“The Path Through Time” is Jules’s favorite part of the museum, a marvelous exhibit that brings the past to life, from the present all the way back to the prehistoric. Tonight at his aunt’s wedding reception as Jules walks along the path, it comes alive like never before.
Judge Dee is back to solve a brand-new case involving the mysterious death of the vampire Count Werdenfels. The mystery? Who killed him. The twist? Three different people are proudly proclaiming to have committed the crime.
An uncontrollable plague has left the city in ruins and trapped in perpetual quarantine. A thief hires a guide to lead him safely through the city’s many dangers to the one person who can give him the travel papers he needs to escape.
A group of five friends rent a cabin in the woods—the next day only four are alive. What happened and why is something the survivors are desperate to unravel.
In a near-future San Francisco where the gig economy has made work more precarious than ever, Edwina is an average twenty-something scrambling to hold down her job with a major skin care brand. Until her awful boss does something you should never do—angers the fae on social media—and the struggles of her job take on an even nastier shade.
As the Cold War stalls and the threat of nuclear warfare dominates the news, small-town misfits Laurie and Fell bond over a shared love of music and the mystery of the erratic radio messages that hint at the existence of a future worth reaching out for.
The Ursula K. Le Guin Reread explores anew the transformative writing, exciting worlds, and radical stories that changed countless lives. In this final week, we’ll be covering Le Guin’s novel Tehanu (1990).
Last year I embarked on a quest: to reread all of Ursula Le Guin’s works, including story and essay collections, and write about them for Tor.com—a dream come true for any SFF critic. I’ve written about Le Guin for a year, covering her novels, stories, and essays from the beginning of her career (some truly just OK stories) to her first novel of the 1980s, the strange anti-Narnia novel The Beginning Place. That’s nearly two decades of powerful, inquisitive writing that racked up awards and made Le Guin into a household name, an undisputed master of the genre.
As children, with our lives ahead of us, we wonder ‘what if?’—what if that squirrel could talk, what if I had wings, what if Mommy and Daddy disappeared and I could live in my house all alone and eat dessert any time I wanted. As time passes and the past comes to trail behind we turn this sense of fantasy away from the present back to the past. ‘What if’ becomes ‘what if I had’—moved to Panama, quit smoking, walked away that night, told him I loved him. No child ever wished for a pony half so hard as your average adult wishes to have the chance to rectify an error, supplement a conversation, salvage some lost portion of our lives.
It is no wonder, then, that genre fiction has always been interested in memory—which, after all, has a far closer kinship with fantasy than fact. The Seventh Perfection is a book about a woman with perfect recollection seeking to untangle truth from the twisted strands of history (both personal and societal), and the consequences which spring from this single minded obsession.
Here are five other books likewise fascinated (tormented?) by memory.
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 wrap up our discussion Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, including final thoughts from both of us and a little from Anne on the screen adaptations. Spoilers ahead.
A witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain…
We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Sweet & Bitter Magic, the debut fantasy from author Adrienne Tooley—available March 9th from Margaret K. McElderry Books.
In Juliette Wade’s Mazes of Power we were introduced to the Varin, an alternate world of humans on a planet whose surface is less than pleasant to be on for long periods of time, so high society, a decaying civilization, exists in underground cities. In Transgressions of Power, Wade continues the story of a society struggling with conflict and the potential to change.
Monster Hunter (pictured above) just came out, but director Paul W.S. Anderson and his frequent star Milla Jovovich aren’t taking a break. Their next project was just announced: Anderson will direct an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s story “In the Lost Lands,” starring Jovovich and Dave Bautista.
Jovovich will play the sorceress Gray Alys, whose magical services are hired by a queen. To fulfill the queen’s wish, Gray heads into the lost lands with only Boyce (Bautista) as her guide.
“Bride of Chaotica!”
Written by Bryan Fuller & Michael Taylor
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Season 5, Episode 12
Production episode 207
Original air date: January 27, 1999
Stardate: unknown
Captain’s log. Paris and Kim are playing Captain Proton on the holodeck, starting up a new chapter called “Bride of Chaotica!” They have to rescue Constance Goodheart from Doctor Chaotica’s clutches. However, there’s a subspace distortion in the program.
[My defeat is but a temporary setback! I shall return to seek my revenge!]
’80s toys are a genre that just keeps on giving. Two new animated Transformers shows are in the works, and My Little Pony is also back again—in a series tied to the mysterious movie Netflix plans to air later this year. Saddle up? Get ready to transform? Can transforming robot ponies be that far off?
But wait! G.I. Joe is also back—this time in a live-action series centered on Lady Jaye.
