I discovered Larry Norman back in the early ‘90s, thanks to a church friend who was also a musician. I grew up in a fairly fundamentalist household, and Christian Rock was considered to be just as evil as secular rock, if not moreso. What little CCM I could find was awful. Even when my parents started to relent a bit,…

I live in the northwest, and had a hard time finding his albums in the ‘80s. Most of what I had were dubbed off for me by a friend from his tapes, which he got from a friend, and so on. It wasn’t until the ‘90s that they started showing up in the Christian bookstores here, and only the more “liberal” ones. The…

It was more a matter of disguising the fact that they were still calling it “black” music. I can recall preachers talking about how “the beat” in rock and roll was “the same beat that devil-worshipping savages used to summon evil spirits”, and so on. A few even directly referred to Africans, instead of “savages”, and…

Anyone who says women can’t write hard sci-fi hasn’t read any Pat Cadigan.

I disagree on magical laws. It is fully possible to have a “Magic A is Magic A” system with hard laws, and incorporate them into the story in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from, the story. Modessitt does a great job wtih the Saga of Recluce not only incorporating a rigid system of magic, but also showing…