New! Our translation of Djuna’s short story “Where’s Your Dad?” is forthcoming (fall 2026) in the collection Memoir of a Joseon Bride, along with many stories translated by Adrian Thieret, and published by Honford Star. Preorder a copy here.
New! South Korean SF author Djuna’s Not Yet Gods in a new English translation by Jihyun Park and me, coming soon (2027?) from Kaya Press. Click here to visit the Kaya webpage for the book and preorder it from the publisher!
New! Further Strangeness: Twelve New Knights, Seers, and Myths for Mythic Bastionland is an unofficial and unlicensed supplement for Chris McDowall’s wonderful new game, and my entry for the Mythic Bastionland Game Jam. Available for free over on my itch.io webpage.
New! Circe’s Grin is a system-agnostic old-school RPG adventure, and my entry for the Appx. N 2025 game jam. Available for free (for now) on my itch.io webpage.
New from Knight Owl Publishing: Isle of Joy is a harrowing old-school adventure on a mysterious island full of secrets and stories. Order a copy on Knight Owl’s website.
Something Tookish! is a Brindlewood Bay RPG hack for those who want to solve mundane, cozy mysteries in a halfling village. With art by Justin Howe! Get your copy on itch.io!
Now available: FERMENTVM NIGRVM DEI SEPVLTI (Black Yeast of the Buried God) from LotFP! Text by me, illustrations by Gonzalo Æneas, layout by Jacob Hurst, editing by Joshua Blackketter, maps by Alex Mayo. OSR adventure set in a brewing abbey in historical Westphalia.
EU Webstore | US Webstore | PDF at DTRPG
My OSR Conversions Guide for the Koryo Hall of Adventures 5E setting book is now available over at DriveThru RPG.
My short story “Sojourn” appeared in A City of Han, available on Amazon.com.
See a complete list of my publications and forthcoming work.
Question: is one of the requirements of sci-fi that it be set in the future? Can’t it still be science fiction and portray an alternate present (as “Jennifer Government” apparently does)? I looked up science fiction at dictionary.com (yeah, I’m lame), and it says: “A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background.” It doesn’t mention anything about time. It also doesn’t really give a solid definition of science fiction, in my mind, but there you have it.
Not really important, but I just started wondering about that when I read your review.
My bad, Charles. I ought to have said, “isn’t futuristic SF”.
SF actually isn’t limited to the future. A major trend in American SF is to set it in the present — Gibson, Sterling, and others are doing that these days, though I think Neal Stephenson was a big trendsetter with his Cryptonomicon. Alternate history is also SF, and I’ve read alternate histories set as far back in history as the Stone Age, or in Ancient Greece. Alternate histories set in the present are fascinating, my favorite being Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.
In addition, with the advent of steampunk, there’s all kinds of neat stuff happening in SF set in the past. Here I’d say Sterling and Gibson were the trailblazers with The Difference Engine, a book that’s in my short-term to-read pile — I had a hardback in Canada which I meant to read ages ago but never got around to. And Paul di Filippo’s The Steampunk Trilogy is also in my short-term to-read pile. The one story of three that I’ve read from that book was full of wonderful, hilarious Victorian SF, full not only of alternate history but also all kinds of whacked-out alternate science.
Anyway, no, SF is much more open-ended than I may have implied. I’d going to fix that mistaken implication right now.
Ah, OK. With the exception of some of P.K. Dick’s stuff that I read at university, I have to admit that I’m not really familiar with SF in the medium of fiction (although I’ve seen plenty of “science fiction” films). It just kind of hit me when I was reading your post: Wait, do I even know what science fiction is?
I think that the next time I get out to a bookstore I’m going to look up some of those titles you mentioned. Anything else I might want to delve into?
“…do I even know what science fiction is?”
Don’t go there, man. Within the genre, there’s a CONTINUOUS discussion with no headway. Suffice it to say one knows it when one sees it, if one knows it well at all.
I’ll think up a recommendation this week for you. Gotta go now.