In one of those Internet things that exists solely to delight us, science fiction author Neal Stephenson starts slicing up fruit (and other things) with swords, shot at about 2,300 frames per second. Come for the cantaloupe, stay for the amazing shot of Stephenson demolishing a plastic water bottle with his…

The second volume of The Mongoliad, the "secret history" epic by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and their collaborators, is out now. To celebrate, we've got an exclusive first look at a map that shows the territory that the Shield Brethren travel in the book. Check out the full version below.

This year's finalists for the National Book Awards were announced, and over at Salon, Laura Miller makes a strong case that the list should have included some of the year's best genre books. Her picks include the fantasy novel Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (read our review here).

Novelist Neal Stephenson wants to create a 20-kilometer space tower, which could inspire people to believe in innovation again — but also transform the way we travel in the air and into space.

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.

Nowadays, everybody says that science fiction has stopped talking about Big Ideas. Science fiction used to be the genre that asked the huge questions, about who we are and where we're going. But somehow, people say, the genre lost its appetite for deep thoughts.

Science fiction and fantasy offer a rich legacy of great books — from Asimov to Pynchon, there are some fantastic, ambitious works of genre fiction out there. But they're also daunting. So a lot of us just muddle through and pretend to have read these classics — which isn't that hard, because they're everywhere, and…

Noted writer Neal Stephenson has argued that contemporary science fiction is too focused on nihilism and apocalyptic scenarios. The current crop of such works, such as The Walking Dead, are compared rather unfavorably to the hopeful view of the future that was supposed to be common theme in the mid twentieth century.

It's not even 10:30 in the morning, and I'm already holding an archaic deadly weapon in my hands. I'm in a nondescript warehouse in Seattle, to which I've traveled so that award-winning science fiction novelists can demonstrate how they could cut me in half if they felt like it. Somebody has just pulled a sword out of…