Familiarity breeds contempt. It’s a truth borne out every vacation season by cross-country family road trips. But when it comes to family, contempt is complex: revulsion and loyalty, irritation and affection, all mixed together. Maybe that’s why the sibling fantasy quest proves so irresistible: it’s offers a little bit of everything—but mostly exasperation. Here’s a […]
Laura Lam’s swift, intense False Hearts is a hard beast to characterize. Its unusual sister protagonists and speculative science elements seem ripped from the best episode of Orphan Black you’ve never seen. The overall mood, meanwhile, and the plot, about gruesome crimes sweeping the streets of a near-future San Francisco, lend themselves to throwback pulp territory. A mysterious cult […]
It’s a week of sad goodbyes—a farewell to Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series; the publication of Terry Pratchett’s final novel—welcome returns—the sequel to The Rook is here!—and happy hellos—fantastic debuts in cyberpunk, comedic SF, and more. Get reading!
Science fiction has introduced us to a number of enticing concepts: ansibles, transporters, self-lacing Nikes. As a genre, it is indeed very good at thinking of great new things to try, explore, and implement with almost no QA testing. What the genre sometimes does poorly is consider the consequences of its actions. The holodeck is a wondrous pit […]