100 Albums Every Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan Should Listen To: 11-30
We’re on the penultimate day of our countdown of the 100 albums every science fiction and fantasy fan must experience once in this lifetime. Or particular corner of the multiverse. Whatever! What tunes are lined up for this beautiful Friday? We’ve got devil horns, lightcycles, the pharaoh master of jazz, and John Carpenter by way…
Opera Has the Power to Raise the Devil, in Mary Gentle’s Spellbinding New Novel
Mary Gentle is one of the most under-appreciated authors in the U.S. — but the British author’s latest novel might finally be the one to introduce Americans to her deft touch. In Black Opera, Gentle approaches opera and her alternate Italy with the same care and style as her previous novels such as Ash, for…
Why Hunger Games Is The New Little House on the Prairie
At a recent New York panel on historical young adult fiction, a group of authors and moderators began by insisting that reports of the subgenre’s death were greatly exaggerated. And yet, the truism that historical fiction is dead to teenagers is widespread in the industry. Anyone who has walked into a bookshop lately knows that…
100 Albums Every Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan Should Listen To: 31-50
Music can tell a story, or split your head open like a guava. So it’s no surprise the love affair between music and science fiction/fantasy has been a fruitful and tempestuous one, full of drama and strange creations. We’re counting down the 100 CDs that every self-respecting genre lover should have on his/her spinner rack,…
100 Albums Every Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan Should Listen To: 51-70
It’s the second day of our massive music countdown, in which we gesticulate wildly at the 100 albums that tickle our dendrites. Today’s crop of records brings you everything from zombie-fighting Japanese noise rock to mummified reggae to a heavy metal LP that’ll make you want to shave every inch of your body. Remember, when…
Your Summer Beach Reading List for 2012
Summer is almost here, and that means one thing: Escape! Everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, humans will be fleeing their buildings and shedding their protective outer garments, even as the sun grows hotter and more intense. But for some of us, simply fleeing to large bodies of water isn’t enough — we need to escape…
100 Albums Every Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan Should Listen To: 71-100
Science fiction and fantasy have colonized every corner of pop culture — especially the world of music. From awesome movie soundtracks to science fiction-inspired rock operas, genre stories have always gone along with sonic landscapes. You can’t really know science fiction and fantasy without knowing the music these genres have inspired. So we’ve compiled the…
Straight, Gay, or Binary?: HAL Comes Out of the Cybernetic Closet
In this essay from his new collection I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, cultural critic Mark Dery contemplates the sexual orientation of one of science fiction’s most memorable machines: HAL, from 2001. Now it can be told: HAL, the psychotic supercomputer in the sci-fi classic 2001, failed the Turing Test. Not Alan Turing’s classic blindfold…
Optimistic Visions of the World After the Oil Runs Out
Our whole economy and way of life is based on the idea of cheap petroleum. So what happens when the oil starts to run out? Most scenarios assume that it will be catastrophic — rioting in the streets, governments collapsing, Mel Gibson fighting guys with big mohawks. But what are the optimistic scenarios for a…