Classic SF with Andy Johnson

8:13

#198 Down to the wire: The Fountains of Paradise...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/09/21

What is 36,000 kilometres long, made of a super-strong material that doesn't exist yet, and replaces rocket launches? It can only be a space elevator, a speculative mega-engineering project that has been a fixture of science fiction since 1979. That was the year that SF superstar Arthur C. Clarke popularised the concept with his novel The Fountains of Paradise. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic...

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8:30

#197 Prisoners of the past: Hawksbill Station (1968)...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/08/05

During Robert Silverberg's well-known peak period from 1967 to 1976, he put his own spin on various familiar SF tropes, from psychic powers to robots. One that he returned to frequently was time travel, and Hawksbill Station is an important example. In this short novel, expanded from a successful novella, time displacement is redeployed as a punishment. For anti-government rebels condemned to live in the Cambrian period, life is a hard, constant struggle to stay sane in a time period hundreds...

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10:47

#196 Winter of the world: Greybeard (1964) by Brian...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/06/19

20 years ago, Alfonso Cuaron's film Children of Men was released to some acclaim. Today, its depiction of a decaying, paranoid UK is often described as chillingly prescient. Less discussed is the central concept - of a sterile world, a world without children being born. The film was loosely based on P.D. James' 1992 novel, which itself has been described as "derivative" of Greybeard - a 1964 novel by British SF legend Brian Aldiss. This episode takes a close look at Greybeard, which was writ...

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8:21

#195 Immortality and morality: The Dancers at the End...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/06/12

This episode returns to the work of Michael Moorcock, and to one of his many trilogies - the playful, baroque books that make up The Dancers at the End of Time. Strongly influenced by the writing and art of the 1890s, these are tales of superpowered, decadent immortals living at the end of everything. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updates, sign up here.

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8:38

#194 Where we come from: The Inheritors (1955) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/05/14

Fateful encounters in the long dawn of early humanity Neanderthals seem to have been a recurring theme here lately. They have shown up in Pat Murphy's The Shadow Hunter (episode 157), in Stephen Baxter's Mammoth trilogy (episode 179), and most recently in Wilson Tucker's novel Ice and Iron (episode 185). This episode focuses on one of the most notable examples of prehistoric SF, William Golding's 1955 novel The Inheritors. What was a secondary element of Baxter's novels - the conflict...

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10:25

#193 Communication breakdown: Fiasco (1986) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/05/07

Humans attempt to communicate with aliens - at any cost It's time to cover - for the first time here - a work by the Polish science fiction icon Stanislaw Lem. It's an unconventional entry point, as this episode focuses on his last novel, Fiasco, published in 1986. It is a fascinating but deeply gloomy piece of work, in which Lem doesn't so much burst the bubble of optimism about humankind's place in the stars, but systematically demolishes it. Approached from various philosophical perspect...

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8:11

#192 Mind, body, spirit, space: Alien Embassy (1977)...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/04/18

A challenging novel of mysticism, power, and alien contact This week brought the news that the British science fiction writer Ian Waton had passed away in Spain, where he had lived for some time. Coincidentally, I was reading Watson's 1977 novel Alien Embassy, the subject of this week's episode. Watson wrote numerous challenging SF novels, including The Embedding (1973) and The Jonah Kit (1975), both previously covered here in episodes 131 and 163, respectively. Watson was also the writer of...

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7:51

#191 Under the domes: Fury (1947) by Henry Kuttner...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/04/11

An influential classic of power and revenge on Venus Like Kallocain, which I covered in episode 188, Fury is another SF novel which was published earlier than my usual jurisdiction - the 1950s to the 1990s. Written by Henry Kuttner and an uncredited C. L. Moore, it is a classic of the so-called "golden age of science fiction", a term I'd personally consign to history. As we'll see, Fury is focused on a highly driven antihero on a transformative mission of revenge on a habitable Venus, the ...

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6:41

#190 Living in the abyss: Medusa’s Children (1977) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/04/02

An entertainingly wild aquatic adventure on two worlds A mid-period novel by Northern Irish SF writer Bob Shaw, Medusa's Children centres on a bizarre scenario. A dwindling group of humans struggle to survive inside a liquid planetoid, preyed upon by hungry squid-like creatures. What does this have to do with Tarrant, an inept aquafarmer working on the Pacific Ocean? Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free week...

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10:46

#189 Computer fugitive: The Shockwave Rider (1975) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/03/19

On the run in the networked society This episode returns to the work of a writer featured frequently here: John Brunner. His prolific output, creative and commercial struggles, and untimely death at the Glasgow Worldcon in 1995 are contribute to him being a fascinating figure. The Shockwave Rider is one of his few novels currently in print. Like his magnum opus Stand on Zanzibar, it is a part of the SF Masterworks series. Written in the mid-1970s, it is one of Brunner's ambitious "tract nov...

