The Cosmic Codex

By: Brian Scott Pauls
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  • Living in a science fiction universe...

    www.thecosmiccodex.com
    Brian Scott Pauls
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Literary History & Criticism Science Fiction Art
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Episodes
  • The next question

    The next question
    Sep 26 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in September: Free Fantasy & SciFi.Seventy science fiction and fantasy books, available at no cost.Get your FREE copy of Passageway!“Philosophically, the universe has really never made things in ones. The Earth is special and everything else is different? No, we've got seven other planets. The sun? No, the sun is one of those dots in the night sky. The Milky Way? No, it's one of a hundred billion galaxies. And the universe - maybe it's countless other universes.”—Neil deGrasse TysonChosen by mystical warriors to protect a parallel Earth from a catastrophic future, a young man must push his mental and physical abilities to the limits if he is to help save mankind. As seventeen-year-old Darwin McQuaid flees high-school bullies, he is saved by an enigmatic stranger; an indigenous teenage warrior who was born 500 years in the past.Strong and powerful, Daruk possesses an intelligence that exceeds his rugged youthful appearance, and Darwin is drawn to learn more about him. Surprisingly, the high-school junior discovers that the mysterious warrior has a connection to an old family friend—an elderly indigenous shaman called Uncle His. As the physical attraction intensifies between Darwin and Daruk, the warrior reveals a secret—that he and Uncle His are Guardians of the Passageway and are destined to protect the crossroads of three parallel universes, three Earths, each 500 years apart.Discovering worlds he never knew existed, along with an untapped power within himself, can the young man become the warrior needed to defend this ancient world from corrupt invaders?Or will the death and danger of a more primitive time prove to be too much for this 21st-century teen?For over forty years, from 1978 until 2019, the Campbell Conference, named for the long-time Astounding/Analog science fiction magazine editor John W. Campbell, “provided a setting for intelligent discussion about SF.”Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Starting in the early 1980s, the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, directed by University of Kansas science fiction author and scholar James Gunn, hosted the conference. This included presenting, each year, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and eventually the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short story, the latter in honor of celebrated science fiction author Ted Sturgeon.The Sturgeon Award takes the form of a symbol combining a question mark and an arrow. It's a version of a symbol Sturgeon recommended to his readers to remind them of what he considered an important analytical process: “Ask the next question.” Few people have been able to articulate such sound and succinct advice for writing and reading good science fiction.Several events coincided to bring the conference to a close.Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! This post is public so feel free to share it.During her acceptance speech for the 2019 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, Jeanette Ng accused Campbell of being a fascist, “[e]xalting in the ambitions of imperialists and colonizers, settlers and industrialists.” She challenged the sf community to reconsider honoring him as it had in the past. Analog subsequently announced it would rename its award to the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction renamed the Campbell Conference the Gunn Center Conference.A year later, COVID-19 developed into a global pandemic, complicating in-person gatherings. But Gunn’s death the same year dealt a more significant blow to the future of the conference.In 2022, the KU faculty took over the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, which had previously been governed by a separate board of directors. Retaining the responsibility for presenting the Sturgeon Award each year, the Center replaced the Campbell Conference with the Sturgeon Symposium."Stars in Our Pockets: Celebrating Samuel R. Delany" is the topic of this year’s Sturgeon Symposium, honoring Delany’s “lasting impact on science fiction, speculative fiction, and literary criticism.” This seems appropriate, as Sturgeon is one of the sf writers Delany most recommends.The Sturgeon Symposium is scheduled for October 24-25, 2024, with both online and in person (on the KU campus) elements. The cost is only $25.00, with student and need-based fee waivers available.I plan to attend. Please join me if you can!Register here for the Sturgeon Symposium.Club Codex is reading and discussing The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith through mid-October.Follow along with my thoughts on this novel and contribute your own in the following thread:Click here for more details about Club Codex in 2024. Please join us!My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel ...
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    4 mins
  • What sf authors does an sf legend recommend?

