The Ballad of Death and the Maid
Tor.com is celebrating National Poetry Month by featuring science fiction and fantasy poetry from a variety of SFF authors. You’ll find classic works, hidden gems, and new commissions featured on the site throughout the month. Bookmark the Poetry Mon...
James Cameron may kill the Kraken but not our journey of discovery | Roz Kaveney
The Avatar director has seen the bottom of the Mariana trench but there are still mysterious places left to feed our imaginationIt's only rarely you will hear me say John Keats was wrong. At dinner with poet William Wordsworth and painter Benjamin Hayd...
The transfiguration of Philip K Dick | Roz Kaveney
A Bible annotated by the prolific science fiction writer is unlikely to reveal more than the books articulating his spiritual visionThere is an American television show called Warehouse 13, a supernatural comedy-thriller, featuring the place – a bit ...
When a writer’s words have unintended consequences | Roz Kaveney
That Anders Behring Breivik's manifesto quotes Melanie Phillips should give all writers pause for thoughtIn times of violence, words can be weapons. WB Yeats asked himself in the 1930s "Did that play of mine send out / certain men the English shot?" Th...
Science fiction probes at religion | Roz Kaveney
Religious experience is outside the comfort zone of the most SF authors – so perhaps they up their game when writing about itThe question: What can science fiction tell us about God?At its best, of course, science fiction is a serious literature of i...
Twelve Steampunk Sonnets
Of this sequence of sonnets, which originally appeared on her personal weblog in November 2010, Roz Kaveney notes: “In various LiveJournal posts, Charles Stross and Cat Valente argued provocatively that steampunk had played itself out. These poem...
Antimatter? Not such a big deal | Roz Kaveney
The problem for us science fiction fans is we get blase about science. Time travel and reptilian visitors – that would be coolWell, scientists have captured anti-matter. An atom or two for a fifth of a second. I'm sorry, but until there is a whole pl...
A poem for Christopher Hitchens | Roz Kaveney
The critic and poet Roz Kaveney has been brooding about the phenomenon of praying for atheists …For the sickbed of Christopher HitchensBoswell went to Hume's deathbed; let me see,he smugly thought, if godless men can dieas well as Christians. Heaven ...
A hymn for modern times | Roz Kaveney
We don't plan to publish poetry here regularly, but this, from our contributor Roz Kaveney, was too good to pass up
The creeping limping feet of worn-out gods
Disturb my sleep; the rotten little sods
After my soul again, that much is clear.
They want my love, or failing...
John Donne, priest and poet, part 1: love, conscience and martyrdom | Roz Kaveney