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Classic SF with Andy Johnson

@andyjohnson.xyz
711 followers 185 following 2.1K posts

Exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s. Weekly articles and podcast at andyjohnson.xyz

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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 29/09/2026
China continues to absolutely crush it where book design is concerned. Some UK classic SF authors in translation, represented in the huge Eslite store in Suzhou.
Chinese edition of The Player of Games (1988) by Iain M. Banks Chinese edition of Concrete Island (1974) by J. G. Ballard Chinese edition of Non-Stop (1958) by Brian AldisaEslite bookshop in Suzhou, China
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 29/09/2026
China continues to absolutely crush it where book design is concerned. Some UK classic SF authors in translation, represented in the huge Eslite store in Suzhou.
Chinese edition of The Player of Games (1988) by Iain M. Banks Chinese edition of Concrete Island (1974) by J. G. Ballard Chinese edition of Non-Stop (1958) by Brian AldisaEslite bookshop in Suzhou, China
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 21/09/2026
Space elevators have shown up frequently in SF, but Arthur C. Clarke popularised them with his novel The Fountains of Paradise (1979). My new piece looks at this optimistic story of mega-engineering, set in a version of Sri Lanka.
andyjohnson.xyz
Down to the wire: The Fountains of Paradise (1979) by Arthur C. Clarke
A better future through mega-engineering
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 25/09/2026
The Day of Creation (1987) by J. G. Ballard ✅ - the archetypal Ballard protagonist (a listless middle-aged doctor) accidentally "creates" a river and causes psychic and ecological upheaval in a fictional African country.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 24/09/2026
The prolific, sometimes brilliant, British SF writer John Brunner (1934 - 1995) was born on this day. I've covered his work fairly extensively, most recently his fourth and final "tract novel", The Shockwave Rider (1975). As a prediction of an online society, it is by turns prescient and naive.
andyjohnson.xyz
Computer fugitive: The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner
On the run in the networked society
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 24/09/2026
If you're in the vicinity of exotown LV-539 (AKA "Brighton") on 14 October, and you like Aliens - and who doesn't? - this sounds like a great time!
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 24/09/2026
Via @renay.bsky.social, here's an interesting Five Books interview with Mingwei Song on Chinese SF, including an interpretation of the "poetic heart" of Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem series.
fivebooks.com
The Best Chinese Science Fiction
Chinese science fiction is increasingly available in English, and mirrors the country’s philosophical and historical developments. Chinese literature scholar Mingwei Song, a professor at Wellesley, ta...
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 24/09/2026
My actually "low-tech way to enjoy music and movies" is to use elaborate smoke signals to recreate them from memory.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 21/09/2026
Space elevators have shown up frequently in SF, but Arthur C. Clarke popularised them with his novel The Fountains of Paradise (1979). My new piece looks at this optimistic story of mega-engineering, set in a version of Sri Lanka.
andyjohnson.xyz
Down to the wire: The Fountains of Paradise (1979) by Arthur C. Clarke
A better future through mega-engineering
2126
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 21/09/2026
Soldier, Ask Not (1967) by Gordon R. Dickson ✅ - another infallible giga-genius sets the galaxy to rights, this time a "newsman" out for revenge. This one was a slog, slim though it is.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 21/09/2026
Sometimes the best form of spacecraft propulsion is a truck.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 20/09/2026
George R. R. Martin was born on this day in 1948. He may now be "the American Tolkien", but he established himself with his science fiction. Here, I wrote about his books Dying of the Light (1977) and Tuf Voyaging (1986).
andyjohnson.xyz
A Thousand Worlds: Dying of the Light (1977) and Tuf Voyaging (1986) by George R.R. Martin
A look at the only two full-length works in the Thousand Worlds science fiction setting by the author of A Game of Thrones.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 20/09/2026
George R. R. Martin was born on this day in 1948. He may now be "the American Tolkien", but he established himself with his science fiction. Here, I wrote about his books Dying of the Light (1977) and Tuf Voyaging (1986).
andyjohnson.xyz
A Thousand Worlds: Dying of the Light (1977) and Tuf Voyaging (1986) by George R.R. Martin
A look at the only two full-length works in the Thousand Worlds science fiction setting by the author of A Game of Thrones.
