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Original Fiction

Exile’s End

Carolyn Ives Gilman

Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:00am 5 comments 6 Favorites [+]

Exile’s End is a complex, sometimes uncomfortable examination of artifact repatriation and cultural appropriation. An artifact of indescribable and irreplaceable beauty created by an “extinct” culture has been the basis of another culture’s origin stories. The race who created the artifact has survived on a distant world and has sent a representative to reclaim it, throwing everything into question.

Inspired by the SF camp in Danzhai, China, which is co-hosted by the Future Administration Authority (FAA) and Wanda Group.

Original Fiction

The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex

Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:00am 19 comments 31 Favorites [+]

Each of the Empire’s houses keeps secrets, even from themselves. For the bookish academics of the Sixth, every secret is a mystery, and every mystery is a puzzle to be solved or a paper to be published. Deep in the bowels of their house, one such secret is about to reveal itself. The study of the famed academic Donald Sex, sealed since the moment of his death, is about to open, and archivists are ready to dissect what he left behind. They are not ready for the macabre surprise that awaits them.

Enter Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect, age thirteen.

Original Fiction

Yellow and the Perception of Reality

Wed Jul 22, 2020 9:00am 12 comments 29 Favorites [+]

“Yellow and the Perception of Reality” by Maureen McHugh is a science fiction story about a woman who delves into the mystery of why and how her twin sister, a physicist, has been brain damaged in a lab accident in which two of her colleagues died.

Original Fiction

Everything’s Fine

Matthew Pridham

Wed Jul 15, 2020 9:00am 11 comments 31 Favorites [+]

Eric’s day is off to a rough start: his regional managers are in town, he’s running late to work, the moon seems to be falling apart, and he just can’t seem to get his tie right. At least he has his priorities straight: it’s the little things that matter. The world may be plunging into chaos, the neighborhood children might be mutating into abominations, but that doesn’t mean he can let his standards slip. If he and his co-workers can survive their nightmare walk to the office, then Eric has a plan for success…

Original Fiction

Juice Like Wounds

Mon Jul 13, 2020 9:36am 14 comments 48 Favorites [+]

In the course of every great adventure there are multiple side-quests. All too often these go unreported—perhaps because the adventurers in question fail to return to the main narrative due to death or other distractions, and sometimes because the chronicler of the events decides to edit out that part of that particular history for reasons of their own (historians are never infallible)—but occasionally we get another window into our heroes’ world.

In Juice Like Wounds we once again get to meet Lundy, and some of her companions. Lundy’s main adventure is detailed in In an Absent Dream (which is nominated for a Hugo Award, this year!) and you should definitely read that. Before or after this tale is up to you.

Remember: Side quests are fun.

For the reader, at least…

Original Fiction

The Necessary Arthur

Wed Jul 8, 2020 9:00am 21 comments 29 Favorites [+]

Some days you find out that the world is nothing like what you think it is.

An archaeologist named Tamara working near Hadrian’s Wall is approached by a very annoyed-looking, silver-haired woman with an incomprehensible message: The game is moving on, the time has come to play a hand, and Tamara is on point. Time to find the Necessary Arthur and get down to business!

Original Fiction

The Ones Who Look

Katharine Duckett

Wed Jul 1, 2020 9:00am 12 comments 29 Favorites [+]

Ethical Empire built the gate to heaven, and their employees hold the keys. By offering custom-built afterlives through full-brain uploads, they answered the needs of a society pushed to the brink by climate change and cascading antibiotic failure. But for Zoe, who works daily to assess the sins of users and decide who’s worthy of salvation, heaven is not so simple. Despite the urging of the angels on her shoulder, she is determined to uncover heaven’s secrets, no matter the cost.

Original Fiction

The Night Soil Salvagers

Gregory Norman Bossert

Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:00am 4 comments 16 Favorites [+]

The Night Soil Salvagers no longer need to perform the service they have provided for longer than memory can account for. Instead, they pass the nights in playful and profound acts of artistry, music, trickery, gardening, and honoring the city they know and belong to more so than anyone.

Uncover the heart of this mysterious community through the tales they tell each other, the tales that others tell of them, and the scores of their Dadaesque nocturnes, as they strive to lessen the burden of the city on the Earth.

