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Why do so many of science fiction's greatest stories have to do with meeting — and possibly falling in love with — strangers and strange beings? Author Pat Cadigan, whose story "Angel" is in the new anthology Alien Contact, muses about the allure of Meeting the Other. More »
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Either you've already seen this video from a recent, deeply scary robot demo in Japan, or you need to watch it now. It reveals that robot slavery may not look the way you think it will. More »
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The mighty James Tiptree Jr. Awards have surveyed another year of science fiction and fantasy relating to gender. This year's best gender-related SF books: Greer Gilman's trippy folk tales and, for the first time, a Manga series. More »
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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. More »
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Sarah Hall's The Carhullan Army, the future dystopian novel I reviewed a while back, has won this year's James Tiptree Jr. Award. I was lucky enough to be on the jury for the Tiptree, which recognizes science fiction and fantasy stories that consider gender in a new and interesting way, and we were all blown away by the grim future world and realistic female characters in Carhullan, which is being released in the U.S. as Daughters of the North. The Tiptree honors list also managed to expand boundaries by including a young-adult novel and a graphic novel series. More »
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With Y: The Last Man wrapping up and turning into a movie, the science fiction cliche of the female-dominated planet is red-hot once again. The cosmos is safe for our red-blooded spacemen to venture to worlds where there are no men, or where men are subjugated and the women wear funny headgear. But what about the subset of gynarchic cultures where everyone's a lesbian? It turns out science fiction is full of those, too, and it's time they got the appreciation they deserve. More »
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