Books

Why Octopuses Should Run Our National Security Infrastructure

Next time the government wants new ideas about how to protect our nation’s security, it should consult an octopus. That’s the unusual proposition of marine biologist Rafe Sagarin, a pioneer in the infant field of “natural security,” where experts use models from nature to help them come up with emergency responses to everything from terrorist…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

What Samuel R. Delany Can Tell Publishing About Its Latest “Trend”

Almost every article you read about books lately bemoans the fact that nobody reads any more — except that now, in the age of ebooks, you’re starting to hear the opposite complaint. A recent New York Times article says people are reading too much, and too quickly. This, in turn, is meaning authors are under…

Books & Comics Michael Ann Dobbs

Do you dare to open the secret door in the virtual Fairyland?

Over at Tor.com, there’s a fantastic story by There and Back Again author Pat Murphy, called “About Fairies.” A woman is working on developing a virtual fairyland for a toy company that sells fairy dolls, but she and the other members of the team start developing their own secret fairylands. It turns into a beautiful…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Reminder: Book Club Meeting 5/29 to Discuss Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker

The io9 Book Club meets every month to discuss a book, and then the author usually joins us for a chat. This month, we’re reading Nick Harkaway’s novel Angelmaker (we reviewed the book here). We’ll meet May 29th to discuss the book. Watch for a post that day announcing the book club, and jump into…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Battleship: An Important Document in the Future Field of Peter David Novelization Studies

Peter David isn’t just a prolific contributor to comics, novels, television and various other media, he’s also a huge player in the field of movie novelizations. (As opposed to media tie-in novels, which he also casts a massive shadow in.) One day, future scholars will study the novelizations of Peter David, with elective courses in…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

The Most Interesting Fairy-Tale Adaptation of the Year

This is the year of the fairy-tale adaptation, from dueling Snow White movies to Grimm and Once Upon a Time. But quite possibly the most memorable take on fairy-tale archetypes isn’t on any screen yet — it’s Cinder, the cyborg Cinderella story by new author Marissa Meyer. Spoilers ahead… There’s a reason we’re not seeing…

io9 Michael Ann Dobbs

Game of Thrones Week 7: The More People You Love, the Weaker You Are

Leave it to Queen Cersei to come out with a brilliant bit of life advice. You have no choice but to love your children, but you should love as few other people as possible, if you want to be powerful and free. Last night’s Game of Thrones saw several characters flirting with huge betrayals —…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

The Nine Circles Of Hell, As Depicted In LEGO

Here’s a series of play sets that won’t be debuting in the toy aisle anytime soon. Sculptor Mihai Mihu has built this fantastic and creepy nine-part collection of LEGO dioramas based on Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. Witness the Divine Comedy depicted in tiny plastic bricks, from the River Styx to the frozen head of Satan. According…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Fantasy Novels That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

Everbody loves a good dark, horrible fantasy. A misanthopic adventure, in which everybody is morally compromised, and we all live and die in the dirt. But every now and then, it’s nice to read a fantasy novel in which people are, you know… good. So we decided to contact some of our favorite fantasy writers…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The Strange Creatures that Cronenberg’s Total Recall Would Have Included

Last week, we brought you some exclusive concept art from David Cronenberg’s unmade version of Total Recall. And now artist Ron Miller has dug up another amazing trove of unused Cronenberg Recall art — including a photo of makeup tests for Kuato. https://gizmodo.com/never-before-seen-concept-art-from-david-cronenbergs-to-5907260 And this time around, there’s a look at the Ganzi Bulls, weird…

io9 Ron Miller

Touching, Beautiful Uncensored Outtakes from Colbert’s Maurice Sendak Interview

We’re still grieving for the loss of Maurice Sendak, creator of Where The Wild Things Are. And last night, Stephen Colbert featured some brilliant extended excerpts from his Sendak interview from earlier this year. https://gizmodo.com/where-the-wild-things-are-author-maurice-sendak-passes-5908497 Including Sendak saying he has no clue what a children’s book is — and explaining why his books don’t sugarcoat…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

You Can Eat This Emergency Survival Guide When Your Situation Gets Desperate

Land Rover likes to brag that its vehicles are best suited for off-road excursions. And to ensure the company’s customers in the United Arab Emirates survived a long drive into the desert, it created this handy survival guide that can even be eaten when food is scarce. It might only provide the same amount of…

Books & Comics Andrew Liszewski

Every Single Harry Potter Book Will Be Free on Amazon Prime

Do you have an Amazon Prime account? Then you have all seven books of the Harry Potter adolescent warfare odyssey. Amazon just told us the entire series will be made free as part of its Kindle Lending Library. https://gizmodo.com/amazon-prime-subscribers-can-borrow-kindle-books-for-fr-5855971 This is a pretty huge deal—and not just because there are legions of frothing Potter fans…

