Books

The 10 Types of Writers’ Block (and How to Overcome Them)

Writer’s Block. It sounds like a fearsome condition, a creative blockage. The end of invention. But what is it, really? Part of why Writer’s Block sounds so dreadful and insurmountable is the fact that nobody ever takes it apart. People lump several different types of creative problems into one broad category. In fact, there’s no…

That Time Jules Verne Caused a UFO Scare

For a brief period during the late 1890s, a wave of UFO sightings swept across the United States. Dozens of strange objects were seen sailing through the skies from coast-to-coast. In November 1896 an object was reported in the night sky over Sacramento, California. It was described as a light with a dark body of…

Guillermo del Toro’s Vampire Book The Strain Gets a TV Series

This is SUCH great news! The FX channel has just announced that they’re ordering 13 episodes of Guillermo del Toro’s vampire mystery book trilogy The Strain. We’ve got a look at the first logo for The Strain along with a bit of news about Chuck Hogan and GDT’s TV adaptation. This vampire outbreak book will…

Le Guin on Lessing: Read Ursula Le Guin’s somewhat disparaging 1979 review of Doris Lessing’s first straight-up science fiction novel, Shikasta, here.

Does the apocalypse come in three stages?

Celebrated anthologist John Joseph Adams has teamed up with Wool author Hugh Howey to bring you a triptych of anthologies that sound like annihilation candy: The End is Nigh, The End is Now and The End Has Come. We talked to Adams and Howie about the three stages of apocalypse. Image by Julian Faylona The…

Why The Hunger Games: Mockingjay is a Better Book than Catching Fire

Pretty much everybody loves The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins’ masterful dystopian novel. But the two novels that follow are divisive: Some people love Catching Fire, others love Mockingjay. Very few people seem to love both. And for me, personally, Mockingjay is the superior novel. Here’s why. Top image: Seia5018/Deviant Art Spoilers for both books below……

My Breathtaking Ride From Earth to the International Space Station

The rumble of power just got stronger and more insistent as we heard the countdown in Russian through our headsets and then, “Pusk.” Liftoff. It was a very different sensation than my two Shuttle launches, much more gradual and linear as the vehicle burned off enough fuel to lighten for liftoff. The initial acceleration didn’t…

How much was Isaac Asimov involved in Asimov’s Magazine?

Sheila Williams has been editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine since 2004 — but she’s been involved with the magazine for 31 years, since she came on board as an editorial assistant. Talking to Locus Magazine, she reminisces about working with Isaac Asimov himself at the magazine that bore his name. Says Williams: I ended…

Scientists find herpes and coke in Fifty Shades of Grey books

Bacteriology and toxicology researchers have found volumes infected with herpes and traces of cocaine in all the copies of Fifty Shades of Grey at a public library. According to these experts, modern drugs tests will be able to detect traces of coke from the books in your body after reading them. The herpes virus was…

​RIP Doris Lessing, one of science fiction’s most indispensible authors

Doris Lessing, who died today aged 94, wasn’t just a Nobel Prize-winning literary author — she was also a major hero of science fiction. She was one of the first authors with mainstream acclaim to embrace, and her fiction is worth more than a hundred writing workshops, for aspiring SF authors. Image via OzSo Seriously,…

This Infographic Shows How a Story Can Hit Big Without the Internet

Remember books? You know, the most distributed content-delivery technology ever? Folios may be on their way out, and internet content may reach more people than ever, but it’s pretty amazing to look at how widely our favorite narratives have been distributed. Who knew that Pride and Prejudice has had more editions than the King James…

Who has the coolest mind powers in science fiction or fantasy?

Science fiction and fantasy are full of people who can do amazing stuff with their minds. Telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and just regular mind control. But who has the absolute coolest mind powers of all? Please include a picture or clip of this amazing mastermind. And include their name and where they appear, please. Top image:…

How I Live Now could be the year’s most brutal apocalyptic movie

If you dropped a nuclear bomb on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, you would end up with How I Live Now. This exceptionally violent story drags a collection of country-mice kids through hell and back, at the outbreak of World War 3. Here’s why this movie can stand up with the best of the…

​The Only Book You Need About the History of Doctor Who

Doctor Who is just over a week away from celebrating its 50th anniversary, so this is the perfect time to celebrate the mysterious alien time traveler’s history. A brand new book, Doctor Who: the Vault, will get you up to speed. Below are some exclusive art pages, plus 10 strange facts you never knew about…

This library’s copy of Fifty Shades of Grey has herpes

In related news: Did you know books can get herpes? They can, as two Belgian professors found out when they decided to examine the Antwerp library’s top 10 most checked-out books. From Time: Each book underwent bacteriology and toxicology tests, and the findings reveal that library books are even more germ-covered than you expected. While…

Punk Odyssey: A former Gaelic punk singer and biologist won a prestigious literary “first book” prizefor his novel about two musicians who hitch a ride on a rocket to a space station full of anarchists, then steal a “disco-equipped spaceship.”

Which classic novel did you quit reading halfway through?

The greatest science fiction or fantasy novel is the one that speaks to you at the time you read it. So there’s nothing wrong with giving up on a book halfway through, even if it’s considered one of the genre’s all-time classics. Which acclaimed science fiction or fantasy book could you not manage to finish?…

Syfy is prepping a Beowulf TV series

Does anyone want to see a Beowulf show without a naked Angelina Jolie? Syfy is banking on yes, and readying a fantasy series about everyone’s favorite 3,000-line poem. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Syfy is currently in the process of adapting the great epic poem into a TV series. Matt Greenberg, of 1408 and Reign…

It’s time to start reading hard science fiction again

I write science fiction and fantasy, but mostly my work is classified as “hard” science fiction. I’ve found that there are many readers who know and love hard science fiction, but I think just as many are determined to avoid it, convinced that the hard stuff is not for them. Why? They just don’t know…

65 of the greatest fantasy adventure books

Joshua Glenn has been rescuing classic science fiction and fantasy books from dusty vaults for years. Now he’s getting excited about the “adventure” subgenre — he shared a list of great science fiction adventure yesterday, and today he’s got a list of fantasy adventures. https://gizmodo.com/the-top-101-science-fiction-adventures-listed-in-chron-1463897780 Over at Hilobrow, Glenn lists 65 of his personal favorite…