Christopher Hellstrom

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Christopher Hellstrom

Goodreads Author


Born
in Brooklyn, The United States
January 05, 1973

Website

Twitter

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Influences
Neal_Stephenson, Thomas_Pynchon, Robert Silverberg, Cordwainer Smith , ...more

Member Since
June 2011

URL


I'm the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Lehigh University. I have two daughters from a previous marriage and live in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania with my wife.

I wrote my dissertation, "Alpha Geek," on sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson and self-published, "The March," "Fresh Kills,", "Magisteria," "EXIT ZERO: Seven Stories," and the forthcoming "The Crossing of the Dawn Cypress."

Each month I release a new chapter or story on Substack. https://substack.com/@chrishellstrom
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Average rating: 4.44 · 9 ratings · 4 reviews · 5 distinct works
Fresh Kills

really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2003 — 3 editions
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Magisteria

4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings2 editions
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Alpha Geek: Neal Stephenson...

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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EXIT ZERO: Seven Stories

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating2 editions
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The March

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2003 — 3 editions
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Christopher’s Recent Updates

Christopher Hellstrom is currently reading
Science Fiction Mega Collection of Clifford D. Simak (100 Nov... by Clifford D. Simak
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Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler
Kurt Wagner Kurt Wagner is currently reading The Poisonwood Bible
Christopher Hellstrom is currently reading
And There Was Light by Jon Meacham
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The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
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Reread and immersed myself in the old Bradbury Theatre show for the related chapters. Bradbury was an American original. He wrote about the future with such nostalgia, which is what I think people secretly want. The future as the past, but just with ...more
This Year by John Darnielle
"The 🐐"
Conversations with Ray Bradbury by Steven L. Aggelis
“Fall in love and stay in love. Explode. Don’t intellectualize. Get passionate about ideas. Cram your head full of images. Stay in the library. Stay off the internet and all that crap. Read all the great books. Read all the great poetry. See all the great films. Fill your life with metaphors. And then explode.”
Ray Bradbury
Christopher Hellstrom is now following Nemesia's reviews
73979470
" wow that is awesome. Could you merge the revised edition of Fresh Kills so it is the one that shows? The revised one is there it is just not te first ...more "
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David Foster Wallace
“I have this -- here’s this thing where it’s going to sound sappy to you. I have this unbelievably like five-year-old’s belief that art is just absolutely magic. And that good art can do things that nothing else in the solar system can do. And that the good stuff will survive, and get read, and that in the great winnowing process, the shit will sink and the good stuff will rise.”
david foster wallace

Thomas Pynchon
“Why should things be easy to understand?”
Thomas Pynchon

James Joyce
“Your battles inspired me - not the obvious material battles but those that were fought and won behind your forehead.”
James Joyce

H.P. Lovecraft
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
H.P. Lovecraft

Thomas Pynchon
“You don’t understand,” getting mad. “You guys, you’re like Puritans are about the Bible. So hung up with words, words. You know where that play exists, not in that file cabinet, not in any paperback you’re looking for, but—” a hand emerged from the veil of shower-steam to indicate his suspended head—“in here. That’s what I’m for. To give the spirit flesh. The words, who cares? They’re rote noises to hold line bashes with, to get past the bone barrier around an actor’s memory, right? But the reality is in this head. Mine. I’m the projector at the planetarium, all the closed little universe visible in the circle of that stage is coming out of my mouth, eyes, sometimes other orifices also.”
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49

147547 Neal Stephenson Goodreads Group — 37 members — last activity Sep 07, 2022 10:03AM
Post questions and comments about Neal Stephenson.
220 Goodreads Librarians Group — 303821 members — last activity 0 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
954 Hard SF — 1180 members — last activity Nov 26, 2025 05:12PM
This is a discussion group for this specific subgenre in SF where the plausibility of the science counts.
33784 Philosophical Science Fiction — 35 members — last activity Aug 14, 2013 10:21AM
A group to discuss science fiction novels that explore philosophical issues. This group is brand new so bear with me for a little while, I am open t ...more
1927 PostHuman Sci-Fi — 136 members — last activity Jul 03, 2017 05:38PM
Tip off each other to great authors like Kage Baker, Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross, Linda Nagata, Nancy Kress, Tim Powers... Anyone who writes nov ...more
7814 Thomas Pynchon — 367 members — last activity May 16, 2025 10:18PM
This is a group for Thomas Pynchon readers, whether casual or fanatical. What's your favourite Pynchon book? What's your favourite Pynchon story? I've ...more
44497 The Pale King — 81 members — last activity Sep 04, 2011 08:00PM
Discussions about David Foster Wallace's posthumous release, The Pale King. ...more
55303 The Millions — 273 members — last activity Apr 01, 2020 08:07PM
'The indispensable literary site' - The New York Times 'Lots of reasons to love The Millions' - The Guardian 'A fantastic website' - Utne Reader Tw ...more
75271 Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace — 182 members — last activity Dec 22, 2019 08:18PM
This group read of DFW's Infinite Jest starts January 01, 2013 and finishes April 30, 2013. Please see this thread for the current reading schedule. ...more
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