The Rare Earth Hypothesis means well, but it’s colossally, spectacularly, gloriously wrong. In one afternoon not too far off from today, every one of the seven billion people on planet Earth is visited by a representative from an alien race bearing a message for humanity: Prepare to be destroyed. OR…prove that you’re sentient. Convince us
“We can go to Cowan Bridge School and learn a lot of rot we already know and freeze and starve and probably die of consumption, or we can get on a fairy train driven by our Christmas presents.” The four siblings called it The Glass Town Game, but it was more than just a simple
Once again I’m running into the problem that readers love to have: too many fantastic books from last year to fit into a short top-three list. Click the jump for a list of the ten best (and by “best” I mean “favorite”) from 2017.
Bad things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to okay people. Bad things happen to everyone. Good things happen to…well, somebody, probably. Somebody somewhere else. Being a superhero causes a lot of collateral damage, and we’re not just talking about crossover events that level a city block. Start
A tale may have exactly three beginnings: one for the audience, one for the artist, and one for the poor bastard who has to live in it. The plot of Catherynne Valente’s latest novel Radiance centers around the mysterious disappearance of a woman – Severin, who’s origin is also something of a mystery – during her investigation
Mr. Puss-Boots dreams a story like this, a story where a prince goes creeping down into the underworld after twelve dancing princesses because some king decided the girls were having too much fun and wanted to rub their faces in how hard he owns them. Like several of her previous books and short-stories, Catherynne Valente’s latest
A lot of people think the “Vampire Bubble” may have burst (Vampire Diaries seems to be gearing up for its final season, True Blood is already gone, Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Dracula never got off the ground) and that zombies have taken their place in that part of geek culture that wants to be scared by
The legend of Prester John is one of the first documented cases of a hoax going viral. In 1165 a letter was discovered, supposedly sent to the Byzantine Emperor from a mysterious king in the far east, telling of a Christian land filled with riches and monsters. The letter inspired stories and explorations and crusades for four
A dual post from Kathryn and Elizabeth When talking about great couples from sci-fi and fantasy books, there are a lot of obvious ones: Harry and Ginny, Westley and Buttercup, Drogo and Daenerys, Katniss and Peeta (or Gale), and Bella and Edward (or Jacob), to name a few. We decided instead of listing all the