October's must-read SF/F books
23 new books to check out this month
Latest
For the legion
What’s it like to suit up as a 501st Clone Trooper for real?
Andor delivers what I’ve wanted from Star Wars for years
What happens when you put story before toys?
You can't take the sky from me
Wrestling with a complicated favorite
PSA: Cosplay: A History audiobook is $8
Audible’s holding a big end-of-summer sale
12 more books to check out this September
More fantasy, sci-fi, and more to throw onto the TBR
If you want a miserable experience reading Tolkien, do this one thing
The value of a good narrator
Succession crises
Why are we so attracted to stories dealing with the transfer of power?
Cyberpunk aesthetics
Prime Video's adaptation of William Gibson's The Peripheral gets its first trailer And release date
Tolkien and the Horrors of the Great War
The First World War left a lasting impression on Tolkien
Post apocalyptic studies for the .01%
The bulwark against apocalypse is community
All the books to read this September
Stories about vampires, folklore, and hidden kingdoms to cozy up to this fall
A return to Middle-earth
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power seems like it’s on the right track
Mapping reality
Peng Shepherd’s novel The Cartographers is a brilliant work of fantasy
Mars or bust
Six of my favorite books about the Red Planet
Canonical foundations
How does canon figure into the way we consume stories?
Middle-earth real estate
The pasts we bury
Edward Ashton's Mickey7 poses some hard questions about our futures in space
A mid-August book list
14 more SF/F/H books to check out this month
Wagon train to the arctic
Science fiction should look to the arctic, not the wild west, for inspiration
Here are the finalists for the 2022 Dragon awards
A solid book list
The beginning of a revolution
Andor is coming! The next live-action Star Wars series is inching closer to its release, and last week, series star Diego Luna visited Good Morning America to bring along a full trailer for the series, a couple of months after a teaser dropped at Star Wars Celebration.
Teasers usually just
Point of no return
Here are 23 new sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this August
Stories of prophecies, dystopian worlds, and strange futures
Highs and lows
SDCC 2022 was a blast! And also a note about gatekeeping in the cosplay community.
Hello from San Diego!
Some thoughts on fandom, books to read, and more.
A belated news roundup
A backlog of links and posts to read up on
Darkness comes for Middle-earth
A new look at the upcoming Amazon Prime series
Eight books that helped shape my own
Some books that influenced the journey
Here are all the SF/F books you should check out this July
Stories of first contact, mad scientists, unfortunate homecomings, and quite a bit more to add to your TBR pile
Differing outcomes
Annalee Newitz's The Future of Another Timeline and Alix E. Harrow's The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Reviewed
6 essential conventions to understand the history of cosplay
Cosplay and gatherings are inseparable
Eleven days until Cosplay: A History!
A roundup of all things Cosplay: A History
Monsters & Masculinity
An interview with Sam J. Miller
All the books you should check out this June
25 new SF/F books to kick off your summer reading
Expeditions in self-publishing
How Craig Alanson forged a new path a a self-published author
Wartime complexities
Mike Chen’s Star Wars: Brotherhood is a story that meaningfully grows the franchise
Celebration-bound!
The long view
This story about nuclear physics has stuck with me for decades
Galactic roadmap
Some takeaways from Vanity Fair's big feature article
The latest trailer for For All Mankind shows off a race to Mars
Being first is what it's all about
Destination: Mars
How we imagined the Red Planet
Here are the winners of the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards
Congratulations to all of the winners!
New approaches to rewilding the world
Lev Grossman's The Golden Swift is a delightful climate-focused book for younger readers
Here are the finalists for the 2022 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
Some of the best shorter genre works from 2021
How to order signed copies of Cosplay: A History
Partnering with Woodstock's Yankee Bookshop
Here are the finalists for this year’s Locus Awards!
An excellent crop of books from 2021
Let's round up some trailers
J. Michael Straczynski's Last Dangerous Visions finds a publisher
The book will reportedly come out in 2023
25 new SF/F books to check out this May
Battles for the galaxy, haunted places, and more to add to your TBR pile
Peter V. Brett's The Warded Man is getting a TV adaptation
A potential streaming franchise to stand up alongside The Witcher, Game of Thrones, and more
Dune: The Sisterhood gets a new director
Booklist loved Cosplay: A History!
A brief book update
New ways of war
Adam Roberts' 2010 novel New Model Army holds some interesting lessons about the future of warfare
Karen Traviss’ Wess’Har Wars series is an essential environmental SF saga
The series is an engrossing dive into colonization, environmentalism, and destruction
Anticipations
Hey, we finally have a trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder
Here are the finalists for this year's Ignyte Awards
It's a good list of books to add to your TBR
Here are the winners of 2022 British Science Fiction Association Awards
Kali Wallace wins the 2022 Philip K. Dick Award
P. Djèlí Clark earns 2022 Compton Crook Award for A Master of Djinn
A worthy winner in a solid crop of finalists
The first full trailer for Stranger Things Season 4 teases a coming war
Are we the baddies?
AMC's Moonhaven will debut on June 30th
Coming June 30th
For All Mankind takes us to Mars in debut Season 3 teaser
The show returns on June 10th
Here are the finalists for this year’s Hugo Awards
A good selection of nominees!
Moral ambiguities
How does a good person stray from the path?
The sounds of war
HBO Max to adapt Emily St. John Mandel's new book, Sea of Tranquility
21 new SF/F books to check out this April
A new pile o’ books to add to your to-read list
Apple’s adapting Blake Crouch’s novel Dark Matter
The nine-episode series will star Joel Edgerton
Marking pages and places
Bookmarks as memory capture devices
A new illustrated edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion is coming
Kaiju sugar rush
John Scalzi's latest is a monster-filled blockbuster of a novel
Chilling effect
J.R.R. Tolkien's estate refreshed its website with some stringent guidelines for how to use the author's works
Plan your SF/F TV viewing schedule this spring
Here are the 2022 Lammy Finalists SF/F nominees
Mid-March book list!
6 additional March books to check out
It takes a village
The wild success of Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter holds lessons for building a resilient fan community
HBO Max greenlights Penguin-focused Batman series
A spinoff that expands the world of The Batman
Amazon is adapting God of War with the writers of Children of Men
Another genre series to add to the To Watch pile
Some Westeros updates from George R.R. Martin
The future of Martin's fantasy world is alive and well on HBO
The stuff of science fiction stories
The first teaser for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has touched down
"Jedi can't help what they are"
Here's the first trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi
Here are the finalists for the 2021 Nebula Awards
The winners will be announced on May 22nd during this year's Nebula Conference
Irradiating SF
MIT Press is reissuing Joshua Glenn's The Radium Age series
HBO's DMZ OTW
All four episodes of the limited series drop on HBO Max on March 17th
There's a new Alien film in the works
Coming from Don't Breathe's Fede Alvarez
Will Smith is Legend, Part 2
A sequel to the 2007 post apocalyptic film I Am Legend
Clarkesworld's Readers Choice selections
Fan favorites from 2021
Fireside Magazine is shutting down
The magazine will end its 10 year run this summer
Amazon is shuttering its physical bookstores
All 68 in-person store are set to close down as the company focuses on other efforts
Apple picks up Sam Esmail's Metropolis series
A new take on the classic, foundational film from the creator of Mr. Robot
We all have monsters within us
Morbius drops on April 1st
16 new sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this March
Stories about alternate worlds, fantastical maps, space empires, and quite a bit more to distract you from the world
T.L. Huchu's Library of the Dead introduces us to a grim, magical Edinburgh
A slick urban fantasy mystery
Publishers Weekly loved Cosplay: A History!
