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This week sees the release of Colson Whitehead's zombie novel Zone One, and he's been doing a slew of interviews in which he affirms that reading science fiction and comic books (especially H.P. Lovecraft) made him want to be a writer. More »
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Darren Aronofsky and Michael Chabon working together. Doesn't that just give you chills? We're beyond excited about the recently announced news that Aronofsky will be directing the pilot of HBO series Hobgoblin, about magicians who fight Hitler! More »
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If you're one of the many people who grew up taking the unforgettable journey to another world in Norman Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, then Michael Chabon's essay on the book will remind you of why you loved it. More »
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When he's not working Disney's John Carter of Mars script or penning Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, apparently Michael Chabon is pitching alternate-history series to HBO about the magicians that fought Hitler. Which sounds fantastic. More »
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Now that we've seen our first Green Lantern footage, opinions are divided. But one thing's sure: the closer Hal's origin sticks to the comics, the better off we'll be. Here are six superhero origins Hollywood captured, and six they ruined. More »
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If information is power, then there's no hero mightier than a librarian. Librarians are superheroes, adventurers, explorers and invaluable guides to other heroes. Here are 20 amazing librarians who save the world every day! More »
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In Despicable Me, opening today, Steve Carrell plays a supervillain named Gru who only cares for fame... or rather infamy. Until he adopts three little orphan girls and grows a heart. Yes, it's totally sappy. But you know, it's fun. More »
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Ten-foot-tall aliens ready to be ridden, massive alien statues, and sabretooth-like skulls litter the sets of Disney's John Carter of Mars movie. Check out the latest set pics and updates from the land of Barsoom. More »
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LIFE.com has published an amazing gallery of children in the '40s and '50s devouring comic books. And these nostalgic images underline the fact that kids pretty much don't do that anymore. More »
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The pulp science fiction renaissance has begun. Edgar Rice Burroughs and E.E. "Doc" Smith both have Hollywood blockbusters in the pipeline. The Burroughs-inspired Avatar broke DVD sales records. But can today's creators update pulp storylines without including the cultural baggage? More »
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China Miéville's detective story The City And The City is well on its way to being the award-winningest novel of the year. But it's not the only great novel about science fiction/fantasy sleuths. Here are 10 other SF detective classics. More »
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A new essay claiming that Jewish authors don't write fantasy literature has caused a firestorm of criticism online, including an impressive list of Jewish fantasy authors. Is Christianity really embedded in the DNA of the fantasy epic? More »
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Who opted out of the Google Books settlement thus far? Approximately 6,500 authors and other literary entities including such writers as Michael Chabon, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Busiek, and, of course, Ursula Le Guin. More »
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Michael Chabon's celebrated science fiction and geeky pop culture, and his latest book Manhood For Amateurs is a love letter to fandom. So when we managed to ask him a few questions, we were excited to geek out about genres. More »
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Of all the love letters in Michael Chabon's newest book Manhood For Amateurs, the tenderest might well be reserved for Doctor Who. The Time Lord's journey, like so many other geeky narratives, becomes a touchstone for Chabon's relationships and self-discovery. More »
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Adults attempt to control children's imaginative worlds, and unsupervised, free-form play is harder to come by than ever, warns author Michael Chabon. But even the most corporate-branded, marketing-controlled playthings can become wild and untrammeled, as Star Wars lego prove. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5382735&view=rss&microfeed=true "The walls that defined speculative fiction as a genre are quickly tumbling down. They are being demolished from within by writers such as China Miéville and Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and scaled from the outside by the likes of Michael Chabon and Lev Grossman. And they are being ignored altogether by a growing number of writers with the ambition to create great fiction, and the vision to draw equally on genre and literary tradition to achieve that goal. The post-sci-fi era is an exciting one to be reading in." — Damien G. Walter, in the Guardian More »
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Is escapism the enemy of smart science fiction? Are stories that let us escape reality always inconsequential fluff? That's what people argue — but the reverse is true. Escapism is a literary impulse, and escapist art is the highest art. More »
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Interested in diving into alternate history fiction? The Onion AV Club has an unusual recommendation: steer clear of both Philip Roth and Harry Turtledove, and start with a Pulitzer-nominated but seldom-discussed 1972 novel instead. More »
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Is Jack Vance finally getting the literary cred his famous admirers say he deserves? The New York Times has a massive article about the Dying Earth author, quoting fans like Michael Chabon and Dan Simmons. More »
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Fresh from its supporting role as the planet Vulcan in Star Trek, the state of Utah is preparing for its role as Mars in Disney/Pixar's long-awaited live-action version of John Carter of Mars, which begins production there in November. More »
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Andrew Stanton's adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs pulp legend John Carter of Mars just got a new screenwriter… and it's one of the writers who best understands pulp science fiction. More »
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I made it to the Michael Chabon (The Yiddish Policemen's Union) and Matt Fraction (Casanova) dual appearance at Wondercon, which was well worth it for anyone into literary comics - or comic-bookish literature. More »
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In a bid to avoid being pigeonholed as a nerd icon, David Duchovny claimed he never thought The X-Files was science fiction — then blamed The Dark Knight for The X-Files 2's lackluster gross. More »
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When will "the literary establishment" start taking science fiction more seriously? Everybody from Michael Chabon to David Hartwell wants to know. But would most readers really be happy if science fiction actually became more literary? Here's our list of things that might change about science fiction if it took on more literary pretensions. More »
