Back in 2009, China Mieville gave a talk at Kansas University about the divide between science fiction and fantasy. And he explained just why the widespread perception on the internet that science fiction is smarter than fantasy, or superior to fantasy, is overblown. The whole thing is on Youtube, and here's the…

You probably knew that literary superstar Junot Díaz is a big fan of science fiction and fantasy, but did you know he's written a couple of science fiction novels that never saw the light of day? Talking to Geeks' Guide to the Galaxy, Díaz explains that he wrote a far-future novel in the vein of Gene Wolfe, called…

When you discuss the "new" space opera, one name comes up pretty often: that of Alastair Reynolds, whose Blue Remembered Earth is coming out next month in the U.S. But in an interview over at Publisher's Weekly, Reynolds says he's less and less happy with that tag:

Many people dream of being clever wordsmiths. Masters of fizzy, quotable dialogue. Creators of plots that are full of cool twists and nutty-but-brilliant ideas. The undisputed champions of madcap invention.

Low-budget science fiction and fantasy movies rule. While mega-blockbusters crank out the same familiar stories, including a parade of sequels and remakes, a low-budget film can take crazy risks and tell an original story. But sometimes, low-budget movies can get just as obsessed with chasing fads and copying each…

Science fiction and fantasy are genres where almost anything can happen — as long as the author can make it seem plausible, and as long as it's part of a good story. But that doesn't mean there are no rules. If anything, the fact that these genres are so wide open mean that there are tons of rules out there, some…

Everybody always says that every story idea has been done before - which is totally not true, because nobody's done a "nuns raise an ostrich to be the perfect killer" story before. But even if a story idea has been done to death, you can always make it fresh and brilliant all over again, by adding just two little words:…

Good news! Walter Mosley, best known for his Easy Rawlins novels, will be publishing more science fiction next year — he has a series of SF novellas coming from Tor, whom he describes as "THE science fiction publisher." They'll be packaged as one or more flipbooks.