io9
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io9 calendar
The io9 Guide To July Science Fiction
Of course you're interested in the future, for that is where you will be buying books, going to movies, and watching TV shows. As the summer movie season winds down, the convention season heats up in our July calendar!
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Comment by salthegeek: Who all is going to Comic Con? should we have an io9 meet up there ? 9 Responses | Other threads
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io9 calendar
The io9 Guide To June Science Fiction
Journey into the future, with the io9 guide to everything science fictional in June! Find out everything that will be thrilling you for the coming month, including new books, tons of DVDs, and a bunch of conventions.
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quote of the day
Even Bad Summer Blockbusters Have More To Say Than Horror Flicks Or Romantic Comedies
"Despite that financial success, the critics are growing restless. The New York Times' A.O. Scott declared that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is "the latest evidence that the superhero movie is suffering from serious imaginative fatigue." Slate's Dana Stevens announced that "I'll be holding comic-book-based blockbusters to a more robust standard" this summer. And Anthony Lane, a film critic for The New Yorker, took a nasty shot at comic book enthusiasts in his review of Watchmen earlier in the year, saying the film "should meet the needs of any leering nineteen-year-old who believes that America is ruled by the military-industrial complex. More » -
io9 calendar
The io9 Guide To May Science Fiction
Here, at last, is the official io9 guide to everything science-fictional in May. Including Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, Robert J. Sawyer on tour, a ton of conventions... and the alarming-sounding Richard Hatch Cruise.
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Comment by tudza: You could also make this: A calendar one could import into Google Calendar An iCal or some such format file that could... 4 Responses | Other threads
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quote of the day
Why Science Fiction Still Doesn't Get Into The Inner Circle
"There's probably an element of snobbism," McClatchy said, adding that other members may not share his taste for "thrillers, detective stuff, hard-boiled noir stuff.""I don't know, but it may simply be unfamiliarity, that people here don't sit around reading science fiction. They're rereading Flaubert, or they're rereading Richard Price. There's a man who has raised the underworld to Parnassus."
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Comment by naraoia: Enh. Let the baby have his bottle. Every day these "Academies" and their ilk grow less relevant. ... 9 Responses | Other threads
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io9 calendar
The io9 Guide To April Science Fiction
April may be the cruelest month, but at least it's jam-packed with science fiction conventions. Sarah Connor Chronicles' second season ends, and there's new Ray Bradbury. Oh, and there's Dragonball and Crank 2 as well.
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Comment by se7a7n7: If "Kings" is Science Fiction then Pottery Barn is an electronics store. 8 Responses | Other threads
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in the final analysis
Battlestar Galactica Didn't Need Outer Space
Critically-acclaimed TV series Battlestar Galactica broke one of the cardinal rules of hard science fiction: It wasn't really about science. Instead it was hard social fiction, a realistic look at the future of human culture.
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Comment by gertymac: See, I disagree. I think the best sci-fi is, in the end, more about human nature than science. Even stories... 22 Responses | Other threads
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books
Science Fiction Book Sales Went Up As The Economy Tanked
So is it true that science fiction book sales have dropped since the economy went dystopian? Not according to one publishing industry insider, who has access to actual Bookscan data. Apparently, the data show a slight increase in science-fiction book sales for 2008 over the year before, and no evidence of a steep plunge so far in 2009. More »
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Comment by barb95: Do they count Twilight in this data? If so, the count would be waaaaaay off. Twilight is pretty much the... 3 Responses | Other threads
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movies
Dustin Hoffman Is On A Mission Of Scientific Awesomeness
Dustin Hoffman is so concerned about getting better science in science-fiction movies, he's helping to sponsor a "dating service" to match movie directors with real scientists. But will he play a violin at their table-side? More »
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Comment by omgwtflolbbqbye: I heard that while they were filming Outbreak, Morgan Freeman got annoyed with Hoffman for constantly calling him up... 5 Responses | Other threads
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io9 calendar
The io9 Guide To March Science Fiction
March has already started - which means we have to travel back in time a couple days, before giving you the complete rundown on your science fictional future this month.
