• io9
  • science
  • overmind
  • kotaku
  • gizmodo
  • Profile logout login

#books#tech#article

io9

Share Cancel
   
Upload an image | Add an image URL
×

logging in
  • FAQ. Include # before tag:
  • #observationdeck,
  • #tips,
  • #calendar,
  • etc.

San Francisco, 7:22 AM
Wed Dec 16
25 posts in the last 24 hours

Team

Tip your editors:

Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz |

News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders |

Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner |

Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis |

Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan |

Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier |
Ed Grabianowski |
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan |
Lauren Davis |
Chris Hsiang |
Lynn Peril |
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins |

Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox |

Interns:
Tim Barribeau |
Julia Carusillo |
Alex Eichler |
Cyriaque Lamar |
Caitlin Petrakovitz |
Mary Ratliff |
Josh Snyder |

More:
io9 on Facebook
follow io9 on Twitter

SUBSCRIBE TO io9 RSS

New: Breaking news and daily top stories via email
1428 Subscribers
io9
  • Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.
    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
    07:14 AM

    In reply to Book Covers That Are Ashamed To Be Science Fiction
    So, let's be clear. The front cover is ashamed to admit it's science fiction. But the back cover isn't ashamed to admit it's got a character in it called "Dake Sureblood"?

    Is it still called Disassociative Identity Disorder when it's books?
     Reply
    braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. was starred braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. was unstarred
    Image of ManchuCandidate ManchuCandidate
    07:11 AM

    In reply to Book Covers That Are Ashamed To Be Science Fiction
    And Romance Novels aren't marginalized?

    Okay...
     Reply
    ManchuCandidate was starred ManchuCandidate was unstarred
    Image of goldfarb goldfarb
    12/15/09

    In reply to The Greatest Nerdy Gift Books In The Galaxy
    I really like it someone bought this book for me:
    [www.taschen.com]

    :)
     Reply
    Edited by goldfarb at 12/15/09 9:51 PM goldfarb was starred goldfarb was unstarred
    Image of Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
    12/15/09

    In reply to The Greatest Nerdy Gift Books In The Galaxy
    Ooooo, shiiiiny!

    Thanks also for the non-gallery versions!
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of Ruthless, If you let me Ruthless, If you let me
    12/15/09

    @Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: On all galleries, if you take out ".../gallery" from the URL, BAM! non-gallery shiiiiny versions. ;)
     Reply
    Ruthless, If you let me was starred Ruthless, If you let me was unstarred
    Image of Charlie Jane Anders Charlie Jane Anders
    12/15/09

    @Ruthless, If you let me: That is true. However, sometimes if you do that, the text and the images run together weirdly. When I include the "click here for galleries" thing, that partly means that I've gone thru and added a bit of extra formatting so it'll look okay in non-gallery format. :)
     Reply
    Charlie Jane Anders was starred Charlie Jane Anders was unstarred
    Image of Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
    12/15/09

    @Ruthless, If you let me: I've been using the "delete /gallery" trick for a while but it doesn't always work right, so I was thanking Charlie for doing the extra formatting so the text matches up correctly.
     Reply
    Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was starred Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. was unstarred
    Image of Ruthless, If you let me Ruthless, If you let me
    07:15 AM

    @Charlie Jane Anders: Huh. I'd never noticed before. I prefer the gallery view anyway. :)
     Reply
    Ruthless, If you let me was starred Ruthless, If you let me was unstarred
    Image of Ruthless, If you let me Ruthless, If you let me
    12/15/09

    In reply to The Greatest Nerdy Gift Books In The Galaxy
    From personal experience, Voices From The Moon is pretty rad.
     Reply
    Ruthless, If you let me was starred Ruthless, If you let me was unstarred
    Image of Roklimber Roklimber
    12/15/09

    In reply to 6 Minutes Of Proof That Cloudy Is This Year's Most Underrated Film
    I couldn't resist, so after reading this article I got the movie and watched it.

