Books

When should a book’s cover mention that it’s the second one in a series?

Do authors and publishers have an obligation to make it clear to readers up front that a newly published book is actually one of the middle books in an ongoing series? Or should they do that only if, say, a book resolves a cliffhanger from the previous book and ends with another cliffhanger, or has…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Why did the BBC’s tribute to books ignore genre fiction?

Britain’s BBC 2 had a whole evening of book-related programming in celebration of World Book Night, including the promisingly titled The Books We Really Read: A Culture Show Special. So why did the featured books not include genre fiction? That’s what a host of writers, including genre authors like Michael Moorock and Iain M. Banks,…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

The Perfect Bed For Those Who Like To Read in Bed

Yusuke Suzuki created this book bed—the sheets are flippable pages!—as a sort of art piece/playground wonderland for children. It’d actually be the perfect bed to read on too, just look at how much space there is and how you can comfortably commandeer your own sheet. I would have really loved to have this around as…

Books & Comics Casey Chan

China Miéville’s “Embassytown” hurtles you through a linguistics thriller on another planet

Embassytown is a breakneck tale of suspense about weird philosophy and a deeply alien culture. It’s disturbing and beautiful by turns. And yes – China Miéville’s new novel is one of his best. Spoilers ahead… Embassytown is a riveting trip through a monster-haunted subspace called the immer, and down into a tiny human ghetto called…

io9 Annalee Newitz

40+ Amazing Pieces of Dragon Art and Cosplay

HBO’s fantasy epic Game of Thrones starts this weekend, and we’re seeing dragons everywhere. Dragons perched over cities! Dragons on electric guitars! People and their pets dressed as dragons! Dragons are the universal signifier of awesomeness. To celebrate the unfathomable coolness and raging fury of dragons, we’ve collected dozens of hardcore pieces of dragon art…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders and Michael Ann Dobbs

When invaders occupy Cleveland, life in Dayton becomes very uncomfortable

Add another forthcoming book to the growing list of novels about the collapse of the U.S. Martha Moody, author of Best Friends and The Office of Desire, just sold a dystopian-sounding novel, Sharp and Dangerous Virtues, to Ohio University Press. It’s fascinating to see how many different ways authors imagine the near-future decline and/or fall…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Find out how Robin Hobb became two different people

You may already know that epic fantasy author Robin Hobb is the same person as contemporary fantasy author Megan Lindholm. But how did this state of affairs come about? How was one human being split into two authors? Hobb herself explains, in the preface to her new book The Inheritance — which is a collection…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Will HBO’s Game of Thrones gamble pay off?

With a $50 million budget for 10 episodes, Game of Thrones is one of the biggest dice-throws in television history. HBO couldn’t start small with its adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s bestselling series, so the network had to risk all. But will HBO’s bold gambit in spending so much on a dark, weird series pay…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Peter Jackson takes you inside the first day of shooting on The Hobbit

Stop whatever you are doing, and watch this Hobbit set video right now. Peter Jackson has started a vlog all about making The Hobbit, and it’s absolutely shocking how much access he’s giving the public. Step back into The Shire! Jackson took his facebook cameras into the completely rebuilt sets of Bag End and Rivendell.…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Alan Dean Foster Faces Off with Predators in Episode 34 of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy

Alan Dean Foster, author of Predators I Have Known, joins us to talk about meeting George Lucas, fixing bad movie scripts, and playing hide-and-seek with deadly otters. Photograph by Mirek Srb/Shutterstock (Note: the actual otter who tangled with Foster was a lot more menacing in appearance.) The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy is hosted by…

io9 Johnjosephadams

Samuel Delany’s massive new novel finally has a publisher and release date!

We’ve been dying to read Samuel R. Delany’s Through The Valley of the Nest of Spiders since we talked to him about it a couple years ago. So we were disappointed when his publisher ran aground. https://gizmodo.com/samuel-delany-answers-your-science-fiction-questions-5295779 https://gizmodo.com/samuel-delanys-long-awaited-next-novel-in-limbo-5723749 The good news is, Nest of Spiders has a new publisher, Magnus Books, and a release date:…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Spoiler-Free Preview: Game of Thrones really is an astonishing achievement

You’ve never seen anything like HBO’s Game of Thrones before. Lavish, bloody, dark, weird and sometimes amazingly sweet, the cable channel’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s bestselling book series delivers the goods. We’ve seen the first six episodes, and here’s our spoiler-free preview of them. In a nutshell: the series features a host of astonishingly…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

World War Z could start shooting next month!