041
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 16/09/2026
The Fountains of Paradise (1979) by Arthur C. Clarke ✅ - classic Clarke, about the construction of a space elevator in a slightly fictionalised Sri Lanka. A very solid tale, hardly cutting edge even for its time, but with a quite moving ending.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
shaun @shaunvids.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
the only threats "AI" poses to society are when people put it in charge of things that require thought, or crash the economy over it, or destroy the environment to power it. but it's people doing all of those things. AI poses zero threat by itself as it cannot do anything due to not existing
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 13/09/2026
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell [Volume II] (2004) by Susanna Clarke ✅ - another 370 pages of this flew by, and it's still witty and engaging. But good grief is it circuitous, circling constantly while scarcely going anywhere.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 11/09/2026
Six months ago today (is that a thing?) was the launch event for my first book - great memories of sharing the experience of writing MANIC STREET PREACHERS: SONG BY SONG with a receptive audience!
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 11/09/2026
The wait for 3 Body Problem series 2 is getting ridiculous at this point - very nearly two and half years and counting.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 10/09/2026
"AI" execs are pushing a transparent con based on a bit of half-remembered print SF, invocations of The Terminator, and their own delusions of grandeur reinforced by the chatbots they made.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Scifi Art @scifiart.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Art by David B. Mattingly for Manshape by John Brunner (1982)
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 09/09/2026
Tactics of Mistake (1971) by Gordon R. Dickson ✅ - the brilliant military hypergenius Cletus Grahame outsmarts ally and enemy alike across multiple worlds. Not surprisingly, this was serialised in Analog.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 07/09/2026
Never good to see a bookshop close, but this one never seemed too lively and Waterstones moving much closer to it has largely eliminated its reason for being.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 07/09/2026
The Scams of Distant Oafs
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 06/09/2026
I'm sure the book is very worthwhile but sadly the genuine one itself looks like a low-effort fake. The scammers are the main villains here, but this is just one way publishers undermine writers with cheapjack cover art.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 06/09/2026
I'm sure the book is very worthwhile but sadly the genuine one itself looks like a low-effort fake. The scammers are the main villains here, but this is just one way publishers undermine writers with cheapjack cover art.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 04/09/2026
XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Hugely expands the game, amazing new character types, and the Chosen are a thrilling additional threat.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 03/09/2026
Next up, a gift from @gareth.entertainium.co: Star Trek 1 (1967) by James Blish, which adapts seven scripts for TOS S1 into short stories. Amusingly, Blish apparently had not seen any Star Trek at the time...
A copy of the 1972 Corgi UK edition of Star Trek 1 (1967) by James Blish. McCoy, Kirk, Spock, and Scotty are pictured above a huge "1", with a small USS Enterprise in front of it.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 03/09/2026
For the good ship @official.entertainium.co, I've belatedly reviewed the nostalgic shooter Agent 64: Spies Never Die.
entertainium.co
Review: Spy Shooter Agent 64: Spies Never Die Is Retro To A Fault – Entertainium
Agent 64: Spies Never Die is a homage to the N64 era that is more imitative than innovative.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Stephen LN @riffsandmeaning.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Point Break: Minute-by-minute is OUT TODAY! The joy of writing this book was immeasurable. A summer of locking in to Point Break frame by frame. www.bloomsbury.com/ca/point-bre...
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 31/08/2026
J. M. Gandy's 1830 painting of the Bank of England: "a cutaway axonometric" which depicts the structure "both seemingly in ruins and under construction". Almost all of Sir John Soane's work on the Bank was demolished after 1925.
"A Bird’s-eye view of the Bank of England", an extremely detailed watercolour painting of the Bank of England as it was in 1830, depicted in "cutaway axonometric". Painted by Joseph Michael Gandy (1771 - 1843).
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 01/09/2026
Humble are really on a roll lately: after bundles for Robert Silverberg and Tanith Lee, they now have one for the great Greg Bear. 27 ebooks here, which amounts to the bulk of his work.
humblebundle.com
Humble Book Bundle: The Greg Bear Birthday Bundle by Open Road Media
Enter the far futures and consciousness-expanding adventures of sci-fi master novelist Greg Bear! Pay what you want and support SFWA!
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Andrew F. Sullivan @afsulli.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
books can be about bad people. the characters are not your friends. the protagonist is not you.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
John Coulthart @johncoulthart.com · 31/08/2026
New blog post: It's Fantastic! It's Futuristic! It's Fatalistic! It's Science Fiction!
johncoulthart.com
It’s Fantastic! It’s Futuristic! It’s Fatalistic! It’s Science Fiction!
There's a worthwhile documentary struggling to be born in this film which is compromised by its hyperbolic title and a running time of 48 minutes, not nearly enough to contain a history of science fiction, past and present. I'm not a media historian so I can't say whether this was the first serious examination of written science fiction made for British TV but if it wasn't there wouldn't have been many that preceded it.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 31/08/2026
J. M. Gandy's 1830 painting of the Bank of England: "a cutaway axonometric" which depicts the structure "both seemingly in ruins and under construction". Almost all of Sir John Soane's work on the Bank was demolished after 1925.
