Stories by Williams

The Kessel Run: The Fandom Obsession

by storiesbywilliams on February 15, 2013 in Books, Movies, Sci-Fi, Series, Space, Video and tagged black hole, carrie fisher, chewy, disney star wars, Dune, george lucas, glimmerstim spice, han solo, jedi, jedi academy trilogy, kessel, kessel run, Kevin J Anderson, light year, luke skywalker, millennium falcon, movie mistakes, parsec, princess leia, sith, space, speed of light (c), spice, Star Wars, star wars episode IV a new hope, Star Wars prequels, Star Wars trilogy, stormtrooper, the empire, the maw, the phantom menace, the pit, the rebel alliance, time travel, wired magazine

If you were to get into a discussion with a true Star Wars fan, it would only be a matter of time before the subject of the Kessel run came up. Long considered one of the biggest enigmas to come out of the franchise, Han’s boast in A New Hope about his ship’s capabilities – […]

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Religion in Sci-Fi

by storiesbywilliams on September 24, 2012 in Authors, Books, Sci-Fi and tagged 2001: A Space Odyssey, 3001: Final Odyssey, Alastair Reynolds, Aldous Huxley, anakin skywalker, arrakis, Arthur C Clarke, asbolution gap, bene gesserit sisterhood, chasm city, children of dune, darth vader, duncan, Dune, dune messiah, emperor palpatine, f451, farhenheit 451, firstborn, flow my tears the policeman said, foundation, Frank Herbert, fremen, FTL, gene roddenberry, george lucas, god, god emperor of dune, guy montag, h.g. wells, harkonnens, hyperspatial drive, i robot, indoctrination virus, Isaac Asimov, judea-christianity, justice, kaballah, Kefitzat Haderech, kwisatz haderach, leto II, luke skywalker, midichlorians, monoliths, Obi Wan, one state, padishah emperor, Paul Atreides, Philip k dick, picard, PKD, prescience, Qui gonn Jin, Ray Bradbury, redemption ark, revelation space, robert a heinlein, sandworms, sky haussmann, sky's edge, spice, Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Star Wars, starfleet, stranger in a strange land, the big three, the enterprise, the exegesis of philip k dick, The Force, the jesus incident, the lazarus effect, the shape of things to come, VALIS, VALIS trilogy, war of the worlds, World State, yevgeny zamyatin

Since its inception as a literary genre, religion has played an important role in science fiction. Whether it took the form of informing the author’s own beliefs, or was delivered as part of their particular brand of social commentary, no work of sci-fi has ever been bereft of spirituality.Even self-professed atheists and materialists had something […]

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Of Faster-Than-Light Travel

by storiesbywilliams on July 10, 2012 in Books, Cool Stuff, Movies, Sci-Fi, Series and tagged albert einstein, alcubierre drive, Amazing Stories, ark, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Colleen Doran, controlled singularity, doctor who, Dune, einstein's theory of relativity, Eye of Harmony, faster than light, faster-than-light travel, foldspace, foundation universe, FTL, guild navigator, hard sci-fi, heart of gold, hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, holtzman drive, holtzman engines, homeworld, hyperdrive, hyperspace, hyperspatial drive, i robot, Ian Douglas, infinite probability drive, infinite probably drive, Islands of Space, ixian machine, ixian navigator machine, John Campbell, jump drive, jump gates, Light, M. John Harrison, Macross/Robotech, Mass Effect, microsoft, Miguel Alcubierre, Orbiter, spice, spice mutant, Star Carrier, Star Trek, Star Wars, starcraft, stargate, starship troopers, Stephen Baxter, subspace, tardis, technical error, time-space dilation, warp, warp bubble, warp drive, warp field, Warren Ellis, wing commander, wing commander privateer, wormhole

It’s a popular concept, the fictional technology that could help us break that tricky light barrier. And it’s not hard to see why. The universe is a really, really, REALLY big place! And if we ever want to begin exploring and colonizing our tiny corner of it – and not have to deal with all […]