I'm extremely pleased to report that my upcoming book Cosplay: A History has
received its second trade review, this time from Publishers Weekly! It's a
glowing one, too:
> "...Liptak’s study is an inspiring one, underscored by the community’s efforts
to spread “magical moment[s]” with organizations such as
Here's the final ballot for this year's Bram Stoker Awards
The winners will be announced in May
Here are the finalists for the LA Times Book Award Ray Bradbury Prize
The winner will be announced in April
Nnedi Okorafor's Noor is a vivid work of Africanfuturism cyberpunk
A science fiction novel that feels eminently true to the nature of the contradictions of the real world
Aidan Moher announces Fight, Magic, Items
Asimov's Science Fiction announces its Reader Award Finalists
The 36th annual awards
Stranger Things 4 arrives in May, and Netflix has renewed the show for one final season
The beginning of the end
Star Trek 4 is in once again in the works
The film is expected to bring back the Kelvin cast, and begin shooting in 2022
Paramount renewed Halo for a second season
The video game adaptation debuts on March 24th
Bloom County is headed to TV
FOX is adapting the classic comic strip as an animated series
Netflix is making a BioShock movie
Another video game adaptation for the streaming service
Nostalgia's limits
The Book of Boba Fett was a nice bit of worldbuilding, but that's about it
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim will hit theaters in April 2024
Another Middle-earth project to watch
Here's the shortlist for the 2022 Compton Crook Awards
The award will be handed out during this year's Balticon in May
Hello, Middle-earth
Our first look at Rings of Power shows off a familiar and very pretty world
Amazon has scooped up Ridley Scott's live-action Blade Runner series
Set 50 years after Blade Runner 2049
Here are the winners of the 2021 r/Fantasy Stabby Awards
Congratulations to the winners and nominees!
Jurassic World: Dominion brings in some old friends to save the world
Coming June 10th
The trailer for The Adam Project teases a throwback blockbuster
The film drops on March 11th
A first look at Amazon's The Rings of Power
The bedrock media rights to Tolkien's works are also up for grabs
Obi-Wan Kenobi: the series will debut on Disney+ on May 25th
On the anniversary of A New Hope's release in 1977
Hulu is resurrecting Futurama
Shut up and take my money!
Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon rounds out its cast
The film is slated to start shooting in April 2022
Imagining green futures
Christopher Brown on climate change, apocalyptic narratives, and eco-fiction
Douglas Trumbull brought science fiction to life
The famed special effects supervisor died on February 7th
A cat joins Buzz Lightyear in the full trailer for Pixar's Lightyear
The film comes out on June 17th
Recap: Detours, part 2
Apple's Shining Girls looks like a creepy, time-traveling thriller
The series debuts on April 29th
Roundup: workspace blockage
What is standing in the way of your process?
J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 reboot gets a stay of execution
It looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer before the series moves forward
Sony's Spider-verse film Madame Web gets a lead
Sony is slowly building out its Spider-verse
Raymond Feist's Riftwar Cycle is getting an adaptation
Another big epic fantasy to add to the adaptation pipeline
Galactic diversions
Paramount is developing a Starfleet Academy series
Star Trek isn't slowing down
Apple's Foundation expands its cast for season 2
Hints of what to expect in the next season
23 new SF/F books to check out this February
New reads about fantastic worlds, disastrous missions, and quite a bit more
Hello, Master Chief
Paramount+'s series debuts on March 24th
Catching up with the Fetts
Recaps for Chapters 3 and 4
Terry Pratchett to get official biography
Due out in September
Disney+ greenlights Percy Jackson series
A do-over for the franchise
Kirkus Reviews liked Cosplay: A History!
The first trade review for Cosplay: A History is in! It comes from Kirkus
Reviews, and it's a good one!
Here are the big quotes: "An entertaining look at a vibrant, “interactive,
interpretive, and immersive” pop-culture community...A wonderfully fun book
showing that the art of having a good time
Apple has greenlit a live-action Godzilla series
The series will be set in Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise
Remembering author David Farland
The author of The Courtship of Princess Leia died earlier this week at the age of 64
And we finally have a title for Amazon's Middle-earth series
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Halo Infinite delivers on a long-standing promise
Exploring the Zeta Halo ring
The Star Trek Universe moves forward
Renewals for Star Trek: Discovery, Strange New Worlds, and Lower Decks along with a schedule for 2022
Here's the first trailer for Marvel's Moon Knight
Coming on March 30th
Property lines
Intellectual property, how does it work?
The transformation of the Tuskens
The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian added depth to the Tusken Raiders, but complications remain
John Scalzi's Kaiju Preservation Society optioned for TV
The book is due out on March 15th
Paramount options Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone
The project was previously at Lucasfilm
Here are the 2022 Philip K. Dick Award Finalists
The best paperback originals of 2021
Two sides of the same coin
Science fiction and fantasy, side by side
Octavia Butler's Kindred is heading to television
The project will hopefully shine more light on the late author's body of work
Studies in Arachnology
Let’s rank the Spider-man films, shall we?
Career changes in a Galaxy Far, Far, Away
Chapter 2: The Tribes of Tatooine
My most anticipated reads of 2022
Make room on your TBR pile
Jonathan Nolan will direct Amazon's Fallout series pilot
The series is expected to enter production later this year.
So, what's going on with NBC's Battlestar Galactica continuation?
So say we all?
The best SF/F books of 2021
Essential reads from a bleak year
The resurrection of Boba Fett
Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land
All the new sci-fi and fantasy books you should check out in January
New year, new piles of books to take over your TBR pile
Here's what I read in 2021
52 books in 52 weeks
My best work in 2021
Thank you for reading what I wrote this year
A Brief History of Star Wars’ Mandalorian Warriors
The Mandalorians have had a long and vivid history within the Star Wars universe, and their popularity will only rise from here
Incoming Adaptations
Three well-known books are getting some big adaptations
Soft power
Science Fiction has often been used as a tool to further geopolitical goals
“I didn’t choose to do this”
Sam Raimi’s Spider-man trilogy does something interesting that the modern MCU doesn’t really do: lean into the horrific origins Marvel’s characters
Weekend reading
Introducing Julian Yap and Fran Wilde’s new weekly speculative fiction magazine, Sunday Morning Transport
Pushing against nostalgia
Paul Tremblay on his next horror novel, The Pallbearer's Club
"Maybe this isn't the story we think it is."
Updates from The Matrix Resurrections, Shang-Chi 2, Marvel's Daredevil, The Penguin series, and Rogue Squadron
Transfer Orbit's 2021 Gift Guide
A bunch of ideas for things to buy your friends
Fandom demarkation lines
Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse gets a trailer, and Saga appears in a ... Taco Bell commercial.
One foot in front of the other
What it's like to march in the Macy's Day Parade as a stormtrooper
Updates from a Galaxy Far, Far Away
All the sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this December
Stories of revolution, space pirates, cyber mages, and more to read this holiday season
14 SF/F books to check out this December
Stories about distant civilizations, magical cyberpunk, and the history of libraries.
Here’s the cover for Cosplay: A History!
Coming June 28th, 2022!
