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io9TelevisionFirst ever trailer for HBO’s fantasy epic, Game of Thrones
Get a first look at the fantastic Westeros landscape, in the first picture and footage from HBO’s Game of Thrones. But can it live up to the epic book series? The show is based on George R. R. Martin’s series based in a fantasy world, similar to Medieval Europe, and the richness of the source … Continued
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io9MoviesWhere are all the good alternate history movies?
We’ve got tons of alternate history books, comics, and video games, and yet we have so few committed alt-history motion pictures. On this Sunday’s Great Moments in Alternate History, we’re going to the movies! Before we explore the above questions, I should take a moment to explore the state of alternate history cinema. Excluding films … Continued
By David Daw -
io9Movies
Is Starship Troopers a trenchant war parable for 2010, a cheesy excuse for coed showers, or both?
Some of us think of Starship Troopers as a brilliant satire, others consider it a bastardization of Robert Heinlein’s novel. Scott Tobias of The Onion AV Club considers the 1997 film an apt metaphor for 21st-century nationalism and militarism. Says Tobias: It seems absurd now to write it off as some silly piece of escapism, … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Did aliens take a preacher into space, just to convert him to their weird alien religion?
Science fiction books are having a resurgence in Korea, according to a new article in the Korea Times. And some of the titles described sound pretty amazing, including a preacher who converts to an alien religion, and a wizard who turns a man’s friend into a pig. Let’s hope some of these titles turn up … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Jazz Age New York Is Full of Vampires in Alaya Johnson’s Moonshine
There are two things you need to know about this book: It’s set in the 1920s, and the heroine is known around town as the “Singing Vampire Suffragette.” Also, it’s awesome. Zephyr Hollis is a social activist in Progressive-Era Manhattan. She teaches basic literacy to immigrants and volunteers at the local soup kitchen and engages … Continued
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io9TrailersStudio Ghibli, creators of Totoro, tackle beloved miniature person epic “The Borrowers”
Studio Ghibli, founded by beloved animator Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Ponyo), has just released this teaser for its adaptation of Mary Norton’s classic novel The Borrowers. It’s about miniature people who survive by “borrowing” food and shelter from oblivious families. Slashfilm reports: The film will mark the directorial debut of animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who will … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Nnedi Okorafor’s “Who Fears Death” is a postapocalyptic vision of genocide and sorcery
N.K. Jemisin, author of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, reviews the first adult novel from award-winning writer Nnedi Okorafor. Who Fears Death is a tale of post-apocalyptic Africa, where water is scarce and genocide shapes a young woman’s magical abilities. I’ve been a fan of Nnedi Okorafor’s for awhile now; I love her seminal children’s fantasy … Continued
N.K. Jemisin -
io9Books & Comics
The Gadgets That Preserve Our Memories
The woman in this photo is an employee at the Library of Congress. She is using a high-tech scanner to map the individual chemical components of a century-old book in order to learn how to better preserve it. Boing Boing’s Rob Beschizza visited the two Library of Congress departments dedicated to keeping our memories safe: … Continued
By Rosa Golijan -
io9Movies
In praise of seat-of-the-pants storytelling
People act like the worst accusation you can hurl at storytellers is “They made it up as they went along.” As if having a Master Plan is the same as good storytelling. In fact, it’s frequently the other way around. Often the best storytelling is improvisational, like jazz or chess. Whether you’re talking about books, … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Alan Moore’s Cthulhu comic is coming. Gird brain for explosion.
Alan Moore’s H.P. Lovecraft-inspired comic series Neonomicon is set to debut later this year, but series artist Jacen Burrows recently dropped some knowledge on the cyclopean horror that readers can expect. Neonomicon has been in the works for a while, but Bleeding Cool talked with the Crossed illustrator about creating the visuals for Moore’s scripts. … Continued
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io9MoviesJohn Carpenter is coming back to save the vampire genre
Vampires is always highly watchable, even with James Woods as the vampire slayer lead. Can Carpenter’s new flick Fangland save the vampire genre from itself? Shock Till You Drop is reporting that Carpenter will be adapting John Marks’ Fangland. Which has been in development for a while, and even had Hillary Swank signed up for … Continued
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io9Movies
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer debuts
The first trailer from Harry Potter’s big two part finale premiered on the MTV Movie Awards tonight. Watch as our Hogwarts students prepare for their big finale. imdb Synopsis: Voldemort’s power is growing stronger. He now has control over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to finish Dumbledore’s work and … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
How can a scifi story’s language reflect its far-flung setting?
In “Language and science fiction,” Paul Kincaid notes a curious predicament science fiction authors face — often, scifi stories occur in the unfathomable future or another world, so how can a book’s language sound exotic (and not anachronistic)? In a comment to me on this post, John said: “I’d love to see a survey from … Continued
Paul Kincaid -
io9Books & Comics
Great moments in alternate history: the non-fall of the Roman empire
The Roman Empire has given speculative fiction authors plenty of fodder for alternate history tales. There are dozens of stories in which the fall of Rome is delayed or prevented, and technology advances at an alarming pace. For example, there’s Jacek Inglot’s Quietus in which a Roman Empire that has rejected Christianity has steamships by … Continued
By David Daw -
io9Books & Comics
The truth is self-evident: Ursula Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness isn’t about gender
It’s 1970, and with this Hugo winner — Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness — we finally got the ladies up in here! And the men too! And of course, the menwomen. So this is daunting. I mean, these are always daunting, but The Left Hand of Darkness — that’s daunting. It’s … Continued
By Josh Wimmer
