Well, as they say, turnabout is fair play, so, since Teramis has recently been inspired by me, then it's my turn to be inspired by her post:

What I hate about galactic empires

I love galactic empires. Adore them. I think they're great settings for conflict and character driven stories, and give us the space to explore things at a remove from the cultural here/now of our own time and space and 21st century society.

Forrest J Ackerman, who influenced a generation of young horror movie fans with Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and spent a lifetime amassing what has been called the world's largest personal collection of science fiction and fantasy memorabilia, has died. He was 92.

Ackerman, a writer, editor and literary agent who has been credited with coining the term "sci-fi" in the 1950s, died Thursday of heart failure at his home in Los Angeles, said John Sasser, a friend who is making a documentary on Ackerman.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-ackerman6-2008dec06,0,71791...

Once you register, you’ll receive our newsletter and a link to download a digital book, as well as free wallpapers from bestselling and award-winning SF and fantasy authors and artists. And you’ll receive a link to another new book, and new wallpapers, every week.

http://www.tor.com/

Steven Brust has posted the full text of a Firefly fan-fic novel he wrote.

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/18/steven-brusts-unauth.html

(via Boing Boing)

Eric Cook let me know about this.

It's so interesting I think I am going to actually go back to the beginning of its lifetime and go through all of the posts....

In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/

In his book Is There Life on Other Worlds, Poul Anderson makes a point about how long it would take to explore the galaxy. The "isolation" argument is usually used to explain why we have not been visited by extra-terrestrial life, i.e. it would take so long that this can be taken as a reason that we have not encountered any aliens so far (to our knowledge). However, the argument contains a flaw, which is that the exploration, or the growth of knowledge about explored systems, is linear.

I recently got my hands on the rare but classic

Is There Life on Other Worlds
by Poul Anderson
(with an introduction by Isaac Asimov)
Crowell-Collier Press, 1963

I highly recommend it.

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The three crew members huddled close together, an island in an ocean of bodies. Advertisements of flaming red, soothing blue, and invigorating orange hovered around them, hawking in dozens of languages countless number of goods. There were chutes leading to stores everywhere, on the walls, floor, even ceiling. Gravity was a relative thing, and many walked sideways or upside down. Every five seconds an asexual voice announced over hidden speakers, “Welcome to Pan Bolo, Overlorn’s only completely self-sustaining commerce Arcology!”

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“Wait!” Rata-tat shouted just as the lance began its downward arc. The porters froze and looked back at Ultro, who nodded.

“What is it scum?” the robed scarecrow asked.

Fred Saberhagen has died. :-(

I really like almost all of his work: the "Swords" books, the "Empire" books, the "Berserker" books, etc.

Is it possible to hold a galactic empire together without faster-than-light travel (including portals, teleportation, etc.)?