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Comment by Willow01: BSG disappearing after the 20th makes me a saaaaaad Panda 7 Responses | Other threads
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music
The Not-So-Secret History of Scifi Rock
Aversion lists some of the best (and, occasionally, worst) mashups of rock culture and geek culture in the world of music. How did I miss Billy Idol's homage to Neuromancer? [via Aversion]
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Comment by SomeAudioGuy: Really? No Alan Parsons Project "i robot"? OK... 2 Responses | Other threads
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io9 calendar
The io9 Guide To February Science Fiction
Recharge your future-scope, with the latest installment of io9's monthly calendar of everything happening in science fiction. There are conventions, books, movies... and the launch of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse.
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triviagasm
Welcome To Planet Rome: 12 Extraterrestrial Roman Empires
It's been two millennia since the Roman Empire held sway, but it's thriving on a dozen fictional planets. Somehow, aliens love to imitate the glory that was Rome. Here are the greatest interplanetary toga parties. More » -
charles stross
Paul Krugman Does Charles Stross!
If you didn't already worship visionary writer Charles Stross, a new virtual seminar on his works by a group of luminaries and amazing writers will convert you. Among the highlights: Paul Krugman on transdimensional economics. More »
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Comment by amygdala: While I'm a fan of pretty much everything that Stross has published thus far, I found the Merchant Princes books... 1 Responses | Other threads
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excellent writing advice
An Excellent Formula For Crafting Timeless Science Fiction Sagas
Are you an aspiring science fiction author? Let the salty ramblings of Vincent T. Grant, former astronaut, unlock the secrets of science fictional storycraft. Find out where the pros get their ideas from, including the nautical tales scrawled in the back of the prison library. My favorite part is where he explains how to write a New Wave science fiction novel: More »
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Comment by Plague: So. Uh. THAT'S what passes for comedy these days on the interwebs? Sometimes FRINGE isn't obvious enough. 5 Responses | Other threads
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books
A First Stab At A Science Fiction Canon
They're ambitious, those Brits — the Guardian newspaper has been publishing a listing of 1000 books you must read, and now it includes every must-read science fiction novel. Let the canon-shredding commence! More »
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Comment by Brdf: Ironically, you misspelled Alastair Reynolds's name. Not that I think he particularly belongs on such a list, though. 6 Responses | Other threads
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scifi art
Suddenly The 1970s Look A Lot Awesomer Than I Realized
Artist Dusty Abell posted this panoramic — and brain-melting — image of television's science fiction characters and superheroes of the 1970s, and now I'm obsessively trying to name them all. Click to enlarge. More »
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Comment by I_Like_Rabbits: Hey, that flying craft on the far left side, the white one with the delta wings and that you can... 14 Responses | Other threads
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budget movies
When The Going Gets Cheap, Hollywood Turns To Ideas
As the world plunges into recession, even movie stars are feeling the pinch. Hollywood is turning away from big names and big price tags towards cheaper, more high concept movies. Good news for science fiction? More » -
rant
2008: The Year Science Fiction Became Science Culture
This year, the top twenty movies in the US grossed 3.7 billion dollars. Science fiction movies accounted for 2.5 billion of that. In 2008, scifi rocketed out of the basement to become scicult. More »
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Comment by corpore-metal: I don't think I can be as hopeful as Annalee is. If science has truly become a part of mainstream... 28 Responses | Other threads
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quote of the day
Teenage Girls Are Writing Harder Science Fiction Than You Are
Megan at Teen Ink magazine is teaching teenagers how to research real science before writing science fiction stories. I wonder how many real science fiction authors actually follow her methods?
