Books

GMO Espionage Fuels Environmental Thriller “The Windup Girl”

Science fiction about the environment can get preachy, so Paolo Bacigalupi’s hard SF novel The Windup Girl is a welcome change. Set in Thailand’s future, the book follows scientist spies hunting good genomes in a world ruined by GMO diseases. In the tradition of politically-minded hard SF writers like Iain M. Banks and Ian McDonald,…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

A Deadly Diesel-Powered Walking Machine From An Alternate 1914

Imagine this walking machine chasing you across the battlezone, gears baying for your blood. Here’s an exclusive look at this chilling contraption from Scott Westerfeld’s alternate history Leviathan. See the whole thing, plus the real-life prototype it’s based on, below. Westerfeld’s nove, which comes out in 26 days according to his handy countdown clock, includes…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Iain M. Banks’ New Novel: Literary In The U.K., Science Fiction In The U.S.

Iain M. Banks is a giant of modern-day science fiction, so it’s dispiriting to read his slightly down-at-the-mouth interview in the Guardian. His book advances are getting smaller, but the good news is he’ll be writing more books in response. Banks tells the Guardian: I’m getting less money for my next book contract. But I’ve…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Anne Dick Talks About “The Search for Philip K. Dick”

Anne Dick, the third wife of Philip K. Dick, still lives in the house she shared with the legendary and mysterious writer. I visited her there to talk about her new memoir, The Search for Philip K. Dick. The sleepy town of Point Reyes Station rests 90 minutes north of Oakland. There Anne still lives…

Books & Comics David Gill

Take a Peek Inside Neil Gaiman’s Library

Fantasy author Neil Gaiman’s personal library is a book lover’s dream, stuffed to the gills with all manner of novels, reference books, and anthologies, with the occasional gargoyle or mounted stuffed head for good measure. Literary social network Shelfari visited Sandman and Coraline author Neil Gaiman at his Minnesota home and snapped these pictures of…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Did Dune Ruin Science Fiction Novels?

Frank Herbert‘s Dune is a sweeping epic, one filled with complex world-building, family drama, religions, economic systems, and space travel. And yet, one science-fiction fan wonders if Dune’s multi-layered success has ruined the science fiction novels that came after. A user on LibraryThing posting under the name bookmonkey00k has set forth the theory that Dune…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Amazon Tries to Make Amends for Deletion of 1984 with Warm Words, Cold Hard Cash

Remember Amazon’s remote deletion of all Kindle copies of 1984? Big bro’ Amazon is trying to make nice by offering affected users some pretty words along with either $30 checks or redelivery of 1984 (with your original annotations). https://gizmodo.com/big-brother-amazon-remotely-deletes-purchased-copies-of-5317180 Reader Shinobiwan wrote in with an e-mail received from “[email protected]”: Hello, On July 23, 2009, Jeff…

Commerce Rosa Golijan

Dave Eggers’ “Where the Wild Things Are” Just Doesn’t Have the Same Ring to It

The New Yorker has the first chapter of Dave Eggers’ novelization of the Where the Wild Things Are screenplay. As if a novelization of an adaptation of a children’s book wasn’t odd enough, one edition will be covered in fur. [via Metafilter]

Movies Lauren Davis

Meet the Next Generation at Locus Magazine

The science fiction community recently mourned the death of Charles N. Brown, who turned Locus into the SF book industry’s publication-of-record. Now it’s time to look to the future. We talked to new Locus editor-in-chief Liza Trombi about what’s next. I sat down with Trombi and managing editor Kirsten Gong-Wong at the busy Locus booth…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz

Learn the Dubious Secrets of Business from Wolverine and the Green Lantern

Sean Wise‘s Be a Business Superhero uses strained and often terrible superhero analogies to explain the working world. He advises workers to craft their own superhero oath, and view Starbucks as their Fortress of Solitude. Read and laugh. Or weep. Alan Scherstuhl at the Village Voice stumbled across this superhero-themed self-help tome at the clearance…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Mashup Discussion Guide Ponders the Romantic Implications of Mutant Lobsters

In Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the literary mayhem doesn’t end with the Jane Austen-meets-tentacles plotline. The novel’s book group discussion guide asks us such timeless literary questions as: would you rather be devoured by sharks or giant jellyfish? Like its literary predecessor, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sea Monsters includes a discussion guide,…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

Things That You Don’t Understand Will Mess You Up, Whether You Believe In Them Or Not

If you’re superstitious, you may not want to read “Non-Zero Probability” by N.K. Jemisin, in the new issue of Clarkesworld. Its depiction of a New York where luck (including all the rules of bad luck) suddenly applies is seriously disturbing. In “Non-Zero Probability,” just the city of New York has mysteriously become a zone where…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Bendit Bookends Might Backfire In a Big Way

These bending bookends look great, but what happens when you carelessly overstuff the shelf? It’s only a matter of time before the tension reaches code red. [Chiasso via Design Milk]

