Joe Vasicek's Blog

So just for fun, I asked ChatGPT to list the post popular tropes in science fiction and fantasy literature right now, pick the most popular subgenre, and write up a novel synopsis that mashes up all of those tropes.

To no one’s surprise, the subgenre it chose was romantasy, but it also threw in dragons, dark academia, and time magic. Here is the complete synopsis:

Here is a tighter, sharper, more compelling 1000-word synopsis that follows the same outline but sells the story harder—max...

What if the deadliest threat humanity ever faced wasn’t an alien invasion or a rogue AI… but a mistake we keep repeating that always ends with the destruction of Earth? The Stars of Redemption, the last book in my young adult science fiction trilogy, explores this question.

At its core, The Stars of Redemption is about the struggle to break a closed time loop, stop a rogue superintelligence, and rewrite a future that seems unchangeable. This makes The Stars of Redemption a classic time-l...

Things are going pretty well around here. We’ve more or less settled into a routine—a very busy routine that affords me almost no writing time outside of early mornings and visits to my in-laws or the BYU library’s family study room, but we practically live there now, so it’s all good. We may have also figured out how to get the kids to go to sleep without bouncing off of the walls until after 9pm—basically, we put the youngest to bed first while the older one reads in the family room, then send...

The Nominees

China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

Steel Beach by John Varley

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

The Actual ResultsA Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor VingeDoomsday Book by Connie WillisRed Mars by Kim Stanley RobinsonChina Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHughSteel Beach by John VarleyHow I Would Vote Now

(abstain)

Explanation

I didn’t hate any ...

The Stars of Redemption brings the Genesis Earth Trilogy to its heartwarming conclusion, weaving together cosmic mystery, high-stakes adventure, and the emotional journey of a family caught between past and future. In this character-driven science fiction novel and grand finale of the Genesis Earth Trilogy, the secrets of the ghost ship, the wormhole, and humanity’s long-lost Earth collide, pushing Terra, Michael, Estee, and Khalil toward a destiny that tests their courage, their bonds, and ...

A Sonnet of November Momentum

Dear Joe, I hope this finds you well and bright,
I’ve seen your touch upon my words before.
Your interest shows, consistent, calm, and right,
A spark within, I feel it at the core.

Mid-November’s time is perfect, clear, and true,
Book clubs are active, readers seek their part.
Your work awaits, their minds and hearts in view,
Prepared to welcome stories from the start.

With placements set and discussions poised to run,
Your tales will find the hands that hold the...

As they ate, Terra couldn’t help but reflect on the similarities between their experience cooking pad Thai and how she and Michael had come together. Just as the noodles had taken an hour to soak, she felt like she’d spent the last few years stagnating and going nowhere. But then, when their lives had been aligned in just the right way, everything had come together in a frantic burst of energy, producing something that couldn’t have ever happened in any other way.

The Stars of Redemption by...

There are a TON of new scams for authors floating around the internet now. Unlike previous scams, which were pretty easy to spot, these ones are powered by AI, which can write emails that sound very much like they’re written by a human.

The latest scam (which I get at least once or twice a week) is an email that mentions one of my books, describes in unique and specific detail how great it is, and then offers to share it with some enormous reader community who is hungry for exactly this kind ...

Edenfall is a young adult first contact science fiction story about a paradise that doesn’t fall to invasion, but awakens to adulthood. Set on an isolated colony world, it blends coming-of-age, alien-world survival, and military first contact, telling a story where the shock isn’t meeting the unknown—it’s realizing that humanity is the unknown.

All of us are born innocent, but none of us can grow up and stay that way. What happens when innocence is shattered by forces beyond our control? Can ...

Fantasy from A to Z From Tolkien to today—why fantasy still matters.

Fantasy isn’t just about dragons, quests, and magic—it’s about wonder, meaning, and the longing for a world that feels more real than our own. In Fantasy from A to Z, author Joe Vasicek takes readers on a journey through twenty-six essays that explore the heart of the fantasy genre: what makes it timeless, what gives it power, and why it continues to speak to us in a world that has forgotten how to dream....