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Comment by Rasselas: I would like to read the story about the space duck now, please. 9 Responses | Other threads
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pre-golden age
Science Fiction's Pre-Golden Age (1904-33), an Introduction
Earlier this year, I formulated an eccentric but strict periodization scheme, in which the Nineteen-Oughts (not to be confused with the 1900s), for example, run from 1904 through 1913; the Teens (not to be confused with the '10s) from 1914-23; and the Twenties (not to be confused with the '20s) from 1924-33. And so forth. More »
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By Joshua GlennComment by SudhaTabasco: Since I worked for Hugo Gernsback I am always interested to comments about him. Sci-Fi was only one small part... more » | Other threads
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futurism
Six Writers Speculate on Science Fiction's Future
Astronomer Marcus Chown wonders if science fiction is dying. With technology and scientific discovery advancing so quickly, it's unclear what will become of a genre based largely on predicting the future. Charles Stross has gone so far as to say that it’s no longer possible to write near-future science fiction. Six other science fiction writers, including William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Kim Stanley Robinson, join him in the latest issue of New Scientist to weigh in how science fiction needs to change. More »
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By Lauren DavisComment by NefariousNewt: How can science fiction die? Science has only scratched the surface of the workings of an infinite universe. It's not... 3 Responses | Other threads
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Eileen Gunn
The Greatest Characters Come From The Weirdest Worlds, Says Eileen Gunn
Believable characters go hand-in-hand with surreal futuristic worlds, says Eileen Gunn, author of Stable Strategies And Others and founder of the speculative webzine Infinite Matrix. Writing about a realistic future world or alien planet can seem like an insurmountable challenge, and so can putting believable characters into that setting — but you can solve both problems at once, if you learn to see through your characters' eyes. Gunn gave us a master-class in both world-building and character creation. Check it out! More »
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Comment by Aethelred: This is the writing style that results in C.J. Cherryh, Ursula Le Guin-type stories ... dense, engrossing, and very female.... 3 Responses | Other threads
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vampires
When Are Vampire Stories Science Fiction?
By all rights, vampires should make terrible subjects for science fiction. Your classic Bram Stoker-inspired nosferatu is a rather mystical affair – dead, cursed, and in spiritual exile from the Christian God, achieving immortality through a parody of a sacred sacrament. And yet, writers and filmmakers seem determined to wedge their favorite bloodsuckers into science fiction. But can a story be truly science fiction while remaining true to the spirit of the legends? We looked at the various ways artists try to cross the genres. More »
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By Lauren DavisComment by QuanikaWorm: Peter Watts also made some very entertaining background material for Blindsight, including this primer on vampire physiology (unfortunately the Flash video is... more » | Other threads
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tor books
Get Your Daily Dose of Scifi Authors at Tor.com
Tor Books, one of the biggest and most venerable publishers of excellent science fiction writing, has just launched a new blog that promises to bring the crunchy goodness of a Tor book to your RSS reader every day. With contributors like scifi authors Charles Stross and John Scalzi, as well as scifi art maven Irene Gallo and Tor editor Liz Gorinsky, you can expect cool essays on everything from trends in scifi writing to science experiments with testosterone. The best part, though, is that the site will feature regular doses of free fiction. More »
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Comment by SeanOHara: You have pointers to their short stories, but you missed the best part -- they're offering 24 free ebooks,... more » | Other threads
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Blame It On Sci-Fi
Aldrin Blames Lack of Interest in Space Program on Science Fiction
Forget shifting priorities or a de-emphasis on science education; this week, Buzz Aldrin told the Sci Fi Channel that the real culprit behind youth disinterest in space exploration is none other than science fiction. Et tu, Buzz? After the jump, find out why Aldrin is taking the genre to task. More »
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By Lauren DavisComment by dingleberry: Encounter with Tiber kicked ass. Úber awesome sci-fi. Read it. Now! more » | Other threads
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jo walton
How Much Science Do You Need To Know To Write Science Fiction?
Farthing and Tooth And Claw author Jo Walton is widely regarded as one of the best writers of fantasy right now, and she won the John W. Campbell award for the best new writer of speculative fiction. So why does she feel she can't write science fiction? Because, she explains on her journal, she knows too much science to write utter nonsense, and not enough science to get SF stories absolutely right. It makes me wonder if science fiction is scaring away some of its best potential writers. More »
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Comment by Tiber: I'd say this a matter of world building more than level of detail. So you have three planets (I'm calling... more » | Other threads
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rant
"Technology is Another Version of Communism or Aliens or a Large Praying Mantis"
Does science fiction appeal mainly to audiences who are ignorant about how technology works? That seems to be the message from creators of some of TV's most innovative science fiction, who talked to Variety about why viewers are hot for tech-centric shows. Some of last seasons's best new shows were about technology run amok (Chuck, Sarah Connor Chronicles); next season's Battlestar spinoff Caprica, plus JJ Abrams' Fringe and Ron Moore's Virtuality promise more. Though scifi has historically been deemed the purview of techie geeks, creators from many of these shows agreed that people are fascinated by them because they find technology (and especially computers) terrifyingly incomprehensible.
