Look, there are a lot of books in the Discworld universe, and a number of central series and character to keep track of. Whether your a seasoned fan, or just trying to dip your feet into the pool, it can be daunting to have everything sorted in your brain space.
Now, there’s a lovely infographic to help you out.
Greetings, intrepid adventurer! You have taken on a daunting quest: You venture willingly into the lair of cats in your comrade’s place while they are otherwise detained. But how do you ensure that you escape with no more than an angry scratch or two? And how do you tame the wild Meeple?!
In January, Orbit Books announced that it had acquired three new novels from N. K. Jemisin, including a contemporary fantasy “dealing with themes of race and power in New York City.” In a recent interview with Playboy, Jemisin—who just won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Obelisk Gate—shared more about how the novel will grapple with “basically Cthulhu” and the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft.
Eclipses are pretty darn cool even in real life, so it’s fitting that in science fiction and fantasy they get their due as legitimately monumental events. Dragon’s blood shed, the sapping of powers, aliens invading under cover of darkness… a lot can happen when planetary bodies pass between the sun and Earth—or whatever world our heroes inhabit. The six eclipses in these SFF stories mean serious business, with the power to change laws, avoid executions, and break spells. Grab your eclipse glasses!
It’s fitting that the subtitles on the first teaser for Marvel and Netflix’s The Punisher includes a lot of “[muffled grunting]” because that about sums up what we see: Frank Castle wielding a fearsome sledgehammer while voiceover-ing about painful memories and the past being the devil you sold your soul to.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Obi-Wan Kenobi is the next Star Wars character to get a standalone movie. Sources say that director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, The Reader, Billy Elliot) is in talks to helm the project, which does not yet have a script. But more importantly—does it have an Ewan McGregor??
TNT is bringing N.K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award-winning fantasy novel The Fifth Season to television, Deadline announced today. Leigh Dana Jackson (Sleepy Hollow, Helix) will adapt Jemisin’s novel, the first in the Broken Earth Trilogy, set on a supercontinent that every few centuries is wracked by a “fifth season” of climate change in the form of devastating earthquakes.
Jemisin excitedly shared the news on Twitter:
OhdearGodIthoughtIwasgonnablowagasketholdingthisin. Big news re THE FIFTH SEASON! https://t.co/FslJC4OrpM
— N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) August 16, 2017
Deadline is reporting that another Victor LaValle book is heading for the screen. Annapurna Television has acquired LaValle’s literary horror The Changeling for adaptation to a series.
Annapurna Television, the TV division of Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures, has acquired Victor LaValle’s new novel The Changeling to develop for a television series. The book was published last June by Spiegel & Grau.
The Changeling mines the stresses of new parenthood for chilling horror, while also delving into Scandinavian myth, American folklore, and the racism underlying many interactions in modern New York City. Apollo and Emma Kagwe are the new parents of adorable baby Brian…but Brian may not be quite what he seems. The mystery around their son threatens to tear Apollo and Emma apart, and sends Apollo on a quest into the heart of New York to try to save his family. You can read our review here.
Sue Naegle and Ali Krug will head up development for the company, while LaValle will serve as a co-executive producer. This project is only the latest of LaValle’s work to be developed: his Lovecraftian novella The Ballad of Black Tom is also in development at AMC. We’ll keep you updated on casting news as the project develops.
Deadline has announced Ava DuVernay’s latest exciting project: The A Wrinkle in Time director is teaming up with producer Charles D. King’s (Fences) Macro Ventures and television writer Victoria Mahoney (Misfits) to bring Octavia Butler’s seminal Afrofuturist sci-fi novel Dawn to the small screen.
The first novel in Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, Dawn takes place 250 years after a nuclear war left humanity almost extinct and Earth mostly uninhabitable. Lilith Iyapo, the series’ protagonist, awakens to discover that she is among the humans who have been saved by the alien Oankali. But despite the Oankali’s generosity in rescuing these survivors and curing diseases like cancer, their request in return is unimaginable. And it’s up to Lilith to help convince what’s left of humanity to listen to the deal the Oankali propose…
For the last three years, writer Sage Hyden has been doing a great service to fellow writers everywhere with his Just Write video essay series. Some videos tackle a specific film or book, while others explore a type of humor, say, the pun, or a technique, like the plot twist. The videos are generally posed as questions: why does this film work? Why does this TV show make you cry? And how can you, as a writer, learn from it and take the lessons back into your own writing?
While all of the videos are informative, Hyden recently posted my favorite essay yet: “What Writers Should Learn From The Dark Tower.” The video delves into the way Stephen King uses myth and symbolism in The Dark Tower series, and along the way teases out some of the reasons the book works in a way that the recent film does not.
Click through for the video, but beware spoilers for The Dark Tower series, and for the Looney Tunes classic “Duck Amuck.”
Remember when that Harry Potter fan theory about him never actually escaping the cupboard went viral and ruined our collective weeks? Yeah, those little thought experiments are momentarily arresting in an oooh layers slash hidden meanings way, but the more of them people come up with, the more they grasp at logic. Also, they’re just so damn sad. So, Tumblr user lokiloo had an idea: do the reverse, and come up with the cutest possible explanation for the darkest stories!
Our new Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, is already proving to be great at an important part of her job: reacting adorably to cosplayers. BBC shared a video of Whittaker seeing some intrepid Whovians who have already begun cosplaying as her 13th incarnation of the Doctor.
Click through for the full video, and get excited for a new season of Doctor Who!
That’s right! The film adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s eerie eco-horror novel, Annihilation, will hit theaters next February. The movie is Alex Garland’s follow-up film to Ex Machina, and stars Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gina Rodriguez as a Biologist, Surveyor, Psychologist, and Anthropologist respectively, who venture into a top secret site for an expedition that does not go according to plan. Ex Machina vet Oscar Isaac will also appear in the film in a small role as the Biologist’s husband.
When was the first time you saw yourself represented in media? Depending on your racial background and gender identity, this might be an emotional topic for you. The fabulous folks over at Black Girl Nerds have partnered with Netflix to produce a project called #FirstTimeISawMe, in which the site’s writers and editors talk about the characters that spoke most to them as kids. They’ve also taken to Twitter to ask readers to post their own stories under the hashtag. The writers focus on TV characters, and go on to mention specific Netflix shows that speak to them now, as adults, but the hashtag is full of characters from film, television, and books.
It started late last night (as all good horror tales do) with a simple request: Sam Sykes tweeted yo, can you help me out at Chuck Wendig. The other author’s response—hey what do you need—made us briefly think we were about to witness a postmodern text conversation posted in public for a combined 90K followers, but then it escalated:
I don’t know if I told you but I recently became a camp counselor
that’s cool
it was going super well but there’s some kind of crazed serial killer roaming the grounds right now
And instead what unfolded was a delightful Twitter thread cheekily riffing on horror tropes from the point of view of (spoiler) the guy who’s prooobably the killer but also the protagonist.
