kurt vonnegut

Swing Through for a New Look Into the Spider-Verse Sequel

Plus a lot of sneaky peeks at Lady Gaga on the Joker set, some potential Blade Runner TV news, and a Daredevil casting switch-up.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Is Coming to TV

One of the minds behind Syfy’s brain-bending comics adaptation Happy! Is bringing another weird tale to television: Kurt Vonnegut’s iconic, time-twisting satire Slaughterhouse-Five. Patrick Macmanus will write and executive produce Universal Cable’s adaptation of Vonnegut’s mishmash of scifi, dark comedy, and war stories. The book follows the non-linear life of Billy Pilgrim, a young soldier…

A Ton of Scifi Books Are Coming to TV, Including Kurt Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan

Universal has just announced a slate of new genre TV shows, including three new adaptations of fantasy and scifi books. But hidden among those are the first details about Dan Harmon and Evan Katz’s next TV series: Sirens of Titan, an interplanetary epic based on the Kurt Vonnegut novel. Sirens of Titan follows the richest…

The Kurt Vonnegut Library is seeking $750,000 to move to a bigger space.And this would let them do more cool stuff to celebrate one of the all-time best writers of weird and fantastical fiction. So it goes! [via SF Signal]

How Kurt Vonnegut’s Famous Older Brother Inspired Him To Write Science Fiction

When Kurt Vonnegut was working as a PR flak at General Electric, his older brother Bernard was a famous scientist. And Kurt was there when Bernard demonstrated his incredible new invention: a way to seed clouds with dry ice and silver iodide and make it rain. Could this be used as a weapon? At the…

Could This Be The Most Important Easter Egg in The Force Awakens? (Probably Not.)

For months, we have pored over every screenshot, every glimpse of footage, and every toy package relating to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But did we miss the Kurt Vonnegut shout-out? Or are we just seeing things? Earlier today, we were discussing great books that defy genre categories, including Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions. So…

11 Novels So Amazing, You Can’t Tell What Genre They Are

Some of the most powerful reading experiences are the ones that refuse to fit into just one pigeonhole. They defy categorization, because they’re both life-changing and label-breaking. Don’t believe me? Here are 11 books that are so incredibly good, they can’t be constrained to just one genre. When I was first starting to think about…

The Doomed TV Adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle Was Just Undoomed

Ever since it was announced that the vaguely named IM Global Television would turn Kurt Vonnegut’s classic science fiction satire Cat’s Cradle into a TV series, I have been dreading it. Oh, I love Vonnegut’s bleak novel, but I was 100 percent certain no one could transform the slim, wonderful, esoteric book into live-action. I…

This Year’s Science Fiction Hall Of Fame Inductees Are Legends

Seattle’s EMP Museum houses the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and yesterday, announced the 2015 cohort of inductees: James E. Gunn, Georges Méliès, John Schoenherr, Hayao Miyazaki, Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Gaughan. This year’s inductees are an interesting mix of author and artists: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame was originally located at the Gunn…

IM Global Television will adapt Kurt Vonnegut’s classic science fiction satire Cat’s Cradle as a television series. No word yet on writer, directors, cast, or when we’ll get to see it. [Entertainment Weekly]

Economists Who Study Science Fiction Will See Science More Realistically

There are definitely plenty of economists who love science fiction — Paul Krugman comes to mind immediately. But economics could still benefit from more attention to the genre, argues economist Ha-Joon Chang from Cambridge University. But Chang’s reasons for recommending SF might be a bit surprising. Rather than promote SF as a way to make…

10 Great Novels That Aren’t About What You Heard They Were About

Science fiction and fantasy novels become famous for all sorts of reasons. Maybe they catch the zeitgeist, or maybe they have one idea that everybody falls in love with. But sometimes, we all fixate on something that’s not the actual point of the book. Here are 10 great novels that aren’t about what everybody thinks.…

10 Dystopias That Are More Relevant Than Ever Before

Dystopias rule our imaginations today — just ask Katniss Everdeen. But the dystopias that speak most powerfully to our world weren’t necessarily created in the past decade. Here are 10 great dystopias that are more relevant to the real world than when they were first created. Note: We didn’t include 1984 or Brave New World…

If You Read One Thing Today, Make It This Canticle For Leibowitz Essay

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. Apart from other things, the New Yorker essay talks about the fact that…

The 12 Weirdest Reasons For Banning Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

It’s Banned Books Week! But people are trying to keep great books out of libraries and schools every hour of every day, year round. And often, people’s reasons for challenging these titles are really, really… outlandish. Here are 12 SF and fantasy books that people have given incomprehensible reasons for banning. Top image: Neverwhere, art…

More Kurt Vonnegut, Elder Scrolls Online, Your New TV

We’ve got even more Kurt Vonnegut for your Kindle today. First is his 1979 novel Jailbird, and then perhaps even more interesting, The World of Kurt Vonnegut by Michael Bunker. A mere $2/each. PC gamers can pick up the Elder Scrolls Online for $40 today. We’ve got portable power, ergonomic keyboards, wireless flash drives, and…

In 1975, Newsweek Warned that Science Fiction Was Taking Over

These days, we’re used to seeing articles about how science fiction has gone mainstream, or how the geeks rule the world. But back in 1975, this was still a relatively new idea — and it kind of terrified Newsweek Magazine. In December 1975, Newsweek’s book critic Peter S. Prescott began a feature on the science…

Are Kurt Vonnegut’s Drawings Quirky Or Just Horrifying?

Kurt Vonnegut was a compulsive doodler — and at least some of his books contain the author’s weird illustrations. Including, famously, his anus. But now, a new book collects many of his doodles — some of which are kind of unnervingly weird. The Guardian has a complete collection of Vonnegut art — head over there…

Kurt Vonnegut, Kindle Sale, Humble Image Comics Bundle, Spider-Man

Amazon is running quite the sale on Kindle Books today, the highlight of which for many will be several Vonnegut classics while we’ll link to directly. Of course, we recommend browsing the whole selection. [Amazon] Breakfast of Champions | $2 Welcome to the Monkey House | $2 Deadeye Dick | $2 Bluebeard: The Autobiography of…

All The Ways You Can Screw Up Your Own Timeline

Time travel and temporal anomalies can be messy and unpleasant. When time starts getting out of whack, anything can happen. People can be born over and over, meet themselves, relive the same day, or just screw up all their relationships. Here are all the ways people get tangled in their own timelines in science fiction.…