Walter M. Miller's three-part novel A Canticle for Leibowitz is one of the acknowledged classics of science fiction... that doesn't get talked about nearly enough. Over in the New Yorker, there's a fascinating, must-read essay about this book, putting it in context.

Humans are capable of immense greatness and largeness of spirit — but we can also be total horrible bastards, sometimes. And science fiction is full of stories where we terrorize and mistreat innocent creatures. Here are the 10 best stories where humans are the villains.

This weekend, we celebrate the awesome majesty of superpowered suits of armor, with Iron Man 3. But the "power armor" genre has a long and kick-ass history, spanning decades of battles and adventures. Here are the 10 most essential power-armor stories of all time!

So much of science fiction's core topics intersect with war, one way or the other. Rapid social change and technological innovation both get supercharged during wartime, and some of our greatest explorers are also warriors. So it's not surprising that many of science fiction's most well-known authors served in the…

Over at the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about having just read Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, which he now considers one of his top ten novels of all time. In singing the praises of Haldeman's classic war novel, Coates also advances an idea that the best works in any genre are ones that transcend that genre, or…

War changes everything. War is an apocalypse and a technological revolution and a life-changing adventure, all rolled into one. So it's not surprising that many of science fiction's most indelible stories are about warfare.

Communication with aliens is going to be a tricky business — and it could easily turn violent. When we meet extraterrestrial intelligences, we'll have to be careful not to jump to conclusions. Luckily, science fiction is full of examples of miscommunication between humans and aliens, which we can learn from.

For every movie that makes it to your local cineplex, there are dozens that never come into existence. In another universe, Mel Gibson directed Fahrenheit 451, Terry Gilliam directed Watchmen, and Batman fought Godzilla. The history of movies is crammed full of weird almost-weres and could-have-beens. A lot of people…

War is hell. But an ultimate weapon is hella cool.

Over at Shelfari, they're discussing "the worst books of the good authors" in science fiction. Including lone clunkers by Asimov, Heinlein and Niven. What are your least favorite books by your favorite authors? [Shelfari]

Science fiction's greatest authors have brilliant ideas, storytelling mojo... and plenty of stubbornness. Many of the field's greatest writers were buried in rejection slips, before they finally broke in. Here are 15 classic novels that publishers didn't want to touch.

William Gibson shares his dearest science fiction novels with New York Magazine. The best is his blurb for Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren. "It won't work unless you can allow it to become your head for a few weeks." [via DisInfo]

Is this really the first piece of concept art from Ridley Scott's movie of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War?

When District 9 director Neill Blomkamp makes his next film, he won't have a $100 million budget. Instead, he'll keep making films on the (relative) cheap, because it's the only way to make science fiction movies with creative freedom.

Yesterday, we showed you the best robot bodies to download your brain into. But what if you don't want to lose your meat body? Here are 10 robot bodies you can jack into, without leaving your body, like in Surrogates.

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 which of his works…

So it appears that Ridley Scott is intent on getting his hands on all the greatest science fiction novels and turning them into blockbusters, which sounds fine to me. Last week, we reported Scott was determined to bring the complex novel Brave New World to the big screen. Now the trades are reporting that Scott is…

A remake of Heavy Metal, the raunchy animated movie about sexy robots and mostly nekkid amazons, has run into trouble. Paramount was developing the animated film, consisting of segments directed by David Fincher (Fight Club) and Kevin Eastman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), with erotic and violent storylines by Steve…