History and prophesy
Dreams are messages from the deep
Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune succeeds because it understands the grounded nature of Frank Herbert's novel
Destroying Empires
Brian Staveley on his latest epic fantasy, The Empire's Ruin, taking risks, and throwing away an entire book to write a better one
Review: Brian Staveley’s The Empire’s Ruin
Brian Staveley's The Empire's Ruin
War in the 'belt
The art of future war
The evolution of military science fiction
Marvel takes the spotlight at Disney+ Day
Bringing it all home
New tools for storytellers
Unity acquired Weta's SFX division, potentially putting the studio's tools in the hands of more creatives
Fragmented
A soldier contends with the toll of war on a distant planet
Snag on the tarmac
Updates on Lucasfilm's Rogue Squadron, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a new Philip K. Dick adaptation, and more.
Sony's Spider-Web
Walkabout
Voice in the machine
As text-to-speech technology improves, we shouldn't forget that narration isn't just reading a book: it's a performance
Imagining different histories
P. Djèlí Clark on history, fantasy, and how racism creates monsters
Plan your fall SF/F TV viewing schedule this fall
So much TV, so little time.
Boba Fett is coming for you
Trailers for The Book of Boba Fett, The Witcher, and The Wheel of Time, and more news to start off the week.
Here are all the new SF/F books you should check out this November!
Stories about fallen empires, climate change, and more to check out this month.
27 new SF/F books to check out this November
The October books, in chronological order.
Drifting towards the finale
Boundary lines
Is that *really* science fiction?
Space is big this week
Returning to Last Dangerous Visions
Updates about Star Wars TV, Apple's Mythic Quest, Paizo's unionization drive, and the Wheel of Time
Empire vs. faith
Meet my book, Cosplay: A History
My book about the history of cosplay is finally available to order online!
Stories about the end of the world
Some Transfer Orbit updates
Doubling down with this newsletter
Foundation wants you to know that Gaal Dornick is Very Smart
Into the black
William Shatner's launch into space is fitting, and he brought along a message that we could all stand to listen to.
Our vanishing world
Looking at the past and future of conservation with Michelle Nijhuis and Jeff VanderMeer
The first Seldon Crisis
Transmission of Habit
How do groups and organizations foster healthy futures?
Ghosts in the timeline
Here are all the new SF/F (and other) books coming this October!
New stories about fantasy worlds, distant solar systems, and stories about the Marvel Universe.
20 SF/F (and other) books to check out this October
Here's the October 2021 book list, in chronological order.
Growing pains
This weekend, the biggest union behind the live entertainment industry is about to vote whether or not to go on strike. They have good reason to: the demand for original content has pushed Hollywood's workers to the limit.
Babylon 5: the reboot
Well, this is unexpected.
Asimov's empire
How Foundation became the story that powered space opera
Netflix acquires Roald Dahl
A decade of The Expanse
Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck look back on their epic space opera series, writing for television, and what they hope its impact will be a decade from now
Paperpocalypse
Booksellers and publishers are warning that if you want that big new book this holiday season, you should probably get your orders in early.
Reviving our last, best hope for peace
J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 is a phenomenal space opera series. A reboot is long-overdue.
Hot zone cosplay
How are conventions adapting to the world of COVID-19? Pretty well, it seems.
Squandered legacy
The rise and fall of ANOVOS
Here Are the Winners of the 2021 Dragon Awards
Atlanta’s Dragon Con took place over the long Labor Day weekend, and as part of the festivities, the convention handed out its annual Dragon Awards, which honor the past year’s best books, comics, and games in a variety of categories.
The awards are fairly new: they were introduced
What does the next great space opera series look like?
Serialization has brought plenty of excellent shows to television. But what would a great, episodic space opera series look like today?
Here are all the new SF/F (and other) books coming this September!
This month brings a ton of books about AI, kingdoms in strife, and plenty of other adventures to dive into
26 SF/F (and other) books to check out this September
Here's the September 2021 book list, in chronological order.
Return of the Rocketeer
Right time, right book
Reading and criticism shouldn't be tied to a book's publicity calendar
POC horror anthology Death in the Mouth has funded on Kickstarter
A new horror anthology is set to feature BIPOC and ethnically marginalized writers from all over the world: Death in the Mouth. The project is currently funding on Kickstarter, and just surpassed its funding goal of $35,000.
The anthology will be edited by cartoonist Sloane Leong (editor of Cautionary
Ignition failure
Storytelling platform Curious Fictions is shutting down. It filled a unique need for writers: hosting their short fiction backlist.
Building for stories
Tanya Breshears on founding, running, and closing down Curious Fictions
Cixin Liu’s short stories are being adapted as graphic novels
Ever since Three-Body Problem hit stores back in 2008, Cixin Liu has become one of the biggest names in science fiction, with his stories getting adapted for big-budget films and TV shows. Now, his stories are being adapted for a new medium: comics.
SciFiNow has a preview of three new
Faithful Adaptations
Apple's Foundation is on its way, and every time I write about it, I see lots of handwringing over how it'll turn out. What makes a good adaptation?
Wartime lessons
The fall of Afghanistan brings to an end two decades of warfare. It also brings a key lesson for writers: acknowledge complexity.
Fiction is powerful
This week’s revelation that anti-vaccine activists have been citing a plot point from 2007’s I Am Legend serves as a good reminder of fiction’s ability to shape our understanding of reality.
Here Are the 2021 Dragon Award Finalists
Dragon Con, the massive multimedia convention held annually in Atlanta, Georgia, has announced this year’s slate of finalists for its annual Dragon Awards.
The awards are a fan-driven affair: anyone can sign up to nominate and participate, regardless of whether or not you’re attending the convention.
The awards
Inaudible
An audiobook narrator spent two months creating a new audio edition of Dune, only to discover that the entire project was a scam
Booking a cruise to a galaxy far, far away
Starting in 2022, you'll be able to book a voyage on Disney's Galactic Starcruiser, an immersive Star Wars experience... for a hefty price.
Wheel of Time’s Producer Wants to Adapt Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar Universe Next
Another big fantasy world might be coming to television. Deadline reportsthat Ted Fields and his production company Radar Pictures (currently working on Amazon’s The Wheel of Time) as acquired the rights to Mercedes Lackey’s sprawling Valdemar series, with the eye towards adapting it for the small screen.
According
Further reading
The Middle-earth-set series drops on Amazon Prime Video on September 2nd, 2022
Here's the August 2021 sci-fi and fantasy book list!
A roundup of all of the best-looking science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels hitting shelves this month.
Looking back on the Space Age
The near future of crewed spaceflight brings a lot of promise with it, but it's worth looking back on the Apollo missions to understand where we've come from
The role of the military's science fiction
A recent hot take suggested that the military's use of fiction ignores the genre's inherent warnings about technology. The opposite is true.
Octavia Butler's finally getting her due
Dune is a war epic
Frank Herbert's Dune has been adapted a handful of times, but I think this new adaptation captures a key part of the story that the others haven't: it's a story about war.
Netflix isn't just a streaming TV outlet
Anatomy of an ARC
ARCs have long been a staple of publishing, but their role in a book’s publicity lifecycle is evolving.
The billionaires of LEO
Neill Blomkamp's 2013 film Elysium is an underrated film that continues to grow in relevance
Tech CEOs should stop using sci-fi as a blueprint for humanity’s future in space
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have repeatedly highlighted how science fiction has influenced their worldviews
Can you hear me now?
