A man is offered the opportunity to partake in an exclusive, subscription-based eating club for those who wish to dine on human flesh. But he may have bitten off a little more than he can chew.
How to Cook and Eat the Rich
Yes, Women Are Still Writing Space Opera
And they’re good at it.
A few years ago I wrote an article about the invisible women of space opera—and pretty much any other subgenre of science fiction and fantasy. Women have always been there, always writing, always breaking new ground—and yet every year or two, someone will write an article that proclaims, “Women Are Finally Venturing into Men’s Territory!” Lists of 100 Best Books are heavily skewed toward white male writers, all or nearly all from North America.
Almost six years later, I like to think we may be in an up cycle for recognition of women’s work.
The Most Likely Consequence of Contact: Revealing Seth Dickinson’s Exordia
“Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story…”
Seth Dickinson explodes into a new genre with Exordia, the acclaimed fantasy author’s Crichton-on-acid science fiction debut arriving January 2024 from Tordotcom Publishing.
The 25th Anniversary Edition of John Crowley’s Little, Big Was Almost Two Decades in the Making
In 1981, John Crowley’s novel Little, Big was published. The World Fantasy Award-winning novel has, over the last four decades, found incredibly passionate fans. On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, Jonathan Thornton wrote, “It remains the kind of book that quietly changes people’s lives.”
And for almost twenty years, an anniversary edition of this life-changing book has been in the works. It’s quite the saga, and it has a happy ending: books are finally ready to ship. It took years—and the help of Neil Gaiman—to bring this project to light.
Benedict Cumberbatch to Star in Eric, a Show Where His Character Talks to the Monster Under His Kid’s Bed
Screenshot: Marvel Studios
Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange, pictured above) is set to star and executive produce a new Netflix show called Eric.
A Nostalgia-Heavy Playlist for the Stressed Out Millennial
In the spring of 2020, I was desperately attempting to stay the pandemic doldrums by binge watching movies from my childhood. It was lockdown and I couldn’t go to work, couldn’t visit family and friends, and only left the house once a week for a hasty, sanitizer-drenched trips to the grocery store. Nostalgia (and steamy romance novels) was pretty much the only thing keeping me functioning. These are not the billion dollar blockbusters or the movies that have become a part of our cultural language, but the forgotten, the deep-cut cult classics, and the weirdly silly.
All Our Stories Are Connected: Five Modern Fairytale Mash-ups
The Sleeping Beauty by Walter Crane (1876)
What could be better than a retelling of your favorite fairy tale? How about a retelling of two of your favorite fairy tales? How about a retelling that incorporates a bunch of your favorite fairy tales?
One of my favorite types of narrative is the mashup, wherein a bunch of existing characters or storylines mingle together, resulting in brand-new flavors, new adventures, and if you’re lucky, fresh nuances to explore.
The Witching Hour(s) Will Continue With a Second Season of Mayfair Witches
Screenshot: AMC
When you call your cinematic universe the Immortal Universe, I guess you have to deliver. The second of AMC’s Anne Rice adaptations, Mayfair Witches, has just been renewed for a second season. It joins Interview with the Vampire in continuing said Immortal Universe for… well, ever, perhaps?
Five Stories Featuring Teleportation and Other Timey-Wimey Shortcuts
Artist's concept of Apollo VIII (Credit: NASA, 1968)
The gulfs of space are vast, awesome, and highly inconvenient. Crossing them with conventional chemical rockets would take millennia. Indeed, any rocket using even halfway plausible technology seems likely to consume several human lifespans before reaching even the closest stars.
Many authors, not wanting their characters to die of old age getting to Proxima Centauri, have abandoned plausible transport methods for the starkly implausible. Best of all? Techniques that allow travellers to step directly from one world to another without the bother of dealing with the intervening distance. The novels and series below feature five such methods.
The Fictional Scott Lang (a.k.a. Ant-Man) Has a Memoir Coming Out That You Can Actually Pre-Order
Oh hello there! The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Scott Lang (a.k.a. Ant-Man, a.k.a. the never-aging Paul Rudd) has a memoir coming out! For real! It’s called Look Out For the Little Guy and you can even buy it.
Game of Thrones Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau To Star In Gothic Horror Film, Virtue
Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (pictured above as everyone’s favorite incestuous twin, Jamie Lannister) and Romola Garai are set to star in a film about an 14th-century knight (Coster-Waldau) who decides to rescue a woman (Garai) in a very spooky, very haunted forest.
Read an Excerpt From The Severed Thread
Which threads of fate will hold—and which will break?
We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from YA fantasy The Severed Thread , sequel to The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder—publishing with Razorbill on February 7.
Werewolves Within Director Josh Ruben’s New Horror Movie Stars Tatiana Maslany and Jasmin Savoy Brown
Screenshot: Disney+
Director Josh Ruben last brought the world Werewolves Within, and now he’s got a new kind of terror up his sleeve: In Green Bank, from writer Aaron Horwitz (The Cleansing Hour), a young woman in a town with no radio transmissions finds her employers are not exactly what they seem.
The film is set to star Jasmin Savoy Brown (Scream, Yellowjackets) and She-Hulk herself, Tatiana Maslany (pictured above), who I will follow anywhere, even into the terrifying wilds of small-town horror, thanks to her astonishing work in Orphan Black.
14 Excellent Groundhog Day-Style Time Loops in SFF
Screenshot: Columbia Pictures
The now-classic Groundhog Day flirts with (and breaks) the rules of multiple movie genres: romantic comedy, time travel narrative, small town dramedy, spiritual redemption tale—and it’s also given birth to an entire subgenre of its own. The “Groundhog Day episode” is a mainstay of many television series, and the plot even pops up in films, novels, and short fiction. It’s a fun way to play with established characters, putting your faves through the emotional wringer while trying to solve a murder or stop a crime. And it can be an equally effective tool for riffing on entire genre tropes; mixing in high school drama, slasher horror, or other well-worn genres can lead to some fascinating mashups. And in (almost) all cases, the protagonist stuck in the time loop comes out on the other side all the better.
We’ve compiled a list of our favorite Groundhog Day riffs and the most memorable time loops in SFF. Take a break from listening to “I Got You Babe” for the nth time and check out these 14 recursive tales.
Star Wars Visions Vol. 2 Announces Animation Studios and Premiere Date
In 2021, Star Wars Visions presented a collection of new views of the galaxy far, far away—a season’s worth of shorts from a collection of Japanese animation studios. For the show’s second season—excuse me, Vol. 2—the series broadens its reach, pulling in animators from all around the globe.
The new collection of shorts lands on a meaningful day for Star Wars fans: May 4th.
The End of the Improbable Road: Revealing Under the Smokestrewn Sky by A. Deborah Baker
Photo: Beckett Gladney
The end of the improbable road…
We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of A. Deborah Baker’s Under the Smokestrewn Sky, the series finale of the popular Up-and-Under quartet from multi award-winning author Seanan McGuire under an open pseudonym—forthcoming October 17, 2023 from Tordotcom Publishing.
New in Series
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
