Science Fiction News!

The next World Science Fiction Convention - LAConV - will be held in Anaheim near Los Angeles August 27-31 2026. Among the featured events will be a live performance of my science-fictional - and theological - play "The Escape!" (If you are a theater producer/director, contact me for a show pass!.

 

Science Fiction's prestigious Hugo Award finalist list came out this morning! Vote as a member of the 84th annual World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim, California, Or pick up a virtual membership which gives you the ability to access some of our awesome programming from afar for just $85.00! Either way, if you join soon, you can vote in the Hugos!

(Hugo Awards are also great mantel ornaments, if you balance the effect with three of them. Take my word for that.)

Oh... hint... have a look at what might (I suggest) be a good nominee for Best SF-related nonfiction of 2026!

My nonfiction collection, Through Stranger Eyes: Reviews, Introductions, Tributes and Iconoclastic Essays - has been re-released.

== Good things to read, meanwhile ==

Barnes & Noble list 25 basic science fictional ‘tropes’, giving examples of each, from teleportation to hyperdrive to alien invasion.  My works are cited as examples twice. Fun list! 

Now available in e-version! Subterranean sold out of their deluxe collector’s edition of The Best of David Brin. Now it’s available in e-version. And just released in paperback by Amazing Stories.

If you missed my serialized sci fi comedy novel entitled The Ancient Ones… here’s a link to the first 8 or so chapters with lovely illustrations. And lots of Yuks! (Or else yucks, you decide!)

Speaking of sci fi comedy… Dang. This one - Beam Me Up, Bubba! - makes AI worthwhile!

And one more of mine: Can industrial innovation be restored, down at the level of amateurs, hobbyists and local love of skill? Here’s my own comic book about American innovation in the near future is TINKERERS!  

Terry Pratchett's comedy series is now a fun movie: The Color of Magic.

And more pertinent than ever, for right now. “Brin reads the opening of EXISTENCE.”

 

      == Meanwhile… ==

Oh, human augmentation is also the topic of a whole chapter in ailien minds!

It's a theme that's straight outta sci fi and while I give talks to defense folks about Human Augmentation... the "Enhanced Games" will allow athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs, as in Achilles' Choice by Niven & Barnes. Let's have 5+ Olympics:

1. A return to a core one for amateurs

2. One for pros

3. The Special, of course for those who overcome so much

4. Robots! and animals

5. Cyborgs! And

6. Dome flying on the moon!... and a 7th on open-invite to any aliens or uplifted critters who wanna come on down and join in. Keep inviting till someone shows.

And no. SNUB the UFO guys! They are nasty bad-guests, if they exist. (And they likely don't.)

== Okay... this one impressed me... ==

Someone prompted an LLM to write a prologue and 1st chapters of an uplift novel in the style of David Brin. Have a look fif you like. Interestingly, the intellectual content of the piece... its complexity and pertinence of ideas... is almost satisfactory, while the basic mechanics of style and fiction narrative are so lacking that I'd have to spend hours tutoring a young author in my Out of Time YA series, in order to get it close to my standards of basic craft. My universe? Perhaps. My style? Puh-lease.

 == More SciFi News ==

I truly am still writing sci fi... or at least helping others to do so.

My YA series Yanked -- or David Brin's Out of Time series* - has been re-released, with new additions, including Storm's Eye by October K. Santerelli, and The Archimedes Gambit by Patrick Freivald. Re-releases of the original three by Kress, Finch and Allen. 

And now three more! Boondoggle by Tom Easton and Torion Oey, Raising the Roof, by Richard Doyle, and Snowdance by SciFi legend Allen Steele and Robin Orm Hansen!

You'll love em all!

Finally... a reminder:  I'm posting my SF comedy The Ancient Ones, chapter by chapter. Samples were available on my website. Be ready for laughs + painful puns! And some sci fi concepts taken to um... extremes. Oh and there'll be freebies for best groaner comments to adjust the final version.

*The “Out of Time” (or “Yanked!”) series: Only teens can teleport through time and space! Dollops of fun, adventure & optimism for young adults.

Why we have some goodwill around the globe, rooting for us to overcome (again) our recurring demons... And the real danger when we're hit by that coming 9/11 Reichstag Fire.