Tech News Sean Fallon

Bioengineered Monsters and War Machines Duke it Out in Steampunk WWI

The book trailer for Scott Westerfeld‘s Leviathan takes us into his steampunk-flavored alternate universe, where the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggers an all-out war where mechanical weapons face off against airships made from giant squid and whales. We’ve already shown you concept art for Westerfeld’s book, but below is the full-motion trailer from steampunk…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

The io9 Guide To September Science Fiction

Fine tune your Futurescope for the coming month, and discover what your future self is watching, reading and doing. The fall TV season begins, plus there are tons of books, conventions and movies. Tomorrow is here — today! As always, you can download the whole thing as a printable PDF – with hyperlinks to books…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Alton Brown’s Good Eats: The Early Years Selling Now (and Worth the $25)

Taste Test food week wouldn’t have been complete without our fun Q&As with Alton Brown, but his hot-out-of-the-oven book Good Eats: The Early Years is the real news peg. (Book tour dates below!) If you’ve read his I’m Just Here For the Food books, you know that they’re more helpful for overall skills, only sporadically…

Books & Comics Wilson Rothman

Paul Melko: We Will Always Need Heroic Stories

SF Signal asks up-and-coming author Paul Melko (whose The Walls Of The Universe we reviewed here) whether the ways people consume mass media are influencing pop culture. And he says: https://gizmodo.com/alternate-universes-are-big-business-5107999 I like the idea that we as a species evolved with story as a part of intelligence. When we see disconnected facts, our brains…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Margaret Atwood Says She Doesn’t Write Science Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin Disagrees

Margaret Atwood insists that her novels aren’t science fiction, as everything she writes either has happened or could happen today. But in looking at Atwood’s latest novel, The Year of the Flood, science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin disagrees. In her essay collection Moving Targets Atwood explains that she doesn’t consider the books she…

io9 Lauren Davis

Kindle is More Environmentally Friendly Than Old-School Books

According to an analysis by the Cleantech Group, the Kindle is more environmentally friendly than plain ol’ paper books, assuming you’re not a freak who reads less than five books a year. The analysis compared carbon emissions from the production of electronic books to that of traditional book publishing. Despite the manufacturing and mining process…

Commerce Rosa Golijan

First Look At The Vampire Slap Fights From The Traveling Freak Show

Can these zoomy undead kids perk your vampire fetish? The first clip from the traveling-freak-circus film The Vampire’s Assistant, with a bearded Salma Hayek and John C. Reily as vampire ringleader, pins teen vamp against vamp, with hot streak-effect action. Movie Trailers – Movies Blog The film follows a boy, turned half-vampire at the hands…

io9 Meredith Woerner

GMO Espionage Fuels Environmental Thriller “The Windup Girl”

A Deadly Diesel-Powered Walking Machine From An Alternate 1914

Iain M. Banks’ New Novel: Literary In The U.K., Science Fiction In The U.S.

Anne Dick Talks About “The Search for Philip K. Dick”

Take a Peek Inside Neil Gaiman’s Library

Did Dune Ruin Science Fiction Novels?

Amazon Tries to Make Amends for Deletion of 1984 with Warm Words, Cold Hard Cash

Dave Eggers’ “Where the Wild Things Are” Just Doesn’t Have the Same Ring to It

Meet the Next Generation at Locus Magazine

Learn the Dubious Secrets of Business from Wolverine and the Green Lantern

Mashup Discussion Guide Ponders the Romantic Implications of Mutant Lobsters

Things That You Don’t Understand Will Mess You Up, Whether You Believe In Them Or Not

Bendit Bookends Might Backfire In a Big Way

Bioengineered Monsters and War Machines Duke it Out in Steampunk WWI

The io9 Guide To September Science Fiction

Alton Brown’s Good Eats: The Early Years Selling Now (and Worth the $25)

Paul Melko: We Will Always Need Heroic Stories

Margaret Atwood Says She Doesn’t Write Science Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin Disagrees

Kindle is More Environmentally Friendly Than Old-School Books

First Look At The Vampire Slap Fights From The Traveling Freak Show

Trump Says He’ll Sign Order to Pay TSA

Deadpool Will Deface ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Classics for a New Secret Lair

Apple’s Siri Isn’t Just Going to Use One Chatbot. It’s Going to Use All of Them

Why ‘For All Mankind’ Season 5 Is the Key to the Rest of the Series

ASUS ZenScreen 15.6-Inch Portable Monitor Is Now Cheaper Than Black Friday in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Early Wildfires Are Surging Across the US—and Trump’s New Fire Agency Isn’t Ready

INIU Brings Another Power Bank to the Spring Sale as SnapGo Keychain Portable Charger Drops to Its Lowest Price

Attorney Hit With Historic Fine for Citing AI-Generated Cases

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

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