Charlie Jane Anders, Author at Gizmodo

When the Apocalypse Throws You Back in Time

When we try to imagine the world after an apocalypse, we often end up thinking of a particular era from history. It’s not surprising — because the end of the world as we know it often means we’ll lose a lot of the fruits of progress. People often talk about bombing someone “back to the…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders and MaryKate Jasper May 24 '12

John Scalzi’s Star Trek Spoof: Even Cleverer and More Moving Than You Expect

The love of Star Trek and other classic space operas is built on compromise, and a certain amount of irony. So many tropes in these shows are stylized to the point of unreality, and things happen to punch up the story, rather than for any real reason. Especially the deaths of “redshirts,” or random extras.…

Television Charlie Jane Anders May 24 '12

New Yorker’s science fiction issue features a Jennifer Egan story made up of Tweets

The New Yorker’s first ever science fiction issue comes out May 29, and it includes a new story by Jennifer Egan, author of the award-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad. But if you can’t wait until Tuesday, you’ll be able to read Egan’s story on Twitter, starting tonight, via @NYerFiction. A new 140-character extract…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders May 24 '12

Elizabeth Moon: Everyone should be barcoded or chipped at birth [Updated]

Military science fiction author Elizabeth Moon has raised some eyebrows with her argument that everybody should have a unique identifier such as a barcode or chip, which would be “permanently attached” and “imprinted on everybody at birth.” Top image: Shutterstock.com Perhaps because of her military SF background, all of her examples of the usefulness of…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders May 24 '12

Trippy First Trailer for Kylie Minogue’s Reality-Warping New Movie

Australian pop diva and former soap star Kylie Minogue has already guest-starred on Doctor Who — and now she’s appearing in a French movie about a man who lives multiple parallel lives. (And sometimes, he turns into a monster and kidnaps Eva Mendes.) Holy Motors just premiered at Cannes, and here is the demented first…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders May 24 '12

The Wrong Way to Plan for the Future

We all know that thinking ahead is the only way to succeed in life. But a ton of new research shows that the more you think about future goals and events, the more mistakes you’re likely to make. So how can you make forward-looking plans in a way that maximizes your chances of winning out?…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 23 '12

Best and Worst Movie Threequels of All Time

When it comes to movie series, the third time is definitely not the charm. Some of the best movies ever made are the second films in a franchise — but it’s a rare third film that achieves true greatness. This Friday sees the release of Men in Black III, and everybody’s wondering if it can…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders May 23 '12

Dark Knight Rises fan art will be the instrument of your jubilation

The Dark Knight Rises won’t be out for another two months, but we can already consume masses of fan art for it. Fan-made posters will rise up and consume your eyeballs with a cleansing fire of awesomeness. Plus we found one cute animated GIF. Posters via Fuck Yeah The Dark Knight Rises. GIF via Fanpop.…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders May 23 '12

Famous Literary Critic Stanley Fish Explains Why You’re Wrong to Care About Spoilers

Stanley Fish is perhaps most famous for chipping away at the idea that texts have real meanings and moral principles matter, with all his deconstruction-y lit-crittery. But now he’s causing a new stir, by claiming that spoilers don’t matter, and people who complain about spoilers aren’t really enjoying texts the right way. At least, that’s…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders May 22 '12

First Gorgeous Trailer for P.T. Anderson’s Scientology Movie The Master

Joaquin Phoenix is amazingly deranged and sparky in the first trailer for The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s troubled-but-fascinating movie that’s at least loosely based on Scientology. You can already see from this brief teaser that Phoenix’s character is going to have impulse control issues as well as a flawed memory. (Although Jeremy Renner still might…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders May 22 '12

10 Epic Villains Who Were Supposed to be One-Offs

When it comes to supervillains, it’s all about survival of the fittest. Sometimes a villain is introduced who’s supposed to be a new Big Bad — but turns out to be a short-lived Little Awful instead. And sometimes, a villain who’s supposed to appear once and then never be seen again catches fire and becomes…

io9 Jennifer Griffith-Delgado and Charlie Jane Anders May 22 '12

Make a sacrifice to this dark, terrifying magazine… before it rises and walks the Earth!

Now is your time to pledge your fealty to Nightmare Magazine — before it is fully manifested, and able to inhabit your brain with its raw terrors. The horrifying brainchild of John Joseph Adams, who’s brought you Lightspeed Magazine and countless anthologies, Nightmare is poised to overwhelm you with the forces of darkness. Can you…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders May 21 '12

Game of Thrones Week 8: Siege Mentality

Sieges are a major part of warfare in Westeros — they’re the reason for those stout castles, and a huge reason why dragons were such game-changers. Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones was all about people preparing to be under siege. And the way they thought about siege tactics told us everything we needed…

Television Charlie Jane Anders May 21 '12

This Week’s TV: The Most Epic Game of Thrones Episode of All

This coming week’s episode of Game of Thrones could be one of the most lavish, insane spectacles ever put on television, and we’ve got all the details here. Other reasons not to throw out your television set: Awake’s finale features the meeting you never expected. Plus a brand new TV movie about a “Super Shark”…

Television Charlie Jane Anders May 21 '12

Best of the Week: May 12-May 18, 2012

ALIEN BY DESIGN | An exclusive look at concept art of the alien attackers from Battleship shows how George Hull and other designers created a whole slew of awesome attacking ships from scratch. See more here. https://gizmodo.com/the-raw-beauty-of-battleships-alien-concept-art-5911367 The genes behind human intelligence also made us vulnerable to autism http://io9.com/5909928/the-genes-behind-human-intelligence-also-made-us-vulnerable-to-autism The exact genetic roots of autism…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 19 '12

Jackie Chan’s last action movie looks like the most fun he’s been in years

Chinese Zodiac is Jackie Chan’s 100th movie, and it’s one of his biggest — a single fight scene in this movie reportedly is costing more than $10 million to shoot. And it might be his final action movie, since he’s said he wants to retire from doing action films. At the very least, it’s reportedly…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders May 19 '12

Dancing Darth Maul: Not Sorry For Party Rockin’.