"A Bird’s-eye view of the Bank of England", an extremely detailed watercolour painting of the Bank of England as it was in 1830, depicted in "cutaway axonometric". Painted by Joseph Michael Gandy (1771 - 1843).
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 31/08/2026
Some evocative SF bridges in this week's roundup from @70sscifiart.bsky.social. I particularly like the piece from Philippe Druillet, and its likely 1844 inspiration from Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard.
70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io
Bridges
When it comes to visually appealing architecture, bridges have a certain sweeping gravitas.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 31/08/2026
Finally getting around to reading my copy of Nifft the Lean (1982), Michael Shea's scarce fantasy collection, which I snagged in the Hague last year for €4. 🧵
A DAW first printing of Nifft the Lean (1982) by Michael Shea, pictured with other books in The American Book Center, the Hague, the Netherlands.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 31/08/2026
Finally getting around to reading my copy of Nifft the Lean (1982), Michael Shea's scarce fantasy collection, which I snagged in the Hague last year for €4. 🧵
A DAW first printing of Nifft the Lean (1982) by Michael Shea, pictured with other books in The American Book Center, the Hague, the Netherlands.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 30/08/2026
Received a fair chunk of the Dorsai series by Gordon R. Dickson today as a belated birthday gift. Also got the first new omnibus of James White's Sector General series.
Late 1980s Sphere printing of Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. DicksonLate 1980s Sphere printing of Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. DicksonLate 1980s Sphere printing of The Spirit of Dorsai by Gordon R. DicksonLate 1980s Sphere printing of Lost Dorsai by Gordon R. Dickson
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 29/08/2026
The Shores of Death (1966) by Michael Moorcock ✅ - the Earth no longer rotates and humans are all sterile following a raid by inscrutable aliens. Ex-politician Clovis Marca, born in the twilight zone, seeks out a source of hope.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 27/08/2026
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell [Volume I] (2004) by Susanna Clarke ✅ - definitely engaged by this first volume, which amounts to about a quarter of the whole, huge novel. More humour than I expected.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 24/08/2026
The Dragon in the Sword (1986) by Michael Moorcock ✅ - the final John Daker novel (published 16 years after the other two) and one of the "endings" to the sprawling Eternal Champion saga.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 20/08/2026
The Firemaker (1999) by Peter May ✅ - inspired by Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park (1981), this is a protracted crime thriller set in Beijing.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 19/08/2026
Big things coming from easily one of the best podcasts to cover SF.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 18/08/2026
As I say every time I see it mentioned, Greg Bear's Blood Music (1985) is a brilliant novel.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 15/08/2026
Welcome new followers! My most recent essay covers Hawksbill Station (1968), Robert Silverberg's excellent time travel novel.
andyjohnson.xyz
Prisoners of the past: Hawksbill Station (1968) by Robert Silverberg
A swift tale of political radicals trapped in the late Cambrian period
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 17/08/2026
Some seem to be quite relaxed about this, or claim that books can always be reprinted. But a lot of great SF books (for example) have been out of print since before I was born. Every lost or destroyed copy may never be replaced.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 16/08/2026
Sabella (1980) by Tanith Lee ✅ - on the colony of Novo Mars, the reclusive and self-controlled vampire Sabella is lured into a trap.
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Reposted by Classic SF with Andy Johnson
Jessica Finn 🏳️‍⚧️ @pelicanismo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
cs lewis taking shots at TESCREAL in 1938 (out of the silent planet)
‘Well, said Ransom, 'you hold all the cards, and I must make the best of it. I consider your philosophy of life raving lunacy. I suppose all that stuff about infinity and eternity means that you think you are justified in doing anything-absolutely anything-here and now, on the off chance that some creatures or other descended from man as we know him may crawl about a few centuries longer in some part of the universe.’
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 16/08/2026
Sabella (1980) by Tanith Lee ✅ - on the colony of Novo Mars, the reclusive and self-controlled vampire Sabella is lured into a trap.
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Classic SF with Andy Johnson @andyjohnson.xyz · 15/08/2026
Welcome new followers! My most recent essay covers Hawksbill Station (1968), Robert Silverberg's excellent time travel novel.
andyjohnson.xyz
Prisoners of the past: Hawksbill Station (1968) by Robert Silverberg
A swift tale of political radicals trapped in the late Cambrian period
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