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Comment by Klebert L. Hall: @braak: True enough then, in fiction. Of course, I hate that. -Kle. more » | Other threads
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philip k. dick
The Evolution of Philip K. Dick's "Cosmic Puppets"
An often-forgotten and misunderstood early Philip K. Dick novel is The Cosmic Puppets, first released in the late 1950s and reprinted over the years with covers that reflect publishers' (and the public's) changing perception of this weird book. First of all, as David Gill of Total Dick-Head points out, the novel is probably best viewed as fantasy — even though it's usually marketed as a book about "galactic invaders." The war may be galactic, he argues, but the "invaders" are from ancient Persia and they use magical weapons. Check out the strange ways the cover has been redone over the years, as the popularity of scifi versus fantasy has waxed and waned. More »
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Comment by sheetsj: gods, aliens, ...spoiled brat kids with big glass jars,What's the difference? "magic is just technology we do not yet understand" Right? more » | Other threads
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horrorhead
More Terrifying Than Space is Space Madness
Welcome back to Horrorhead, a biweekly column where we explore the intersection of scifi and horror. If there's one thing more terrible than having a zombie eat the tongue out of your head by breaking your jaw, it's imagining that zombies are eating you when they aren't. That's why one of the best veins to mine in scifi-horror is madness. What makes insanity worse in many ways than giant drooling monsters is that you can't kill the monsters in your head with ice or swords or cold viruses. You want to escape the horror of your own crazy? You've got to drill your own brain out, like the protagonist does in Pi. And that, my friends, is what makes scifi-tinged madness so tragic as well as frightening: there's no way to set things right. Without further ado, let's take a dark psychological tour of most horrifying examples of space madness.
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architecture
Scifi Movie Locations in the Real World
With movies like Speed Racer and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow creating entire scifi landscapes from CGI, it's easy to forget that some of the most futuristic settings for scifi movies are borrowed from the real world. Today Oobject has a terrific collection of photographs of the architectural marvels (and subtle background buildings) that populate scifi movies. Here you can see the BMW building that appears in Rollerball. Check out a few more below. More »
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Comment by zenpoet: @brentbent: I was going to mention the same thing. I love the scene with that four handed woman being put... more » | Other threads
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sci fashion
The Four Styles You'll Wear in the Future, According to Science Fiction
One of the most terrifying parts of any science fiction movie or TV show are the inevitable Future Jumpsuits that everyone seems to wear because somehow every aspect of civilization has advanced except clothing technology. Whether you're in Battlestar Galactica's space fatigues, Star Trek's onesie uniforms, or whatever the hell you call that crap Jean-Paul Gaultier forced upon the hapless actors in The Fifth Element, it still boils down to one thing: The many moods of the jumpsuit. Below, we explore four of the most popular jumpsuits in science fiction for your sartorial edification.
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Comment by mariospants: Does the "Gwar" look include those post-apocolyptic punky styles such as you'd find in "Mad Max"? more » | Other threads
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international space station
On the International Space Station, You Can Watch Star Wars But Not Star Trek
In a stroke of weird genius, the people at GovernmentAttic.org issued a FOIA (freedom of information act) request to the US government to reveal the contents of the multimedia library on the International Space Station. Probably happy that they weren't being asked about the Patriot Act, the government happily complied, supplying us with a 13-page document containing the titles of every book, movie, and TV show in the ISS library. Not surprisingly there's a lot of science fiction in the mix, plus (of course) The Right Stuff. But there are some shocking choices in terms of what got put in — and what got left out. More » -
must read
20 Science Books Every Scifi Fan (and Writer) Should Read
You can't have great science fiction writing without great books about science. Ever since the nineteenth century, when Charles Darwin's classics On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man took the reading public by storm, popular science writing has been inspiring fictional thought experiments, as well as possibly less-inspiring political debates. What are the science books you should be reading now if you want your brain turned inside-out by weird new ideas that might just change the world for real? We've got 20 brilliant, and brilliantly-written, science books that have already influenced science fiction — or are about to.
