First Contact has been in the science fiction lexicon since 1935. According to the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, Murray Leinster first employed the term in his story “Proxima” that appeared in Astounding Stories in March 1935. In the following decades, Clifford Simak,...
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When I was very young, World War II was underway. I’d been born six months before Pearl Harbor and thus was three in 1944 when I developed a fascination for the maps on the pages of the newspaper my father read at the dinner table each evening. They showed troop movements in Europe and the...
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As you may recall, a Wall Street investment advisor named Bernard Madoff was arrested in December 2008 for having operated the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Prosecutors estimated the fraud amounted to $64.8 billion, the sum of the accounts of his 4,800 clients. As of 2020, the account-holders...
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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Today, Northeim is a railroad town of some 29,000 people in northern Germany. But only about 10,000 called it home in 1930, when the Nazi Party began its explosive rise to dominance throughout the country. Historian William Sheridan Allen chose the town for his...
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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Few Americans know anything about Central Asia. Yet a quick glance at the map shows that the region is nestled among Russia to the north, China to the east, Pakistan and India to the south, and Iran to the southwest. In short, the “Stans” of Central...
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Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.