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There are a lot of cinematic crimes committed in the name of ending movies on a feel-good note. The twists range from technologically advanced spacecraft having one major weakness, to bad guys being swayed to the side of good after a brief pep-talk from a hero. These cheap ploys frustrate audiences, but they are in service of a sound principle: Almost no fictional story should have an unhappy ending. Especially in fantasy and scifi. More »
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In Husk, a pack of teens wind up in some sort of supernatural scarecrow hunting-ground. It's a pretty standard horror film — until the characters start ramming nails and sewing needles into their skin. Also scarecrows are clown-level terrifying. More »
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The author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe shares a surprising zombie story for Halloween. A pair of big box store employees find a zombie in their midst, but the encounter doesn't go as expected. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5677844&view=rss&microfeed=true Check out #ThursdayTales, a new reader-generated feature at io9 that started yesterday. A group of io9 commenters, led by the formidable Gaudy Mouse Muad'Dib, started a severely cool new practice of sharing links to new short stories they'd written. After just one day of #ThursdayTales, there's already a wealth of incredibly cool short fiction. Can't wait to see what everybody comes up with next week! More »
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The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction has joined forces with Suvudu, Random House's science-fiction site, to offer free fiction online — which means you can check out John Langan's haunting story "City Of The Dog." More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5446520&view=rss&microfeed=true SF Signal asks up-and-coming author Paul Melko (whose The Walls Of The Universe we reviewed here) whether the ways people consume mass media are influencing pop culture. And he says: More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5349717&view=rss&microfeed=true Bizarre, pornographic silent movies turn up, allegedly made in 1911 — and then they start to feature uncannily real-looking Martians and other creatures straight out of Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories. The bitchy, demented story "The Film-makers Of Mars" could only be the work of Geoff Ryman (Air). It was published at Tor.com a while back, but now you can hear Ryman himself read it on the Starship Sofa podcast, and it gains a whole extra layer of snark in his own voice. You really need to hear Ryman discuss shaved pubes on Mars. Why? Because it's Saturday, and that's what one does on Saturdays. [Starship Sofa, via Books On Mars] More »
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This Halloween, we give thanks to writer H.P. Lovecraft for all the unspeakable horrors he has introduced into our lives. Lovecraft’s stories, especially his nihilist tales of the Great Old Ones, sleeping gods who will someday wake to bring death and terror to mankind, have inspired death metal ballads, tentacle-filled artwork, and the Alien films. We offer as our sacrifice a list of science fiction novels and stories inspired by Lovecraft, and pray that when dead Cthulhu wakes from his dreams, we’ll be eaten first. More »
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Do you like fresh, free speculative fiction delivered to you every week online, packaged nicely with reviews and art? Then you should definitely check out the webzine Strange Horizons, which has been publishing cool SF and fantasy writing online since the dark year 2000. Over the years, they've published everyone from Elizabeth Bear and Gavin Grant, to Tim Pratt and Jay Lake. They're also an arts nonprofit, and this month they're trying to raise $6,000 bucks to help pay writers and run the zine. Find out more below. 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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Gwyneth Jones, author of the fantasty-scifi-pop-music Bold As Love series, has put some of her short fiction online for free recently — plus some great essays, including the thought-provoking "Aliens In The Fourth Dimension." But my favorite story she's put online is the weird, gritty and unpredictable "Fulcrum," which is sort of a cyberpunk noir cowboy occult adventure story. It's the perfect thing to read right about now, to give you a jolt of insanity to help you get through the rest of your day. More »
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Science fiction writer Rudy "Postsingular" Rucker has just posted issue #5 of his speculative fiction webzine FLURB, which is always full of bizarro delights. In this issue, Terry Bisson writes about a superhero called Captain Ordinary who teleports around the world via hidden portals in Starbucks outlets, triggered if you order the right kind of soy latte. John Shirley gives us a tasty excerpt from his dark new cyberpunk novel Black Glass Samples, and Nathaniel Hellerstein takes on the persona of the entire Web to humbly request that people stop accusing it of trying to end the world. Plus, there's a lot more, including a new story from Rucker and plenty of Rucker's art too. [FLURB] More »
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A doctor on an alien planet has only three tools in her medical kit, and they are all living snakes. Using a kind of biotechnology in her own body, she's able to synthesize tailor-made drugs from the snakes' venom after exposing them to people who are ill. Leading a nomadic life, she moves from town to town on an alien world, trying to help out people who are often as afraid of her as they are anxious for her services. Some of you may recognize this as the plot of Vonda N. McIntyre's dreamy, beautiful short story "Of Mist, Grass, and Sand," now available for free on the author's website. If you're looking for a little late-afternoon or bedtime reading, try this one out. (And if you like it, McIntyre has a "writer appreciation button" that lets you tip her via Paypal.) ["Of Mist, Grass, and Sand"] More »
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Science fiction and urban fantasy author Elizabeth Bear always surprises you. She'll write hard military SF like the superlative Carnival, complete with spies and alien tech, and then she'll turn around and write a book like New Amsterdam, about a forensic sorceress in an alternate-ninteenth century New York City full of crime and magic. Her restless, weird imagination always brings contradictory ideas together in a pleasing mashup. You can sample some of Bear's talent in her recent short story "Tideline," now free online, about a derelict war bot who befriends a homeless kid. More »
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