childhood heroes. Yikes. Continue Reading

Wandering Earth and the future of SciFi — the China syndrome?

December 8, 2018
MThomas

foldingbeijing Chinese science fiction has been up and coming for a while now. The work of Liu Cixin, for example, earned the author (or translator, not sure which) a Hugo Award. (I reviewed and found the Three-Body Solution to be full of interesting ideas but bogged down with poorly written dialogue, unexpected shifts in voice and style, stereotypes, and two-dimensional characters.)

And, of course, China is about to (re)discover itself as a major player on the world stage. Complete with the “only our civilization can save humanity” trope, a.k.a., just like the US.

So it was just a matter before Chinese cinema followed suit. Continue Reading

Reality bites

November 25, 2018
MThomas

A literary agent just told me (via email) that I need to “ground each scene in reality.”

Of a science fiction slash fantasy novel. In outer space. With asteroid miners, space pirates, Martian settlers, astral walking, and elemental morphing powers.

Um. Okay.

Star trekking throughout the universe…

November 21, 2018
MThomas

The holidays are coming up, which always reminds me of old Trek.

No, seriously. When I was a kid, we always went to my grandparents’ house for the holidays, my mom’s parents. And they had a color Zenith (we had a tiny black and white TV at the time).

The first time I saw Star Trek was in the “TV room” of my grandparents’ house in Troy. In brilliant red-blue-green color. It blew my seven year old mind. Continue Reading

The limits of genre

November 18, 2018
MThomas

Hi, everyone. I know it’s been a while since I blogged here. But I have been writing.

And editing. And then writing again. And, yes, in multiple genres. That’s my philosophy. That’s what you get if you read my writing.

I think I’ve probably written about this before, but I find myself increasingly disliking current writing styles. Short paragraphs. Bad grammar. No internal monologue. Things blowing up. Continue Reading

Destiny in the Future: A tribute

November 8, 2018
MThomas

On October 29, 2018, my mother Linda A Langworthy Apple died.

On October 31, 2018, I discovered an unpublished science fiction book in my mother’s dresser. The manuscript was buried under high school and nursing school yearbooks and diplomas.

I think it’s time for it to be published.

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