C.S. Lewis is best known for his Narnia books, and also as one of the most powerful writers of Christian commentary of the 20th century. But he also wrote a beloved space-opera trilogy, beginning with Out of the Silent Planet. And one author argues that this book deserves to be mentioned among the great SF…
We hear tantalizing reports about TV shows in the pipeline… and then most of them never actually appear on your screens. Most of the time, this is pretty sad. But not always. Which TV show are you glad never actually made it to air? https://gizmodo.com/why-do-so-many-tv-shows-get-greenlit-but-then-never-1681405688 Please include a picture, clip, piece of promo art or…
The chosen people are going where they’ve never gone before. Two new anthologies, Jews Vs. Zombiesand Jews Vs. Aliens, feature an all-star group of writers, explaining just what happens when Judaism confronts the unimaginable. To celebrate, we’ve got an exclusive excerpt: A brand new story by Naomi Alderman! The two ” Jews Vs.” anthologies are…
What if your city elected a Replicant as mayor and you didn’t know it? There’s only way to guard against this situation, and that’s by administering the Voight-Kampff test to every single candidate during the mayoral election. One newspaper in San Francisco did that back in 2003, and the results were amazing. The Wave Magazine…
There’s nothing more awesome than an evil wizard. Commanding the forces of darkness, chewing the scenery, wielding objects of terrible power… it’s a great gig. But it’s not one with a lot of job security. Here are 12 terrible mistakes that evil wizards always end up making, which prove their downfall. Note: For the purposes…
Don’t get me wrong — I’m still enjoying the hell out of 12 Monkeys. But last night’s episode confirmed what I suspected from the pilot onwards. The time travel on this show is going to follow make-it-up-as-we-go-along rules, without much regard for logic. Typical television time travel, in other words. Spoilers ahead… The main problem…
Just imagine if Hot Tub Time Machine was more sophisticated and European, and less… I don’t know what, crass and American. Yes? Then you would have something like BIS, which borrows the basic idea of HTTM, but with no hot tub. And a lot more riding around on motor scooters. Actually, this looks like some…
We were incredibly upset when we heard that Borderlands Books was going to close, due to low bookstore margins combined with a rise in the local minimum wage. This would not only make San Francisco a way less cool place to live, but do great damage to the science fiction book world. So thank goodness…
This is kind of awesome. Eleven-year-old Rowan Hansen wrote to DC Comics asking why there weren’t more female superheroes, and why the female heroes don’t wear more practical costumes. They responded with a drawing of Hansen as a superhero. Her response: Thanks, but that’s not what I asked for. Hansen, who appeared on the Today…
Proof that recognition in science fiction and fantasy is open to newcomers: the latest raft of Nebula nominees includes a ton of new names. And at least one of them, Alaya Dawn Johnson, is on the ballot in a couple of categories. I checked a bunch of the names on this year’s Nebula ballot against…
Hot Tub Time Machine had a clever spin on the “male midlife crisis” comedy genre, sending four dudes back to the 80s to relive their best weekend. And now there’s a sequel, which doubles down on the time-travel hijinks, but also goes all-in on the gross-out dude-bonding humor. Spoiler-o-rama… The best thing about Hot Tub…
What if instead of being haunted by the fictional superhero Birdman, an actor was being stalked by his alter ego, Big Bird? That’s the premise of this absolutely perfect spoof from Sesame Street, “Big Birdman,” featuring Caroll Spinney.
An incredible deal. The latest Humble Book Bundle, focusing on Subterranean Press, is just chock full of greatness. Including Connie Willis, Dan Simmons, Harlan Ellison, Cherie Priest, Jack Vance, Ted Chiang, and tons more. [h/t Reddit]
Since the dawn of porn, X-rated movies have tackled science fiction and fantasy themes. We’ve listed hundreds of science-fictional porn movies in the past. But most of the time, when porn goes scifi, it ventures into “spoof” territory. But not always. Here are some X-rated films that have actual merit as science fiction. Oh, and…
We already outsource our memories, calculations and a lot of our fact-checking to Google and other systems. But what happens when the computers start actually guessing what we’re going to think before we think it? That’s the subject of this unnerving flash fiction by Schlock Mercenary’s Howard Tayler. Titled “Who Was That One Guy in…
We’re watching you! Scary graffiti from Buenos Aires, photographed by Gustavo Carbonaro/ Flickr
It’s been an eternity since we had a book of Kelly Link stories for adults. And Get in Trouble is somewhat different than I was expecting. Less dreamlike and strange than I remember her work being, more snarky and comedic, with lots of pop culture humor. But it’s also some of her darkest, most indelible…
This season of Person of Interest has ventured deeper into the wilds of science fiction. We’ve seen the amoral A.I. Samaritan rigging elections, turning crime on and off like a light, and controlling an entire town. But last night’s episode showed how computerized mind-control is already real. Spoilers ahead… It wasn’t that long ago that…
Time travel is huge at the movies right now. This Friday sees Hot Tub Time Machine 2, and Terminator 5 is coming soon. But as Predestination recently proved, the smartest movies about time warps are often based on literary sources. So here are 10 time-travel books that would make bloody amazing movies. Top image: End…
One of the things that was really refreshing about Agent Carter’s first few episodes was the fact that her male colleagues at the S.S.R. were sexist and myopic… but they were actually pretty competent in other ways. But no more. The men of the S.S.R. made some fatal errors in the past few episodes, and…
