What to read this weekend: Near-future dystopian fiction and a new approach to explaining life's origin

New releases in fiction, nonfiction and comics that caught our attention. Hum by Helen Phillips Robots have become a regular fixture of the workforce, and humans are losing their jobs to AI. Climate change is wreaking havoc on the planet. It’s getting harder and harder for the average person to make ends meet. Facial recognition technology is being used for surveillance. Sound familiar? In her new novel, Hum, author Helen Phillips paints a picture of what our near-future could look like. Its main character, May, has lost her job after technology made her role obsolete, and, desperate for money to support her family, she agrees to participate in an experiment that alters her face to make her undetectable to facial recognition. With the extra cushion from the payment, she takes her husband and children on a short, technology-free vacation to the Botanical Garden — but things go dangerously awry. Hum is a captivating, unsettling work of dystopian fiction that makes it impossible not to draw parallels with our current reality. Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence by Sara Imari Walker There’s so much we don’t know about the origins of life on Earth, and how it could appear on other worlds. Arizona State University theoretical physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker tackles the enduring question, “What is life?” and so much more in her book, Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence. It explores assembly theory, which, as Walker... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2024-08-10 19:43:55 UTC ]

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‘Halo’ wishes it was ‘The Mandalorian’

Halo’s TV adaptation doesn't waste any time differentiating itself from the popular game franchise. We open in a rebel village bar, where patrons are discussing the evil UNSC (United Nations Space Command) and boogey-man like Spartans. It could easily be a scene from Firefly, the short-lived... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2022-03-25 17:17:05 UTC ]
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This Week's Bestsellers: March 28, 2022

'Lessons from the Edge' by Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, debuts and #6 on our hardcover nonfiction list. Plus a pair of science fiction titles land on our hardcover fiction list, and comedian Seth Meyers makes his picture book debut. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-03-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Astro’s new budget A10 headset is made for players who want to look cute on stream

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[ Engadget | 2022-03-22 14:30:19 UTC ]
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'The Quarry' is a teen horror game from the creators of 'Until Dawn'

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[ Engadget | 2022-03-17 20:15:57 UTC ]
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Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan on the Freedom of Writing Anonymously

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[ Literrary Hub | 2022-03-17 08:50:16 UTC ]
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20 Must-Read Genre-Bending Sci-Fi Books

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[ Book Riot | 2022-03-10 11:35:00 UTC ]
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Dancing with Words: The Poetry of Jean-Baptiste Para, by Alice-Catherine Carls

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[ World Literature Today | 2022-03-08 19:30:36 UTC ]
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Roberto Bolaño’s Tantrums, by Ilan Stavans

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[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-28 21:05:10 UTC ]
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Robin Davidson’s Mrs. Schmetterling, Quiet Revolutionary

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[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-22 21:17:17 UTC ]
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Robin Davidson’s Mrs. Schmetterling, Quiet Revolutionary, by Alice-Catherine Carls

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[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-22 21:17:17 UTC ]
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Charlie Brooker: ‘Mr Dystopia? That makes me sound like a wrestler’

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[ The Guardian | 2022-02-21 06:00:24 UTC ]
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12 Fascinating Near-Future Science Fiction Books

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[ Book Riot | 2022-02-17 11:35:00 UTC ]
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Amazon is reportedly fast tracking a live-action Blade Runner series

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[ Engadget | 2022-02-11 18:28:55 UTC ]
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In ‘Anonymous Sex,’ No Strings — and No Bylines

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[ The New York Times | 2022-02-09 20:55:35 UTC ]
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In ‘Anonymous Sex,’ No Strings — and No Bylines

An anthology of erotic short fiction keeps the award-winning writers a dirty secret. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2022-02-09 14:43:51 UTC ]
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The Guardian view on social media’s metaverse: it may remain science fiction | Editorial

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[ The Guardian | 2022-02-07 19:11:48 UTC ]
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Sites of Radical Possibility: The Best of 1970s and 80s Women-Authored Science Fiction and Fantasy

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[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-26 09:55:39 UTC ]
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Comma commissions heroic protest anthology with Newland, Goldie and Master

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[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-25 11:00:43 UTC ]
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Paul Dacre’s all for freedom of expression – except when he’s a character in your play | Tim Walker

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[ The Guardian | 2022-01-25 08:00:39 UTC ]
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Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality?

Kim Stanley Robinson’s novels envision the dire problems of the future—but also their solutions. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2022-01-24 11:00:00 UTC ]
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