Showing results by author "John C Wright" in All Categories

It wanders through space in fiery temperatures that make Hades look like a vacation spot by comparison. The first planet in our Solar System that races around the Sun once every 88 days. Named after the Roman god of commerce, eloquence, messages, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves, he also serves as the guide of souls to the underworld. These, then, are the tales of Mercury.

The Lords of Creation rule the Nine Worlds through its control of the ultra-advanced technology that has permitted the colonization of the entire solar System. More gods than men, the Lords of Creation have cheated Death itself. But although they rule the solar system with their god-like scientific knowledge, there are even more powerful forces to be feared lurking out in the dark depths of space. And when an unthinkably terrible enemy that rules a vast network of dead stars and planets comes to the Nine Worlds, it falls to them to stop it, though entire worlds may perish.

Since the Cold War, outer space has become of strategic importance for nations looking to seize the ultimate high ground. World powers establishing a presence there must consider, among other things, how they will conduct warfare in orbit. Leaders must dispense with "Buck Rogers" notions about operations in space and realize that policies there will have serious ramifications for geopolitics. How should nations view space? How should they fight there? What would space warfare look like and how should strategists approach it?

Once, in a theater long ago and far, far away, young audiences who watched the nostalgic space epic of yesteryear, known then only as Star Wars, were duly enthralled. So much goodwill, so much affection, and so much love has rarely been lavished on any franchise. So much money from so many eager fans was never so readily available. Yet, with one potent death star-like blast of mind-breakingly awful filmmaking, the Disney Corporation has managed to alienate that goodwill, spurn that affection, and lose that money.

There be pirates in the vast void of space! Does not the poet say: "Beware the strangeness of the stranger. Unknown things bring unknown danger?" The noble ship Procrustes was silent as a ghost. Warships can be silent if they are slow; only their missiles need speed. And so it was silently, slowly, that the Procrustes approached the stranger's cold vessel.

The Book of Feasts & Seasons is a beautifully mind-bending stroll with a grandmaster of science fiction through the annual Catholic calendar. Over the course of the year, from January to December, the author takes his inspiration from 10 different holidays and explores their meanings in a series of stories of marvelous imagination. The book begins with New Year's Day and "The Meaning of Life as Told Me by an Inebriated Science Fiction Writer in New Jersey".