Highlights from the Blog

the devil

A Few of Our Favorite Devils in SFF

Leah Schnelbach

Fri Aug 14, 2020 9:00am 43 comments 7 Favorites [+]

The Devil is one of the greatest literary characters in human history. From Dante’s slobbering monster to Milton’s charming tyrant to Goethe’s cunning trickster, He Who Has So Many Names is the perfect antagonist—or, sometimes, the perfect tortured protagonist. It’s no wonder then that Old Scratch shows up so often in SFF film and television, often stealing the spotlight in scenery-chewing performances. We’ve got nearly 30 devils gathered below, but be sure to add your own picks in the comments!

[Wouldst Thou Like To List Deliciously?]

Science Fiction

8 Science Fiction Books That Get Programming Right

Ferrett Steinmetz

Fri Aug 14, 2020 12:00pm 47 comments 15 Favorites [+]

I was sitting down with a couple of my fellow programmers after a long day of testing our new online shopping cart, and we asked ourselves a very important question:

Why don’t most science fiction books get the feel of programming right?

If you’re not a programmer, you’ll doubtlessly protest: “There’s a lot of programming in speculative fiction!” But there isn’t, actually. What there is is a lot of is hacking, which is to say breaking into established systems, usually with a lot of muttered techno mumbo-jumbo like “I’m in the mainframe!” while hopelessly-inept thugs spray the area with bullets.

[So which stories come closest to getting it right?]

The Stormlight Archive

Behold the Cover to Rhythm of War, the Fourth Book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive

Mon Aug 17, 2020 9:00am 62 comments 8 Favorites [+]

This cover made it to you through a highstorm.

Stormlight Archive series cover artist Michael Whelan was putting the finishing tweaks on the cover to Rhythm of War, the fourth installment of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive fantasy series, when Hurricane Isaias scoured its way north through New England on Tuesday, August 4. Though lessened to a tropical storm by that point, it felled trees, downed lines, and left vast areas of the region without power for a week or longer.

Nevertheless, the master artist and his latest masterpiece persevered.

Andre Norton Reread

Wrecking the Caribbean in Andre Norton’s The Opal-Eyed Fan

Mon Aug 17, 2020 4:00pm Post a comment Favorite This

This entry in the canon of Andre Norton Gothics reads a bit like a book of the heart. It’s set on a fictional key off the coast of Florida, where Norton was living when the book was written. She clearly put a lot of work and thought into it, and some good, wicked writer-fun as well.

It’s full of classic Gothic elements. The orphaned girl, of course, shipwrecked with her sickly uncle on mysterious Lost Lady Key. The stalwart master of the Key, a ship’s captain with a contract to salvage ships wrecked on the reef—an occupation regarded by many as a kind of piracy. The captain’s strange, flighty sister and the rival captain who sees her as a way to get hold of the Key and the wealth it represents. The ancient Native witch and her sinister spells. The formidable housekeeper and servants both loyal and treacherous. And, best of all for us genre fans, a ghost.

Star Trek

You Can And Should Watch The Entire Second Season of Star Trek: Short Treks On YouTube Right Now

Mon Aug 17, 2020 4:00pm Post a comment Favorite This

Credit: CBS

After CBS brought Star Trek back to television for CBS All Access with Star Trek: Discovery, it soon followed it up with an innovative series called Short Treks, each of which ran for 10-15 minutes and which featured stories from all over Trek’s vast timeline. (Check out Keith R. A. DeCandido’s coverage of all of them here.)

CBS renewed the tiny anthology series for a second season, and now following a nomination for this year’s Prime Time Emmy Awards (in the Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series category), CBS has opted to put up all six episodes from that season on its platforms, including YouTube.

book reviews

Shining Bright: Cosmology and History in Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

Gabriella Tutino

Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:00pm Post a comment 1 Favorite [+]

Even though her mother is a star, Sheetal has always known an ordinary life on earth. After her mother Charamuti returned to the heavens leaving Sheetal behind with her father, Sheetal has tried not to draw attention to herself. But black hair dye can’t cover up her silver locks, and avoiding the spotlight hasn’t diminished her ability and talent to sing and hear the starsong, the celestial music in her core.

