Author Archives: Alex R. Howe

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About Alex R. Howe

I'm a full-time astrophysicist and a part-time science fiction writer.

Children’s Fantasy Review Part 3

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

The original trio: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz See Part 2 of this series here. Okay, so they’re not the original children’s novels. Even if you toss out the fairy tales as a … Continue reading →

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Cosmos follow-up: Hypatia and the Library of Alexandria

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

The recent Cosmos series has been a tour-de-force for science education and popularization, equal to the original. However, there is one aspect of both series that I have to take issue with, and that is the holding up of the … Continue reading →

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Children’s Fantasy Review Part 2

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

Divine intervention: The Horse and His Boy and A Wrinkle in Time See part 1 of this series here. The Horse and His Boy is my favorite book of the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, a series now … Continue reading →

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Cosmos side by side: part 3

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey has wrapped up, with the final episode airing last Sunday. Here I am reviewing Episodes 10-13 of the series. See also my reviews of Episodes 1-4 and Episodes 5-9.

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Children’s Fantasy Review Part 1

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

Things happen at random: The Phantom Tollbooth and Mary Poppins The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster and Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers are two of the classics of children’s fantasy literature. Like much children’s fantasy, both books tell the … Continue reading →

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Children’s fantasy literature review: Introduction

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

Children’s books are very much a genre of their own–or rather multiple genres, since they can be realist or literary fiction, mysteries, fantasy, history, or (almost) any other adult genre, plus the different age groups: chapter books (ages 6-10), middle … Continue reading →

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Book review: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

I usually shy away from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I’ve read about what kinds of things have got into the shared timeline from places like Wookieepedia, and I feel like large swaths of it are ridiculously over the top. … Continue reading →

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The Sun’s big brother found

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

The Sun was born 4.57 billion years ago from a giant molecular cloud, as one of probably hundreds or even thousands of members of a freshly-minted open star cluster. So where are all these brothers and sisters of the Sun? … Continue reading →

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Cosmos side by side: part 2

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

This is my review of Episodes 5-9 of the new Cosmos series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. See my review of Episodes 1-4 here. The middle third of the new Cosmos series branches out more from the original, tackling many … Continue reading →

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Bible reading redux

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Alex R. Howe

At the beginning of the year, I posted my plan to read the Bible cover to cover this year. I felt unsatisfied with the various Bible in a year plans that can be found on the Internet, so I designed … Continue reading →

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