The year is 2050. Ava and her girlfriend live in what's left of Brooklyn, and though they love each other, it's hard to find happiness while the effects of climate change rapidly eclipse their world. | Continue reading
The television series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters takes place on two timelines: one in 2015 that takes place between 2014’s Godzilla and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and one in the 1950s, which shows the origins of the titular Monarch organization, the institution in Le … | Continue reading
“Bound” Written by Manny Coto Directed by Allan Kroeker Season 4, Episode 17 Production episode 093 Original air date: April 15, 2005 Date: December 27, 2154 Captain’s star log. While en route to Berengaria to scout locations for a starbase, an Orion pirate ship intercepts them. … | Continue reading
“That’s what people do, they get different together.” (Solitaire, 351) Kelley Eskridge is not a prolific author, but she has nevertheless produced a body of work remarkable for its subtlety and depth. Eskdrige’s short stories are marvels of character-focused SF, where speculation … | Continue reading
I have a lifelong fondness for soppy kids’ movies. Yes, I like Disney movies, and Disney knockoffs, and kids’ movies, period. My inner editor may be making squawky noises, but I can’t make myself care. I love them anyway. Not long after Aquamarine first came out, along about 2006 … | Continue reading
You know where you are with stone tools. Or rather, scientists know where their ancestors were with stone tools, because stone tools are sufficiently durable that, with a bit of luck, the tools will outlast the species that made them. Other technologies are not as considerate. We … | Continue reading
It’s basically 2008 all over again! I don’t know that I’m emotionally capable of handling that transition, but seeing that transition is pretty much what Doctor Who is all about (as this episode proves from multiple angles)… let’s get to it. Recap In case you didn’t catch it, I’l … | Continue reading
Some of our favorite SFF protagonists tend to form their own circles, building communities with those that love them for who they are. Around the holidays, these stories offer a gentle reminder that there are many ways to define family, and plenty of reasons to spend time bonding … | Continue reading
The latest installment in Legendary MonsterVerse—the Apple TV+ series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters—is more about some complicated multi-generational family issues than Titans like Godzilla. That doesn’t mean, however, that some very large and very deadly creatures don’t make an a … | Continue reading
In February, Disney announced that another movie in the Toy Story franchise was in development—an inevitable happening, clearly, given that Disney loves nothing so much as it loves making more movies in series, or making more versions of movies it has already made. What wasn’t kn … | Continue reading
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 continue Max Gladstone’s Last Exit with Chapters 17-18. The novel was first published … | Continue reading
I fantasize about the food culture of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine more than any other invented universe. I long to try a sip of spring wine, or experience the spicy tang of hasperat. And my kingdom for a raktajino! The extra-strong Klingon coffee is mentioned briefly in other seri … | Continue reading
Things are changing in a galaxy far, far away. (Aren’t they always?) A new Vanity Fair article offers a belated look at the making of Ahsoka—while the show was airing, actors and writers couldn’t promote their work on account of the ongoing strikes. Now, though, they’re free to s … | Continue reading
I’ve officially become An Audiobook Person. It wasn’t a sudden conversion—I’ve been listening to podcasts for years, but there was a time I couldn’t imagine listening to fiction in the same way. Then I started adding non-fiction audiobooks into the mix in my library queue, and I … | Continue reading
This week marks a milestone for all of humanity—Friday marks the 35th anniversary of the first broadcast of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The first ever episode, “The Green Slime” was shown on a small Minneapolis cable-access channel called KTMA on November 24, 1988. There are ma … | Continue reading
The super-news just keeps super-coming. We already learned, this week, that Nicholas Hoult is very like going to step into the evil shoes of Lex Luthor in James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy; now we’ve got another super-pal, and one more antagonist. According to The Hollywood Reporter, … | Continue reading
Book One of Uncharted Hearts: She’s got a ramshackle spaceship, a misfit crew, and a big problem with its sexy newest member… | Continue reading
Three of the richest people in the world. Three of the most powerful, most influential in both the best and worst of ways; three of the smartest, future-savvy and most driven people in the world who are changing the course of humanity daily. It would take just the three of them t … | Continue reading
Now here’s something to be thankful for! Coming back for its thirty-fourth year(!), Mystery Science Theater 3000 is once again hosting a Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon. That’s right, for 48 hours starting at 9:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, you can tune in and watch 24 classic episod … | Continue reading
Welcome back to Dissecting The Dark Descent, where we lovingly delve into the guts of David Hartwell’s seminal 1987 anthology story by story, and in the process, explore the underpinnings of a genre we all love. For an in-depth introduction, here’s the intro post. For some writer … | Continue reading
To be honest, I am positively feral over David Tennant and Catherine Tate returning to Doctor Who. Normally, I’d be a little skeptical of this sort of thing. Logically I know that Doctor Who is a show that thrives on a certain amount of fan service and is indebted to a loyal audi … | Continue reading
It’s a bountiful time to be a Witcher fan. We may be between seasons on the Netflix adaptation—and anxiously awaiting the arrival of Liam Hemsworth as the show’s new star—but Netflix also just announced yet another animated Witcher movie, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, which is … | Continue reading
This week on Reading The Wheel of Time, we’re covering the middle of the prologue of Winter’s Heart, in which Elayne and Aviendha go through the Aiel first-sisters ceremony. It’s a really interesting section, and I mostly really liked it, despite a few quibbles here and there. Le … | Continue reading
Depending on who you believe, Nicholas Hoult (The Great) may be in talks to play Lex Luthor for James Gunn, or it may be a done deal. Either way, it’s an intriguing twist: Hoult was previously in the running to play Clark Kent himself. But maybe Hoult wanted a superhero change of … | Continue reading