    I wouldn't call it a great movie. It's... the weirdest, yet most imaginative movie I've seen in a long time. Great visuals and some really hilarious scenes. The story kinda sucked though.
     Reply
    Roklimber was starred Roklimber was unstarred
    Image of sicboi sicboi
    12/15/09

    @Roklimber: I agree, I just saw it and it wasn't underrated in my opinion, it ranked mediocre as with other films. It did have for me some awkward bits of social commentary that weren't discussed at all so hated it for that...
     Reply
    Roklimber promoted this comment sicboi was starred sicboi was unstarred
    Image of braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
    12/15/09

    In reply to 6 Minutes Of Proof That Cloudy Is This Year's Most Underrated Film
    Ohhhh shiiiiit...

    I need a Nikola Tesla: Rockstar Scientist poster.
     Reply
    braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. was starred braak: You are, as usual, completely correct. was unstarred
    Image of Pessimippopotamus Pessimippopotamus
    12/15/09

    @braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.: Exactly.
     Reply
    Pessimippopotamus was starred Pessimippopotamus was unstarred
    Image of Cash907Censored Cash907Censored
    12/15/09

    In reply to 6 Minutes Of Proof That Cloudy Is This Year's Most Underrated Film
    STEVE!!
     Reply
    Cash907Censored was starred Cash907Censored was unstarred
    Image of geesejuggler geesejuggler
    12/15/09

    In reply to 6 Minutes Of Proof That Cloudy Is This Year's Most Underrated Film
    I haven't seen it yet, but I saw the scene where he discovered snowball fights. It's on my list of "Must-see".
     Reply
    geesejuggler was starred geesejuggler was unstarred
    Image of cletar cletar
    12/15/09

    In reply to 6 Minutes Of Proof That Cloudy Is This Year's Most Underrated Film
    It was really good.

    Mr Fox is good, too.
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of FrankenPC FrankenPC
    12/15/09

    @cletar: Mr Fox was amazing. That was one of the funniest scripts I've seen in years. It's a pretty complex storyline. I'd be surprised if a young child could sit through the entire movie.

    Few-few-tic tic!
     Reply
    FrankenPC was starred FrankenPC was unstarred
    Image of cletar cletar
    12/15/09

    @FrankenPC: My eight-year-old liked it a lot.
     Reply
    cletar was starred cletar was unstarred
    Image of FrankenPC FrankenPC
    12/15/09

    @cletar: Your 8 year old has good taste!
     Reply
    FrankenPC was starred FrankenPC was unstarred
    Image of tande04 tande04
    12/15/09

    @cletar: Was just going to make the same comment.

    Just saw Fox tonight. Probably the best thing I've seen in a long time.

    Though admittedly after I got done with it I'd question taking a child to it.

    Great movie though.
     Reply
    tande04 was starred tande04 was unstarred
    Image of FrankenPC FrankenPC
    12/15/09

    In reply to 6 Minutes Of Proof That Cloudy Is This Year's Most Underrated Film
    WOW! That looks killer! I totally blew off this movie.
     Reply
    FrankenPC was starred FrankenPC was unstarred
    Image of geesejuggler geesejuggler
    12/15/09

    In reply to Star Trek/Dickens Mashup And Clockwork Zombie: Now That's What We Call A Literary Mashup!
    To Kill A Mockingdroid.
     Reply
    geesejuggler was starred geesejuggler was unstarred
    Image of Belabras Belabras
    12/15/09

    In reply to Star Trek/Dickens Mashup And Clockwork Zombie: Now That's What We Call A Literary Mashup!
    Life in the Woods, now with more Wendigo. I love it.
     Reply
    Belabras was starred Belabras was unstarred
    Image of Adam Whitehead Adam Whitehead
    12/14/09

    In reply to 20 Best Science Fiction Books Of The Decade
    THE SEPARATION by Christopher Priest is the best SF book of the decade, to my mind. Its complex use of real history, alternate history, parallel worlds and human consciousness is simply fascinating.

    Mieville I can get behind. Stephenson I'm torn on, as whilst the Baroque Cycle has SF elements, overall it is a historical fiction with a high amount of historical fidelity (moreso than most straight historical works).