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Comment by RodneyJebbie: for all of you out there who really love books there is a great new site with some brilliant features... more » | Other threads
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poll
How Do You Find People Who Like Science Fiction?
With science fiction becoming more mainstream all the time, it should be easier and easier to find people who share your interest, right? At least, there are more big SF movies than ever, and literary writers are dipping into the SF well more and more. But there are many kinds of science fiction enthusiasts, from the highbrow George Saunders-ites to the girls who dress up as Optimus Prime. How do you find your own kind of SF lovers? More »
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Comment by tse-tse-fly: I've found the most successful way to make friends with people who like science fiction is to proselytize amongst my... more » | Other threads
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rant
Future Scenarios that Don't Look Like SciFi Are Wrong
Science fiction is the go-to genre when you're looking for a glimpse of the future. Joel Achenbach makes a persuasive case in the Sunday Washington Post that the best way to stay in front of the dizzying pace of technological progress is to keep up on your Star Trek and take what Arthur C. Clarke wrote to heart. He also quotes Foresight Nanotech Institute President Christine Peterson, who says, "If you look out into the long-term future and what you see looks like science fiction, it might be wrong. But if it doesn't look like science fiction, it's definitely wrong." More »
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Comment by Ubik2501: Even the "soft" SF writers get a lot of things right. For instance, Philip K. Dick predicted that an absurdly... more » | Other threads
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must read
Vernor Vinge's Forgotten Novel About Scifi Publishers on Another Planet
Although it's easy to love scifi author Vernor Vinge for his most lauded work, like Rainbows End or Fire Upon the Deep, some of his lesser-known novels are more memorable than the great ones. Such is the case with Tatja Grimm's World, a collection of two novellas Vinge published in the late 1960s, coupled with a mid-1980s short story about the same character. That character is Tatja Grimm, a woman on late-medieval world who mysteriously begins to manifest super-intelligence, super-strength — and a super-ability to edit science fiction manuscripts. That last bit is what makes the novel sheer, strange genius, as well as a fascinating glimpse at the creative coming-of-age of one of today's greatest SF writers. More »
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Comment by MrProven3: @Annnalee: While I would like to claim Professor Vinge as my own (as a UCSD alum), he was actually... more » | Other threads
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horrorhead
The Most Shocking Science Caught on Film
Welcome back to Horrorhead, where we explore the intersection of horror and science fiction. I talk a lot here about "science horror," which I usually mean as the opposite of supernatural horror. Science horror is basically the dark side of science fiction, whereas supernatural horror can be anything from reality TV bunk like Ghosthunters to really excellent spirit flicks like The Ring or dark fantasies by Stephen King. What makes science horror scary is science itself, and the mad doctors who steer it into the crawly places full of reanimated bodies and reality-warping physics. But some kinds of science are more terrifying than others. That's why I've delineated four branches of science most likely to show up in the next science horror movie in your queue. More » -
scifi season listings
io9's Complete Guide to Science Fiction Season
It's time for the annual science fiction season to begin. Spring and summer are when giant science fiction flicks hit the screens, and even more giant science fiction conventions open their doors to the hundreds of thousands of light saber-wielding masses. New television series will debut (Clone Wars!), and old ones will restart (Battlestar!) Plus, you'll have a chance to snap up copies of awesome new books from Greg Egan, Karen Joy Fowler, Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod, and Nancy Kress. If you want to know where to go and what to do when you're in a science fictional way from April to August, then look no further than io9's exhaustive, amazing, intensive list of everything scifi this season. More »
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Comment by World's Greatest Dad: @XMACHINA: don't spoil the magic, XMACHINA. i love Space mountain, but only when the lights are OUT. dig? more » | Other threads
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anathem
Plot of New Neal Stephenson Novel Revealed
We've heard rumors about Neal "Snow Crash" Stephenson's new novel, but nothing more concrete than that it would be called Anathem and it would be a space opera about math and aliens. That would mark a real departure for the novelist, who has dealt only with human histories and futures in his previous works like The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Cryptonomicon. Now Lev Grossman, Time magazine's nerd correspondent, has more details about the plot of Anathem. More »
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Comment by phoghat: @Rus: So you never read anything for fun?@randallnathaniel: Yeah, me too. I learned a lot from the "Cryptonomicon" also. ... more » | Other threads
science fiction
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