Whenever there’s a big Star Wars event, the main thing to look forward to is the dance-offs. A few years ago, it was Darth Vader tearing up the stage to M.C. Hammer. Now it’s Darth Maul jamming to Flo Rida, “Good Feeling,” at the Walt Disney World’s Star Wars Weekend event, “Dance-Off With the Star…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 19 '12

The Raw Beauty of Battleship‘s Alien Concept Art

The coolest thing about Battleship? The sleek look of its alien spaceships and war machines. Tasked with creating a whole new alien race from scratch, designers who’d worked on Star Trek and The Matrix created some downright beautiful killer starships. Check out an exclusive first look at the concept art of Battleship, by designer George…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders May 18 '12

When insanity is your superpower, reality will eventually become your Kryptonite

From the beginning, Awake’s Michael Britten has seen his delusion about seeing two different versions of reality as a possible strength: He can learn something in one world and use it in the other. As he tells Bird in last night’s episode, sometimes he knows stuff that he shouldn’t be able to know. So being…

Television Charlie Jane Anders May 18 '12

Turns out Sonic Screwdriver beats Lightsaber

This is our new favorite piece of fan-art ever. The Doctor faces off against Darth Vader, and uses his sonic screwdriver to go all “cortosis blade” on Vader’s lightsaber. Now we want to know if psychic paper is more powerful than the Jedi mind trick. Kudos to artist K.K. Jordan for capturing the look of…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 18 '12

Charlie Jane Anders

When the Apocalypse Throws You Back in Time

John Scalzi’s Star Trek Spoof: Even Cleverer and More Moving Than You Expect

New Yorker’s science fiction issue features a Jennifer Egan story made up of Tweets

Elizabeth Moon: Everyone should be barcoded or chipped at birth [Updated]

Trippy First Trailer for Kylie Minogue’s Reality-Warping New Movie

The Wrong Way to Plan for the Future

Best and Worst Movie Threequels of All Time

Dark Knight Rises fan art will be the instrument of your jubilation

Famous Literary Critic Stanley Fish Explains Why You’re Wrong to Care About Spoilers

First Gorgeous Trailer for P.T. Anderson’s Scientology Movie The Master

10 Epic Villains Who Were Supposed to be One-Offs

Make a sacrifice to this dark, terrifying magazine… before it rises and walks the Earth!

Game of Thrones Week 8: Siege Mentality

This Week’s TV: The Most Epic Game of Thrones Episode of All

Best of the Week: May 12-May 18, 2012

Jackie Chan’s last action movie looks like the most fun he’s been in years

Dancing Darth Maul: Not Sorry For Party Rockin’.

The Raw Beauty of Battleship‘s Alien Concept Art

When insanity is your superpower, reality will eventually become your Kryptonite

Turns out Sonic Screwdriver beats Lightsaber

Dyson Supersonic Nural Hair Dryer Returns to Record Low Early Ahead of the Mother’s Day Rush

Amazon Clears Out Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ at Its Lowest Price, Now Nearly as Cheap as Galaxy Buds

‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Originally Had a Much Bleaker Ending

WD_Black 2TB Xbox SSD Drops Back to $0.11 per GB After 66% Off, Now Cheaper Than Black Friday Pricing

A Comic Crossover Sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ Is Becoming a Movie

Amazon Drops Select AMD Ryzen 9 Series to All-Time Low to Clear Out Best-Selling CPU Processors

Meet Dreame’s Fantastic Four: The Brand-New L60 Series of Robot Floor Cleaners

OpenAI’s Latest Release Looks Like the Project Management Software You Probably Already Have to Use

Claude-Powered Agent Apparently Deletes Company Database, Debases Itself Further in Confession

The Biggest, Fanciest Astrolabe On God’s Green Earth Is Up For Sale

Steam Controller Review: Trackpads Change Everything for PC Gaming

Soundcore Space 2 Review: A Shockingly Stellar Value for Budget ANC Wireless Headphones

Anker’s UV Printer Can Handle Almost Anything… If You Know What You’re Doing

HP’s EliteBoard Keyboard-Computer Proves We Can Stick a PC in Anything

Sleep-Tracking Earbuds Didn’t Fix Me, but They Did Open My Eyes

I’ve Tested a Lot of Bad Smart Glasses and These Are the Worst Yet

Roborock’s Qrevo Curv 2 Flow Is the Ultimate Robot Mop—If You Don’t Have Corners or Walls

Alienware’s $350 QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Nixes Everything for a Pretty Screen

Sony Inzone H6 Air Review: A Perfect Case for Open-Back Gaming Headsets

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages