A forlorn teenager’s monotonous life is interrupted when a stranger draws him into the hunt for a vampiric serial killer. He will learn that while monsters are much more real than he thought, there is no such thing as heroes.
Baby Teeth
Jodie Whittaker Promises Massive Doctor Who Arc Will Be Bigger, Kick Off With “The Halloween Apocalypse”
Photo Credit: James Pardon/BBC Studios/BBC America
Jodie Whittaker’s final season of Doctor Who is only days away, and while we’ve gotten a teaser trailer or two, we still don’t know very much about the six-episode season, titled Doctor Who: Flux.
In an interview with Empire, however, Whittaker gives us a little more of a tease about Flux will cover, and it sounds like it will be something we haven’t necessarily seen before.
Picking the Perfect Horror Movies for Halloween
The best day of the year is nearly upon us—oh, Horror Christmas, how I love you. There is no better time to watch horror movies than October, and also no better time to try some new ones. Horror cinema has been quietly producing brilliant gems for decades now and Halloween is a perfect time to unearth a few you may have missed.
Who’s up for a classic?
Lynda Carter Has a New Song Out, and It’s Inspired By WW84′s Diana and Steve
Lynda Carter, the OG on-screen version of Wonder Woman, had a delightful cameo at the end of Wonder Woman 1984 as the golden armored Amazonian, Asteria.
When she was filming her scene for the movie, she was also in the throes of writing a song about love, initially inspired by her late husband, Robert A. Altman. Seeing Gal Gadot and Chris Pine’s cinematic love between Diana and Steve, however, helped her finish the ballad.
The Unexpected Lives and Bizarre Revelations of Un-su Kim’s The Cabinet
Upon finishing Un-su Kim’s The Cabinet, one might well think of the old adage about appearances sometimes being deceiving. This is both a theme that some of the scenarios posited within the novel return to again and again and a statement about the novel itself—a book that pivots from a catalog of strange phenomena into a story of bureaucratic intrigue with some shockingly visceral moments. It isn’t a book that ever feels predictable.
The Smithsonian’s “Future Visions 2071” Includes New Fiction by Tochi Onyebuchi and Madeline Ashby
Posters by Brian Miller
In conjunction with an upcoming exhibit called FUTURES, the Smithsonian has announced “Future Visions 2071,” a project that imagines possible futures “based on current cutting-edge Smithsonian research.”
Eight Smithsonian research teams were invited by Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) to consider what their areas of study might have discovered or developed, 50 years from now. The results were transformed into posters by artist Brian Miller—and short fiction from authors Tochi Onyebuchi (Riot Baby) and Madeline Ashby (Company Town).
Star Trek: Prodigy Is the Best New Trek Series
Image: CBS / Paramount+
In the 1970s, Filmation produced an animated Star Trek series that was very much intended not to be a dumbed-down version of the live-action series. The general approach was to treat this like the fourth season of the TV show, and while some concessions were made to the Saturday morning timeslot (not to mention the more limited time frame of a half-hour episode as opposed to an hour), the show generally kept to the spirit of the live-action show that came before it.
The second of Secret Hideout’s animated series, and their fifth overall, Star Trek: Prodigy is specifically designed for children. It’s also the best Trek show of the current slate of Trek productions, and that’s not meant to disrespect Discovery, Short Treks, Picard, or Lower Decks—it’s just that Prodigy is that good.
The Greatest Halloween Costumes in Pop Culture
Halloween is inarguably one of the best times of year—a holiday where you can become anyone for a whole day? Sign us up! But we’re not the only ones who enjoy passing ourselves off as other people. It’s not at all uncommon for fictional characters to take the time to dress up and party on All Hallow’s Eve, too! With that in mind, here are some favorite moments where science fiction/fantasy characters wore costumes on Halloween….
You Really Don’t Have to Finish Every Book You Start
Photo: Olga Tutunaru [via Unsplash]
We’ve all been there. Perhaps you were drawn in by a beautiful cover, hooked by the summary on the back of a paperback, or intrigued by the way a book was being discussed on Twitter. You read a great review; your favorite author was raving about a book; your group chat wouldn’t shut up about a twist. So you started the book. And you knew, whether immediately or 50 pages in, that it wasn’t for you.