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Sci-Fi Drugs

by storiesbywilliams on June 4, 2012 in Books, Cool Stuff, Movies, Sci-Fi, Series and tagged a gram is better than a damn, A Scanner Darkly, Babylon 5, bene gesserit, bester, black thunder, blue velvet, Brave New World, cain, can-d, cocaine, dancer, drug counter-culture, drug culture, drug subculture, Dune, dust, enki virus, g'kar, guild navigators, keannu reaves, L. Bob Rife, layouts, leto II, londo mollari, mdma, minority report, neuroin, new-path, nuke, OCP, old detroit, Paul Atreides, pcp, perky pat, Philip k dick, PKD, precognitives, PreCrime, prescients, psi cops, psi corps, red ramrod, robert downey jr, robocain, robocop, robocop 2, S-D, sharing, slow death, snow crash, Soma, spice, substance d, sumerian tablet, the bridge trilogy, the guild, the spice melange, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, tom cruise, tower of babel myth, war on drugs, white noise, William Gibson, winona ryder, woody harrelson, World State

The other night, I had one of those moments. It was a moment where I found myself thinking about a cool concept and realized that it would make a damn fine post. It’s also one that interests me quite a bit and has even influenced my own writing. So as quickly as I could, I […]

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Technology in the Dune Universe

by storiesbywilliams on June 3, 2012 in Books, Movies, Sci-Fi, Series and tagged arrakis, atomics, axlotl tank, duke leto atreides, Dune, fedaykin, foldspace, foldspace technology, Frank Herbert, fremen, guild heighliners, guild navigators, holtzman engines, holtzman shields, house atreides, house corrin, Ixian, ixian probe, lasgun, leto II, miles teg, no-chamber, no-ship, ornithopter, Paul Atreides, prison planet, sand crawler, sandworms, sardaukar, Sci-Fi, science fiction, selusca secundus, spice, stillsuits, stone burner, technology of dune, the bene gesserit, the bulterian jihad, the fremen, the great convention, the tleilaxu

Hello again techies and social studies experts! I’m sorry, I assume those are the only two kinds of people who would enjoy these posts Regardless, I love doing them, mainly because it gives me a chance to exercise a little critical thinking when it comes to some of the most popular franchises of science fiction. […]

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Cool Ships!

by storiesbywilliams on April 29, 2012 in Cool Ships, Movies, Sci-Fi, Series and tagged Alien, aliens, b5 crusade, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, book, building better worlds, cache weapons, captain sheridan, cat, chewi, cheyenne dropship, cloaking device, colonial marines, commander adama, companion, conestoga-class, corellia, corellian ships, cylons, deep space nine, defiant-class, delenn, drakh, dropship, firefly, firefly-class, han solo, hegazi, hell-class weapons, hoben washburne, ilia volovya, inara serra, interstellar alliance, j michael straczynski, jabba the hutt, jayne cobb, kaylee, kessel, kessel run, lighthugger, lister, malcolm reynolds, melding plague, millennium falcon, mimbari, phasers, president roselyn, quantum torpedoes, red dwarf, religious caste, revelation space, rimmer, river tam, romulans, sajaki, secret compartments, serenity, shepherd book, simon tam, spice, star trek ds9, Star Trek TNG, the alliance, the borg, the defiant, the dominion, the empire, the excalibur, the galactica, the pegasus, the rangers, the sao paolo, the twelve colonies, the valiant, the victory, the white star, ultranauts, ultras, uss nostromo, uss sulaco, wash, Weyland Yutani, white star destroyers, white star fleet, xenomorphs, zoe, zoe washburne

God, what an obvious extension of the whole conceptual sci-fi thing, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it sooner! After all, what is a sci-fi franchise without some cool spacefaring vessels? Sometimes, these come in the form of exploratory ships that chart the unknown regions of the galaxy. Sometimes they are battleships which kick […]

