Blog Archive
August 2018
Fri Aug 31
5 Fantasy Armies You Shouldn’t Sign Up For
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Anti-Nostalgia League: Ling Ma’s Severance
by Tobias Carroll
Why Would Any Parent Send Their Kids to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?
by Emmet Asher-Perrin
10 Anime Films You Should See Before You Die
by Tim Maughan
Old Man Jackman — Logan
by Keith R.A. DeCandido
All the New Genre-Bending Books Coming Out in September!
by Tor.com
Horror is Good For You (and Even Better for Your Kids)
by Greg Ruth
Thu Aug 30
Listen to an Excerpt from Glen Cook’s Port of Shadows
by Tor.com
The Sun Always Rises: Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
by Niall Alexander
The Power of Cleverness and Research: German Fairy Tale “Rumpelstiltskin”
by Mari Ness
6 SFF Alternatives to Traditional Education
by Stubby the Rocket
Trailblazing through Time and Space: The Essential Murray Leinster
by Alan Brown
How to Map a Fantasy World
by Isaac Stewart
Patrick Rothfuss’ Dungeons & Dragons Character for Morty is Very Appropriate
by Stubby the Rocket
Oathbringer Reread: Chapters Thirty-Nine and Forty
by Alice Arneson and Lyndsey Luther
Wed Aug 29
Diverse Creations: Mother of Invention, edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts
by Liz Bourke
Rolling the Bones: Ray Bradbury’s “Skeleton”
by Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth
Transcend Borders in the New Anthology Shades Within Us
by Tor.com
QUILTBAG+ Speculative Classics: Five-Twelfths of Heaven by Melissa Scott
by Bogi Takács
Evil in a Teacup: Fighting the Institutional Authority of Dolores Umbridge
by Sarah Gailey
All the New Science Fiction Books Coming Out in September!
by Tor.com
This Star Trek Fan Theory Explains Why the Borg’s Attacks on the Federation Make No Sense
by Stubby the Rocket
9 Terrifying Tales You Won’t Find in the Horror Section
by Stubby the Rocket
The Kite Maker
by Brenda Peynado
Tue Aug 28
Sisterhood at Sea: Natalie C. Parker’s Seafire
by Feliza Casano
War and Genre Fiction: War Cry by Brian McClellan
by Paul Weimer
Sleeps With Monsters: Inclusive SF We All Deserve
by Liz Bourke
All the New Fantasy Books Coming Out in September!
by Tor.com
Star of Black Sails to Debut Urban Fantasy Detective Series With Orbit Books
by Stubby the Rocket
Here Are The Incredibly Low Odds the 6 Original Avengers Had of Surviving Infinity War
by Michael Carlisle
Should We Save Earth, or Abandon it for the Stars? Announcing Ruthanna Emrys’ Next Novel The Fifth Power
by Carl Engle-Laird
The Purge Franchise Leaves Its Most Interesting Questions Unanswered
by Steven Padnick
Even Magical Families Are Complicated: Adoption and Obligation in Sorcerer to the Crown
by Amber Troska
Reading the Wheel of Time: Facing Fate on Your Feet in Robert Jordan’s The Great Hunt (Part 5)
by Sylas K Barrett
Mon Aug 27
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Diplomatic Immunity, Chapters 11 and 12
by Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer
This Is How You Write a Horse: Dun Lady’s Jess
by Judith Tarr
Rebels, Colonizers, and Those Caught In Between: Mirage by Somaiya Daud
by Alex Brown
The Real Reason The Sorting Hat Placed Albus Potter in Slytherin House
by Emmet Asher-Perrin
Fighting Erasure: Women SF Writers of the 1980s, Part II
by James Davis Nicoll
Problematic Classics: Four Questions to Ask When Beloved Books Haven’t Aged Well
by Matt Mikalatos
Download a Free Ebook of The Black Company by Glen Cook Before August 31, 2018!
by Tor.com
Read an Exclusive Excerpt from V.E. Schwab’s Vengeful
by V.E. Schwab
Fri Aug 24
5 Books About Living Dolls and Puppets
by Keith Donohue
Ben Marcus’s Challenging and Oblique Stories in Notes from the Fog
by Matthew Keeley
Big in Japan — The Wolverine
by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Science Fiction’s Trouble with Terraforming
by James Davis Nicoll
What’s Next For Uncanny Magazine, Post-Hugo Awards? Tune In For Uncanny TV!