Purveyors of cryonic preservation have a problem: As long as customers are content with storing bodies at temperatures cold enough to liquify nitrogen (or colder), all is well. However, as soon as someone starts muttering about the end goal of waking frozen clients, the issue ari … | Continue reading
A dragon hunter, a princess, and a lovable cast of characters must come together to take their fates into their own hands… We’re thrilled to share the cover and preview an excerpt from I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons a whimsical new fantasy novel from beloved author Peter S. Beagle … | Continue reading
James Cameron directed the sci-fi sea adventure, The Abyss way back in 1989, when the Na’vi were just a mere twinkle in his eye. It’s been decades, of course, since the movie graced the big screen. Luckily for us, however, we’ll get to see a 4K remastered version of the film in t … | Continue reading
Book Two of The Tithenai Chronicles: With the plot against them foiled and the city of Qi-Katai in safe hands, newlywed and tentative lovers Velasin and Caethari have just begun to test the waters of their relationship. | Continue reading
Who’s up for some crazy love in a world full of zombies Walkers? The Walking Dead spinoff, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, apparently is. And while there has been more than one spinoff of the original AMC series, this one stars two fan favorites—Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Mic … | Continue reading
There’s something to the liminal semi-permanence of physical media that in and of itself feels ripe for narrative exploration, especially through the lens of historical horror. A film reel, a manuscript, a cassette tape: tangible objects, thought and vision translated into the ap … | Continue reading
You can now buy tickets to see Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom when it comes out in theaters in December. To celebrate, Warner Bros. put out a trailer that shows none other than Aquaman/Arthur Curry himself (Jason Momoa) trying to be a Best Dad, except for that whole part where his … | Continue reading
“Divergence” Written by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens Directed by David Barrett Season 4, Episode 16 Production episode 092 Original air date: February 25, 2005 Date: unknown Captain’s star log. After getting the highlights from “Affliction,” we learn that Columbia is going to … | Continue reading
The week that Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was set to come out, I went to the bookstore to fill in my scattered Scott Pilgrim collection, thinking I’d at least page through the books after watching the new anime adaptation. After a single episode of the series, I tossed that idea out … | Continue reading
In 2017, when I considered pitching a series for Tor.com focused on The Silmarillion, and was wondering whether there would be sufficient interest—given that it lies deep in the shadow of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit—I chanced upon a podcast that would spur me on to … | Continue reading
In most respects In Deeper Waters is a standard YA fantasy-romance. It’s secondary world with minimal worldbuilding. Fairytale/fantasy kingdom, familiar family dynamics, equally familiar styles of names and places. There’s a mildly rebellious prince, a mysterious love interest, a … | Continue reading
Anna Sinjari—refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker—has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes… Introducing your new snake wife Ssrin, one half of the disaster human-alien duo at the center of the action in Seth Dickinson’s upcoming science f … | Continue reading
The third best assassin. A second rate mercenary crew. One terrifying demon. We’re thrilled to share the cover of In the Shadow of Their Dying by Anna Smith Spark and Michael R. Fletcher. The novella will be available from Grimdark Magazine March 19, 2024. The third best assassin … | Continue reading
In the annals of dystopian YA, perhaps none defined the subgenre so well as The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The films were largely successful by adaptation standards, being an effective rendering of the material that largely stuck to the messages Collins meant to get … | Continue reading
The DC Comics universe may be in a time of upheaval, but one thing is staying constant: The delightfully foul-mouthed, loving, chaotic, disastrous world of the animated Harley Quinn series on Max. The streamer has announced that Harley—and, of course, her beloved Ivy—will return … | Continue reading
I just happened to be looking at the August 1975 issue of Galaxy Magazine when my attention was caught by an essay: Jim Baen’s “The Myth of the Light-Barrier.” Was this yet another example of what we will polite call “relativity skepticism,” perhaps an early look at Petr Beckmann … | Continue reading
I was in Chicago for the first few weeks of October and then home in Montreal for the last week. I read eighteen books. I’m sorry this is late, but some of these were surprisingly difficult to talk about. Murder While You Work, Susan Scarlett (Noel Streatfeild) (1944) Re-read. Ve … | Continue reading
Catch-up on the latest short fiction from Tor.com! | Continue reading
Book Two of Dark Rise: A new threat from the past is rising, and only a handful of heroes remain to fight. | Continue reading
Dark Moon, Shallow Sea by David R. Slayton opens with a world in crisis. Phoebe, goddess of the moon, has been killed and her followers outcast as heretics by the knights of the sun god Hyperion, for the alleged crime of consorting with demons. The tides have stopped, the sky is … | Continue reading
The fourth season of Lower Decks sees the lower-deckers being less lower-decky, as our four main characters (as well as one of our recurring regulars) all get promoted to lieutenant junior-grade. Having previously covered the good, the bad, and the ugly of the horribly uneven sea … | Continue reading
James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy—still on track for its 2025 release date—has a new addition to the cast, and it’s probably not anyone you think it is. According to Deadline, María Gabriela de Faría (Deadly Class) has signed on to play Angela Spica, who is also known as The Engineer … | Continue reading
Teen horror’s female protagonists are regularly drawn to boys they have been warned away from: alluring bad boys. Sometimes these guys have just moved to town and no one knows where they’ve come from or what their lives were like before, and this mystery breeds speculation and go … | Continue reading
From ghosts to magic schools to demons to Queen Elizabeth to arachnoid hive minds, here are ten of my favorite short science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories that I read in October 2023. “All the Things I Know About Ghosts” by Isabel Cañas I enjoyed the heck out of Isabel C … | Continue reading