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Hunters of Dune, part II

by storiesbywilliams on November 19, 2011 in Books, Reviews and tagged arrakis, axlotl, axlotl tanks, baron harkonnen, baron vladimir harkonnen, bene gesserit, bene tleilax, caladan, chani, chapterhouse, chapterhouse dune, dan, duncan idaho, Dune, dune: house corrino, face dancers, fan fiction, fanfic, fremen, gammu, geidi prime, ghola, gholas, guild, guild navigators, gurney halleck, honored matres, hunters of dune, Ix, Ixian, Jessica, khrone, kwisatz haderach, lady jessica, melange, murbella, oracle of infinity, oracle of time, paul, Paul Atreides, rakis, richesse, sandworms of dune, Sci-Fi, science fiction, scytale, serena butler, sheeana, sisterhood, spacing guild, spice, spice melange, stilgar, thufir hawat, tleilaxu, uxtal, vladimir harkonnen, waff, xavier harkonnen

Okay, now that I’ve managed to sum up the book, let’s get down to why it sucked! In addition to the usual weakness one can expect out of a book by these two – bad characters, bad story, cliches, and a general feeling of exploitation – there were several other glaring points. As usual, I’ve […]

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Hunters of Dune, a review

by storiesbywilliams on November 17, 2011 in Books, Reviews and tagged arrakis, axlotl, axlotl tanks, baron harkonnen, baron vladimir harkonnen, bene gesserit, bene tleilax, caladan, chani, chapterhouse, chapterhouse dune, dan, duncan idaho, Dune, dune: house corrino, face dancers, fan fiction, fanfic, fremen, gammu, geidi prime, ghola, gholas, guild, guild navigators, gurney halleck, honored matres, hunters of dune, Ix, Ixian, Jessica, khrone, kwisatz haderach, lady jessica, melange, murbella, oracle of infinity, oracle of time, paul, Paul Atreides, rakis, richesse, sandworms of dune, Sci-Fi, science fiction, scytale, serena butler, sheeana, sisterhood, spacing guild, spice, spice melange, stilgar, thufir hawat, tleilaxu, uxtal, vladimir harkonnen, waff, xavier harkonnen

Oh boy, it’s finally here! After years of waiting and having to endure those horrible prequels, the long-awaited conclusion is finally here! Yes, that’s what I thought when I first heard the news. After years of making us wait and spend our hard earned money on a sleuth of teaser prequels and filler, Brian Herbert […]

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Legends of Dune Prequels

by storiesbywilliams on November 5, 2011 in Books, Reviews and tagged agamemnon, AI, Brian Herbert, Butlerian Jihad, cymeck, Dune, dune interquels, dune prequels, dune sequels, erasmus, evil the cat, fan fiction, foldspace, foldspace technology, Frank Herbert, fremen, geidi prime, ginaz, ginaz swordmasters, golden duck, guild highliners, holtzman engines, hunters of dune, iblis ginjo, Kevin J Anderson, KJA, legends of dune, machines, mentat, norma cenva, omnius, sandworms of dune, selusa secundus, serena butler, spice, spice harvesting, synchronized worlds, the fremen, the guild, the machine crusade, the spice, thinking machines, tio holtzman, titans, tleilaxu, vorian atreides, xavier harkonnen

Last time around, I made a big deal about prequels and why they aren’t so good. And of course, the Dune prequels were featured pretty prominently in that post. However, what I came to realize shortly after writing it was that I’ve never dedicated a post to the prequel work of Brian Herbert and Kevin […]

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Dune Miniseries (best lines, revisited)

by storiesbywilliams on August 5, 2011 in Movies, Reviews and tagged baron harkonnen, bene gesserit, chani, classic sci-fi, Dune, Dune 2000, Dune miniseries, emperor, fenrig, feyd, Frank Herbert, frank herberts dune, guild, irulan, kwisatz hadderach, Leto, Maker, Paul Atreides, plyometric, princess irulan, Sci-Fi, science fiction, spice, taekwon-do

Yesterday, more lines were coming to me as I busted my butt to get through Taekwon-Do class. I don’t know, it seems plyometric exercises are all the rage these days. Did I mention I hate them? I hate em, I HATE EM! But my aching shins and stiff muscles aside, it was good in that […]

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