by Matt Peters
Thu Aug 23
A Quick Peek at the First Episode Script for The Wheel of Time
by Stubby the Rocket
The Man In the High Castle Releases Chilling Trailer for Season Three
by Stubby the Rocket
Superpowered Space Opera: The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams
by Liz Bourke
We Sold Our Souls
by Grady Hendrix
What Writers Can Learn from Margaret Atwood’s New Introduction to The Handmaid’s Tale
by Jay Schiffman
When Everyone Just Wants to Eat: Norwegian Fairy Tale “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”
by Mari Ness
I Hope That Steven Moffat’s The Time Traveler’s Wife is Less Doctor Who and More Coupling
by Natalie Zutter
Six Literary Visions of the Future
by Leah Schnelbach
Oathbringer Reread: Chapter Thirty-Eight
by Alice Arneson and Lyndsey Luther
Wed Aug 22
Forever Is Our Today: Suicide Club by Rachel Heng
by Leah Schnelbach
When Mulder and Scully Almost Gave Up
by Ling Ma
Dependency! Dependency! Joanna Russ’s “The Little Dirty Girl”
by Anne M. Pillsworth and Ruthanna Emrys
Rocket Men and Grieving Girls: On The Myth of the American Astronaut
by Leah Schnelbach
Is That Zenyatta…? Announcing the Narrators of The Ruin of Kings Audiobook!
by Tor.com
7 Surprising Facts About the Making Of Battlestar Galactica
by Ryan Britt
When Tuor Met Ulmo, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let Gondolin Fall
by Jeff LaSala
See John Scalzi on Tour for The Consuming Fire
by Tor.com
5 Excellent Ray Bradbury Short Stories
by Nancy Lambert
Tue Aug 21
Timeless
by R. A. Salvatore
Ancient Gods and Deadly Magic: The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
by Alex Brown
Sleeps With Monsters: Uplifting Post-apocalypses from Carrie Vaughn
by Liz Bourke
5 Questions For the End of A Darker Shade of Magic
by Emmet Asher-Perrin
Among The Stars: The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
by Aidan Moher
Pull List: Nancy Drew and Submerged Tackle the Mysteries of Life and Death
by Alex Brown
So Say We All Proves Battlestar Galactica Is the Nicest Sci-Fi Franchise Of All
by Ryan Britt
SF Books That Did Not Belong in the Kids’ Section of the Library
by James Davis Nicoll
Reading the Wheel of Time: Literal Writing on the Wall in Robert Jordan’s The Great Hunt (Part 4)
by Sylas K Barrett
Mon Aug 20
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Diplomatic Immunity, Chapters 7-10
by Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer
Bouncing Through Realities: Andre Norton’s Quest Crosstime
by Judith Tarr
Everyday Magic: Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
by Martin Cahill
Miles Morales Is Not Peter Parker: Why New Characters Don’t Solve the Problem of Diverse Representation
by Steven Padnick
Six Characters With Whom You Should Never, Ever Go Camping
by James Davis Nicoll
38 New Epic Fantasy Books Coming Soon
by Tor.com
Announcing the 2018 Hugo Award Winners
by Tor.com
Fri Aug 17
Has Cloud Atlas Author David Mitchell Given Us The Greatest Writing Tip Of Our Time?
by Leah Schnelbach
Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen Series is Coming to HBO Next Year!
by Stubby the Rocket
The Greatest Dads in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the Universe
by Stubby the Rocket
Blurring Reality: The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg
by Em Nordling
Weapon Blech — X-Men Origins: Wolverine
by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Poe Dameron Has a Mission For a Few Good Rebels in First Star Wars: Resistance Trailer
by Emmet Asher-Perrin
Mirage Author Somaiya Daud on Her Moroccan-Inspired Fantasy World
by Tor.com
When Will SF Learn to Love the Tachyon Rocket?
by James Davis Nicoll
Thu Aug 16
NPR Picks The 100 Greatest Horror Stories of All Time
by Stubby the Rocket
Escaping the Default Future When Writing Science Fiction
by Karl Schroeder
Queers! In! SPAAAAAACE!!! Emily Skrutskie’s Hullmetal Girls
by Alex Brown
Warner Bros.’ Three Merrie and Looney Versions of “The Three Little Pigs”
by Mari Ness
The Wheel of Time Showrunner Rafe Judkins: “I Plan to Lean Heavily Into The Concept of Reincarnation.”
