Books

14 Dumbest Ways That Humans Will Survive The Apocalypse

The whole point of a post-apocalyptic story is that someone survives. But when you have a calamity that wipes out 99.9 percent of all humans, then how exactly do you explain the survivors? In honor of the new Maze Runner movie, here are the 14 dumbest ways people survive the apocalypse. 1) God swoops in…

The Harry Potter Illustrated Edition Is Stunningly Gorgeous

So you’ve read all seven Harry Potter books multiple times, watched the movies a million times, visited the theme parks, museums and everything in between. How can you keep your Potter love alive? You can soon revisit the series through a whole new set of eyes. Those eyes belong to artist Jim Kay, who has…

These Beautiful Special Book Collections Will Part You From Your Money

If anyone else is like me—a compulsive book buyer with not enough shelf space—the discovery of the Juniper Books’ gorgeous book covers is going to be both wonderful and painful. The top image is for the “Science Fiction Classics” set, which will run you $250 and includes the works of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, H.G.…

Why Captain Kirk Is Still One of the Greatest Space Heroes Of All Time

James T. Kirk owes a lot to his space opera forebears, characters like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and the Lensmen: He wears a cool uniform, has a fancy ray gun strapped to his hip, flies the fastest ship in the galaxy, and has a weird alien sidekick. Yet the character of Kirk has outstripped his…

Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin On Our Next Evolutionary Challenge: Moving Past Survival of the Fittest

Last week, I spoke with one of my punk rock and science heroes, Bad Religion vocalist / evolutionary biologist Greg Graffin, about his new book, Population Wars, which drops today. And he told me why our view of evolution needs to move past pure competition. In your first book, Anarchy Evolution, you tackled ideas related…

How To Handle Rejection of Your Writing, Without Becoming a Basket Case

Rejection is part of being a writer. Unless you’re that one-in-a-billion wunderkind who gets “discovered” while you’re still in high school and goes on to become a literary sensation. Almost everybody who writes stories (or anything) has their work dismissed and sent packing, over and over. And learning to deal with rejection is a crucial…

In The First Allegiant Teaser, Tris’ Messiah Complex Goes Up To 11

Tris Prior is a complicated person in a crazy world. And this teaser trailer for Allegiant, the third movie in the Divergent series, shows you just how nutty it gets. Actually, the first half of this teaser trailer is just a recap of the first two movies, in case you’ve forgotten all about how Tris…

Under The Dome Will Never End, Because You Are The Dome And So Am I

Right around the time I first joined the cast of Under the Dome, I was smoking a bowl with the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. (They make a special kind of bong for alien mega-artifacts, which is part tesseract and part vape and part flying prehistoric bone. You can only really smoke one of…

Video: The process of hand making a book the old fashioned way is a lost magical art

Anthony Bourdain’s Raw Craft takes a look at Arion Press in San Francisco in its latest episode and examines how this tiny printing shop carries on the legacy of printers of the past. It’s almost astonishing to see how much work gets put into each book. From the typesetting to the proofreading (which is done…

Drool Over This Exclusive Look At The Official Game of Thrones Astrolabe

Game of Thrones has the coolest opening sequence on television, thanks to that insane orrery showing the relief map of Westeros along with the heavens. And io9 is proud to bring you an exclusive video showing the official Game of Thrones Astrolabe as it spins. Plus you can enter to win one for yourself, right…

Local Governments Crack Down On The Monstrous Evil of Tiny Free Lending Libraries

It’s good to know that people are focusing on what’s really important. Local governments in a few different U.S. cities and towns have looked past the problems of homelessness, crumbling city services and displacement, to tackle the real crisis: people are putting up tiny “take a book, leave a book” libraries. This is clearly a…

Nobody Pronounced “Voldemort” Correctly, in Eight Movies

If this tweet by J.K. Rowling doesn’t prove that authorial intent is irrelevant, then nothing will.

“We’re Not Talking About Good Writing. We’re Talking About Wire Racks”: Wolfe, Ellison and Asimov On Genres

This 1982 roundtable discussion on science fiction is amazing. Watch Isaac Asimov, Gene Wolfe and Harlan Ellison talk to Studs Terkel and Calvin Trillin about the randomness of genre distinctions and the difference between “science fiction” and “science fantasy.” [via SFSignal] Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All The Birds in the Sky, coming…

10 Writing “Rules” We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break

Science fiction and fantasy are genres where almost anything can happen — as long as the author can make it seem plausible, and as long as it’s part of a good story. But that doesn’t mean there are no rules. If anything, the fact that these genres are so wide open mean that there are…

The Best Things George R.R. Martin Created (That Aren’t Game of Thrones)

Creating an epic, sprawling fantasy series like A Song of Ice and Fire seems like an author’s life’s work, but it’s certainly not the only thing George R.R. Martin has achieved. His short stories and novels were taking us to amazing worlds long before we visited Westeros. Here are some of his best non-Game of…

Get a ton of Neil Gaiman rarities and support an amazing cause. The latest Humble Bundle raises money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and includes just tons of incredible Neil Gaiman material. Including his rare book about Duran Duran! Contact the author at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @charliejane

They Said Malaysian Audiences Weren’t Ready For Science Fiction Books

Aspiring science fiction author Kushairi Zuradi got tired of publishers telling him that there was no market for science fiction in Malaysia. So the medical-school grad started his own publishing company, Simptomatik Press. Not only did Kushairi publish his own book of stories about micro-organisms, called Biohazard (pictured above), but he also started publishing books…

Salman Rushdie’s Bewilderment at Snapchat Inspired Him to Write Science Fiction

Salman Rushdie is getting a lot of buzz for his fantastical new novel Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights. And talking to the New York Times, he says he’s always loved science fiction—but he was inspired to try the genre now because of a sense that the world is turning upside down. Rushdie tells…

This poem about science fiction is a brilliant look at genres, and what it’s like to imagine how the world could be different. And several phrases from Anne Boyer’s “Science Fiction”will be stuck in my head for ages. It’s short—go read it!

LIGHTSPEED Presents: “Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World” by Caroline M. Yoachim

io9 is proud to present fiction from LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE. Once a month, we’ll be featuring a story from LIGHTSPEED’s current issue. This month’s selection is “Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World” by Caroline M. Yoachim. You can read the story below or you can listen to the podcast. Enjoy! Image © 2015 by…