Our economy is huge, incomprehensible and potentially deadly if you take a wrong step — just like space, in fact. So when it comes to understanding the fundamentals of economics, you need to read some classic and recent science fiction novels. Luckily, Paul Krugman and Noah Smith have provided a reading list.

It's been four decades since futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler predicted a wave of "future shock," the sensation of panic and unease that happens when people are "overwhelmed by change." And, depending on who you talk to you, we're either in the middle of a huge epidemic of future shock, with people struggling to adapt to…

Tor Books has just announced that Charles Stross will be writing a third trilogy in his universe-hopping, economic development history thriller series, The Merchant Princes (yes it really does require all those adjectives). The series began with a mafia family smuggling goods by time-and-space traveling through a…

What possessed four of science fiction and fantasy's superstar authors to strip down to their skivvies and gather around Hugo-award-winning writer Mary Robinette Kowal? It's not just to skewer the skin-baring cover illustration of Poul Anderson's Young Flandry (although that was certainly part of it). It's all part of

This year's science fiction books are going to rock. John Scalzi returns to the Old Man's War universe, there's a brand new Neil Gaiman novel, and Stephen King's long-awaited sequel to The Shining. Plus brand new books from Austin Grossman, Nalo Hopkinson, Christopher Priest, Diana Gabaldon, Robert J. Sawyer, Joe…

While science fiction writers aren't necessarily out to predict the future, every now and then, author Charles Stross sits down and speculates on what the near or far future might hold. This week, Stross has peered into the middle distance, imagining what Earth might look like in 500. He sees a world very different…

So they actually did it: They turned the sprawling, insane Cloud Atlas into a movie, one that actually makes the book look straightforward and uncontroversial. It just goes to show, no matter how unconventional or sprawling a book is, there's a way to adapt that sucker into a movie. Except sometimes, no.

Is it possible to have a wild, exciting space adventure without resorting to magic? Or is there just no way to imagine conquering the vastness of the cosmos without warp drives, hyperspace, miraculous shielding and other fancy devices?

What do science fiction and fantasy books have in store for you this fall? There are new fantasy series by Tad Williams and Jacqueline Carey. A brand new Culture novel by Iain M. Banks. Collaborations between Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, and Larry Niven and Gregory Benford. A classic Gene Wolfe novel. A massive…

When Hollywood wants a futuristic, paranoid thriller where nothing is what it seems, the studios reach for the work of one man. This week, Philip K. Dick continues his reign as Hollywood's idea spigot, with a remake of Total Recall. More PKD films are in the works, and there's no shortage of material out there.