Two novels, Arkady Martine's A Desolation Called Peace and Timothy Zahn's Conqueror's Pride deal with first contact in some interesting ways
Visiting Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti is one of our nearest celestial neighbors, so it shouldn't be a huge surprise that it's a frequent destination for authors.
Snyder's Star Wars
Andy Serkis is recording The Lord of the Rings audiobooks
A year ago, Andy Serkis set up a fundraising effort to help a pair of UK charities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which he read the entirety of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit in a straight, 12-hour shot. Soon thereafter, HarperCollins brought him on to
Science Fiction's Maelstrom
After Isabel Fall published a story through Clarkesworld, Science Fiction Twitter came down on her quickly.
Here's the July 2021 sci-fi and fantasy book list!
A roundup of all the science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels coming out in July 2021 to add to Mt. Toberead.
It looks like Apple's Foundation series will come at the perfect time
Apple released a new trailer for its upcoming adaptation of Foundation, and it looks as though it'll fit with a larger genre trend: critically examining the cost of imperialism and colonization
Fandom superiority complex
Every year, we get reminders about how fandom at its worst can be exclusionary and forbidden to newcomers. That's something that should change.
Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire gets series order at AMC
After years of development, a television adaptation of Anne Rice’s vampire novel Interview with the Vampire is a go. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will debut sometime in 2022 on AMC and AMC+, a year after the network first showed an interest in it.
Perry Mason co-creator
Spielberg's Amblin heads to Netflix
The prescient Octavia Butler
Carrie Vaughn's immersive worlds
Carrie Vaughn on tactile escapism, immersive entertainment, and her latest book Questland
Contemplating canons
The idea of a science fiction canon is important to the larger fan community — but it's a canon that isn't always interrogated or reexamined
The rekindling of Fireside Magazine
After publishing a racist audio version of one of its essays in November 2020, Fireside Magazine is working to regain its status as one of science fiction's leading anti-racist voices
The taxonomy of dressing up for fun
There's an invisible line between cosplayers and reenactors, but while the uniforms are different, there's a lot that's the same under the hood
Another Middle-earth-set film is on its way
The Tolkien-verse gets even bigger.
"Space belongs to you": Becky Chambers on optimistic sci-fi and ending her Wayfarers series
Becky Chambers won the inaugural Hugo Award for Best Series in 2019, and with her latest novel, The Galaxy and the Ground Within now out, she talks about building "wonderful and insignificant" stories about space.
Storytelling is an unrealized work tool
Storytelling is a powerful tool to evoke and impart emotions, and morality through fiction. But it's also a tool that organizations can and should utilize to effectively communicate their efforts.
Imagining the breakdown
Here's the June 2021 sci-fi/fantasy book list!
A roundup of all the science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels coming out in June 2021 that you should add to your bookshelves.
Amazon's roar
Amazon announced that it's acquiring film studio MGM. The move is part of a larger trend of media consolidation, and it could have some worrisome impacts on MGM's creative legacy.
Transfer Orbit Slack Channel
Reopening the Stargate
Earlier this week, word broke that Amazon was in discussions to purchase MGM. If that goes through, it could provide a return path for the Stargate franchise.
Warner Brothers Has Hired Bad Boys for Life Directors to Helm Batgirl
Warner Bros. is taking another stab at a Batgirl adaptation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s hired directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life) to direct the film, based on a script from Birds of Prey and The Flashscreenwriter Christina Hodson.
The character has been
AT&T is spinning off WarnerMedia
The Return of the Cons
In this week's Transfer Orbit roundup, we take a look at what the return of conventions and what it means for cosplayers.
Returning to a lost galaxy
How Kenneth C. Flint's long-lost and unpublished Star Wars novel was unearthed and lit up the fan community
May the 4th is all the friends we made along the way
May the 4th has become the defacto holiday for all things Star Wars, and I've been thinking about what that means, both as a cynical day of free marketing for Disney, but also a celebration of the community of fans out there.
Poppy War author R.F. Kuang announces new novel, Babel
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
30 years ago, Timothy Zahn resurrected Star Wars
When Timothy Zahn published Heir to the Empire in 1991, the Star Wars franchise was far from the public's awareness. The Thrawn trilogy helped it roar back.
Building a Galaxy: Endings and Beginnings
While the Star Wars franchise is best known for its films, it's also well-known for its sprawling novel series, the Star Wars Expanded Universe. While it's no longer canon, it kept Star Wars going for decades, and still retains a loyal following.
Building a Galaxy: Unexplored Territory
While the Star Wars franchise is best known for its films, it's also well-known for its sprawling novel series, the Star Wars Expanded Universe. While it's no longer canon, it kept Star Wars going for decades, and still retains a loyal following.
Building a Galaxy: New Publisher, New Directions
While the Star Wars franchise is best known for its films, it's also well-known for its sprawling novel series, the Star Wars Expanded Universe. While it's no longer canon, it kept Star Wars going for decades, and still retains a loyal following.
Building a Galaxy: Expanding the Universe
While the Star Wars franchise is best known for its films, it's also well-known for its sprawling novel series, the Star Wars Expanded Universe. While it's no longer canon, it kept Star Wars going for decades, and still retains a loyal following.
Building a Galaxy: Heir to the Trilogy
While the Star Wars franchise is best known for its films, it's also well-known for its sprawling novel series, the Star Wars Expanded Universe. While it's no longer canon, it kept Star Wars going for decades, and still retains a loyal following.
Building a Galaxy: Origin Stories
While the Star Wars franchise is best known for its films, it's also well-known for its sprawling novel series, the Star Wars Expanded Universe. While it's no longer canon, it kept Star Wars going for decades, and still retains a loyal following.
Here's the May 2021 science fiction and fantasy book list!
A roundup of all the science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels coming out in May 2021 that you should add to your bookshelves.
SFWA announces #DisneyMustPay task force
Transfer Orbit's roundup for the week of April 26th: Developments in the #DisneyMustPay campaign.
The cost of superheroics
Natalie Zina Walschot's novel Hench is an exhilarating, funny, and pointed look at the cost of superheroes.
Martha Wells on writing an anxious, relatable killbot
Martha Wells on her blockbuster series Murderbot: finding common ground with anxiety-driven killer robots, television, and second chances.
Wild Thing's Laura Krantz about exploring the unknown
I speak with Wild Thing's Laura Krantz about UFO and Bigfoot culture, and what those stories have to tell us about the world
Does science fiction have a moral imperative to address climate change?
This post was originally published in September 2019 for the B&N Sci-Fi and
Fantasy Blog
[https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/does-science-fiction-have-a-moral-imperative-to-address-climate-change/]
.
Today, in cities across the globe, millions of people are taking part in the
Global Climate Strike [https://globalclimatestrike.net/], an international
movement to bring awareness to
Solving the climate crisis
Three novels take on a changing climate
Looking back on the journey
Game of Thrones debuted a decade ago this month, and it arrived at a pivotal point in television history. Now that it's over, it's worth revisiting with fresh eyes.
The hateful sci-fi novel that brought white supremacists together
The Turner Diaries inspired generations of white supremacists, and its narrative filled with racist tropes continues to have an impact.
Recapping the Hugo Awards noms
Happy Saturday!
