Books

Google Play Books Gets “Read Aloud” and Other New Features

Google Play Books got a nice update last night, with a Read Aloud feature, and pinch-to-zoom and double-tap-to-zoom. The Read Aloud feature sounds really robotic—even more than Siri or other voice command prompts—but it gets the job done. It’s nowhere near as polished as something like Amazon’s integration with Audible audiobooks, but it’s also totally…

Tech News Kyle Wagner

The Self-Published Space Opera Book Series That’s Become a Best-Seller

One space opera book series has been at the top of the Smashwords section of Media Bistro’s self-published bestseller list for the past several weeks: Randolph Lalonde’s Spinward Fringe books, which include eight volumes thus far. The series follows Captain Jacob Valance, a hired gun with amnesia who searches for clues about his past while…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Every episode of Game of Thrones season 3 will be “super-sized”!

Game of Thrones just got an upgrade. Season three’s ten-episode run will add an extra few minutes to each episode. And to top it off the grand season finale will be over an hour! Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Game of Thrones is about to get super sized. “There’s almost another full episode’s worth of…

Television Meredith Woerner

This erotica book might actually be the year’s most dangerous science fiction anthology

The best short fiction has an element of danger to it. You should fear for the protagonists — but even more than that, you should fear the abyss they’re suspended over, and what it represents. And short erotica needs more, not less, danger than other types of fiction, because it’s about the loss of control…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Re-Wiring the Brain: The Science of Nexus

My science fiction novel Nexus is out today. It’s a story about the struggle over a technology that can get information in and out of the human brain – senses, thoughts, emotion, all sorts of information. (Read an excerpt here.) That’s science fiction, right? Yes and no. The technology I describe – a ‘drug’ that’s…

Books & Comics Ramez Naam

Share Doctor Who memories… and give to alzheimer’s research

This is a really neat idea. The book Behind the Sofa collects celebrities’ memories of the Doctor Who moments that scared them most. And it’s raising money for Alzheimers Research UK. The 100 celebrities who’ve contributed include: Comedians Al Murray, Stephen Merchant, and Bill Oddie; actors Lynda Bellingham, Nicholas Parsons, and Rhys Thomas; writers Neil…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

8 Signs That Pop Culture Is Finally Done With the Apocalypse

The world has ended, civilization has collapsed, the undead hordes have overrun everything. We’ve seen the apocalypse so many times, even Roland Emmerich is bored with it. So what comes next? We’ve still got some apocalyptic movies to look forward to next year, and post-apocalyptic TV shows like Revolution and Walking Dead are coming back…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Two futuristic ways to give classic SF novels for the holidays

What do you get the person who has every scifi TV series in a DVD box set, all the latest scifi hardbacks, plus every gorgeous comic book collection and all the action figures you’ve ever heard of (plus probably like 20 more)? There is an actual answer to this question. You get them the books…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Dive into Goblin Secrets, the first YA fantasy novel in years to win the National Book Award

Some of my favorite books of the past few years have been National Book Award winners from the Young People’s Literature category. If you like having your heart ripped out, stomped on a few times and shoved back in your chest, you can’t beat winners like Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time…

Books & Comics Michael Ann Dobbs

Games Workshop gets someone’s book yanked from Amazon for using the term “Space Marine”

Who owns the term “space marine”? According to Wikipedia, the term was first used in 1932 in a story called “Captain Brink of the Space Marines” by Bob Olsen — but now, Warhammer 40K owner Games Workshop is claiming to have a trademark on the longstanding term. M.C.A. Hogarth has been selling a serial called…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The Middle Earth Illustrators J.R.R. Tolkien Loved—and the Ones He Abhorred

While Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and now The Hobbit movie may be how many modern folks see Middle Earth, it’s important to remember that the first person to illustrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s world was Tolkien himself. Tolkien had a very clear sense of how Middle Earth should and should not look, and while…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

I can’t stop looking at this Furry drawing book

I blame Disney’s Robin Hood for my fascination with furries. I love their mascot-like outfits, their button eyes, their tails. I love the strange way they anthropomorphize animals with cheerleading outfits, and yet refuse to give them shoes. So when I was sent Draw More Furries by Jared Hodges and Linsday Cibos, I knew I…

Books & Comics Meredith Woerner

Must Watch: China Mieville explains why science fiction is not superior to fantasy

Back in 2009, China Mieville gave a talk at Kansas University about the divide between science fiction and fantasy. And he explained just why the widespread perception on the internet that science fiction is smarter than fantasy, or superior to fantasy, is overblown. The whole thing is on Youtube, and here’s the first part. It’s…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