Excerpts

Read a Selection From Rebecca Roanhorse’s Story in Vampires Never Get Old

Rebecca Roanhorse

Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:00pm Post a comment Favorite This

Edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, Vampires Never Get Old includes eleven fresh vampire stories from young adult fiction’s leading voices—publishing September 22nd with Imprint. We’re excited to share an excerpt from Rebecca Roanhorse’s “The Boys From Blood River” below!

movies

Project Power Brings the History of Medical Experimentation to the Fore of Superhero Stories

Emmet Asher-Perrin

Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:30pm Post a comment Favorite This

Screenshot: Netflix

There are plenty of superhero narratives that discuss the possibility of medical experimentation as an origin plot. A hefty portion of Marvel Comics’ roster have powers as a result of various “super soldier” projects that first proved successful with Steve Rogers. But there’s a pointed difference with the origin of Captain America, and his transformation from literal small fry to a man capable of throwing motorcycles and halting helicopters on their launch pads:

He signed up for this.

[Some spoilers for Project Power.]

AMA

Christopher Brown Talks About Creating Near-Future Dystopias in Reddit AMA

Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:14pm Post a comment Favorite This

Author Photo: Crawford Morgan

Last week, Christopher Brown published his third novel: Failed State, a quasi-sequel to his novels Tropic of Kansas and Rule of Capture. The three books are set in a near-future United States that’s been wrecked by a civil war, and follow the people who are forced to survive amidst brutal federal crackdowns, militias, and drones.

A lawyer by trade, Brown has injected his knowledge of the law into his dystopian futures. In this latest novel, he tracks a pair of legal cases in the aftermath of the second American revolution. In Rule of Capture, lawyer Donny Kimoe helped a dissident filmmaker get out of a terrorism charge after she saw an opposition leader get murdered by pro-government forces.

Last week, Brown stopped by Reddit’s r/Books for an AMA session, in which he talked about his writing process, how he found inspiration in creating a dystopian near-future, and more. Here are some of the highlights.

AMA

Get the Details On Seanan McGuire’s Cat D&D Campaign in Her Twitter AMA!

Stubby the Rocket

Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:03pm Post a comment Favorite This

Photo: Beckett Gladney

Seanan McGuire is the Hugo Award-, Nebula Award-, Locus Award-, and Campbell Award-winning author of Middlegame, the Wayward Children series, the October Daye series, and many other works. Under the name Mira Grant, she has published the Newsflesh series, the Parasitology series, the Drowning Deep series, and Alien: Echo. Seasonal Fears, the sequel to Middlegame, comes out from Tordotcom Publishing in Spring 2022.

This week, she did a Twitter AMA, hosted by Tordotcom Publishing, where she answered all your questions about her cats, her cats’ D&D classes, book recommendations, favorite passages, favorite characters, favorite character names, inspirations, mentoring, the future of the Indexing series, the future of the Rolling Deep series, the future of the Wayward Children series, and much, much more. Here are the highlights!

Star Trek: Voyager

Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch: “Unity”

Keith R.A. DeCandido

Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:00pm 16 comments 1 Favorite [+]

Screenshot: CBS

“Unity”
Written by Kenneth Biller
Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
Season 3, Episode 17
Production episode 159
Original air date: February 12, 1997
Stardate: 50614.2

Captain’s log. Chakotay and Kaplan are flying a shuttle through the Nekrit Expanse, trying to find a faster route through it. Unfortunately, they’re lost, as shown when they come across an asteroid field they’d already encountered. Chakotay is frustrated by the fact that they’re not only lost, but going around in circles.

[I must say, there’s nothing like the vacuum of space for preserving a handsome corpse.]

Series: Star Trek: Voyager Rewatch

awards

Vote On the Finalists for the Inaugural Ignyte Awards!

Stubby the Rocket

Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:32pm Post a comment Favorite This

Congratulations are in order for the inaugural Ignyte Awards finalists, who were revealed by the FIYAHCON 2020 Committee on Monday! As FIYAH announced earlier this month, the Ignyte Awards “seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy, and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.” According to the announcement, those on the shortlist “represent the brightest lights in speculative fiction’s future,” and winners will be announced during the weekend of the very first FIYAHCON, to take place virtually October 17-18. Click through to see the finalists below, and make sure to cast your votes!

news

Wil Wheaton Will Narrate the Ready Player Two Audiobook

Stubby the Rocket

Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:05pm Post a comment Favorite This

Photo of Ernest Cline by Dan Winters | Photo of Wil Wheaton courtesy of Penguin Random House

Wil Wheaton will reprise his role as narrator for Ready Player Two! Penguin Random House Audio announced this week that the actor will once again narrate the audiobook version of Ernest Cline’s sequel to Ready Player One, which will be released simultaneously with the hardcover and ebook editions.
[Read more]

King Arthur

The Telling Is The Tale: Who Owns the Legend of King Arthur?

