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.
For over 25 years, the Wild Cards universe has been entertaining readers with stories of superpowered people in an alternate history.
When a mysterious stranger approaches Wally Gunderson, a.k.a Rustbelt, about running for Jokertown City Council, he doesn’t think twice about it. His first move? Hiring an unlikely campaign manager – Mordecai Albert Jones, the Harlem Hammer. Together they’ll discover the ins and outs of local politics, and whether conspiracy theorist Sparkjob is actually crazy… or just on to something?
A man sets out to tell a story of his ex, which in turns becomes a story of the world. If only he could change that story—find the moment where it all began and alter the past. But what if he can’t find the beginning—or even the end?
An academic’s whimsical decision to take a DNA test leads her into uncharted territory, where she discovers some extraordinary truths about herself and new possibilities for her future.
No vampire is ever innocent…
The wandering Judge Dee serves as judge, jury, and executioner for any vampire who breaks the laws designed to safeguard their kind’s survival. This new case in particular puts his mandate to the test.
Every Halloween, an elderly woman hands out candy to a young trick-or-treater who’s dressed as a witch each time, looking exactly the same age. With each passing year, the woman grows more attached to the little witch and her odd nature. But she is no ordinary child, and an uncanny relationship develops between the two of them that may prove dangerous and deadly.
For me, characters are the gateway to a great story, pulling me into their headspace, compelling me to see the world through their eyes, empathize with their plight, and root for them to win. And while I fall in love with all sorts of characters, those that have an extra sweet spot are heroines fighting oppression. Be it taking on the system or battling a product of systemic oppression, I love that gut-wrenching angst when a character is up against impossible odds and burn with a fire to succeed anyway. From Katniss to Laia, to my own protagonist in Wings of Ebony: Rue, I’m going to ride or die with any hero or heroine who doesn’t back down, while learning a bit about themselves along the way.
If that’s you, too, you have to add these these five books to your TBR, now!
In May 1995 we received a bold vision of the future. A glittering world where physical cities merged with cities on the internet. Where bodyguards wore chainmail tank tops and carried pink, glitter-encrusted hand grenades. Where payphones still existed but you could phreak them with mobile, red plastic phones… which were almost as large and conspicuous as the payphones themselves. Where mini-discs were successful.
And the more I think about it, this vision wasn’t just a cyberpunk lark, it was a warning. A bleating klaxon of what awaited us.
That warning was Johnny Mnemonic.
Once developed, a planet is a boost to the whole human economy. More people! More production and consumer demand! More trade! But you have to develop the world first. For example, Mars. It could be terraformed and developed, as we know from countless SF novels. But how do you convince people to take the first step of settling on the Red Planet?
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is closing the first month of 2021 by announcing the recipients of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. This honor is given out to those who have made “distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community.”
I hadn’t expected to see a new Edward Carey novel for a few years yet, but here is The Swallowed Man, just two years after the publication of Little, his big book about the waning and waxing of Madame Tussaud’s fortunes in the French Revolution. That massive novel took fifteen years to write; to receive another book so soon is a pleasant surprise. Little was an epic about the obscure story behind a familiar name; The Swallowed Man, in contrast, is a compact retelling of a familiar story from an obscure perspective.
Once developed, a planet is a boost to the whole human economy. More people! More production and consumer demand! More trade! But you have to develop the world first. For example, Mars. It could be terraformed and developed, as we know from countless SF novels. But how do you convince people to take the first step of settling on the Red Planet?
Will this be the movie that vaults the underrated Chris Messina into the upper pantheon of Hollywood Chrisses? Deadline reports that Messina will star in the “contained space thriller” ISS, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish).
It’s happened to me over the years: I’ll come across a term in a book that’s clearly a word that emerged out of the science fiction canon, and I’ve wanted to see how it’s been used over the years.
There’s now a new online resource designed to help with that: The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.