As the Putinists continue wrecking all U.S. institutions and turning the world (including longtime allies) against us, it's important to recall how much goodwill Trump and his ilk must eliminate, before that promise to Moscow can be fulfilled. Of course all empires are disliked, but elsewhere I describe how George Marshall, FDR, Truman, Ike etc. set things up so that humanity would have its best 80 years, ever. Better than all of prior human history combined. Resulting in the *least hated* empire. That is... until now.

Okay, Pax Americana will never be the same after Trump. And maybe that's good. Other centers of Enlightenment are stepping up. But when the Union finally wins this latest phase 9 of Civil War betrayal by our idiot Hyde-Side neighbors, watch the joy burst forth around the globe... and across all Americans of goodwill and sapience. 

Want evidence for that assertion? Amid our self-reproach, Let's remember times when America did take brave steps toward light. There are others, on this planet, who remember, as well. And you need the gift that I am about to give you.

This song by Michel Sardou is called "Les Ricains" which means, more or less, "The Yankees." Here are the lyrics, to read along.

Les Ricains by Michel Sardou

If the Ricans weren't there

Si les Ricains n'étaient pas là

You would all be in Germania

Vous seriez tous en Germanie

To speak of I don't know what

A parler de je ne sais quoi

To greet I do not know who

A saluer je ne sais qui

Of course years have passed

Bien sûr les années ont passé

The rifles changed hands

Les fusils ont changé de mains

Is this a reason to forget

Est-ce une raison pour oublier

That one day we needed it?

Qu'un jour on en a eu besoin?

A guy from Georgia

Un gars venu de Georgie

Who cared a lot about you

Qui se foutait pas mal de toi

Came to die in Normandy

Est v'nu mourir en Normandie

One morning when you weren't there

Un matin où tu n'y étais pas

Of course years have passed

Bien sûr les années ont passé

We became friends

On est devenus des copains

To the friendly of the shot

A l'amicale du fusillé

They say they fell for nothing

On dit qu'ils sont tombés pour rien

If the Ricans weren't there

Si les Ricains n'étaient pas là

You would all be in Germania

Vous seriez tous en Germanie

To speak of I don't know what

A parler de je ne sais quoi

To greet I do not know who

A saluer je ne sais qui

Got you a little misty-eyed?

Even better is this version... a huge crowd of French people cheering and singing along. Capable of gratitude.  They know that this American Pax, for all of its faults, prevented vastly worse. That things could have been a hell, a curse. That every other era of dismal human history was worse. 

And if we do not blow it now, we have a chance to be recalled by our heirs - organic and cyber - the true humans - as the very best that cavemen could be. Crude, bestial primitives who tried nonetheless to lift our gaze and those around us. To something better.

Listen and read along. We need this now. Right now!

Try. I dare you not to tear up, in gratitude for this gratitude.

          == But we have a tough job keeping that promise == 

Alas, the Kremlin boyz and confederates and murder sheiks have the upper hand for now and they and stick together. 

Latest example: Trump has issued special exemptions letting Putin sell oil, evading world sanctions for his murderously criminal invasion of Ukraine. Fox News is a 5th column of the relabeled KGB's propaganda Comintern that has used blackmail to take over the entire Republican Party.

Amid the hooplah over the Strait of Hormuz -- ("YOU block it? No, *I* get to block it!") -- Trump has all along made offers to the Iranian Republican Guard and Religious Police etc. to make deals with him, in exchange for them kissing his ring. 

It's already happened! In Venezuela, Argentina, El Salvador etc. - and possibly soon in Cuba (DT shouts "They're next!") - the aim is never, ever to establish democracy or to liberate citizens from their oppressors.

The pattern is perfectly that of mafiosi and that of an ex casino mogul. Taking over another gang's territory by decapitating it's top capo, then getting allegiance (and resulting vigorish) from the sub-capos of the gang that's left in place. 

This is now so blatant that no other theory is remotely tenable. LOOK at this image of Maduro's VP Rodriguez, all spiffed and glammed-up and grin-hugging Trump's consigliere, eager to serve... and to send Trump personally a shipment of gold! And nothing for the Venezuelan people.

