"Hitchhiker" Author on "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul"

David Bianculli, usually Fresh Air's small-screen critic, takes a look at the long-awaited big screen adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Writer Vernor Vinge. The author of 16 books of science fiction, he gained a cult following for his early role in writing about cyber-culture and the Internet. His new book “Across Realtime,” (Orion Audio) came out earlier this year. He talks about the difficulty of writing science fiction when technology out dates itself as rapidly as it does. He teaches computer science at San Diego State.

Science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Because she is black and female, she's considered an atypical science fiction writer. She's won the Hugo and Nebula Awards, science fiction's two most prestigious awards. Butler often describes her work as "speculative fiction" rather than science fiction. She says, "Science fiction, extrasensory perception, and black people are judged by the worst elements they produce." Her main characters are usually black women, and the fictional world they inhabit are racially diverse. Butler has written nine novels.