by Stubby the Rocket
Crack Shots! Science! Exotic Locales! — The Don Sturdy Adventures by Victor Appleton
by Alan Brown
Sapient Elephants, Musical Dogs, and Mercenary Cats: 15 Stories Featuring Anthropomorphic Animals
by Stubby the Rocket
Oathbringer Reread: Chapters Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven
by Alice Arneson and Lyndsey Luther
Wed Aug 15
This Harry Potter Crossover Fic Will Destroy You (In A Good Way)
by Stubby the Rocket
The Stars Now Unclaimed Audio Excerpt
by Tor.com
A Little Dark Reading: Margaret Irwin’s “The Book”
by Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth
Body Snatchers and Eighties Angst — Wild Cards VIII: One-Eyed Jacks
by Katie Rask
Part SF Thriller, Part Bildungsroman: The Million by Karl Schroeder
by Liz Bourke
Not On Your Life: Six Means of SF Transportation I Would Not Use
by James Davis Nicoll
Casting Idris Elba as James Bond Would Change the Character in the Best Way
by Steven Padnick
Explore the Other Worlds of Brandon Sanderson
by Martin Cahill
No Flight Without the Shatter
by Brooke Bolander
Tue Aug 14
Science Pushes Open New Doors with Blood-Smeared Hands: Cixin Liu’s Ball Lightning
by Erik Henriksen
Read Abbey Mei Otis’ “Sweetheart”
by Abbey Mei Otis
Star Trek: Discovery Casts Spock for Season 2
by Stubby the Rocket
Sleeps With Monsters: Astronaut Ladies
by Liz Bourke
Where Could the Shades of Magic Series Travel to Next?
by Emmet Asher-Perrin
Paradise Not: Five Inhospitable Planets
by Kelly Jensen
Read an Excerpt from Legion, the First Stephen Leeds Novella from Brandon Sanderson
by Brandon Sanderson
Download a Free Ebook of Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon Before August 18, 2018!
by Tor.com
Reading the Wheel of Time: Stones on a Board in Robert Jordan’s The Great Hunt (Part 3)
by Sylas K Barrett
Mon Aug 13
Clipping’s Hugo-Nominated Song “The Deep” to Become Afrofuturist Novel from Saga Press
by Stubby the Rocket
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Diplomatic Immunity, Chapter 6
by Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer
Dig to the Insides: Alien Virus Love Disaster by Abbey Mei Otis
by Lee Mandelo
A Celestial Summer Reread: The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West
by Judith Tarr
“In Search of Doors”: Read V.E. Schwab’s 2018 J.R.R. Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature
by V.E. Schwab
Exploring the Perils and Triumphs of Queer Friendship When You’re a Murderbot
by Anya Johanna DeNiro
A Survey of Some of the Best Science Fiction Ever Published (Thanks to Judy-Lynn Del Rey)
by James Davis Nicoll
QUILTBAG+ Speculative Classics: Nalo Hopkinson’s Skin Folk
by Bogi Takács
Fri Aug 10
Six Works of SFF Short Fiction that Defy Convention
by Thea James
Inventively Weird: Temper by Nicky Drayden
by Liz Bourke
Reductio Ad Absurdum — Watchmen
by Keith R.A. DeCandido
The Hard Working Horses of Epic Fantasy
by Judith Tarr
Setting the Mood in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Chris Beckett
Mark Hamill, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and More: Amazing Photos from 40 Years of Forbidden Planet
by Stubby the Rocket
Thu Aug 9
Mecha Samurai Empire
by Peter Tieryas
What Is, What Could Be, What Should Be: Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah
by Alex Brown
Ball Lightning Audio Excerpt
by Tor.com
A Folktale Saves Technicolor: Disney’s Take on “The Three Little Pigs”
by Mari Ness
5 Books About Women Who Make A Fuss
by Ellen Klages
For the First Time in 15 years, Star Trek Moves the Story Where No One Has Gone Before
by Steven Padnick
Oathbringer Reread: Chapter Thirty-Five
by Lyndsey Luther and Alice Arneson
Wed Aug 8
Fungi From Bob’s Discount Beer: Stephen King’s “Gray Matter”
by Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth
The Inexorable Strangeness of Robert Aickman’s Compulsory Games
by Matthew Keeley
Subversive Victoriana: The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
by Leah Schnelbach
Three Recent Time Loop Episodes That Are Instant Classics
by Alasdair Stuart
The Tragical Misery Tour (of Húrin) and the Return of the Sons (and Jewel) of Fëanor
by Jeff LaSala
Five Books About Unconventional Pirates
by Sara Raasch
This Heat Wave Will Never End: Are We Trapped in The Wheel of Time’s “Endless Summer”?