    ASH: A SECRET HISTORY by Mary Gentle should also be a contender for the list. As an alt-history with magic and an interesting language style, I would rank it as superior to JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL.

    For fantasy I think we do need A STORM OF SWORDS on there. A book with so many memorable moments, characters and lines that it's almost overwhelming, along with at least two of the most jaw-dropping "Are you kidding me?" moments in modern fantasy fiction. Probably the moment that post-Tolkien secondary world fantasy stopped aping the old master and finally said, "Right, now things are going to be little bit different," and followed up on in style by the likes of Bakker, Abercrombie and Lynch.

    For fantasy of a slightly different stripe, Steven Erikson's DEADHOUSE GATES and MEMORIES OF ICE are pretty impressive works, constantly imaginative and thought-provoking. Later books in the series have proved disappointing, even formulaic, but these two books remain very impressive.

    Alastair Reynolds, for me, would be a strong contender for individual best SF writer of the decade. Individual works by other writers have been better than any of his output, but his high rate of output (nine novels and three story collections this decade alone) and its very high quality should be respected. CHASM CITY and PUSHING ICE are classic works of modern SF in their own right.

    Ian McDonald's RIVER OF GODS and BRASYL are also very good, and refreshingly show that the future won't just be set in Los Angeles and New York, but that countries like India and Brazil have dazzling, high-tech futures and dangers to deal with as well.
     Reply
    Adam Whitehead was starred Adam Whitehead was unstarred
    Image of Roklimber Roklimber
    12/13/09

    In reply to A Case of Conscience Makes a Case for Science
    A couple of years ago I watched a presentation about Saturn and its moons, given by Carolyn Porco, the lady in charge of the Cassini mission. Her presentation brought tears of joy to my eyes not only because of the sheer beauty of the pictures and facts that she presented but because of her passionate call for the recognition that science - true science - is soooooooo much more interesting than fantasy, so much more beautiful, so much more fantastic and unexpected, so much more poetic. It's a must-see presentation. I'll post a link as soon as I locate it. Stay tuned.

    Also, more recently, I watched another presentation, a TED talk, about something called biomimicry, a new field of technology where an attempt is made to utilize the principles found in nature to solve big problems. I'll also add a link in a moment. This is another must-see talk.

    The point of my mentioning these two talks is that if sci-fi authors at large spent some time getting acquainted with true science, they'd have a much richer canvas to draw their ink from.

    Biomimicry:

    This is the one I mentioned
    [www.ted.com]

    This one I haven't seen yet, but it's on the same subject and by the same person (with different examples, it seems)
    [www.ted.com]

    Carolyn Porco's talk on Beyond Belief 2006
    Part 1
    [www.youtube.com]
    Part 2
    [www.youtube.com]
    Part 3
    [www.youtube.com]
    Part 4
    [www.youtube.com]

    Carolyn Porco's TED talk on Saturn and the Cassini mission
    [www.ted.com]
     Reply
    Edited by Roklimber at 12/13/09 11:45 AM Roklimber was starred Roklimber was unstarred
    Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

Login

Enter your username and password.

Please enter a username.
Please enter your password.
logging in
Login via Facebook | Sign Up | Forgot Password?

Reset Password

Please enter your email address to have your password reset.

Please enter your email address.
Please enter a valid email address.
requesting password reset

Register

Registering will give you a user profile and the ability to add other users as friends. To become a commenter, however, you need to audition.

Want to know more? Consult the Comment FAQ and legal terms.

Please enter a username.
Please enter a password.
Please confirm your password.
Passwords are not identical.
Please enter a valid email address.
registration sent, waiting for reply

Submit Your Comment

You don't need to login to comment. Just enter your email address below.

See how your address will be displayed in the Comment FAQ.

Please enter a valid email address.
Please enter a valid email address.
logging in

Login with your Facebook or io9 account.

Sign up here.



  • Archives
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Legal
  • Help
  • Report a Bug
  • FAQ
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.