For me, characters are the gateway to a great story, pulling me into their headspace, compelling me to see the world through their eyes, empathize with their plight, and root for them to win. And while I fall in love with all sorts of characters, those that have an extra sweet spot are heroines fighting oppression. Be it taking on the system or battling a product of systemic oppression, I love that gut-wrenching angst when a character is up against impossible odds and burn with a fire to succeed anyway. From Katniss to Laia, to my own protagonist in Wings of Ebony: Rue, I’m going to ride or die with any hero or heroine who doesn’t back down, while learning a bit about themselves along the way.
If that’s you, too, you have to add these these five books to your TBR, now!
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Screenshot: UbiSoft)
A couple years ago on this site I “reviewed” Assassin’s Creed: Origins, which takes place in Cleopatra’s Egypt, the same world in which I set my first historical fantasy novel: it wasn’t a gameplay review so much as it was an extended expression of my astonishment at the amount of history that Ubisoft wedged into the game.
Today, I’m going to take a similar approach to the latest Assassin’s Creed game: Valhalla, which is set (mostly) in early medieval Norway and England.
So, do you think Robert Jordan actually believed that there were some seductresses out there who had an itemized list of every way you can touch or kiss someone? Or is this as much of a fantasy as the One Power and women having to get naked every time they go through a portal?
Welcome back to Reading The Wheel of Time. This week covers Chapters 26 and 27 of The Fires of Heaven, in which Siuan, Leane, Min, and Logain finally find the rest of the Aes Sedai, and Siuan has to put her plan in motion without anyone knowing that it’s a plan, or that she’s affecting anything, or anyone, at all. You have to admire Siuan. She’s good at what she does, and she never quits.
In May 1995 we received a bold vision of the future. A glittering world where physical cities merged with cities on the internet. Where bodyguards wore chainmail tank tops and carried pink, glitter-encrusted hand grenades. Where payphones still existed but you could phreak them with mobile, red plastic phones… which were almost as large and conspicuous as the payphones themselves. Where mini-discs were successful.
And the more I think about it, this vision wasn’t just a cyberpunk lark, it was a warning. A bleating klaxon of what awaited us.
That warning was Johnny Mnemonic.
In less than two months, the gorgeous animated film Raya and the Last Dragon arrives on Disney+, and finally, we’ve got a full trailer for it! Though the teaser released last fall was deeply charming, there’s so much more happening in this movie than it let on—including the introduction of a somewhat surprising dragon.
Welcome to a world of talking trees and sarcastic owls, of dangerous mermaids and captivating queens…
We’re thrilled to share the cover for Along the Saltwise Sea, a new Up-and-Under adventure from Seanan McGuire, writing under the pseudonym A. Deborah Baker—available October 12th from Tordotcom Publishing.
2021 has been an amazingly, mind-blowingly, devastatingly chaotic year so far—and it’s still only January. In the US we’ve swerved from deadly insurrection to presidential impeachment to presidential inauguration, with a brutal sidecar of pandemic. On top of all that, the city of Tucson commemorated the tenth anniversary of the shooting in front of a supermarket that killed six people and severely injured several more, including our congresswoman, Gabby Giffords.
I remember that day all too clearly. I came home from Saturday-morning errands to the news that had been clanging through the multiverse: that a member of the US Congress had been shot in front of a supermarket. She was dead. She wasn’t dead. Others were dead, wounded. This many, that many. Shooter in custody. Lone gunman, had an accomplice, not political, yes political, nobody knew, though speculation was rampant.
That was my congressperson. That was my city that had been reduced to sound bites. The shock to us all was profound and lasting—just as it has been everywhere else that has seen its peace shattered by violence.
For me on the farm, surrounded by animals, and especially horses, the effect was not at all muted. But it was transmuted.
I did not choose this fate. But I will not walk away from it.
We’re excited to share an excerpt from Intisar Khanani’s young adult fantasy novel The Theft of Sunlight—publishing March 23rd with HarperTeen.
Though there’s still no release date for Barry Jenkins’ much-anticipated adaptation of The Underground Railroad, there is a new teaser for the show—a slow, eerie glimpse of scenes that run entirely backwards.