by Chris Lough
Tue Aug 7
The Book as Archive: An Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton
by Lee Mandelo
Sleeps With Monsters: Books Inspired by History and Historical Literature
by Liz Bourke
State Tectonics
by Malka Older
The Empathetic Murderbot: Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
by Liz Bourke
Reading V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic (Part 8)
by Emmet Asher-Perrin
Announcing Three New Novels From Annalee Newitz
by Tor.com
Paper Girls is Good and You Should Read It
by Steven Padnick
Fighting Erasure: Women SF Writers of the 1980s, Part I
by James Davis Nicoll
Reading The Wheel of Time: Dragons and Amyrlins in Robert Jordan’s The Great Hunt (Part 2)
by Sylas K Barrett
Mon Aug 6
New “Deleted” Wheel of Time Novella to Appear in Unfettered III in 2019
by Stubby the Rocket
Rereading the Vorkosigan Saga: Diplomatic Immunity, Chapter 5
by Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer
AMC Developing Animated Sci-Fi Series Pantheon Based on Ken Liu’s Short Stories
by Stubby the Rocket
Wild Cards Authors Pit Their Characters Against Classic Superheroes
by Tor.com
Ghosts of Future Wastelands: Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Latchkey
by Tobias Carroll
Worlds Beside Worlds: Andre Norton’s The Crossroads of Time
by Judith Tarr
I Have A Lot of Feelings About Christopher Robin
by Emmet Asher-Perrin
Should the New Picard Star Trek TV Series Be Set on a Starship?
by Ryan Britt
The Darkest Minds is a Grab-Bag YA Dystopia That Manages to Say Nothing Original
by Natalie Zutter
Reunite with Vampire Hunters, Elephantine Aliens, and Murderbots in Barnes & Noble Booksellers Picks for August
by Tor.com
Sat Aug 4
Sir Patrick Stewart Will Return as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in New Star Trek Series
by Stubby the Rocket
Fri Aug 3
The Story of a Bear of Very Little Brain
by Mari Ness
Oh What A Miserable Winter: Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
by Niall Alexander
The Ten Best Episodes of Torchwood, Ever
by Alasdair Stuart
“A vestige of the vox populi” — V for Vendetta
by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Why I’m Obsessed with the Outlander Theme Song
by Natalie Zutter
Five Feminist SFF Takes on the Classics
by Tracy Banghart
Thu Aug 2
All the Genre-Bending Books Coming Out in August
by Tor.com
Read the Introduction to Mother of Invention, an SF Anthology Focused on Artificial Intelligence and Robots
by Tansy Rayner Roberts and Rivqa Rafael
The Trouble With Adaptation: Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
by Liz Bourke
On the Origins of Modern Biology and the Fantastic: Part 5 — Olaf Stapledon and the Modern Synthesis
by Kelly Lagor
Family Tradition and Destiny: Pixar’s Coco
by Mari Ness
Hard Science, Dizzying Scope: Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter
by Alan Brown
Fighting Erasure: Women SF Writers of the 1970s, Part X
by James Davis Nicoll
Oathbringer Reread: Chapter Thirty-Four
by Alice Arneson and Lyndsey Luther
Wed Aug 1
Expectations of Genre: The Expert System’s Brother by Adrian Tchaikovsky
by Paul Weimer
Revealing Tessa Gratton’s Lady Hotspur, the Follow-Up to The Queens of Innis Lear
by Tor.com
The Gate and the Key and the Paintbrush: Max Gladstone’s “Crispin’s Model”
by Anne M. Pillsworth and Ruthanna Emrys
All the New Science Fiction Books Coming Out in August
by Tor.com
Six Big Questions About the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Revival
by Molly Templeton
The Droids You’re Looking For: The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust
by Nisi Shawl
Five Reasons Harry Potter Should Have Been a Slytherin
by Jill Grunenwald
Listen to the Steal the Stars Prequel Episode “Deputy”!
by Tor.com
Loss of Signal
by S.B. Divya