While fiction is often a means of escapism, it can also be a lens through which to view a theoretical future based on science and speculation. Kira Peikoff—who holds a degree in journalism from NYU and a master’s in bioethics from Columbia and works in biotech communications—is a master of that, having married fact with…
7 DAYS LATER: 20 MINUTES BEFORE “GO ZERO” FUSION CENTRAL, WASHINGTON, DC On May 1, at twenty minutes to noon, Justin Amari, unbreakfasted, rumple-haired, is greeted by a welcome committee outside Fusion Central, a private complex that had sprung up near McPherson Square the year before with odd speed and mystery—“Silicon Valley Billionaire Cy…
Crime movies are often deeply linked to the settings in which they take place. The prohibition era of speakeasies and bootleggers gave us The Untouchables. The glittering casinos of Las Vegas gave us Ocean’s Eleven. The gritty streets of Los Angeles have given us everything from Training Day to Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. In…
For Isaac Asimov’s detective, Elijah Baley, it’s been two long years since he’s set forth on an interstellar adventure, and though he once shuddered at the thought of hyperspace travel, he’s now itching to once again do some planet hopping. However, for Asimov enthusiasts, the wait was a great deal more labored. There is a…
The Big Sheep by Robert Kroese is a delicate balance of sci-fi, mystery, and humor. “That's a really big sheep,” said Erasmus Keane, his observational powers functioning as flawlessly as ever. The woman in the lab coat nodded curtly. “He's a Lincoln Longwool,” she said. “Largest breed of sheep in the world.” She had introduced…
We Homo sapiens have gotten pretty used to being the only humanoid species on Earth. So, what would happen if we somehow ran across a cousin species—perhaps a somewhat better design? What if that species also happened to be dark-skinned? It doesn’t take much brainpower to write that scenario; we’ve got 5,000 years of experience…
A few months after solving an ambassador’s murder and receiving accolades from across the known universe (where fifty other inhabited planets exist), Elijah Baley is summoned from New York to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. for a top secret case. It was hard enough for the agoraphobic, aviophobic, and a host of other…
Elijah (“Lije”) Baley is a New York City homicide detective, three thousand years in the future. His world is an overpopulated Earth, with eight billion people living in massive, layered complexes—caves of steel—enclosed by mammoth domes. Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York have grown to the point where they are almost touching. Humans no longer…
After just a few months, the Precogs of the TV series Minority Report seem to have come full circle—back into the milk bath—and gained almost nothing for having made the trip. As of Oct 9, 2015, Fox has shortened the order for Season One episodes from 13 to 10, which is a clear sign the…
What the Fly Saw by Frankie Y. Bailey is the second mystery featuring Detective Hannah McCabe set in the near-future of Albany in 2020 (available March 3, 2015). Albany, New York, January 2020 The morning after a blizzard that shut down the city, funeral director Kevin Novak is found dead in the basement of his…