Oh, and Miami crime families will slip in atop the Castro power structure in Cuba. 

This is a Mafia gang and the capo di tutti capi is named Vlad. 

His other goal? Riling up enough enemies (who had been quiescent since Obama killed Osama) to deliver us into another 9/11, that he imagines might save him, this fall. Which explains why he fired over half of our counter-terrorism experts. Now why would anyone do that? 

Put it all together folks. 

== The real purpose of the coming Reichstag Fire / 911 strike ==

Everyone will be able to see that the calamity will be a blatant set-up in order to justify declaring an emergency and martial law and to cancel the November election's likely torching of the entire treasonous GOP. 

It won't work, for that reason. Because we all can see it.

Only there is an added, underlying danger that I see discussed nowhere.

Go back to 1933. The purpose of the Reichstag Fire was to excuse the Nazi arrest of dozens of opposition parliament members. And thus, the parliament could never hold a quorum vote for new elections or a new Chancellor.

The lesson?

YOU U.S. SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES: START UPPING YOUR SECURITY RIGHT NOW. 

The Roberts Court has already said Trump could off you, as an 'official act,' to prevent impeachment/conviction. So talk it over. Upgrade practices. Have contingency plans. Grow eyes in the back of your heads. Do it now.

The rest of you? 

When the calamity strikes, get out there and chant "Reichstag Fire!" 

And one more word to show our intent:

"Appomattox!"

== Finally, my qualifications as a history expert! ==

Well, AI has some legit uses. One fan/reader searched the paleontology databases and found this historical record, a bit fuzzy, from the Paleolithic. It shows my legit ancestral claims are valid!

 

Space news! Artemis and the planned 'base'... Slashing NASA science... and no, Avi. It wasn't ET.

Well, well. I'm glad the Artemis crew made it home safe! And yes, this updated/repeat of 1968's Apollo 8 sure was a bit bigger and spiffier!*  

Is it churlish of me to grumble that it launched atop a sewn-together Saturn/Shuttle hybrid rocket that has no future? 

A rocket that did accomplish its main goal -- 30 years of grift by 20 senators for home state contractors? Our $100+ billions spent on a long-obsolete white elephant that nudged 1970s technology forward by millimeters and soon will be abandoned forever?

Money that might instead have been spent on hundreds of enabling technologies that we'll need, in order to actually build a working moon base? We don't have any of them, alas. Almost any. Though the 'plans' currently issued sure are lovely artist conceptions! Without the slightest meat or plausibility. 

(If you are curious about some of those potential and even plausible technologies, drop by the site of NASA's Innovative & Advanced Concepts program - (NIAC)

But let's look at the bright side! The mission was a terrific show! it re-triggered our fond dreams for a while, distracting us from a dismally terrifying year.*  

Alas, I can't be a pollyanna for long. Just look ====> at a long list of science that's being slashed in order to pay for a repeat of Apollo 11. Not just science (the enemy) but also tools we need in order to nail down the effects of climate change. All supposedly in order to pay for another footprint stunt on a plain of poison dust.

Justifications? Don't you dare utter the incantation-mantra "lunar resources.' Or 'Helium Three!!'  I will so smack you.

(* Just like Apollo 8, Artemis II launched in a time of wretched, even unprecedented tension. Indeed, this is the first year that I have seen that rivals in fateful dread that terrifying 1968. 

(But we did persevere past that one. And we'll do it again.)
 

== No, Avi. they're all just (interstellar) comets ==

I restrained myself from commenting on the third ‘hyperbolic-interstellar object’ that was caught plummeting into the solar system, some months back. But sorry, I have an itch to scratch and it must be said.

Yes, these cosmic visitors appear to have some differences from our home grown solar system comets. You would expect iceballs born in a different protostellar nebula to have chemical variations.

Example? Nickel was detected in the coma of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, far more of it than in our own, home-grown comets, plus several other oddities that offer clues to another system formation, near another star. Though it still acted generally like a comet.  And hence… no…  the third-discovered hyperbolic interstellar object, streaking into the Solar System was not a probe by little silver guys! 

