The Best of January’s Short Stories (That You Can Read For Free Online)
Short stories have always been the lifeblood of the science fiction and fantasy genres, even though novels get the lion’s share of the attention. There are hundreds of great stories published every year — and a large portion of them are available for free online — but many people only read the shorts in one…
Terry Pratchett and other fantasy authors score at this year’s ALA Awards
On Monday, the American Library Association announced the winners of dozens of book awards. The most famous of these are the Newbery and the Caldecott awards for children’s books and the Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature. They also include the William C. Morris award for best book for young adults by a…
An anthropologist explains how hackers are changing the definition of freedom
Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, by E. Gabriella Coleman, dives into the ocean of software hacking: its culture, personalities, and craft. But it’s also a legal history of hacking (modifying code) and cracking (illegally modifying code). Working an anthropologist, she haunted cons, chat rooms, and dug into the Linux kernel to unearth…