Commerce Sam Biddle

A New Translation of The One Russian Science Fiction Novel You Absolutely Must Read

If you’re going to read just one Soviet-era Russian science fiction novel, it should be Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s dark, ambiguous Roadside Picnic. Originally written in the early 1970s, it’s back in print in English after 30 years, with a brand-new translation by Olena Bormashenko and a riveting afterword by Boris Strugatsky about how the…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can’t Afford to Miss in May

May brings lots of amazing science fiction and fantasy books — including new titles from China Mieville, Kim Stanley Robinson and Charlaine Harris! You don’t want to be the only one of your friends who isn’t up to date on the latest happenings in far-future empires, brutal fantasy warfare, and the depths of weirdness. Here…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders and Kaila Hale-Stern

Alastair Reynolds is “getting weary” of the space opera label

When you discuss the “new” space opera, one name comes up pretty often: that of Alastair Reynolds, whose Blue Remembered Earth is coming out next month in the U.S. But in an interview over at Publisher’s Weekly, Reynolds says he’s less and less happy with that tag: Q: Do you embrace the space opera label?…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Where The Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak passes away at 83

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak — who crafted so many of our childhoods with such books as Where The Wild Things Are, Outside Over There, and In The Night Kitchen — has passed away at the age of 83. Sendak’s most recent book, 2011’s Bumble-Ardy, began its life as a Sesame Street short. The famously…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Game of Thrones Week 6: You can’t control wild creatures, and you can’t own people

Last night’s episode of Game of Thrones had so many “oh shit” moments it was almost too stressful to watch — like when you’re in an airplane and it suddenly drops a few hundred feet in a few seconds. Everybody’s suspended over the abyss, with a few threadbare ropes keeping them aloft. And last night,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Why are so many vampire stories so weak?

Kim Newman is not just an acclaimed film critic and pop culture expert — he’s also the author of a Dracula-themed alternate history book series, beginning with Anno Dracula. So he knows what he’s talking about when he says that a lot of recent vampire stories, well, suck. To celebrate the re-release of his second…

io9 Kim Newman

Crowdfund a feminist SF anthology, a Fallout webseries, and affordable lab equipment

We’ve got both science and science fiction projects vying for your crowdfunding dollars this weekend: an anthology of feminist speculative fiction, an affordable colorimeter kit, a webseries set in the Fallout universe, and another webseries set in a comic book shop. Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology: io9 contributors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer will be editing this…

io9 Lauren Davis

Why Octopuses Should Run Our National Security Infrastructure

What Samuel R. Delany Can Tell Publishing About Its Latest “Trend”

Do you dare to open the secret door in the virtual Fairyland?

Reminder: Book Club Meeting 5/29 to Discuss Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker

Battleship: An Important Document in the Future Field of Peter David Novelization Studies

The Most Interesting Fairy-Tale Adaptation of the Year

Game of Thrones Week 7: The More People You Love, the Weaker You Are

The Nine Circles Of Hell, As Depicted In LEGO

Fantasy Novels That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

The Strange Creatures that Cronenberg’s Total Recall Would Have Included

Touching, Beautiful Uncensored Outtakes from Colbert’s Maurice Sendak Interview

You Can Eat This Emergency Survival Guide When Your Situation Gets Desperate

Every Single Harry Potter Book Will Be Free on Amazon Prime

A New Translation of The One Russian Science Fiction Novel You Absolutely Must Read

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can’t Afford to Miss in May

Alastair Reynolds is “getting weary” of the space opera label

Where The Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak passes away at 83

Game of Thrones Week 6: You can’t control wild creatures, and you can’t own people

Why are so many vampire stories so weak?

Crowdfund a feminist SF anthology, a Fallout webseries, and affordable lab equipment

ASUS TUF 27” HDR Gaming Monitor Briefly Returns to Black Friday Pricing for a Limited Run in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

‘Speed Racer’ Is Getting a Glorious New Remaster

Dreame Pocket Pro Hair Dryer Is Now Over 3x Cheaper Than Dyson’s Deal in Amazon’s Prime-Exclusive Spring Sale

Pompeii Study Confirms Roman ‘Wine’ Ritual Previously Known Only From Texts

JBL Clears Out a 5.0-Channel Compact All-in-One Soundbar at a Record Low Beyond Its Portable Speaker Deals

Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch, Proceeds to Blast Modern ‘Trek’

Anker Solix C2000 Gen 2 Portable Power Station Is 50% Off as Amazon’s Spring Sale Pushes Into Its Final Clear-Out

Anker’s USB-C Docking Station With Detachable Hub Hits an All-Time Low in Amazon’s Spring Sale, Likely the Last Chance Before Prime Day

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?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

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