Books

If You Want to Understand Cities in the 21st Century, Read This Essay

In 2008, a young model from rural Canada was brutally murdered in a Shanghai apartment building. The story of how her assailant was (maybe) caught, chronicled by journalist Mara Hvistendahl her engrossing essay And the City Swallowed Them, reveals how 21st century cities are changing the world. What seems like a cut-and-dried crime story becomes,…

The Entire History Of Westeros Told Through More Than A Dozen Maps

From the arrival of the First Men from Essos to Aegon Targaryen’s conquest, this series of fan-altered maps outlines the changing face of Westeros over the centuries and millennia before Robert’s Rebellion. Redditor hotbrownDoubleDouble made this map series, offering a cartographic visualization of A Song of Ice and Fire’s history through all of the invasions,…

What Are The Actual Greatest Moments In Science Fiction And Fantasy?

SFX Magazine polled its readers to create a list of the 250 greatest moments in science fiction, fantasy and horror. And… it’s slightly surprising. The #1 pick is the Doctor/Rose farewell on Doctor Who. So let’s make our own. What are the 250 greatest moments in SF and fantasy, according to you? We can even…

This 1980s-Style Game Of Thrones Intro Is Wonderfully Cheesetastic

A few months ago, we showed you what Game of Thrones would look like as a 1980s sitcom. But what would it look like as a straight-up 1980s heroic fantasy show? Something like this. https://gizmodo.com/what-if-game-of-thrones-was-a-classic-sitcom-1557410259 This brilliant “VHS-style” intro was created by Hunter Sanders and remixed by Mikolaj Birek using an old-school synthesizer version of…

See For Yourself Why Sarah Lotz’s The Three Is Our New Crack

Yesterday, we told you that The Three by Sarah Lotz is a thriller that sucks you in and won’t let you stop reading. Now you can see for yourself: We’ve got an extended excerpt from the start of the book, exclusively at io9. Here’s the official synopsis for The Three, which is out now: Four…

​The 20 Most WTF Magical Items in Dungeons & Dragons

Every Dungeons & Dragons character seeks magical items for their abilities. But some wizards aren’t interested in making powerful relics; they’re interested in making nonsense, because they’re crazy, or things that will screw your character over, because they’re jerks. The result? These ridiculous artifacts from D&D’s golden days. 1) Ring of Contrariness The first of…

The Beautifully Grotesque World Of Guillermo Del Toro’s The Strain

My favorite part of reading The Strain was the yuck factor. These vampires are disgusting — pieces of their body fall off and they leave trails of feces behind them. Needless to say, I’m excited to see how the TV series will handle it — but these two featurettes are quite promising. These two new…

Ann Leckie Refused To Change Ancillary Justice‘s Unusual Pronouns

One of the most notable things about Ann Leckie’s Nebula and Clarke-winning novel Ancillary Justice is its unusual pronoun use, which she talked a lot about when she answered your questions. In a new profile, she explains how she was told it would make the book unpublishable. Top image: Alan Lynch. Without giving too much…

Who’s Got The Worst Daddy Issues In Science Fiction, Fantasy Or Comics?

Daddy issues are the main motivating force in pop culture, it often seems. Everybody is pissed at their fathers, or desperate to impress them, or striving to avenge them. But who’s got the most painful (or annoying) daddy issues of all time? Please include a picture, book cover, comics panel or clip for your chosen…

A revolutionary idea: bringing more science to science fiction conventions. This weekend’s Evolution Expo in Oakland combines science lectures and astronaut talks with TV and movie panels, to try and “put science back into science fiction.”

The Monstrumologist Books Headed To The Big Screen

More monster movies coming your way! The YA horror Monstrumologist series by Rick Yancey just got picked up by Warner Bros., and we’re rather excited about this adaptation, mostly because it’s horror. Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. has tapped screenwriter Jessica Postigo (The Mortal Instruments) to adapt this violet horror series for the big…

“They Had To Keep Reinventing This Character Until They Got It Perfect”

Sometimes a character goes through so many reinventions and reimaginings, it feels as though they’re just being chewed up by the machine. (See Hawkman.) But sometimes, the 20th version of a character is just… perfect. Which character actually benefited from endless redesigns and reboots? https://gizmodo.com/the-10-hilariously-confusing-origins-of-hawkman-1451537031 Please include a picture or clip for your chosen character.…

One Weird Trick For Cutting Down Your Novel

Book doctors don’t want you to read this advice! They don’t want you to know about this foolproof advice for reducing the excess verbiage in your novel (or short story). But I’m going to share it with you, for free. Revising a work of fiction can be a nightmare, especially if your story has a…

Science Fiction Does Something Way Better Than Predict The Future

People get stuck on the idea that science fiction predicts the future, and that we should look to SF books to find out what we’ll be doing 20 years from now. But actually, says Questionable Practices author Eileen Gunn, science fiction does something way more valuable: teach us that change is inevitable. Top image: Oliver…

Tell Us What You’re Reading Now!

Good morning, gentle reader! Time to make your booklist into our booklist. Tell us about the books that were in your recent past, your present, and that will be coming up in the not too distant future. Both recommendations and recommendation requests are welcome!

31 Essential Science Fiction Terms And Where They Came From

There are so many words and phrases that we use in science fiction—and even science—without giving it much thought. But where did we get terms like “death ray,” “terraforming,” “hive mind,” “telepathy,” and “parallel universe”? Top image from Philip Barshofsky’s One Prehistoric Night as published in Wonder Stories, an early science fiction example of using…

io9 Book Club Reminder: Meeting 7/7 to Discuss The Memory Garden

This month, the io9 Book Club is reading The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert. We’ll meet on July 7 to discuss it. Join us! We’re hoping Rickert will join us later that week to talk about the book. What is this io9 Book Club all about? We meet once a month to discuss a book…

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

What’s most notable about Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is that the epic science fiction adventure was made using old-school practical special effects, well before computer graphics became a staple of the film industry. So when someone like Taschen releases a four-volume book set detailing the film’s production, you just know it will be…

Grab Pre-apocalyptic Anthology The End is Nigh Today For Just $1.99!

The End Is Nigh – a pre-apocalyptic anthology of never-before-published short stories by some seriously awesome authors (including io9’s own Charlie Jane Anders) – is Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deal for Science Fiction and Fantasy! Edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howley, The End is Nigh is the first installment in the Apocalypse Tryptich, a…

We’ll Miss The Excellent Young-Adult Imprint, Strange Chemistry

Angry Robot Books, which is owned by Osprey Publishing Group, has just announced that their YA imprint, Strange Chemistry is closing. Here’s why that’s terrible news. The closure of Strange Chemistry is effective immediately and all books on contract have been cancelled. Angry Robot will continue to publish books and will even increase their schedule…