This week got a bit away from me: I'm still dealing with some back problems that
are making it hard to sit, and I spent
[https://twitter.com/AndrewLiptak/status/1383108390373711875] much of
Friday minding a tiny monster
[https://twitter.com/AndrewLiptak/status/1383108390373711875] as we visited her
Amazon launches serialized fiction platform, Kindle Vella
Earlier this week, Amazon announced an intriguing new product: Kindle Vella. It'll be a self-publishing platform that allows authors in its Kindle Direct Publishing program to write and sell serialized stories, and which lets readers read a couple of the installments for free, and pay for additional installments with a
Read AAPI / Asian SF/F Authors
Hello!
This'll be a bit of a short newsletter this week. I did something to my back,
and it's been painful to sit for long periods of time. I've been spending this
week trying to avoid sitting or lifting things, which seems to be helping.
Two programming notes:
* With the
Subterranean worlds
HBO Max released Godzilla vs. Kong last week, and I've been watching it in chunks with Bram over the last couple of days. I've been enjoying it: my expectations are firmly in the "two giant monsters duking it out on an aircrafter carrier" is a lot of fun, rather than
Serial Box's Transformation
Happy Friday: I hope that you've had a good week. For a brief moment, it was
spring here in Vermont, but outside my window, the landscape has been covered in
a thin layer of snow. I'm ready for winter to be over, but at least it's pretty,
and it's helpful
20 science fiction and fantasy books to check out this April
Happy April! It's finally spring, although Mother Nature decided to play a cruel
April Fool's joke on us here in Vermont: I'm watching snow fall past my window
right now.
With the beginning of a new month, it's time to look forward a bit to see what
books are coming
Amazon Casts Midsommar’s Jack Reynor for Adaptation of William Gibson’s The Peripheral
Amazon has found a new lead for its upcoming adaptation of William Gibson’s 2014 science fiction novel The Peripheral: Jack Reynor, who recently starred in Midsommar (pictured above).
The book is set in two time periods: a near future world, and another point in time seventy years after an
Transfer Orbit has moved!
Good morning!
This is your notification that as of this week, Transfer Orbit has moved to a
new home on Ghost.
A couple of housekeeping notes:
* I'm mirroring this email on both platforms, so you should receive one from
each platform: if you only get the one from Substack, please
Connecting up cinematic universes
Happy Saturday, and apologies for the delay: this week has been a busy one.
First, some personal news:
We got a kitten! Meet Cinnamon, which breaks our established naming convention,
but this little guy is essentially Bram's, so he got to name it. I've been
calling him Sir Cinnamon, but
Arizona State University’s Free Solarpunk Anthology is All About Optimistic Futures
Featuring stories from Paolo Bacigalupi, S.B. Divya, Deji Bryce Olukotun, and Andrew Dana Hudson
Hulu is adapting Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy
Hulu’s been the home to the TV adaptation of author Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale since 2017, and it looks like it’ll be delving into another of the author’s works: her dystopian Madaadam trilogy. According to Deadline, the streaming service has tapped Michael Lesslie to
Setting course for a new orbit
Nebulas and Substack problems
This week: the 2020 Nebula Awards, trouble with Substack, and more.
Do I stay or do I go now?
The creeping dread of Battlestar Galactica's miniseries
Happy Friday!
This week has been pretty quiet, SF/F-wise: it seems like the news about the
royal family, the anniversary of COVID-19, and the passage of the latest
stimulus bill has sucked most of the oxygen out of the room. Instead, I’ve got
some thoughts on a thing
Telling War Stories
Every day should be World Book Day
Yesterday was the first of two annual “World Book Days” — this one celebrated in
the United Kingdom and Ireland, and which is funded by local publishers as a way
to encourage reading and literacy. The bigger World Book Day will take place
next month, on April 23rd (formally known as
Syfy's Defiance was an ambitious cross-platform experiment that failed
Long after the TV series ended, its companion game is being shut down
15 science fiction and fantasy books to check out this March
Image: Andrew LiptakWelcome to March.
There are two belated entries that I missed for the February list
[https://andrewliptak.substack.com/p/february-2021-science-fiction-fantasy-new-books]
that I meant to include (I had them marked down as March books, but it turns out
I put them in the wrong month): the first is
All the news that's fit to link
This has been a pretty quiet week for me: I took a couple of days to get away
from the internet and out of the house with my son, so this is going to be a bit
of a shorter newsletter than usual. We’ve spent the last couple of
The Space Between Worlds is a clever read about power and parallel worlds
Micaiah Johnson’s debut is all about identity and the struggle for power
Pokémon GO turned me into a birder
Games can lead to obsession and to action
Transfer Orbit Roundup: Barfight
I hope that you’re safe where you are, given the snowstorm that’s caused
problems for Texas. I’ve horrified at the images that I’ve seen from the storm,
and have been reflecting on my relationship with winter here in Vermont, where
I’m a homeowner.
I have
Child soldiers
Narratives of modernization
A history of Chinese science fiction
Image: Andrew LiptakIn 2015, author Ken Liu stepped up to the podium at Sasquan,
the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, to accept the Hugo Award for Best
Novel on behalf of Liu Cixin, author of The Three-Body Problem. It was a
historic moment: Liu
Carano, Whedon, and some new fantasy franchises
Happy Friday — I hope that you’ve made it through this busy week. Presently,
it’s -4° here in Vermont, which has me bundled up in my workplace with an entire
pot of hot tea.
This’ll be the first of two posts that will arrive in your inbox today.
Actions have consequences
Fuck around and find out
How I read
All Expanse all the time
I made a cool finding earlier this week: while lamenting with some friends about
the demise [https://andrewliptak.substack.com/p/reading-list-november-22nd] of
the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, my former editor, Joel Cunningham,
said to double-check the rights — he couldn’t remember where ownership lies for
the pieces that
Buck Rogers could be the next big sci-fi franchise
Waking the Leviathan
The story of how James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse went from game concept to book series to blockbuster TV show
17 science fiction and fantasy books to check out this February
January was a fun month, wasn’t it? With all of that behind us, it’s time to
look ahead at the next month, which means that there’s a whole bunch of new
titles hitting stores.
There is a book that I meant to include in the January book
Toxic fans, streaming IP, and the Hugo Awards
Hello!
We’re a month into a new year, and it doesn’t quite feel as bleak, does it? It’s
a nice feeling.
I’m making a couple of programming changes with what I’ve been calling the
“roundup” newsletter public issues, which will hopefully be more useful to
Adapting the department
Law & Order: SVU, The Rookie, and others in the post-George Floyd era
Last year, I decided to binge watch my favorite fantasy TV series: Law & Order:
SVU. All 21 seasons of it. I started with Season 13, right when the series
experienced a bit of a reset when co-star Christopher
A Dragonlance update
Fan fiction is the lifeblood of fandom
Fan fiction's strength isn't based on its literary merits, but on the fans that it brings together
When dystopian fiction comes to life
What science fiction tells us about our current moment in 2021
Orwell's America
13 science fiction and fantasy books to pick up this January
2021 — a new year. Hopefully, you had a good weekend to test out these strange
four numbers, and hopefully, they’ll be a little less chaotic than 2020 was. One
thing’s for sure: there’ll always be books.
In case you missed it, here’s my recent list of
What I Read in 2020
Last 2020 retrospective that I’ve got for you this week. Happy new year!
Over the last couple of years, I’ve kept a running thread on Twitter of the
books I read, part of my effort to keep myself on track with a reading goal of
roughly a book
My most anticipated SF/F reads for 2021
The year ahead in new worlds and adventures
A new year brings a whole slate of new books to covet.