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9:41

#188 Thoughts can be punished: Kallocain (1940) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/02/26

Can hope exist in a scientific city of total suspicion? This episode is a look at Kallocain, the final novel by the Swedish poet and and writer Karin Boye, which was published in 1940. Although little known and not available in English until 1966, this bleak book should be recognised more widely as a key example of 20th century dystopian fiction. Set in a repressive state inspired by Boye's visits to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Kallocain focuses on a powerful truth drug, with the pote...

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9:57

#187 Acts of faith: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/02/19

In his book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, David Pringle aptly described A Canticle for Leibowitz as "a beautifully written novel, rich in character and ironic detail, and at the same time funny and sad." Published in 1959, this book was the only novel published by Walter M. Miller Jr. during his lifetime. One of the most highly praised science fiction novels of the 1950s, A Canticle for Leibowitz is in part Miller's reflection on his traumatic experiences in World War II, his Cathol...

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8:44

#186 Spheres within spheres: Matter (2008) by Iain M....

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/02/13

My coverage of Iain M. Banks' wonderful Culture series continues with the seventh novel, Matter, published in 2008. This is the longest Culture novel yet, and in some ways the most complex - set on a vast macrostructure, specifically the artificial planet of Sursamen. Banks weaves an ambitious plot which at times makes the novel feel like Use of Weapons nested inside Inversions - or perhaps it is the other way around. This is literally a story of spheres within spheres, as the different level...

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8:34

#185 The big freeze: Ice and Iron (1974) by Wilson...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/02/05

Confronting a time mystery as a new ice age looms Climate breakdown, and rising temperatures, are a fact of life. But in the 1970s, there was a subset of climate scientists who believed that global cooling was going to be the challenge of the 21st century. Ice and Iron is a little-discussed 1974 novel by the author, critic and fan Wilson Tucker which explores this scenario. It also follows a strange conflict between heavily armed women from the future, and violent nomads, apparently from preh...

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7:26

#184 Caught on tape: The Müller-Fokker Effect (1970)...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/01/29

Another comic inferno from another stupid timeline Back in November, in episode 176, I took a look at The Reproductive System, the first novel by the US writer John Sladek, who produced almost all of his work while living in the UK. This episode tackles his second novel, the even more anarchic The Müller-Fokker Effect, published in 1970. It was not successful, and Sladek did not publish another SF novel for a decade. However, The Müller-Fokker Effect is one of those novels from decades past...

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10:10

#183 Hostile takeover: The Cold Cash War (1977) by...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/01/22

Corporate warfare becomes deadly as the state crumbles Robert Asprin was best known for the humorous fantasy series MythAdventure and for creating the influential Thieves' World series of anthologies which ran from 1979 to 1989. But before launching either of those long-running enterprises, Asprin got his start in science fiction. His story of corporate mercenaries in the August 1977 issue of Analog was followed immediately by a full-length version, his debut novel The Cold Cash War. Fairly ...

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9:29

#182 Wish it was here: Last Letters from Hav (1985)...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/01/15

The definitive travel guide to a place that never existed Like J. G. Ballard's Crash - featured in episode 149 - Last Letters From Hav is another novel which might challenge or expand definitions of science fiction. Originally published in 1985, the book is a work of veteran British travel writer Jan Morris, who died in 2020. Sitting comfortably alongside her books on cities like Oxford, Venice, and New York, it is a travelogue - the difference being that Hav is a fictional place. But what is...

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9:23

#181 Think fast: Brain Wave (1954) by Poul Anderson

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2026/01/11

The influential classic of enhanced intelligence with a breakneck pace An early novel by Poul Anderson, Brain Wave (1954) is also a landmark science fiction story on the topic of intelligence enhancement. Unlike in the later Flowers for Algernon (1966) - see episode 148 - an explosive rise of brainpower is not the work of human scientists. Instead, the whole world gets a huge intelligence boost, as the Earth exits a vast cosmic field which for millions of years had inhibited "c...

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19:48

#180 The ten best SF books I read in 2025

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/12/18

It's time for the final episode of 2025! Find out which were the top 10 science fiction books I read over the course of the year, along with five honourable mentions. Plus, a brief reflection on how the year has gone, some plans for 2026, and a thank you to everyone who has listened, shared, and got in touch over the last 12 months. And: corny sound effects! Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, visit andyjohnson.xyz. To get free weekly classic SF updat...

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8:49

#179 Walk like thunder: the mammoth trilogy (1999 -...

Classic SF with Andy Johnson ·

2025/11/27

Published between 1999 and 2001, the Mammoth trilogy is a fascinating set of linked SF novels by Stephen Baxter. In reality, mammoths died out 4,000 years ago but Baxter imagines a different fate for them. Thoroughly researched and at times quite moving, these are fine examples of science fiction which does without major human characters, and has readers view the world through the eyes of a very different creature. Get in touch with a text message! For more classic SF reviews and discussion, ...

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