Alas, of course, Harvard Professor Avi Loeb leaped to attribute any unusual trait to “it’s aliens!” Though as a comet expert, I demur. (My doctoral dissertation was about comets. as was a1985 novel, Heart of the Comet.) And even the logic is so weird. (A 'sneak-spy' probe that announces itself garishly and has no plausible path to achieve any spying? Ummm)

 Never mind that implausible silliness. Soon, it's likely that the Vera Rubin Telescope will reveal many more of these visitors. And from their spectra alone, we'll learn a lot!

 == But will we ever get to study one up close? ==

It’s hard to study such interlopers.  They are, after all, sweeping in at interstellar "hyperbolic' speeds! Scott Manley explains it well (Though confusing two orbital mechanics terms.)

What Scott didn't know about is the Linares Statite. This was among my favorite projects during the 12 years I served on the advisory external council of NASA's Innovative & Advanced Concepts program - (NIAC).  I deem the Linares Statite to be by far the best way to have probes ready to swoop past the sun and then streak ahead to meet objects like this. Using NO FUEL. Have a look.  

The Linares Statite would use a big solar sail to hover on sunlight, way out at the asteroid belt, without any Keplerian lateral velocity -- (It does take some explaining) -- ready to fold its wings and dive like a peregrine falcon past the sun to catch up with almost anything, such as another 'Oumuamua interstellar visitor. 

Slava Turyshev's Project Sundiver has shown that you get a lot of speed if you snap open the sail at nearest solar passage. In fact it is the best way to streak to the Kuiper Belt. Or even beyond!

And that's the sort of thing we could be doing.

      == Elsewhere in the solar system ==

Over the years, astronomers have spotted holes and large pits dotting Venus’ surface, suggesting the existence of lava tubes. Venusian lava tubes may be especially large and arrayed along volcano rims; they may be some of the most extensive subsurface cavities in the solar system. 

And this relates to plans for either moon or Mars bases. Because we know of many such pits in both places and one imagines they might be perfect places for human-occupied bases!  Since they offer safety from radiation and from thermal cycles...

... and sending robots to explore these sites (and leave little flags to prevent rivals claiming them) would have made a lot of sense. Instead of raving about 'lunar bases' without the needed techs or even a clue where the best places would be.

     == Addenda to give hope (a little) in interesting times ==

According to Peter Diamandis: "Renewables just crossed 49.4% of global electricity capacity. 

"Let me say that again: nearly half of all electricity generation capacity on Earth is now renewable. Solar drove 75% of new additions, bringing the total to 5.15 terawatts. We’re at the halfway mark and the curve is accelerating. 

"This isn’t some future projection. This is today. The energy transition is already here."  

Pakistan is now generating most of its energy via solar. Solar is exploding across Africa. Several European nations achieve total-sustainables several days a year. 

 And want some irony? TEXAS is gradually getting used to the fact that abundant wind and sunlight are making it the leading state in producing sustainable energy! Non-carbon energy generation that the state's politicians fought desperately to sabotage, in Washington DC. Irony abounds.

Diamandis adds: "The average price of a two-carat lab-grown diamond has fallen below $1,000: down 80% since January 2020. Compare that to a natural diamond at $22,000 to $28,000 for the same size."

Peter has long lists of cool tech news to support his evangelical notions about a looming age of abundance, in which we'll have to devise new kinds of VAT taxes just to prevent major deflation! (Thus funding Universal Basic Income (UBI) that he and many others propose.)

I go into a lot of that -- not quite as giddy optimistic -- in my new book on artificial intelligence... ailien minds!

   

               ailien minds

 

    Optimists foretell a golden age of Al-managed abundance. 

    Doomers cry: vast cyber-minds will crush old style humanity! ... or make us irrelevant. 

    Meanwhile, geniuses fostering the artificial intelligence boom. cling to clichés rooted in our dismal past... or else in cheap sci-fi. 

    Is there still time for perspective? 

- on 4 billion years of evolution 

- or 60 centuries of wretched feudalism 

- or how we handled prior tech revolutions 

- or mistakes that keep getting repeated 

- or ways this time may be different?  

    From Al-driven unemployment to deceitful images, to hallucinating LLMs and tools for tyrants... to potential wondrous gifts by machines of loving grace... come see future paths that evade the standard ruts.