For a couple of months now, I’ve started getting new books in the mail: it’s
always exciting to see what’s coming up, and it’s gotten me
2020: the year in science fiction
The big events, stories, and people that shaped the year
We’ve reached the end of another year. 2020 always held something of a science
fictional promise — as any round-numbered year seems to — and the last 12 months
outdid themselves.
It’s been a challenging year for everyone, and I
Thank you for reading in 2020
This is the final roundup edition of 2020, although I’ll be in your inbox a
couple of more time this week as I look back on the year.
I started 2020 with just over 450 subscribers, and we’re ending with nearly a
thousand new additions — you all are
My Best Work in 2020
Thank you for reading me this year
We’re coming up on the end of 2020, and I’ve been thinking about the work that
I’ve done. It’s been a busy year: most of my writing has been for Tor.com as a
news writer, but it’s
Jeremy Bulloch's Boba Fett inspired legions of fans
The future of the Star Wars cinematic (telematic?) universe
The next couple of years for a Galaxy Far, Far Away
I’ve been writing a lot about Star Wars recently (apologies if that’s not your
jam — there’s just been a lot about it lately), and while Transfer Orbit isn’t
*just* about the franchise, I think it’
The objects that tell us stories
Hello!
Happy Thursday: I hope that you’re having a good week. This week has been a busy
one on this end: our daycare is closed, so we’re dealing not only with a
school-aged kid doing school work, but a tiny, feral monster that would
otherwise be rehomed for
Disney, royalties and copyright law
A deep dive into #DisneyMustPay
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on a story about a major
campaign that SFWA put out: #DisneyMustPay. Back in November, SFWA held a press
conference that revealed that Alan Dean Foster found that some of his royalties
had dried up
2020 Transfer Orbit Holiday Gift Guide
It’s mid-December, and I’ve had gifts on my mind the last couple of weeks, and
I’ve always had fun putting these sorts of lists together. If you’re looking for
some ideas of things to get for your friends or family (or yourself!), I’ve
rounded up
Michael A. Stackpole's Rogue Squadron novels unlocked Star Wars' vast potential
Showing a bigger world beyond people named Luke, Leia, and Han
Cyberpunk's power came from global dystopian politics
It might look like the 1980s, but we're still living in it
What do book events look like in 2021 and beyond?
Book programming in a post-COVID world
Warner Brothers' 2021 release schedule is a glimpse at the future of cinema
How I made Bram's Mandalorian armor
14 science fiction and fantasy books to check out this December
It’s December. I’m not quite sure how that happened. The year has stretched on
forever and is gone in a blink. (I feel like I say that every time though, so
I’m not sure it’s really a surprise.) But: we made it! Onto 2021.
Reaching the
The Expanded Universe comes for The Mandalorian
But is The Mandalorian simply becoming a launchpad for more projects?
Hello!
I meant to get this issue out the day after Thanksgiving — apologies for the
delay. The holiday itself was good. We made a small mountain of food and more
turkey than we needed, but our dog, Tiki, was
Audible backtracks after outrage over return policy
The Expanse will end with its sixth season
"It's better to go down swinging than rolling over."
Amazon Studios has announced
[https://twitter.com/ExpanseOnPrime/status/1331281426520662017?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet]
that it’s renewed its science fiction series for a sixth — and final — season,
bringing to a close the adaptation of James S.
At Last, Dangerous Visions
Harlan Ellison's long-unfinished science fiction anthology might finally see the light of day
Long reads: private space and AI warfare
Greetings!
It’s been… quite the week, hasn’t it? I was incredibly relieved when various
networks began to call the Presidential race on Saturday: a weight of
uncertainty has been lifted.
Obviously, there’s a lot that needs to happen between now and then: states need
to certify their
![The [AI]nformation battlespace](/content/images/size/w720/2021/03/image-2-1.png)
The [AI]nformation battlespace
Artificial intelligence is coming to the battlefield: how will we prepare?
Under the cover of darkness, a team of soldiers from the United States Special
Operations Command quietly makes their way into an unnamed East African city.
They’re clad in specialized clothing and makeup that hampers facial recognition
software
17 sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this November
This week is going to be… a week, isn’t it? I cast my ballot for Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris a couple of months ago, and I’m dreading the coming controversy
that’s sure to come this week as the votes are tabulated.
On top of that, it’
Three horror novels to keep you up at night in 2020
Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic, Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians, and Paul Tremblay's Survivor Song
"Qanon for nerds": Fandom isn't immune to online radicalization
Conspiracy theories and online fandom
Where the monsters come out
There’s a road near where I grew up where a monster is said to live. Drive a
half mile up the Devil’s Washbowl Road, and it narrows into a single track that
isn’t maintained come winter. As you drive into the forest, the trees tower over
you,
Netflix is Developing an Assassins Creed Series
Netflix is working to adapt another major video game series: Assassins Creed. It’s signed an agreement with Ubisoft to develop a major TV franchise based on the games, starting with a live-action show.
According to Ubisoft, the “deal includes multiple different series, the first of which will be a
"I wanted to paint ash": Simon Stålenhag on his latest art book, The Labyrinth
The cold has come for Vermont. I woke up this week to darkening skies and a thin
layer of wet snow clinging to the leaves, and it’s remained overcast and damp,
which is the perfect environment for the week of Halloween, and for a project
that I’ve been
P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout reimagines Lovecraftian horror
Reimagining Lovecraft, Robin Hobb on The Farseer Trilogy, and more
Hello!
I hope that you’ve been faring well in the last couple of weeks. One of the
things that I’ve found myself doing the last couple of months is work around the
house, activities that keep me focused
Dragonlance changed how we read fantasy
The franchise's original creators have sued Wizards of the Coast for breach of contract over a new book trilogy
Walk in the Woods
Transfer Orbit Fiction
My phone pings, rousing me out of my light sleep. I sigh and pick myself up from
where I was lying in the driver’s seat of my battered pickup truck. The sun
hasn’t appeared over the eastern mountains just yet, but the overcast sky has
Failed State's Christopher Brown on building utopias out of dystopias
Happy Friday! (or whatever day it is you’re reading this on.)
One of my favorite discoveries recently has been author Christopher Brown,
author of Tropic of Kansas, Rule of Capture, and Failed State, as well as a
whole host of short stories. He’s popped up in some interesting
Fifty years of Larry Niven's Ringworld
The legacy of a megastructure
What's In My Bag: 2020 Edition
Mobile office for when I need to get out of the house\
Last June, I took it upon myself to write up a post
[https://andrewliptak.substack.com/p/reading-list-what-s-in-your-bag-reviews]
about what I carry with me when I go out and about. I did another one for the
newsletter GetRevue
Amazon Has Cast Its First Lead For Its Adaptation of William Gibson’s The Peripheral
Amazon’s adaptation of William Gibson’s 2014 novel The Peripheral now has its lead actress. Variety reports that Chloë Grace Moretz will play Flynne Fisher, a woman who’s trying to care for her family—her ailing mother and her brother Burton, who’s dealing with injuries from serving
Dune is migrating to 2021
Another COVID casualty
Well, this isn’t a huge surprise: Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have
apparently bumped the release date of their adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune
from December 18th 2020 to October 1st, 2021, according to Variety
[https://variety.com/2020/film/box-office/dune-release-date-delayed-2021-1234767105/]
.
It’s the
New season, new mission, new name
Introducing Transfer Orbit
Hello!
