The “Saviors” of Speculative Fiction

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By Joshua A. Johnston FAIR WARNING: there are spoilers here of various science fiction and fantasy movies and novels. In general, I’ve tried to avoid spoilers from less than 5 years from the time of this post (2012 and later) but if you’ve never watched Star Trek or read Lord of the Rings, expect spoilers. “Well, look on the bright side. We’ll all have high schools named after us.” – a crew member of the spaceship Messiah in the 1998 film Deep Impact, after the crew realizes they all have to die to save Earth. Whether you’re a Christian or …

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The Races of Star Wars: Wookiees and Ewoks

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By Joshua A. Johnston When Star Wars first hit theaters in 1977, audiences were captivated by the exotic species of George Lucas’s galaxy far, far away. To the more casual filmgoer, the differences between the aliens of Star Wars and Gene Roddenberry’s then-decade-old Star Trek might have seemed little more than a difference in makeup budgets. The differences, though, went well beyond that. While Gene Roddenberry had political and cultural ideas in mind with his extraterrestrials, George Lucas had more entrepreneurial motives. Star Wars was about creatures that appealed to a broad age group … and, by the time of …

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Interview with Kathy Tyers

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Please welcome Kathy Tyers! Kathy’s first science fiction novel was published in 1987, and she has been at it ever since. She has been accused on two counts of writing Star Wars novels (and pleads guilty on both counts), but she also likes being known for her original “Firebird” series. Volumes 1-3–Firebird, Fusion Fire, and Crown of Fire–are also published as The Annotated Firebird. Volume 4 is Wind and Shadow, and the award-winning, messianic Daystar rounds out the series. Kathy lives in southwestern Montana with her husband. Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they …

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Zombies, Star Wars, and God

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I watched an episode of “The Walking Dead” a couple weeks ago at the suggestion of a friend. “The Walking Dead” is a story centered on a handful of humans trying to survive in a world that has succumb to a disease that turns people into zombies. It’s graphic. It’s gory. And, strangely for me, it was very sad. Half of me was horrified of the zombies. Their decayed bodies, their thirst for living flesh, their pack mentality. The fear that once you are bit, you will become one of them. Yet there was a part of me that felt …

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