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 ]
Art may imitate life but it rarely does so with realistic fidelity. As Naomi Pequette, Space Science Programs Specialist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, argues in her essay "The Sounds of Contact" as part of The Science if Sci-Fi Cinema: Essays on the Art and Principles of Ten Films,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-04 15:30:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Locast, a company that claimed to improve access to local TV stations for people who can’t get the signal via traditional means, has been dealt a blow by a New York Court. It lost a courtroom battle with CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, which said the company was violating copyright. Deadline reports the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-02 11:15:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Solaris has landed Aubrey Wood's "edgy" debut novel Bang Bang Bodhisattva, a comic science fiction mystery. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-31 10:17:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In Matthew FitzSimmons’s speculative murder mystery “Constance,” the title character’s consciousness is mistakenly downloaded into a clone. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-24 19:55:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
There’s a scene in 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order where J, a character inspired by Jimi Hendrix, explains to the game’s white protagonist, BJ Blazkowicz, why he’s not fighting. After Blazkowicz talks back, J tells him: "You don't get it, do you? Before all this, before the Germans, before the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-19 17:45:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Little, Brown science fiction and fantasy imprint Orbit has snapped up fantasy author Emily Tesh's "phenomenal" debut novel, Some Desperate Glory. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-17 15:24:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Hodder & Stoughton has acquired Mindwalker, a "compulsively page-turning" science fiction novel from Kate Dylan. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-16 21:44:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The story of Diana and Actaeon and his band of hounds is a well-known tale from classical myth, especially thanks to Ovid, who included the story in his great anthology of myths involving transformations of various kinds, the Metamorphoses. But who was Diana, and who was Actaeon? Before we... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-08-15 14:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy got us thinking about other titles perfect for the small screen. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-15 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The stories in The Rock Eaters often have an elastic relationship with reality, familiar political landscapes or emotional struggles warped by the uncanny. Some stories fall more explicitly within the bounds of science fiction or fantasy, but most show us a world nearly known, but not quite. In... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-08-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Hugo Gernsback once said SFF writers impart knowledge without out making us aware we're being taught. So what do they actually teach us? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-12 10:37:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It’s hard to believe that in just a matter of years, foldable devices have gone from the stuff of science fiction to actual usable daily drivers. Here we are today, checking out the third generation of Samsung’s foldables, which the company just launched at its Unpacked event. The Fold 3 is the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-11 14:00:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A new anthology offers essays by Jane Smiley, Carmen Maria Machado and many others that explode the popular trope of white, privileged equestrians. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-08-11 13:30:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Vintage has acquired an essay anthology examining the craft of writing through the lens of race and culture, edited by novelists Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-07 11:56:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Check out the cover of BLACK LOVE MATTERS edited by Jessica P. Pryde, an upcoming essay anthology that celebrates and examines Black romance. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-06 10:40:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It could have been soccer or tap dancing, it could have been Dungeons & Dragons or Model United Nations, but for editor Halimah Marcus and the contributors of the new anthology Horse Girls: Recovering, Aspiring, and Devoted Riders Redefine the Iconic Bond, what stamped them most profoundly... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-08-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
HarperVoyager has announced a weekend of fantasy and science fiction panels for readers and writers in September, headlined by Jay Kristoff. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-01 04:11:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“The World Gives Way,” “The Chosen and the Beautiful” and “Sword Stone Table” borrow from familiar stories but offer surprising readings. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-30 16:00:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Review of Books published a fairly wild essay by Miguel Esteban who, at the tender age of 14, commissioned a now-famous essay on race in science fiction from Octavia Butler. The whole piece is worth a read (the gall of teenage boys! the grace of Octavia!) but... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-26 13:40:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this
After COVID-related delays, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sweeping (and difficult to adapt) science fiction epic Dune is finally set to debut both on HBO Max and in theaters on October 1st. As the release date quickly approaches, Warner Bros has dropped a new trailer. (If you... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-22 16:21:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this