Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s.
Podcasting since 2020 • 171 episodes
Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Latest Episodes
#171 Avatar of war: The Book of Elsewhere (2024) by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
An unusual detour into contemporary SF, this episode is a look at the thoroughly strange The Book of Elsewhere (2024), a collaboration between Hollywood icon Keanu Reeves and British flag-bearer for the New Weird, China...
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Episode 171
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7:49
#170 Solar Enemy Number One: The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester
The Count of Monte Cristo make not seem like the likeliest template for an SF novel, but Alfred Bester was able to take this 19th century French classic and turn it into the basis for his 1956 book The Stars My Destination<...
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Episode 170
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8:51
#169 Hollywood necromancy: Remake (1995) by Connie Willis
Connie Willis is known for her stocked awards cabinet and for her lengthy novels in the "Oxford Time Travel" series. But this major figure of US SF has not always been concerned with exploring the past, or with doorstop-sized tomes. Remake<...
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Episode 169
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9:01
#168 Quantum uncertainty: Timescape (1980) by Gregory Benford
Time travel is, if scientists are to be believed, impossible. That has never stopped science fiction writers, who have made it one of their most frequently used and popular concepts. But if time travel is impossible, can it at least be made pla...
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Episode 168
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9:52
#167 The thing itself: science fiction and its aesthetic
Science fiction is famously difficult to define. In 1952, the writer and editor Damon Knight famously wrote that "science fiction is what we point to when we say it." But what if what we point to is just the surface, just an aesthetic, and what...
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Episode 167
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9:45