Mon Aug 17, 2020 12:00pm 9 comments 2 Favorites [+]

Illustration by Walter Crane (From Henry Gilbert's King Arthur's Knights: The Tales Retold for Boys and Girls, 1911)

Is an Arthurian story a telling or retelling? What are the Arthurian mythos, exactly? And was Merlin really an old dude with a big bushy beard, or do we all just remember it wrong?

To answer these questions, I chose the only path one could, reasonably, take: that is, I got dropped, through no fault of my own, into teaching a group of American undergrad students an advanced literature course on British Fantasy Fiction.

How and why and are you mad? are probably questions for another time and story.

Excerpts

Read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini: “Exeunt 1”

Christopher Paolini

Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:00am Post a comment 1 Favorite [+]

Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds.

Now she’s awakened a nightmare.

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

Read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, a brand new epic novel from New York Times bestselling author Christopher Paolini, out September 15, 2020 from Tor Books.

Series: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini

book recommendations

Five More Books That Deserve Awesome Soundtracks

Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:00am 3 comments 2 Favorites [+]

Background photo: Stefany Andrade [via Unsplash]

We’re officially more than halfway through 2020 and the less said about the first half, the better. Thankfully, two things that are eternally welcome, especially during a pandemic, are good books and fun playlists. In spite of everything, incredible new books are still coming out and great bands and artists are still releasing new music. We might not be able to browse our favorite bookstores or go to our local music venue to catch a show, but we can still enjoy these pastimes while we’re staying safe at home. Yes, friends, it’s that time again: I’m Meghan, your friendly music-obsessed book nerd, and I’m here again to pair up some fantastic new and recent releases with some excellent songs to help take your reading experience to a whole new level…

Grab a book, grab your headphones, and settle in!

The Stormlight Archive

Behold the Cover to Rhythm of War, the Fourth Book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive

Mon Aug 17, 2020 9:00am 62 comments 8 Favorites [+]

Art by Michael Whelan

This cover made it to you through a highstorm.

Stormlight Archive series cover artist Michael Whelan was putting the finishing tweaks on the cover to Rhythm of War, the fourth installment of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive fantasy series, when Hurricane Isaias scoured its way north through New England on Tuesday, August 4. Though lessened to a tropical storm by that point, it felled trees, downed lines, and left vast areas of the region without power for a week or longer.

Nevertheless, the master artist and his latest masterpiece persevered.

television reviews

Monsters Are Scary, But White Supremacy Is the Real Terror: Lovecraft Country, “Sundown”

Sun Aug 16, 2020 10:01pm 3 comments 4 Favorites [+]

Screenshot: HBO

I’ve never been terribly interested in H.P. Lovecraft. Besides being a racist jerkwad, he’s also a boring, talentless hack. Lovecraft is really only interesting by virtue of the responses his work has inspired from authors eager to confront and subvert his white supremacist views and other shortcomings. What I enjoyed so much about Matt Ruff’s book Lovecraft Country was how he twisted Lovecraft’s own racism back on him. But the book had its limitations, and there were several moments when it was clear that it was written by a white man. The nuances of the Black experience were absent from the subtext. In several instances, white people solve the problem while the Black characters simply do what they’re told. Caleb Braithwaite doesn’t account for his racism. And don’t even get me started on the problematic resolution of Ruby’s arc.

From page to script, the names and genders of some characters have changed, as have some plot points and the timeline of events, but the skeleton of Ruff’s book remains. With HBO’s vault of cash, Misha Green at the helm, Jordan Peele as executive producer, and an extremely talented cast of Black actors, the missteps of the book are all but resolved (so far). In fact, I’d argue this is one of those rare occurrences where the TV show is actually better than the original book.

Spoilers ahoy.