    What sf authors does an sf legend recommend?
    Sep 19 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in September: Free Fantasy & SciFi.Seventy science fiction and fantasy books, available at no cost.For a chance to live, would you leave everything you know behind?Get your FREE copy of If I Go!Home with his overwrought older sister as a deadly flu pandemic sweeps the globe, sixteen-year-old Daniel is scared and out of his depth. Unable to reach his parents, his only source of comfort as the world falls apart are his faithful pets. When a chance to escape the flu is dangled before him, Daniel is confronted with an agonizing choice that will change his life forever.On September 10, I had the honor of watching a live virtual lecture by Samuel R. Delany, presented by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC.)Hosted by SAIC assistant professor Dr. Kirin Wachter-Grene, the conversation with Delany ran for over an hour-and-a-half. Most of the discussion focused on his background growing up as a dyslexic, gay, black man in New York City, including references to multiple books in which he delves into this history.Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Of particular interest to sf readers, however, is the answer to a question about what science fiction authors Delany himself reads. It surprised me to learn Delany has never read much science fiction, and still doesn’t do so today. But regarding those authors whom even he finds compelling, he recommended two—Joanna Russ and Ted Sturgeon.Born in 1918, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Sturgeon published his first science fiction story in 1939 and continued writing for over four decades. Of his theme, he said, “I think what I have been trying to do all these years is to investigate this matter of love, sexual and asexual.” This may well be the attraction for Delany, who has written so much on the subject of sex himself.Feminist and Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author Russ was born in 1937. Raised, like Delany, in New York City, she published her first short story in 1955. In the SAIC lecture, Delany discussed how he and Russ carried on a long correspondence, currently being compiled for publication as a three volume series. Given Delany’s first-hand experience of racism, and Russ’ first-hand experience of sexism, it’s understandable why they might have had quite a lot to share with one another.Delany is the subject of the third annual Sturgeon Symposium, hosted by the Gunn Center for Science Fiction at the University of Kansas from October 24-25. He plans to attend.Club Codex is reading and discussing The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith through the end of September.Follow along with my thoughts on this novel and contribute your own in the following thread:Click here for more details about Club Codex in 2024. Please join us!My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.Questions or comments? Please share your thoughts! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecosmiccodex.com
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    3 mins
  • Against the empire

    Against the empire
    Sep 7 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in August and September: Thoughtful Science Fiction.Nearly 35 science fiction and fantasy books, available at no cost.Get your exclusive copy of the short story When Traitors Fall by Abby J. Reed.250 years before a ship crashed onto a blood soaked planet . . .After the Solterans invaded his galaxy, Emil Lopez is one of the last remaining cadets in the Avonley Defense Academy. All he wants is to make a name for himself and prove to the world he is no traitor. Unlike his parents.When the Solterans attack the ADA, Humanity's final stronghold, Emil is paired with the famous Captain Young for the epic battle. Emil's chance to make a difference, and a name for himself, skyrockets. Until he must choose between the loyalty he's always prized and the legacy he's always longed for, at a steeper cost than he ever dreamed.Interstellar empires, despite their scientific implausibility, are perennial favorites in science fiction, and this year’s Hugo Awards are no exception. Novels featuring this fan-favorite trope won in two literary award categories. A third honors an author who has imagined an empire which may be more earthbound, but is just as fantastic.Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Best NovelSome Desperate Glory, by Emily TeshWorld Fantasy and Astounding award-winner Emily Tesh grew up in London and currently teaches classics in the UK.The Macmillan website describes Some Desperate Glory in this way:While we live, the enemy shall fear us.Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the majoda their victory over humanity.They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. When Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to Nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity's revenge into her own hands.Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr escapes from everything she’s known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! This post is public so feel free to share it.Best SeriesThe Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann LeckieHugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-winner Ann Leckie has created a complex universe of sentient warships, “zombie” crews, and an absolute ruler difficult to kill because they inhabit multiple bodies at the same time.The Hachette website describes Ancillary Justice, the first book in the series.On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren — a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose — to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.Astounding Award for Best New AuthorXiran Jay ZhaoBSFA Award winner Xiran Jay Zhao was born in China and immigrated to Canada as a young child. They began writing at 15 and published their first novel, Iron Widow, in 2021.Zhao’s win this year is especially significant. In 2023, they were inexcusably blocked from contention for the Astounding Award at the 81st World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, China. The Hugo Award administrators made this unjust decision to avoid offending Chinese censors.The Penguin Random House website includes the following summary for Iron Widow:The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall of China. It doesn’t matter that the girls die from the mental strain.When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But when she gets her vengeance, it becomes clear that she is an Iron Widow, a rare kind of female pilot who can sacrifice males to power up Chrysalises instead.To tame her frightening yet valuable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest male pilot in Huaxia, yet feared and ostracized for killing his father and brothers. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will take over instead, then leverage their combined strength to force her society to stop failing its women and girls. Or die trying.Club Codex is reading and discussing The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith...
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    5 mins

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