Books

Why Science Fiction Still Hates Itself

Click to view If geek stuff is so hip, then why are two of the season’s biggest scifi hits, CBS show Eleventh Hour and bestselling Neal Stephenson novel Anathem, adamantly classified as Not Scifi? Because nerd culture will never be pop culture. That’s why Borders slashed its scifi section. And it’s why JJ Abrams, director…

Should SF Writers Boycott Borders?

For any author, getting a book sold at a major chain is an important way to attract new readers and move copies. But it’s especially important to scifi writers, who often get little exposure in book review sections. Now Borders, one of the two major bookstore chains in the U.S., has stopped stocking many new…

Metatropolis Story of Decaying Cities, Read by Saul Tigh

Instead of reading about the stock market this afternoon, divert yourself by listening to some near-future tales of the ecopocalypse instead. The first story from John Scalzi’s new audiobook anthology Metatropolis is online for free, and it sounds fantastic. Written by Jay “Mainspring” Lake and read by Michael “Saul Tigh” Hogan, the story is called…

Where Does The Poop Go?

Since we were old enough to flush, we have been amazed by the miracle of sewage. How disorienting and constipating to learn that this miracle is not quite a miracle, per se. London-based science journalist Rose George’s book about the subject, The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, explores…

The Superhero Who Crusades Against Glue Sniffing, And 50+ Other Weird Comics

Gift book season is upon us already, and this year you have a chance to prove to your narrow minded friends that there’s more to comics than just Batman and Spider-Man. A new book from St. Martin’s Press, Holy Sh*t! The World’s Weirdest Comic Books, collects decades worth of comics about bizarre superheroes, human-eating farm…

Death of (Another) Underappreciated Novelist

Sometimes the trashiest, pulpiest cover hides something truly spectacular underneath. Certainly that’s the case with UK scifi writer Barrington J. Bayley. Admired by writers as diverse as Bruce Sterling and William S. Burroughs, Bayley wrote that he “oscillate[s] between two immovable positions: an overwhelming belief in my own eventual worth, and a crushing feeling of…

“The Idler’s Glossary” is a Guide to Slacker’s Utopia

If you’re wondering why you always have a deep urge to be a lazy, unproductive goof off, Joshua Glenn and Mark Kingwell have written a manifesto for you. It’s called The Idler’s Glossary, and it’s a history via creative etymologies and definitions of words that refer to the high art of slackery. An odd and…

Joe Haldeman’s Back Catalog Could Make Hollywood Billions

With The Forever War that much closer to the big screen, maybe it’s time for Hollywood to take a closer look at Joe Haldeman’s other works as well. Haldeman is already talking about trying to have more creative input into movie versions of his other books, if the Ridley Scott film is a hit. So…

Post-Apocalyptic Girl-Warrior Slays Her Peers, Fakes A Love Story

The biggest young-adult science fiction novel of the fall is probably The Hunger Games – and it’s one of the best new science fiction books out there, period. Former Nickelodeon writer Suzanne Collins has written a sharp book about televised death-sports in a post-apocalyptic future. Her story pits a resourceful young hero against a media…

America’s Biggest Universities Build 78-Terabyte Library, Still Missing Front Door

Today, 23 of the biggest public and private universities in California, Michigan, Virginia, Illinois and other states* announced a 2-million book online library made of 78 terabytes of information, 16 percent of which are free of copyright and ready for public consumption. Even though the press release says “public domain materials will be available for…

If the pseudo-scientific voice overs from Suresh on Heroes frustrate you, then there’s a new book that may help. Science writer Yvonne Carts-Powell has just published The Science of Heroes, which explores what scientists actually have done to make ordinary people superpowered. She interviews scientists, digs up weird historical facts, and generally puts on a…

Two major newspapers turned their eye to science fiction books over the weekend: The Washington Post featured lit-blogger Edward Champion’s roundup of recent books, including Gene Wolfe’s An Evil Guest, Nancy Kress’ Dogs and Benjamin Rosenbaum’s The Ant King And Other Stories. And the London Times reviewed some books, including Neal Stephenson’s Anathem and Greg…

New Novel Will Please “Firefly” Fans

If you’re looking for some space opera action of the Firefly variety, Chris Hsiang says you might want to check out January Dancer, a novel out this month from Tor. You can read his full review over at Chris Braak’s blog Threat Quality. (Note: Mr. Hsiang is known among the io9 commentariat as Grey Area,…

25 Years of The Best Short Stories in Science Fiction Has Come To This

It’s been 25 years of Gardner Dozios’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction, and the 25th anniversary edition totals 692 pages of testimony to the state of the industry. Dozois dedicates the first 51 pages alone to a summation of the previous year, a trend he started in the first volume a quarter of a century…

Scifi Books that Have Been Banned in the Twenty-First Century

Click to viewAlien zoo sex, vulgar language, and the horrors of war have earned this novel (which shall remain nameless) a place on many a banned books list. And it’s hardly alone. Even in just the last decade, parents have tried to remove their least favorite titles from school libraries, and works of science fiction…

Revenge Of The Giant Space Tentacle

I’ve found myself admiring John Picacio’s art a bunch of times without knowing his name. His images have appeared on the cover of a bunch of books from Pyr, Tachyon and several other publishers, including this wrap-around cover illustration for Son Of Man by Robert Silverberg. His work has a grand kinetic sweep that helps…

The Best Collaborative Novels in Science Fiction

Collaborative novels are often frowned upon — literary types consider them the stuff of movie tie-ins or ghostwriters. But why exactly should that be? When you have one exceptional mind, why not double or even triple your pleasure and/or fun? The tighter-knit circle of SF masters hasn’t embraced working together en masse, but there’s a…

The Road’s Weary Travelers Have Terrible Hygiene

Cormac McCarthy’s depressing, post-apocalyptic ash world in The Road isn’t going to be any more cheerful in John Hillcoat’s big screen adaptation. And the little survivalist details promise to be the parts that make the movie truly sick. So far we’ve only been introduced to one wanderer and the two main characters The Boy (Kodi…

Robert Heinlein Explains How to Write for Money

The aspiring SF writer goes through many crises of confidence. Even Robert Heinlein asked himself “Am I good enough?” and “Is a tesseract just goofy stoner bullshit?” After he began publishing in the journal Astounding Heinlein wrote to editor John Campbell about what his rules for writing were, and under what terms he’d continue writing…

Ian Fleming in Space, Courtesy of Paul Cornell and Pyr Books

Want to read an awesome alternate history, space-colony spy story from Doctor Who scribe and comic book writer Paul Cornell? Pyr Books publisher Lou Anders posted a free preview of Cornell’s story “Catherine Drewe” online last week — the tale serves as the opener to short story collection Fast Forward 2, which Anders calls “all…