Richard Leis

Horror Writer & Poet

Month: August 2016

  • The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

    The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

    Lisa Williamson’s wonderful The Art of Being Normal explores the complicated and emotional coming-of-age of two English teenagers.

  • The Economic Singularity by Calum Chace

    The Economic Singularity by Calum Chace

    Much of The Economic Singularity by Calum Chace is devoted to supporting the argument that machines will take over many and eventually most jobs from humans.

  • Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey

    Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey

    What I like most about The Expanse series of books by James S.A. Corey so far are the characters. In the second book, Caliban’s War, a few new characters are introduced, including my new favorite, Bobbie Draper, a Martian Marine. Her story is one of two frames, beginning right after the prologue that introduces the…

  • Now Humanity Feels the Tug of Proxima b, Too

    Now Humanity Feels the Tug of Proxima b, Too

    It’s good to be skeptical, but it’s also nice to see rumors confirmed by real and exciting  announcements: the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced today the detection of an exoplanet orbiting the nearby star Proxima Centauri. At a minimum mass 1.3 times that of the Earth’s, Proxima b might be a rocky world. With an orbit of 11.2…

  • The Gilded Razor: A Memoir by Sam Lansky

    The Gilded Razor: A Memoir by Sam Lansky

    Lansky’s account of his drug use is riveting but also very upsetting.

  • The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son On Life, Love, and Loss by Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper

    The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son On Life, Love, and Loss by Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper

    I started Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper’s conversation The Rainbow Comes and Goes not expecting to enjoy it much, but by the end of the book I was thoroughly charmed.

  • Boy Erased: A Memoir by Garrard Conley

    Boy Erased: A Memoir by Garrard Conley

    I highly recommend Garrard Conley’s beautifully written and emotional memoir about his religious upbringing, sexuality, rape, and conversion therapy.

  • Frontier Channel 16 Years Later

    Frontier Channel 16 Years Later

    I started posting online news and commentary about science and technology on January 18, 2000, and I eventually named that effort Frontier Channel. After a few weeks of short posts, I didn’t get back to posting again until January 2002. Two years after that, I finally started posting in earnest, and Frontier Channel enjoyed a nice run with frequent articles through…

  • Regarding Rumors of Earth-Like Planet Orbiting Proxima Centauri

    Regarding Rumors of Earth-Like Planet Orbiting Proxima Centauri

    We’ve been here before: the media gets wind of a possible discovery made by a long-running science project and before there is a peer-reviewed scientific paper published and a press conference, speculation runs wild. In the age of social media, gossip spreads at the speed of the share, and in this digital game of telephone, the…

  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies #206

    Beneath Ceaseless Skies #206

    The stories in issue #206 are about long, painful journeys, but one leads home and the other does not.

  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #205

    Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #205

    I have enjoyed several recent issues of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, but this was a rare issue with stories that didn’t quite work for me.

  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #204

    Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #204

    This was a difficult issue to rate because these two stories were to different degrees a little opaque and difficult for me to read and understand. They both rewarded my effort, however, and gave me much to think about, in terms of their content and their craft.

  • Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #203

    Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #203

    Both stories in issue #203 of BCS deal with transformation, gender, and the strict roles of women and men in two very different societies and two very different settings.

  • Nightmare Magazine, Issue 46

    Nightmare Magazine, Issue 46

    I found some of the stories in Issue 46 of Nightmare Magazine to be a little opaque, making for interesting reading and leaving me to think about possible meanings.