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On Monday I said I was a little disappointed that Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 2007. Though I think the novel is excellent, and certainly qualifies as scifi, I said it seemed wrong to give the coveted scifi award to an author who uses scifi tropes, but isn't immersed in the world of scifi. But I was wrong. Here are a few of the comments from the discussion thread that changed my mind. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5036375&view=rss&microfeed=true If you need something to listen to during lunch, tune into this interesting edition of Wisconsin Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge," featuring writer Michael Chabon discussing his alternate history novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union. He also talks about how science fiction can be just as beautiful and intellectually rewarding as literature. Plus there is a lot of joking around and goofing off, which makes for an excellent bit of radio. You can listen to it online. [Genre Busters via To the Best of our Knowledge] More »
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In an alternate universe, Michael Chabon has a long track record of writing space opera. When the Yiddish Policemen's Union author was a young writer in UC Irvine's MFA program, he wrote some science fiction stories and brought them to his peers. He was met with "if not hostility, then incomprehension," and so he switched to writing literary fiction. We went to a Chabon reading and Q&A on Tuesday and he asked him about anti-SF prejudice among the literati. His full response, after the jump. More »
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Over the weekend, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America presented its annual Nebula Awards for best works of science fiction and fantasy. Held in Austin, the Nebula Award weekend is celebration of the speculative literary scene, including everyone from the most literary to the most pulpy authors around. Unlike the Hugo Awards, which are won by popular vote, the Nebulas are chosen by a committee — sort of Academy Awards style. This year, nobody was surprised when Michael Chabon's alternate history novel The Yiddish Policeman's Union took the coveted "best novel" award. More winners below, plus links to the stories for your week's lunchtime reading. More »
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You've chosen the winners of this year's Locus Awards for science fiction novels, stories, novellas, story collections, first novels and a few other categories. Locus has announced the finalists — including Charles Stross' Halting State, Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policemen's Union, Ian McDonald's Brasyl, William Gibson's Spook Country and Joe Haldeman's The Accidental Time Machine, for best novel — and the actual winners will be announced June 21 in Seattle. Image from Halting State's UK cover. [Locus, via SF Awards Watch] More »
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Dale Peck and Tim Kring's alternate-history novel is just the latest in a long history of mainstream authors lifting ideas from science fiction. But what sci-fi concepts have been most in vogue with literary publishers — and when did those fads peak? We decided to look at the biggest novels by literary authors that involved time travel, alternate history, or post-apocalyptic futures. And then we threw in larger political, cultural or literary events that could have influenced authors, publishers or readers. We discovered a shocking connection between real-life wars and the popularity of time-travel stories. More »
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Michael Chabon wrote one of the smartest explorations of superheroes in his Pulitzer-winning The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, so it was exciting news when he agreed to write the script for Spider-Man 2. Unfortunately, some studio execs, in their wisdom, decided to bring in some other writers, including Smallville co-creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, to revamp Chabon's script. Now David Eggers' literary magazine McSweeney's has put Chabon's original version online, as a free PDF, for a limited time. We compared Chabon's draft with what ended up on screen. And not surprisingly, everything that was good about Spider-Man 2 is in the Chabon version, and a whole lot more besides. More »
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Four out of five Hugo-nominated novels are available for free, in electronic format — but only if you're a Hugo voter. To receive copies of Halting State by Charles Stross, Brasyl by Ian McDonald, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer and The Last Colony by John Scalzi, you have to send an email to hugo2008@scalzi.com with proof that you're registered for Denvention, the 2008 WorldCon. Too bad only Hugo voters get to read these books electronically, since even non-attendees might want to weigh in about them online. Also too bad that Harper Collins chose not to include Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policemen's Union in the care package, although an excerpt is online here. Sadly, the omission may put Chabon at a bit of a disadvantage with the Hugo voters. [Whatever] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=375289&view=rss&microfeed=true You can read several of the stories and novellas on the Hugo nominations list, including Elizabeth Bear's "Tideline," Ted Chiang's "The Merchant And The Alchemist's Gate," Gene Wolfe's "Memorare" and Nancy Kress' "The Fountain of Age" online. The novel nominees include Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policeman's Union, Charles Stross' Halting State, Ian McDonald's Brasyl, and John Scalzi's The Last Colony. Long-form dramatic presentation nominees include Heroes season one, while short-form dramatic presentation nominees include two Doctor Who stories, a Torchwood episode, Battlestar Galactica's "Razor" and an episode of the fan-produced Star Trek: Phase II. More »
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What's in a superhero costume? Well, beyond muscle and 100% justice, of course (50% justice, 50% alcohol in Iron Man's case). If you're novelist and occasional fanboy Michael Chabon, the answer apparently has a lot more to do with semiotics and cultural identity than even Peter Parker was aware of, according to his article in this week's New Yorker. More »
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Michael Chabon continues to crush genre boundaries like John Barth on steroids. His alternate-history detective novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union is the first novel ever to get Best Novel nominations from both the Edgar Awards (for mysteries) and the Nebula Awards (for science fiction). [GalleyCat, via SFAwardsWatch] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=360049&view=rss&microfeed=true The Coen Brothers, director/producers of the superlative No Country for Old Men and Fargo (along with many others), have just announced that they'll be making the movie version of Michael Chabon's alternative history novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union. The book is set in an alternative U.S. where displaced Jews were relocated to Alaska instead of Israel after World War II. So there's no Israel/Palestinian conflict, and instead the main issue is how to re-integrate Alaska back into the U.S. after decades of independent statehood. We can't think of a better pairing in Chabon and the Coen Bros. [/Film] More »
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Michael Chabon reinvented the alternate-history genre with The Yiddish Policemen's Union, his novel about a world where Alaska became the Jewish homeland. So where are the great alternate histories of New York? The city's history is full of disasters and bizarre schemes that could have turned out very differently. Here are five timeline turning-points that might have erased New York as we know it forever. More »
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