Books

Read science fiction to understand the things that mainstream pundits won’t talk about

Why should you be reading more science fiction? Not just for the thrills or awesome science. You should read SF to explore ideas about society that academics and pundits won’t talk about, writes Walter Russell Mead in The American Interest. “Taken as a whole, the field of science fiction today is where most of the…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Scenes from terrible, creepy, and outdated library books

At the awesome blog Awful Library Books, Michigan librarians Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner showcase old, bizarre books that probably shouldn’t be in circulation. The blog contains many science, engineering, and computing texts. Here are some of the most lamentable. [Awful Library Books via The Presurfer] In 1972’s Science Projects You Can Do, George Stone…

Books & Comics Cyriaque Lamar

Take Me To a Future Where Books Act Like This

Books aren’t going to go away any time soon. But, like magazines have started to, they’re going to evolve. And if that evolution looks anything like these concepts, we’re in for a pleasant literary future. https://gizmodo.com/if-you-buy-an-ipad-mag-it-might-as-well-be-popular-mec-5582442 These three explorations, from design firm IDEO, each represents a different direction book technology could go. But what they…

Tech News Brian Barrett

io9 Mad Scientist Smackdown: Victor Frankenstein Vs. Walter Bishop!

The Mad Scientist Smackdown isn’t just a battle of wits, or a popularity contest — it’s also a contest of pure crazy. Which scientist puts the extra three “U”s and an umlaut in “hubris”? Today: Bishop Vs. Frankenstein! Walter Bishop somehow defeated the certifiably insane Reed Richards yesterday. (Thanks to everyone who weighed in in…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

What are the ingredients for great science fiction?

It’s hard enough to define science fiction — but what makes for truly great SF? What’s the crucial element, the X-factor? TimeSplash author Graham Storrs argues it’s all about exploring who we are as humans. https://gizmodo.com/how-many-definitions-of-science-fiction-are-there-5622186 I’ve just been reading a blog post by Mike Brotherton which presents (yet another) definition of science fiction. This…

Books & Comics Graham Storrs

What made Cordwainer Smith the perfect man to describe cyborg consciousness?

Celebrated SF author Cordwainer Smith grew up among anti-imperial revolutionaries in China, then became a master of psychological warfare. Over at PLoS blog Neurotribes, Steve Silberman has a terrific article about Smith and his cyborg masterpiece “Scanners Live In Vain.” Fifty years ago, the word “cyborg” was coined by scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline,…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Super Scary Dystopian Nightmare: Gary Shteyngart’s satire delivers

Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story is one of the most talked-about novels of the year — but it’s also a genuinely impressive piece of dystopian satire. Anyone who wants to see clever near-future worldbuilding should check it out. Spoilers ahead — although no major plot twists are given away. Honestly, after reading the…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Discover the shocking stories behind the year’s most baffling image!

We all marveled at the fan art that showed Wil Wheaton riding a unicorn-dragon-kitten into battle with an Orc John Scalzi. And now you can read the true, and unquestionable stories behind the image. For charity! https://gizmodo.com/why-is-wil-wheaton-charging-down-on-orc-john-scalzi-whi-5552393 Clash Of The Geeks, the chapbook that the year’s most bizarre image spawned, is available now. You can…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

This is what a book looks like when it has been pickled

Cameron Pierce has just published his new planet-hopping tale, The Pickled Apocalypse of Pancake Island. Looks like somebody took the “pickled” thing too literally. Pierce writes to io9: My fourth book, The Pickled Apocalypse of Pancake Island, just came out from Eraserhead Press. To celebrate, I pickled copies of the book. Eraserhead Press can do…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

R.I.P. E.C. Tubb, prolific science fiction author who died on the day his final book was accepted

British novelist Edwin Charles Tubb died aged 91 in England last Friday, on the same day that his final novel, the dystopian epic To Dream Again, was accepted for publication in 2011. His contributions to the genre were immense. Tubbs wrote over 130 novels, including 33 volumes of the Dumarest of Terra series, which begins…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

This Is What’ll Happen If We All Start Reading Ebooks

If we all start reading ebooks instead of plain ol’ printed books, then we’ll one day find ourselves wondering what to do with our old non-digital tomes. Not this man though, because he already knows what we’ll do and got a head start. Unlike that guy though, I think I’ll turn some of my books…

Tech News Rosa Golijan

Behold in all its pulpy majesty, a planet made of hematite

Classic scifi cover illustrator Frank Kelly Freas created iconic alien landscapes and creatures for many of the most popular stories of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. This is the 1973 cover for DAW Books’ Testament XXI by Guy Snyder. And this pulpy, beautiful painting is an unpublished picture of mining on one of Jupiter’s moons.…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Announcing the winners of the “Zero History” caption contest!

