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.
Shards
17 Iconic Fashion Moments in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Do you think they have a MET Gala in Middle-earth? If they don’t, they should. As a fantasy writer, I believe no fantasy world is fully realized without fashion. Fashion, though often considered to be nothing more than frivolity, is as integral to a world’s rendering as its resources, its struggles, its power structures, and its art. In fact, fashion is the instrument by which all of these are often expressed. It can be frivolity, yes, but often it’s everything else as well.
This is why I’ve compiled my list of the seventeen most iconic fashion moments across science fiction and fantasy. Let’s get into it, shall we?
Babylon 5 Just Got an Upgrade for HBO Max
When it debuted on PTEN back in 1993, Babylon 5 was unlike anything seen on television to that point. J. Michael Straczynski’s space opera featured both a rich mythology and some ground-breaking visual effects, and it’s become a cult classic in the years since.
But while the series has endured for its story, its appearance hasn’t dated well, thanks in part to a subpar home release to DVD (and later streaming). This week, the series moved over to HBO Max, and it’s undergone a significant facelift that leaves it looking better than ever.
Read an Excerpt From Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters
One woman will travel to the stars and beyond to save her beloved in Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters, a lyrical space opera from author Aimee Ogden that reimagines The Little Mermaid—available February 23rd from Tordotcom Publishing. Read an excerpt below!
The Grishaverse Comes to Life in the First Photos From Shadow and Bone
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone finally has a release date. The series adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s books arrives on April 23rd—and the streaming network is starting to dole out details and teasers, including our first real look at the world of the Grishaverse.
5 Great Alternative Histories of WWII and the Space Race
"Earthrise" (NASA/Bill Anders, 1968)
More often than not, authors make the imagined compatible with the real. The world around us continues to exist while we read, even if we believe everything the author tells us. In A History of What Comes Next, the Kibsu insert themselves into history in their bid to take us to the stars, but the resulting timeline is the one we know. There are few, if any, verifiable facts that would contradict the storyline and, conversely, nothing in our present would change if it all happened to be true. There are those, however, who aren’t so kind to our reality, authors whose stories mess with past events and take a wrecking ball to our timeline.
Series: Five Books About…
Revealing SF Thriller We Have Always Been Here
Photo: Milla Nguyen
One doctor who must discover the source of her crew’s madness… or risk succumbing to it herself.
We’re excited to share the cover for We Have Always Been Here, a psychological sci-fi thriller from a debut author Lena Nguyen—publishing July 6th with DAW.
Shards
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.
SFWA Announces the 2021 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award Recipients
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.”
The Swallowed Man Reflects on Art and Family From the Bottom of a Whale
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.
Five Ways to Sell People on the Thankless Task of Planetary Colonization
Artist's conception of a Martian habitat (Credit: NASA/Case for Mars)
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?
Space Will Keep On Being Stressful in the Thriller ISS
Screenshot: Warner Bros.
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).
Look Up That SF Term in the New Online Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction
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.
My Ride or Die: Fantasy Heroines That Fight Systems of Oppression
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!
Series: Five Books About…
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Alfred the Great, and Viking History
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.
Series: Medieval Matters
Reading The Wheel of Time: Siuan Sanche Enacts Secret Plans in Robert Jordan’s The Fires of Heaven (Part 17)
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.
Series: Reading The Wheel of Time
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