Kristin Janz

Category: Science Fiction

  • Boskone 2018

    I’m at Boskone this weekend (February 16-18), so if you’re here, please find me and say hello! I’m doing a reading, and am on 4 panels.

    Donald and I are also hosting a party on Saturday (February 17th) to promote the new Mysterion online magazine. Room 405, starting at 8 pm.

    Here’s my official schedule for the weekend:

     

    Reading by Kristin Janz
    17 Feb 2018, Saturday 10:00 – 10:30, Independence (Westin)

    Come hear my story about alien anthropologists! “As Travelers in Sky Boats” first appeared in Escape Pod, in 2016.

    CRISPR, Gene Editing, and the Future of Food

    17 Feb 2018, Saturday 11:00 – 12:00, Marina 4 (Westin)

    Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) techniques for gene editing are said to find wide application in the food industry, raising the possibility of food that won’t spoil so fast. Or pigs that carry less harmful fat. Such genetically modified organisms (GMOs) carry considerable promise — plus a fat load of questions about possible consequences. Let’s talk about the future of food.

    David Shaw (M), Rajnar Vajra, Kaitlin R. Branch, Kristin Janz, Stacey Berg

    Faith, Philosophy, and Religion in Speculative Fiction

    17 Feb 2018, Saturday 13:00 – 14:00, Marina 2 (Westin)

    Resolved: science fiction, fantasy, and horror are perfect genres in which to explore ideas and philosophies, especially aspects of religion and faith. True? If so or not so, why? And what dangers do we face in creating new religions (*cough* Hubbard), or in these kinds of speculations generally?

    Rajnar Vajra, Kristin Janz, Janice Gelb (M), Inanna Arthen

    The Scientific Method in SF

    17 Feb 2018, Saturday 15:00 – 16:00, Marina 2 (Westin)

    Scientists abound in science fiction. Do these characters behave like real scientists, the good and the bad? Which authors get it right as they present positive images of scientists, and depict the way they work? The “mad scientist” is a common type in our literature — but is that really the way scientists go wrong?

    Kaitlin R. Branch (M), Genny Dazzo, Kristin Janz, Justin Key, Vincent Docherty

    Notes: Sir Francis Bacon’s method of reasoning, put forward in 1620, was the first attempt to codify what scientists do. While his can be said to be the first word, we haven’t heard the last word on the scientific method. Names like Kant, Ayer, Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos, and Feyerabend have had their say.

    Field Medicine in a Fantasy World

    18 Feb 2018, Sunday 14:00 – 15:00, Harbor III (Westin)

    After fighting orcs or falling into a ravine, you can come out with more than cuts and bruises. Yet without modern medicine, our fantasy heroes are often left to their own devices to stitch themselves back together. What tips and tricks should they know? What nearby items — plants, herbs, spyderwebs — might be helpful? But also: why isn’t there tons more toothache, child mortality, and gangrene in Fantasielande?

    James D. Macdonald, LJ Cohen (M), Kristin Janz, Kevin McLaughlin, Christopher Paniccia

  • “As Travelers in Sky Boats” now out at Escape Pod

    My story “As Travelers in Sky Boats” is now up at science fiction podcast Escape Pod.  You can listen to it, narrated by Ibba Armancas, or read it at the website.  Or both!

    It’s about clueless cultural anthropologists (in space!), and an island culture not especially enamored with what Star Trek fans might refer to as the Prime Directive.

    A sample:

    My sister blames the Travelers.  Before they came, she says, we were content within the small world we knew.  No one wondered what lay beyond the flat blue horizon where ocean met sky, or who journeyed between the stars.  Children never complained that there was an easier way to mend fishing nets, that they did not like the taste of seaweed.  Men did not abandon responsibilities to pursue the impossible fantasy of becoming Travelers themselves.

    One rainy night, when both she and the water leaking through our roof were keeping me awake, I told her that she sounded like a Traveler when she spoke that way.  Who was she–or they–to tell me how I should live, what I could know or not know?