Everything Star Trek will be on Paramount+, the rejiggered streaming platform formerly known as CBS All Access. The whole Star Trek Universe will soon be available on the streamer—and that includes the upcoming Star Trek: Prodigy. The kid-friendly series from Kevin and Dan Hageman (Trollhunters) was expected to air on Nickelodeon, which developed it alongside CBS Studios. Now, though, the series will first be available on Paramount+, with a later run on Nickelodeon.
Halle Berry is getting extraterrestrial again: Deadline reports the actress will star in and executive produce Netflix’s The Mothership. Berry plays Sara Morse, who finds an alien object under her home one year after her husband’s mysterious disappearance.
The Mothership is written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Matthew Charman, who will also direct the film. Charman was nominated for an Oscar for his Bridge of Spies screenplay, but his more relevant work here may be Oasis, the adaptation of Michel Faber’s The Book of Strange Things that never got picked up as a series.
"Elanor," by Liliane Grenier
In this biweekly series, we’re exploring the evolution of both major and minor figures in Tolkien’s legendarium, tracing the transformations of these characters through drafts and early manuscripts through to the finished work. This week’s installment takes a look at Elanor Gamgee, the eldest daughter of Samwise and Rosie.
Elanor Gamgee, eldest daughter of Sam and Rose, gets little enough exposure in The Lord of the Rings. We know she is born on March 25, the first day of the new year according to the Gondorian calendar, and of course the date of the Fall of Sauron. Her name is Elvish in origin. In fact, Sam and Frodo name her together, after the “sun-star” flower they saw in Lothlórien, because (as Frodo says) “Half the maidchildren in the Shire are called by” flower names. Sam hints that he wanted to name her after someone they met in their travels, but admits that such names are “a bit too grand for daily wear and tear.”
Disney and Pixar’s next film, Luca, promises a sun-kissed Italian summer for a couple of totally ordinary-looking kids… who aren’t ordinary at all.
It’s very nice of Disney to give us this trailer in dreary February; all that gorgeous warm light is exactly what those of us in the northern hemisphere need right now. And the movie—directed by La Luna creator Enrico Casarosa—looks as charming as you’d expect from Pixar.
Long ago (around seven years ago), Avatar: The Last Airbender fans thought the animated adventures of this elemental universe had come to an end with the Legend of Korra finale. But everything changed when Nickelodeon announced Avatar Studios, helmed by series co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante Dimartino, with more animated tales in the Avatarverse on the way. Although the journey here wasn’t an easy one, fans hope this decision will bring balance to their beloved world.
Photo: Bret Kavanaugh [via Unsplash]
As children, with our lives ahead of us, we wonder ‘what if?’—what if that squirrel could talk, what if I had wings, what if Mommy and Daddy disappeared and I could live in my house all alone and eat dessert any time I wanted. As time passes and the past comes to trail behind we turn this sense of fantasy away from the present back to the past. ‘What if’ becomes ‘what if I had’—moved to Panama, quit smoking, walked away that night, told him I loved him. No child ever wished for a pony half so hard as your average adult wishes to have the chance to rectify an error, supplement a conversation, salvage some lost portion of our lives.
It is no wonder, then, that genre fiction has always been interested in memory—which, after all, has a far closer kinship with fantasy than fact. The Seventh Perfection is a book about a woman with perfect recollection seeking to untangle truth from the twisted strands of history (both personal and societal), and the consequences which spring from this single minded obsession.
Here are five other books likewise fascinated (tormented?) by memory.
The first teaser is here for Zack Snyder’s other 2021 release, Army of the Dead, in which a group of mercenaries venture into a zombie-infested Las Vegas to pull off not just any old heist, but—per the very brief synopsis—”the greatest heist ever attempted.”
Heists, of course, are never simply “done,” always “pulled off,” and clearly this one isn’t going to go off without some undead shenanigans.
This is a story that must be penned in blood…
We’re thrilled to share the cover for All of Us Villains, the start of a dark tale of ambition and magick co-authored by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman—publishing November 9th with Tor Teen.
Good morning, Cosmere Chickens! This week’s chapter might be a little triggering for anyone who suffers from depression or has been “treated” for a mental illness (I put this in quotes because of stories shared with me from friends that were institutionalized, which even today can be shockingly similar to the treatment plan the ardents use here). Please be aware of this and proceed accordingly.
The Stormlight Archive in general does a lot of work in regards to representation of those who are neurodivergent, and this chapter is a very good example of such. We’ll be discussing some pretty heavy topics with historical precedent, the echoes of which resonate through the real world even today.
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 wrap up our discussion Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, including final thoughts from both of us and a little from Anne on the screen adaptations. Spoilers ahead.