Sounds like Brad Pitt’s movie adaptation of Max Brooks’ oral history zombie novel World War Z had a last minute infusion of cash. The production has just hired Cinematographer Robert Richardson (Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds). This is great news. Bleeding Cool is reporting that Richardson has been hired as DP on World War Z, which…

io9 Meredith Woerner

William Gibson contributes to a new anthology for Japan earthquake relief, available after just one month

You can read a new piece by William Gibson and help donate to the Red Cross efforts in Japan at the same time, thanks to a new anthology that just went on sale at Amazon. The book, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake, was organized largely via Twitter and represents a new way of…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Watchmen writer adapting Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern to film

Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern book series has garnered generations of fans. Now it’s about to be translated for the screen by the screenwriter for Watchmen and X2, David Hayter. According to Deadline, producer Steve Hoban has been itching to make a Pern film forever. And now David Hayter has been hired to write the…

io9 Meredith Woerner

The classic authors who give you permission to be beautifully weird

Want to write something that’s both weird and gorgeous? That pushes the boundaries of storytelling and includes moving, relatable characters? Then you should read the masters of this odd not-quite-genre. In an interview with The Millions, acclaimed author Karen Russell discusses her novel Swamplandia!, and lists her influences: When writing Swamplandia! I ended up teaching…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

What If Your Characters Don’t Want Anything?

It’s one of the most common pieces of writing advice: Know what every character wants in a scene. But what if your characters are just apathetic? It could happen. I mean, in real life, most of the time, people want something kind of boring, that barely qualifies as a “want.” You want to get your…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

The Spaces Between Stars: The secret connection between crime fiction and science fiction

Acclaimed science fiction and comics writer Warren Ellis just signed a two-book deal with Mulholland Books to publish two novels, starting with The Gun Machine in 2012. To celebrate, he explains why science fiction and crime fiction are the same. My name’s Warren Ellis. I’m mostly a science fiction writer. I’m sometimes also a crime…

Books & Comics Warren Ellis

The Life Story of the Man Writing Steve Jobs’ Life Story

Walter Isaacson is the man tasked to write iSteve: The Book of Jobs, which of course is the official, authorized, biography of Steve Jobs. But who in the hell is Walter Isaacson, you ask? Long story short, Isaacson is an extremely accomplished writer and editor who wriggled his way into this gig by persistently working…

Tech News Adrian Covert

Official Steve Jobs Biography Finally Has a Title and Release Date

Not only has Steve Jobs given the thumb’s up to an official biography about his life—the first ever official biography—but he’s also agreed to be interviewed by the author, Walter Isaacson. Titled iSteve: The Book of Jobs, it will be published by Simon & Schuster and will also feature interviews and facts from his family…

Tech News Kat Hannaford

When should a book’s cover mention that it’s the second one in a series?

Why did the BBC’s tribute to books ignore genre fiction?

The Perfect Bed For Those Who Like To Read in Bed

China Miéville’s “Embassytown” hurtles you through a linguistics thriller on another planet

40+ Amazing Pieces of Dragon Art and Cosplay

When invaders occupy Cleveland, life in Dayton becomes very uncomfortable

Find out how Robin Hobb became two different people

Will HBO’s Game of Thrones gamble pay off?

Peter Jackson takes you inside the first day of shooting on The Hobbit

Alan Dean Foster Faces Off with Predators in Episode 34 of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy

Samuel Delany’s massive new novel finally has a publisher and release date!

Spoiler-Free Preview: Game of Thrones really is an astonishing achievement

World War Z could start shooting next month!

William Gibson contributes to a new anthology for Japan earthquake relief, available after just one month

Watchmen writer adapting Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern to film

The classic authors who give you permission to be beautifully weird

What If Your Characters Don’t Want Anything?

The Spaces Between Stars: The secret connection between crime fiction and science fiction

The Life Story of the Man Writing Steve Jobs’ Life Story

Official Steve Jobs Biography Finally Has a Title and Release Date

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

How to Watch the F1 Japanese GP 2026 on a Free Channel

Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

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

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Let us help find what you are looking for...