The main barrier to interstellar travel is the vast distance from one star to the next, and the universal limit known as lightspeed. This hasn’t stopped science fiction authors from imagining ways to speed up the process, and here Paul Lucas takes us through the main theories behind faster-than-light travel, their origins, and their scientific underpinnings.
Issue: March 2006
How Deep the Cold, Red Sands
We’ve known for ages it wasn’t the only choice. Why should chlorophyl, with its complicated dependency on secondary reactions, triumph over other, more direct photosynthetic compounds? But nature, as always, [...]
Dream a Little Dream: RE’s Favorite Fantasy Titles
You’ve seen our science fiction pics. You’ve seen our favorite horror. Now we’re back with a highly biased, hugely enthusiastic list of the fantasy books we couldn’t live without. If you want to share your fantasy favorites, drop us a line via our blog.
Lockbox
Burnt meat and smoke.
Anna Saar looked down and tapped her feet drunkenly, out of time with the game-show music piping out of the speakers at the other end of the [...]
Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained, by Peter F. Hamilton
Bestselling author Peter F. Hamilton’s latest epic science fiction series.
Space Cowgirl
I woke up to a mutated left hand; no dream, and no joke. The network of blue veins that had become so obvious across the back of it was not [...]
Lilith
It was an evil night in an evil place. The moon’s reflection mocked the shadowy trade where night merchants in dark alleys dealt what day commerce would not. From this [...]
Bluetick
Walter Shelton patted and smoothed the mound of red clay with the back of the shovel. Another long, hot Georgia day was done, and Helen no doubt had corn bread, [...]