The bus pulled onto the shoulder to report the bleeder on the side of the highway. A car had clipped the man’s leg, which bent awkwardly to one side. His hands had frozen into fists […]
(Fiction) The Knife That Killed Albert Gallagher Twice
I pulled Etude down, down, down endless flights of stairs: stairs that curled, stairs at right angles, stairs that cut a straight line, our feet quickstepping across stone. By turn after turn, we descended deep […]
(Art) The Hyperspace Colors of Paul Lehr
Paul Lehr (1930-1998) studied illustration at the prestigious Pratt Institute. His first sf cover – for the American edition of Jeffery Lloyd Castle’s Satellite E One (1954) – is a realistic depiction of the construction […]
(Art) The Old Gods
There’s a trend in contemporary fantastic art so pervasive that I feel it needs it’s own genre: the casual hierophany, or passing encounter with a god. A hierophany is a manifestation of the divine other. […]
(Update) I’ve Got MOAR Big Balls
Several weeks ago, I shared a massive dump of what I call big balls, which seems to be a recent trend in fantastic art, and I speculated why that might be. Well, the trend does […]
(Sunday Thought) Illusions Are More Real Than Reality
We like illusions because they create a deeply subjective sense of incongruity. That is, they “break” our brains. In this case, the circles appear to be moving, but they also appear stationary, which creates a […]
(Art) The Savage Chaos of Bastien Lecouffe Deharme
Bastien Lecouffe Deharme has illustrated numerous games for some of the biggest names in role-playing, and I can see why. His dark goddesses rule over savage realms of blood and violence, where the cruel and […]
(Fiction) The Mandela Spheres
Some advanced readers were so excited about THE ZERO SIGNAL that they have nominated it for Best of the Year on Goodreads, where (at the time of writing) it is #2 on the list! Readers […]
(Sunday Thought) The Arrow of Reality
We are witnessing the reversal of an arrow. For all of human history, it was the physical world that impinged our minds. In the future, it is our minds that will impinge the physical world. […]
(Art) The Dark Gods of Andres Rios
Mexican artist Andres Rios sculpts dark gods, both old and new (including several Aztec deities). While some are divine, others are machine. All are tortured and immortal, their skulls bared or barely covered by masks, […]
(Art) Stephen Mackey’s Illustrations From a Book You’ve Never Read
I love art that tells a story. Stephen Mackey’s art tells of dark romances and children’s fables from the world behind the wardrobe or the other side of the looking glass. The self-taught UK artist […]
(Fiction) The Score
Esmeralda Gonzales was more pregnant than any woman had a right to be. She carried a baby and a load of bad news and bore both with grace and good deal of pride. She was […]
(Sunday Thought) Two Temporal Paradoxes
The second installment of the SCIENCE CRIMES DIVISION series involves a murderer who remembers the future instead of the past. As I’ve been working through the plot, which is tricky, it occurred to me that […]