We’re in the midst of fall here in Vermont — the reds, yellows, and oranges are
particularly vivid on the trees and the forest floors. It’s a time of
transition, something that’s been on my mind as we barrel into October.
The state of
24 science fiction and fantasy books to check out this October
How is it October already?
I think we’ve established that time is working in strange ways this year, and if
this week is any indication, it’s going to be an awful slog over the next 33
days. Go vote!
If there’s any bright spot, it’s that
Three-Body Geopolitics
Liu Cixin runs afoul of the GOP
Yesterday, five US senators, Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rick Scott (R-FL), Kevin
Cramer (R-ND), Thom Tillis (NC), and Martha McSally (R-TX) sent a letter
[https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/services/files/D8359E17-4931-41B8-9EE4-0DC874904A23]
to Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos over a recent project that
Cover Art
How I photograph books and covers
I’ve had a couple of people ask over the years about what I do for book
photographs, and I figured it would be a good excuse to talk a bit about my
approach to using images in reviews.
When it comes to reviewing
Fans lead the way
A podcast, a streaming service, and a look at the making of a classic film
I hope that you’ve had a good week. I’ve spent the last couple of days playing
with a power washer — my house is now free of a decent layer of grime and dust.
Read Trans / Nonbinary Authors
By Lee Mandelo
Earlier this year, J.K. Rowling blew up headlines with a series of transphobic
tweets and a followup essay that outlined her views when it came to trans
people. It’s caused considerable angst within the trans community and its
allies, and has both galvanized trans activists
Announcing New Worlds: The Story of Frank Herbert's Dune
Warner Bros. has released the first trailer
[https://www.tor.com/2020/09/09/dune-movie-denis-villeneuve-frank-herbert-trailer-watch/]
for its upcoming adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. The trailer looks really
fantastic: a faithful adaptation that really takes the source material
seriously. The original novel is one of my favorites, and I’ve
Lovecraft Country: making the best of the horror icon
Back in 2016, I read two similar novels that tackled race in America: one was Ben H. Winters’ Underground Airlines, a novel that imagined what the US would have looked like if the Civil War came to a stalemate and was never resolved, and Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country, about
Online bookselling in the time of COVID
Since 1994, if you wanted to buy a book online, there’s a good chance that you’d
do so from one place: Amazon.com. Jeff Bezos’ company started out as an online
bookstore, but in the years since its founding, it’s expanded far beyond the
bookshelf to everything
Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem is coming to Netflix
From the creators of Game of Thrones
A bit of cool news came through this morning: Netflix is adapting
[https://twitter.com/NXOnNetflix/status/1300795547536719875] Liu Cixin’s epic
science fiction trilogy The Remembrance of Earth’s Past — The Three-Body
Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End, with a
22 science fiction and fantasy books to check out this September
Hello!
It’s hard to believe that it’s September already. Time flies when you’re… stuck
at home and time has no meaning, I guess?
I’ve been in a bit of a reading rut in recent weeks, but one book that I’ve been
enjoying is The Human
The Technological Landscape
A walk through the recent past
A month or so ago, my family and I took advantage of the warmer weather and went
on a hike through Barre’s Millstone Trail [http://www.millstonetrails.org/]
system, a nexus of recreation paths across second-growth forest that covers up
the remains of
The streaming wars comes for the bookshelf
Hello!
I’ve been realizing that this newsletter is a bit scattershot when it comes to
topic, and I like the ability to bundle together a random assortment of ideas.
This week, I’ve got some thoughts about the technology side of reading: some
recent news about audiobooks from two
Applied Pandemic Fiction
The summer is coming to a quick close. I’ve already begun seeing red and yellow
leaves falling to the floor while out on walks, and the peak summer temperatures
up here thankfully seem to have passed. COVID-19 is still a thing, and we’re
coming to terms with what
One Year
It’s been just over a year since I was summoned into a video chat and told that
I no longer had a job. It’s a weird sort of anniversary, one that marks a door
slamming shut in my face, but there’s also been a bunch of other
NBC’s Peacock is Adapting Fonda Lee’s Jade City
Fonda Lee’s 2017 novel Jade City is headed to NBC’s new streaming service Peacock. According to Deadline, NBC is developing the novel as a television series.
The novel is the first installment of Lee’s The Green Bone Saga—which also includes this year’s Jade War and
Writing the Future of War
This past week has been a busy one. Not just because of last week’s Hugo Awards
ceremony — huge thanks to those who followed along with my live-tweeting of the
ceremony, and for finding your way here — but I’ve also been doing some
decidedly non-SF/F work, in the
Mushroom Clouds on the Future Horizon
Science fiction was born in the fires of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Last night's Hugo Awards ceremony was a mess
This year’s Hugo Awards have been announced
[https://www.tor.com/2020/07/31/announcing-the-2020-hugo-award-winners/]: Arkady
Martine won for Best Novel for her debut, A Memory Called Empire, a space opera
about colonization and freedom as a solitary ambassador from a distant space
habitat tries to keep her home
20 Sci-fi and fantasy books to check out in August
Tonight at the virtual CoNZealand is this year’s Hugo Awards presentation. It’ll
begin streaming online at 7PM Eastern time [https://watch.thefantasy.netw/], and
I’m eager to see what wins the top honor this year. The last couple of years
have brought about some excellent works, and
War in Space
This past weekend, Apple unveiled a teaser trailer for the second season of its
upcoming series, For All Mankind, showing off an alternate future of war on the
Moon, and it’s pretty scary.
I’m a big fan of this show
[https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/1/20941718/
Three Novels About Unbalanced Worlds
Robert Jackson Bennett's Shorefall, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, and Mary Robinette Kowal's The Relentless Moon show off worlds that are full of imbalance
Amazon greenlights adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan’s Paper Girls
Amazon Studios has announced that it’s ordered a series based on Brian K. Vaughan’s graphic novel Paper Girls, about a group of friends who accidentally stumble into the middle of an invasion by time travelers.
The comic series is written by Vaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang, and
Endless Universes and Genre Soundscapes
Hello!
It’s been a fun couple of days. If you’re on Twitter and have Verified status,
you probably found that you couldn’t post the other day for a while. Twitter
experienced a major security breach
[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jgxd3d/twitter-insider-access-panel-account-hacks-biden-uber-bezos]
, and it seems
Interview with Mary Robinette Kowal
A couple of years ago, Mary Robinette Kowal published a pair of books that
utterly blew me away
[https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/22/17698510/the-lady-astronaut-calculating-stars-fated-sky-mary-robinette-kowal-science-fiction-book-review]
: the first two installments of her Lady Astronaut series: The Calculating Stars
[https://bookshop.org/a/6134/9780765378385] and The Fated Sky
[https:
Ernie Cline's Armada Fucking Sucks
Some interesting news just dropped: Ernie Cline is finally publishing his sequel
[https://www.tor.com/2020/07/08/ernest-clines-ready-player-two-will-hit-bookstores-in-november/]
to his blockbuster book Ready Player One
[https://bookshop.org/a/6134/9780307887443]. Ready Player Two (ugh) is set to
hit stores on November 24th, and needless to say, I
Andy Serkis will record a new audiobook edition of The Hobbit
In May, Gollum actor Andy Serkis powered through a 12-hour reading marathon (a Hobbitathon) of the entirety of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Now, he’ll go back behind the microphone to do it again, for a new edition of the fantasy novel’s audiobook.
This new edition
Expanding the Crichtonverse
In November 2019, a familiar name appeared in bookstores: Michael Crichton.
