Ongoing news from the former Sports Editor of Science Fiction Age (Backstory the First: The reason things have been quiet on the newsletter front lies with the loss of my oldest and dearest friend Paul Mears, who died on July 11. It’s exceedingly hard to describe how hard this hit: we had been friends for nearly 45 years, and just trying to collect a greatest hits of our exploits is…
Tag: Backstories and Fragments
Backstories: "The Wrath of Cat Piss Man"
A partial tribute to my best friend, the late Paul Mears, part three of several (Backstory the First: The reason things have been quiet on the newsletter front lies with the loss of my oldest and dearest friend Paul Mears, who died on July 11. It’s exceedingly hard to describe how hard this hit: we had been friends for nearly 45 years, and just trying to collect a greatest hits…
Backstories: "Raze the Green Lantern"
A partial tribute to my best friend, the late Paul Mears, part two of several (Backstory the First: The reason things have been quiet on the newsletter front lies with the loss of my oldest and dearest friend Paul Mears, who died on July 11. It’s exceedingly hard to describe how hard this hit: we had been friends for nearly 45 years, and just trying to collect a greatest hits…
Backstories: "Blame and Blade Runner"
A partial tribute to my best friend, the late Paul Mears, part one of several (Backstory the First: The reason things have been quiet on the newsletter front lies with the loss of my oldest and dearest friend Paul Mears, who died on July 11. It’s exceedingly hard to describe how hard this hit: we had been friends for nearly 45 years, and just trying to collect a greatest hits…
Backstories: Review of The Miniature Gardening Prop Shop by Janit Calvo
Hints as to the future of St. Remedius (Originally appearing as a review of The Gardening In Miniature Prop Shop by Janet Calvo) If the radical expansion of land surface on Earth during the Late Cretaceous had been just a bit slower, we wouldn’t have had a problem. One sentient species derived from dinosaurian ancestors, we could have handled. As it turned out, though, Earth didn’t produce one species of…
Backstories: "Vestibule" (2022)
Plant: Nepenthes maxima (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Xenoarchaeology is a risky endeavor under just about any circumstance. In the field, researchers face hostile wildlife, fascinating new diseases and parasites, and the ever-present danger that a billion-year-old artifact might be carrying a quantum black hole facing a critical failure on the insulation of its containment vessel. Those back in academia usually envy the field researchers,…
Backstories: "Watcher and Waiter" (2022)
Plant: Drosera adelae (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Once, it and its people were teachers, guardians, shepherds, surrogate parents. They worked with innumerable sentiments reaching toward the stars and showed them the wonders and terrors of the universe, letting them know that they weren’t alone and that someone was protecting them. Eventually, though, the students reach the limits of learning, the weak become strong, the…
Backstories: "Accelerated Aggression" (2022)
Plant: Nepenthes specularis x tenuis BE-3884 (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Our immediate galactic cluster produces a surprising number of so-called “deathworlds”: planets whose biota accept any kind of intrusion only after the application of overwhelming force. A few are hive minds who use their animal and plant analogues as surrogates for other organisms’ immune systems. Others are so nutrient-starved that to pass up relatively…
Backstories: "Degradation" (2022)
Plant: Pinguicula x “Titan” (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) Do you ever really think about where your garbage goes? Of course you don’t: you went to college because your parents were on your case about “go to school so you can get a good job and not have to be a garbageman for the rest of your life.” Never you mind that somebody has to…
Backstories: "Signal to Noise" (2022)
Plant: Drosera adelae (Who was St. Remedius? And why is a medical college named after him?) A standard physics thought experiment: the gravity well around a black hole is so tremendous that matter or energy cannot escape, but information could possibly escape. The unspoken implication: what kind of information? Merely information about the conditions inside a black hole’s gravity well, or something else? For most physics students and teachers, the implication is purely…