A certain stripe of book prescriptivist would hold that you have to finish the book. “To give an author just 20 pages of your time is insulting,” wrote Rupert Hawksley in The Independent recently. Authors, for the most part, seemed indifferent to Hawksley’s defense of their honor. (Quoth John Scalzi: “Lol, no.”) But this idea persists, this notion that once you pick up a book you are locked in, never give up, never surrender!
Please. Please just put down the book.
Eldritch Abominations for the SFF Soul: Five Works of Cosmic Horror
Happy birthday, Call of Cthulhu! Forty years ago on Halloween 1981, the roleplaying world met and grew to love the Lovecraft-inspired game in which characters boldly confront the unknown before being consumed by it! If there’s one thing humans seem to desire, it’s to have their skulls cracked open like walnuts and their minds consumed by entities whose true nature would drive the sanest person mad, were they unlucky enough to understand what had them gripped in its tentacles.
Of course, Lovecraft wasn’t the first author to dabble in cosmic horror nor has he been the last. In honor of Halloween and forty years of Call of Cthulhu, allow me to suggest the following five works of cosmic horror.
Skeletor Has the Power In the Masters of the Universe: Revelation — Part 2 Trailer
This summer’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation was just Part 1; Kevin Smith’s epic new He-Man story continues next month with Part 2, for which Netflix just released an extremely dramatic trailer. Skeletor has the Power, Evil-Lyn has taken control, and Teela thinks the only way they can stop one sorceress… is with another sorceress. Naturally, nothing less than the fate of the entire universe is at stake.
Rhythm of War Reread: Chapter Fifty-Six
Welcome back to the Rhythm of War reread, and another Venli POV. (Stop it with the groans, you! We need her perspective on these things!) As always, her chapter is a mix of doing something good and making some foolish mistake. Not the best at thinking on her feet or seeing the possible ramifications of her words, our Last Listener… Oh, also, cliffhanger. Well, come on in and join the discussion. Let’s see what you make of this one.
[Her eyes were closed, but her face twitched, as if she were in the grip of a terrible nightmare.]
Series: Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
The Low Standards of the Legal Profession: John Connolly’s “The Fractured Atlas,” Part 6
Welcome back to Reading the Weird, in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches.
This week, we finish up John Connolly’s The Fractured Atlas, first published in 2015 as part of Night Music: Nocturnes Volume II, with Part V: “And in Darkness Shall We Dwell.” Spoilers ahead.
[“Lionel Maulding never stopped screaming, but he made no noise in that place.”]
Series: Reading the Weird
A Wonderful Use of YA Tropes: Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
In the Pan-African inspired fantasy land of Eshōza, a monster known as the Shetani hunts and kills anyone who strays into its jungle. For nearly a century, the citizens of the city of Lkossa have feared the beast, but now two teens from opposite ends of the social hierarchy are teaming up to take it down.
As an indentured servant to the Night Zoo, Koffi tends to and trains strange and dangerous creatures with her mother. The end of their contract is close enough to taste, but a tragic event pushes that deadline far into the future. Staring down a lifetime of being chained to the zoo, Koffi strikes a deal to pay off her and her loved ones’ debts in exchange for capturing the dreaded Shetani. Ekon, the son of one of the most powerful families in Lkossa, is on the verge of becoming a Son of the Six, elite warriors who protect the city and brutally enforce its rules. When his chance at a promotion is stripped away, he decides his best chance at gaining his position back is to do something spectacular: kill the Shetani.
Step Right Up! Five Recent Fantasy Stories Set at a Circus
Photo: Stephen Noble [via Unsplash]
Circuses! They seem like such a safe, wholesome source of communal entertainment. Yet, many who’ve ventured under a circus big top have faced unexpected consequences—some quite dangerous for performers in real life. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the circus provides such a lively—and occasionally treacherous—setting for these five recent fantasies.
Amazon’s New Wheel of Time Trailer Sets the Show’s Epic Stakes
Last month, we got our first real look at Amazon’s adaptation of The Wheel of Time—but that was only a teaser. The real trailer is here, and it’s so much more. The full trailer introduces the Aes Sedai, Moiraine’s quest, the importance of the people she finds in Two Rivers—and the evil they’re all facing.
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