http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/false utopias http://io9.com/tag/false utopias We're just guessing that the bioengineered paradise where a teenage girl and her clone fight over the same guy will turn out to be less than perfect once the truth is revealed, in the new young adult novel Beta by Rachel Cohn. Beta, coming Fall 2012 from Disney-Hyperion, will be the first of four books in a new series from Cohn, who's moving into YA fiction after having written several successful children's books, including the Cyd Charisse books. Here's how the press release describes the new series that starts with Beta: More »
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Chan Koon-chung's novel in which everybody in China forgets a month, The Fat Years: China 2013, will come out in the US and UK next year, Chan's agent tells io9. The truth will be revealed! More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5605053&view=rss&microfeed=true For anyone who's curious to learn more about The Gilded Age: China 2013, the political novel we blogged about the other day, there's a fantastic new essay about it in Foreign Policy. Xujun Eberlein explains more of what makes this novel so subversive, but also provides a history of political science fiction in China, going back to 1904's The Moon Colony, in which an anti-Qing Dynasty scholar flees to the Moon, and 1932's Cat Country, a novel about cats living on Mars by legendary satirist Lao She. Really fascinating stuff. [Foreign Policy] More »
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It's 2013, and China's the only country to have survived an economic meltdown. The Chinese own Starbucks, which now serves longan dragon well lattes. So why can't anybody remember an entire month? That's the premise of a new dystopian novel. More »
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The Arab world's most prolific and best-selling science fiction author, Ahmed Khaled Taufiq, will finally appear in English, thanks to Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. In autumn 2011, we'll get an English version of Taufiq's novel Utopia, which isn't really utopian. More »
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Now that young-adult fiction is where most of great dystopian stories are being told, there are two awesome discussions going on. Kaitlin Ward asks what's the difference between dystopian and apocalyptic fiction. And Angie Smibert wonders where the utopias are. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5561512&view=rss&microfeed=true A great essay over at Crosscut.com explains why two different schools of utopian city planning in Seattle both try to ignore the city's present-day realities and historical features: More »
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For possibly the first time ever, North Korean art is being displayed in Europe, and the utopian optimism is heart-breaking. Yes, monster movies may not be the scariest culture North Korea ever produced. More »
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This year is the 100th anniversary of the first story about the Internet going wrong. E.M. Forster (better known for A Passage To India) wrote "The Machine Stops" in 1909, and you can read it online. More »
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The Prisoner used its premise of a spy trapped in an idyllic, but oppressive, village to ask questions about individuality in a conformist, overly processed society. Here are six ways last night's remake throws away that rich premise. Spoilers below... More »
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Ridley Scott isn't just directing the Alien prequel, he's also involved in a movie adaptation of Brave New World, as we reported last year. A screenwriter's on board, but Leonardo DiCaprio's mooted star turn is raising some concerns. More »
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So far, AMC's remake of 1960s weird-fest The Prisoner sounds like it's on the right track — with plenty of trippiness and explosions. Except for one major new element of soap opera. Spoilers below. More »
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Before there was Lost's Dharma Initiative there was The Village from the trippy/paranoid 1960s TV series The Prisoner. And now a six-part miniseries is in the works remaking this spy-trapped-in-paradise show, starring Jim "Jesus" Caviezel as Number 6 and Ian McKellen as his main adversary, Number 2. More details about the future fantasy Prisoner after the jump. More »
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Ridley Scott is returning to science fiction, the genre he spurned, for the first ever movie adaptation of Aldous Huxley's classic false-utopia novel Brave New World. Leonardo DiCaprio, who owns the movie rights to Brave, will probably star as John the Savage, a natural man who confronts a world of test-tube babies who are kept pacified with drugs and sex. According to Leonardo's dad, who was friends with Huxley's widow, the movie will include CGI vistas of a "vast futuristic world." [Big Picture Radio] More »
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If you're living in a shiny happy world where everything is provided to you, and your white pajamas never ever get stained, then chances are you're in a false utopia. Someone's going to be coming and harvesting your organs, or culling you at age 30, or drugging you into obedience. The fake paradise built on a foundation of shit seems to flourish most during times when technology seems to be solving all our problems (like during the dotcom boom.) Click through for a list of false utopias. More »
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