On Monday, we held a contest to see who could caption this picture using two sentences of William Gibson-esque prose. Our nine winners get free copies of Gibson’s Zero History delivered right to their meatspace! Read the winning entries below. Winners, please send me your names and addresses via private message to my io9 account…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

What Is Military Science Fiction?

Military action has provided fodder for science fiction since the birth of the genre. But just what is military science fiction? Defining the Violence Military science fiction is a term that applies to anything science fiction that depicts some element of the armed forces. The stories that involve futuristic (or early) militaries is varied, and…

Books & Comics AndrewLiptak

Night of the Living Trekkies book trailer is surprisingly hilarious

A zombie outbreak hits a Star Trek convention, and a group of fans has to find their inner James Kirks and Worfs. That’s the premise of Quirk Books’ Night of the Living Trekkies. Check out the surprisingly great book trailer.

io9 Meredith Woerner

Get into Guillermo Del Toro’s vampire series with this excerpt from “The Fall”

Guillermo Del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, has finished the second novel in the Strain Trilogy, his action-packed urban vampire series. Co-authored with Chuck Hogan, The Fall hits stores Sept. 21 – and we’ve got an exclusive excerpt. Sink your fangs into this: Fet had retreated immediately after the crash, knowing a losing…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

The Man Of Steel’s twilight years

We’re completely mesmerized by Michael Kutsche’s painting of an aged, kryptonite-addled Superman. Plus it gets us thinking: What would an elderly Superman do on Earth to keep himself busy? Would he still fight crime, or take up Bridge? Deviant Art

io9 Meredith Woerner

Why a universe-hopping entrepreneur may be your next big hero

We loved Paul Melko’s The Walls Of The Universe for its clever take on alternate universes. So we’re excited that the sequel is finally coming, plus a movie version from the makers of Shrek. Melko told us what to expect. https://gizmodo.com/alternate-universes-are-big-business-5107999 In The Walls Of The Universe, a man named John Rayburn meets another version…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

True Blood’s big finale will burn your face off

Last night was the season finale of True Blood, so was it a spine-ripping good time? Sorta. There was a lot of good, and a lot of bad. But let’s break it down Pro/Con style. All in all, I left this episode feeling satisfied but not as excited for the next season as I should…

io9 Meredith Woerner

The mysterious life and death of scifi author F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre

He published witty books and short stories in top scifi magazines. But he also lived under several aliases, kidnapped and tortured a neighbor, and finally burned himself to death in his tiny Brooklyn apartment. Who was F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre? There’s a fantastic article in the New York Times about the life of the acerbic writer,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Read science fiction to understand the things that mainstream pundits won’t talk about

Scenes from terrible, creepy, and outdated library books

Take Me To a Future Where Books Act Like This

io9 Mad Scientist Smackdown: Victor Frankenstein Vs. Walter Bishop!

What are the ingredients for great science fiction?

What made Cordwainer Smith the perfect man to describe cyborg consciousness?

Super Scary Dystopian Nightmare: Gary Shteyngart’s satire delivers

Discover the shocking stories behind the year’s most baffling image!

This is what a book looks like when it has been pickled

R.I.P. E.C. Tubb, prolific science fiction author who died on the day his final book was accepted

This Is What’ll Happen If We All Start Reading Ebooks

Behold in all its pulpy majesty, a planet made of hematite

Announcing the winners of the “Zero History” caption contest!

What Is Military Science Fiction?

Night of the Living Trekkies book trailer is surprisingly hilarious

Get into Guillermo Del Toro’s vampire series with this excerpt from “The Fall”

The Man Of Steel’s twilight years

Why a universe-hopping entrepreneur may be your next big hero

True Blood’s big finale will burn your face off

The mysterious life and death of scifi author F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre

JBL PartyBox Club 120 Speaker Drops Back to Black Friday Pricing for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale Only

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‘Wicked Spot’ Is a Fun, Sapphic Rom-Com That Yeets a Witch Into the Magical World of Influencer Culture

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