Classic SF with Andy Johnson

Andy Johnson
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Exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s.

  1. #192 Mind, body, spirit, space: Alien Embassy (1977) by Ian Watson

    18/04

    #192 Mind, body, spirit, space: Alien Embassy (1977) by Ian Watson

    A challenging novel of mysticism, power, and alien contact This week brought the news that the British science fiction writer Ian Waton had passed away in Spain, where he had lived for some time. Coincidentally, I was reading Watson's 1977 novel Alien Embassy, the subject of this week's episode. Watson wrote numerous challenging SF novels, including The Embedding (1973) and The Jonah Kit (1975), both previously covered here in episodes 131 and 163, respectively. Watson was also the writer of the very first novels to tie in with the Warhammer 40,000 setting, and so helped to set the stage for the vast and growing body of writing set in the grim future of the 41st millennium. Alien Embassy is something very different, an idea-packed look at a post-disaster future in which humanity is reaching out to the stars - but with the mind, not with spacecraft. I will certainly be reading more of Watson's work and in the meantime, I hope you find this look at one of his early novels to be interesting. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    8 min
  2. #191 Under the domes: Fury (1947) by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore

    11/04

    #191 Under the domes: Fury (1947) by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore

    An influential classic of power and revenge on Venus Like Kallocain, which I covered in episode 188, Fury is another SF novel which was published earlier than my usual jurisdiction - the 1950s to the 1990s. Written by Henry Kuttner and an uncredited C. L. Moore, it is a classic of the so-called "golden age of science fiction", a term I'd personally consign to history. As we'll see, Fury is focused on a highly driven antihero on a transformative mission of revenge on a habitable Venus, the last refuge of humans who have ruined the Earth. Its legacy lives on in the various works which have been influenced by it, not least novels by Alfred Bester and Harry Harrison. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    8 min
  3. #190 Living in the abyss: Medusa’s Children (1977) by Bob Shaw

    2/04

    #190 Living in the abyss: Medusa’s Children (1977) by Bob Shaw

    An entertainingly wild aquatic adventure on two worlds A mid-period novel by Northern Irish SF writer Bob Shaw, Medusa's Children centres on a bizarre scenario. A dwindling group of humans struggle to survive inside a liquid planetoid, preyed upon by hungry squid-like creatures. What does this have to do with Tarrant, an inept aquafarmer working on the Pacific Ocean? Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    7 min
  4. #189 Computer fugitive: The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner

    19/03

    #189 Computer fugitive: The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner

    On the run in the networked society This episode returns to the work of a writer featured frequently here: John Brunner. His prolific output, creative and commercial struggles, and untimely death at the Glasgow Worldcon in 1995 are contribute to him being a fascinating figure. The Shockwave Rider is one of his few novels currently in print. Like his magnum opus Stand on Zanzibar, it is a part of the SF Masterworks series. Written in the mid-1970s, it is one of Brunner's ambitious "tract novels", an attempt to confront imaginatively the seismic shifts that he saw coming in the 21st century. In this particular case, Brunner imagined a world in many ways like our own: politically repressive, technologically advanced, and interconnected by omnipresent computing. But as we will see, Brunner's vision from 1975 is quite unlike our present reality. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    11 min
  5. #188 Thoughts can be punished: Kallocain (1940) by Karin Boye

    26/02

    #188 Thoughts can be punished: Kallocain (1940) by Karin Boye

    Can hope exist in a scientific city of total suspicion? This episode is a look at Kallocain, the final novel by the Swedish poet and and writer Karin Boye, which was published in 1940. Although little known and not available in English until 1966, this bleak book should be recognised more widely as a key example of 20th century dystopian fiction. Set in a repressive state inspired by Boye's visits to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Kallocain focuses on a powerful truth drug, with the potential to help the state lay siege to our most private thoughts - and to stamp out that last bastion of freedom. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    10 min
  6. #187 Acts of faith: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter M. Miller Jr.

    19/02

    #187 Acts of faith: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) by Walter M. Miller Jr.

    In his book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, David Pringle aptly described A Canticle for Leibowitz as "a beautifully written novel, rich in character and ironic detail, and at the same time funny and sad." Published in 1959, this book was the only novel published by Walter M. Miller Jr. during his lifetime. One of the most highly praised science fiction novels of the 1950s, A Canticle for Leibowitz is in part Miller's reflection on his traumatic experiences in World War II, his Catholic faith, and his fears of nuclear conflict. It is also a stark warning about the dangers of both ignorance and knowledge, and an exploration of humankind's capacity for creativity and destruction. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    10 min
  7. #186 Spheres within spheres: Matter (2008) by Iain M. Banks

    13/02

    #186 Spheres within spheres: Matter (2008) by Iain M. Banks

    My coverage of Iain M. Banks' wonderful Culture series continues with the seventh novel, Matter, published in 2008. This is the longest Culture novel yet, and in some ways the most complex - set on a vast macrostructure, specifically the artificial planet of Sursamen. Banks weaves an ambitious plot which at times makes the novel feel like Use of Weapons nested inside Inversions - or perhaps it is the other way around. This is literally a story of spheres within spheres, as the different levels of the planet play host to various species, conflicts, and levels of technological development. In what is in part another Banksian meditation on the ethics of intervention, a novice Culture agent must decide how best to interfere in a conflict that threatens not only her siblings, but the fate of a world. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    9 min
  8. #185 The big freeze: Ice and Iron (1974) by Wilson Tucker

    5/02

    #185 The big freeze: Ice and Iron (1974) by Wilson Tucker

    Confronting a time mystery as a new ice age looms Climate breakdown, and rising temperatures, are a fact of life. But in the 1970s, there was a subset of climate scientists who believed that global cooling was going to be the challenge of the 21st century. Ice and Iron is a little-discussed 1974 novel by the author, critic and fan Wilson Tucker which explores this scenario. It also follows a strange conflict between heavily armed women from the future, and violent nomads, apparently from prehistory.  Can the eccentric researcher Fisher Highsmith solve a mystery of deep time and the human future? Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

    9 min
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Sobre

Exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s.

Informação

  • Autoria
    Andy Johnson
  • Anos em atividade
    2020 - 2026
  • Episódios
    192
  • Classificação
    Para todos
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Andy Johnson
  • Site do programa
    Classic SF with Andy Johnson

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