12 Things You Might Not Know About The Hobbit Movie

Tomorrow the world will bask in the golden-hued glory of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit. But until then, here are some little-known facts, and a few rumors, about this massive fantasy undertaking. We pulled all the best little-known details from press conferences, exclusive interviews, production blogs, and our own set visit. Here are 12 things you probably…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Gene Wolfe’s Out of Print Classics Now Available as e-Books

Gene Wolfe was just named the 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master. But that’s not the only excellent news — Tor Books is reissuing 19 of Wolfe’s classic books, which were out of print, in e-book formats. Including The Urth of the New Sun. And Peace, which has a brand new afterword by Neil Gaiman.…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Things From Thomas More’s Utopia That Have Come True Today

You probably think we’ll never actually live in Utopia — because Utopia is a perfect society that can never be achieved in real life. But think again. Thomas More’s Utopia, the book that gave us the word for a perfect society in the first place, contains a large number of somewhat wacky descriptions of how…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

How did humans colonize space in Will Smith’s After Earth? An Exclusive Look at Peter David’s Prequel Story

So now you’ve seen the first trailer for After Earth, Will Smith’s new movie set in a future after the human race has abandoned our original home planet. But what kind of post-apocalyptic, space-faring future are we looking at here? And what kind of challenges do our descendants face, in M. Night Shyamalan’s space opera?…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

What if Game of Thrones was a CW series?

We’ve seen plenty of Game of Thrones “what if” scenarios based on the hit TV series Game of Thrones and the book that inspired it, but this one might be our favorite. This stunningly well-done video asks, “What if Game of Thrones was a CW series?” Cue the somber but marketable music about feelings and…

Television Meredith Woerner

Flow chart breaks down each Hobbit dwarf by their bizarro beards

Stil confusing Oin and Gloin with Fili and Kili? No problem! This handy dandy flow chart of all the dwarves from The Hobbit movie breaks them down by their elaborate facial hair differences, and a few other distinguishing marks. It’s actually fairly helpful. [LOTR Project via I Love Charts]

Movies Meredith Woerner

Why Haldeman’s Forever War is One of the All-Time Great Novels: “Transcending is ultimately the point”

Over at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about having just read Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, which he now considers one of his top ten novels of all time. In singing the praises of Haldeman’s classic war novel, Coates also advances an idea that the best works in any genre are ones that transcend that…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Google Play Books Gets “Read Aloud” and Other New Features

The Self-Published Space Opera Book Series That’s Become a Best-Seller

Every episode of Game of Thrones season 3 will be “super-sized”!

This erotica book might actually be the year’s most dangerous science fiction anthology

Re-Wiring the Brain: The Science of Nexus

Share Doctor Who memories… and give to alzheimer’s research

8 Signs That Pop Culture Is Finally Done With the Apocalypse

Two futuristic ways to give classic SF novels for the holidays

Dive into Goblin Secrets, the first YA fantasy novel in years to win the National Book Award

Games Workshop gets someone’s book yanked from Amazon for using the term “Space Marine”

The Middle Earth Illustrators J.R.R. Tolkien Loved—and the Ones He Abhorred

I can’t stop looking at this Furry drawing book

Must Watch: China Mieville explains why science fiction is not superior to fantasy

12 Things You Might Not Know About The Hobbit Movie

Gene Wolfe’s Out of Print Classics Now Available as e-Books

Things From Thomas More’s Utopia That Have Come True Today

How did humans colonize space in Will Smith’s After Earth? An Exclusive Look at Peter David’s Prequel Story

What if Game of Thrones was a CW series?

Flow chart breaks down each Hobbit dwarf by their bizarro beards

Why Haldeman’s Forever War is One of the All-Time Great Novels: “Transcending is ultimately the point”

ExpressVPN Spring Sale Special: Up to 73% Off + Free eSIM and Password Manager

You Too Will Learn to Fear the XenoFrog

Amazon Echo Dot Sees Its Last Price Drop in the Spring Sale, Final Hours Tick Down Ahead of an Uncertain Prime Day

Artemis 2 by the Numbers: Breaking Down NASA’s Big Return to the Moon

Apple Removes iPhone Vibe Coding App from App Store

China’s Biggest Social Media Celebrity Is… Kris Jenner?

Up to $1,550 Off on pCloud: Pay Once, Protect Data Forever for World Backup Day

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Adds ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ Guy

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

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