Crichton had died at the age of 66 in 2008 after a brief battle against
lymphoma, but there his name was emblazoned in red on the cover of a new novel
called The Andromeda Evolution [https://bookshop.org/a/
23 SF/F books to check out this July
How is it July already? The year moving right along despite everything, and that
means that we’ve got a new batch of books hitting bookstores in the next month.
This coming month brings a whole bunch of interesting titles: a bunch of
post-apocalyptic adventures, expeditions into the depths of
Some updates
Hi — I have a couple of brief updates on upcoming newsletter stuff, and the
state of the genre fan world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you’re tied into the genre fan scene at all in the last week, my condolences.
It’s been a bit of a bloodbath, as a number of
Nostalgic Adventures and Racism as Cosmic Horror
Hello!
I feel like I’ve been in a bit of a lull the last week. I’ve had plenty to do,
and plenty to read (and I have been busy), but it feels like it’s one of those
weeks (or months) where the results of that work isn’
They Should Know Better
Oh no, J.K. Rowling and Richard K. Morgan
> A couple of disclaimers before I dive into this letter:
First: To make it very clear where I stand here: trans rights are human rights.
I’m the interloper here. I’m a white, cis male who hasn’t experienced the
Endless Universes and Tales of Two Worlds
Hello!
It’s been a weird week, hasn’t it? I spent the weekend getting away from home
for a couple of days by visiting my parents in upstate New York. (Fortunately,
Vermont has relaxed some travel restrictions, allowing us to go out to
low-impact counties and return without having
Read Black Authors
I promised a letter with some additional commentary and reviews in my June 2020
book list issue, but given the events of this week, my mind has been scattered.
I’m heartbroken at the senseless loss of life, the blatant police brutality, and
the disproportionate, racist, and sheer evil response
22 New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Coming Out in June
Hello!
As noted in my May 22nd letter
[https://andrewliptak.substack.com/p/reading-list-fandoms-relationship], my
regular column with Polygon has been put on hiatus for a while, presumably
because of the strain that the COVID-19 pandemic puts on editorial resources and
budgets. I enjoy putting these together, so I’ll
Ordering the battlefield
Marko Kloos on bringing his Frontlines series to a close
Fandom's relationship with studios
It’s been a busy week! I’ve been caught up with a bunch of projects, and there
has been some interesting developments in the last week that I’ll talk about in
a minute, along with the usual slate of recommendations and longer reads that I
found worth reading.
Interview with John Scalzi
John Scalzi on fictional pandemics, space empires, and more.
Disney is adapting Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series for Disney +
Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series is getting another adaptation: today on Twitter, he and his wife Becky announced that Disney will be making a TV series for its streaming service, Disney +.
Riordan didn’t reveal any additional details beyond the pickup: just that it’ll be coming to the
The End of the War
Greetings!
I hope that you’re doing well. I’ve got a lot coming up in this newsletter.
First up, some potential changes to this letter that I’d love to get your
thoughts on. After that, thoughts on the end of The Clone Wars, Eddie Robson’s
Hearts of
Averting Orbital War, Bookshelf Duplicates, and Mando Fans
Hello!
Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway contest. In total, we raised
$225. I’ve notified giveaway winners, and I’ll be shipping their books out to
them shortly. Thank you! If you happen to buy a new book in the next couple of
weeks or months, consider
Giveaway Reminder!
I wanted to sent out a short reminder to folks regarding the giveaway that I
announced in the last message: it ends tonight!
From the last letter:
So, I’ve got a challenge: donate to this fund before April 14th, and let me know
how much you donated. I’ll
4 books to get you through the pandemic
I hope that you’re doing okay — it feels like the last two weeks have been an
eternity. The last couple of days have been rough, watching things like the
unemployment numbers skyrocket, and seeing headlines that trumpet that we’re
certainly headed for a recession, if not a depression.
“We didn’t pull any punches.” R.F. Kuang on Her Next Novel, The Burning God
R.F. Kuang made a splash in 2018 with her debut novel, The Poppy War, an epic military fantasy about a young woman named Rin, who finds herself in the midst of a brutal war.
Loosely based on real-world Chinese history, The Poppy War earned Kuang nominations for both the
Geoengineering, Magical universities, and the private space industry
Greetings!
It’s amazing at how quickly things seem to have turned with the COVID-19
pandemic. I guess that’s to be expected when you’re on an exponential curve.
Last week, we learned that schools would be closed until April. No worries — we
have a solid daycare that would
Watch The Three-Body Problem adapted as a Minecraft-style animated series
Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem and the rest of his Remembrances of Earth’s Past trilogy have been hailed as a modern science fiction classic since it was translated into English in 2014. Predictably, many of the series’ fans have wondered when there’ll be a film or television
Plague Edition
Hello!
I’ve been working on getting back into a routine after finishing The Book: I’ve
got a couple of freelance projects that I’ve been working on, but it’s been nice
to take a relatively quiet couple of days to catch up on some reading and other
The Book is DONE
So…
I wrote a book!
The first draft of Cosplay: A History, or whatever we’re going to call it, is
now complete. And by complete, it’s like a house with walls, a roof that’s
leaking, and that’s in dire need of some more furniture, plumbing, and
Beyond Solaris
New editions explore the many facets of sci-fi icon Stanislaw Lem
Crossing the 75K Line
Hello!
This isn’t a regular issue, but a short update on The Book. It’s officially
crossed the 75,000 word count that my contract mandates! Technically, I guess I
can turn it in, but that’s not going to happen just yet: I still have quite a
bit
The Rise of Skywalker
Hello! It’s been a little while since my last newsletter went out. I’ve been
working on The Book. Let’s jump into it.
The Book
First off, an update on The Book: it’s coming along nicely. I’m about 80% of the
way there, and is now
Christopher Tolkien, Architect of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, has died
Christopher Tolkien, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien who continued his father’s publishing legacy, has died, according to The Tolkien Society. He was 95.
The third son of the late epic fantasy author, Christopher was the initial audience for his father’s initial famous work, The Hobbit. While
Necromancers in Space and Alternate Astronauts
Hello there!
I hope that the new year is treating you well. I’ve been hard at work on a bunch
of things while fighting off a head cold.
I’ve got a couple of things here to chat about this time around: a look at Tamyn
Muir’s fantastic
Fox Is “Wide Open” to Bringing Back Firefly, but Some Barriers Remain
Within the world of science fiction television, it seems as though there’s one series above all that most fans would want to see a return to: Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Running in 2002 on Fox with a meager 13 episodes, the series came to an abrupt end, only to
Most Anticipated SF/F Books of 2020
Happy new year!
2019 was a year full of changes and surprises. We had a baby girl, I sold a book
(which I’m in the midst of writing now), got into a major car crash, lost my job
and went back to freelance writing, and attended a number of
The decade in 8 stories
It’s been a long ten years.
As the end of the year approached, I toyed with putting together some sort of
“best of the decade” list, only to realize that that’s a nearly impossible task:
stories are subjective at the best of times, and such a list simply
Hulu passed on its adaptation of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles
Hulu isn’t moving forward with its adaptation of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, according to Variety. The paper has learned that Rice and her team are working to sell the series elsewhere.
Rice kicked off the series with Interview with the Vampire in 1976, about a vampire named
Rise of Skywalker, Octopuses in space, and grimdark finales
Hello!
I was on the road this past weekend on a secret mission to California: I
attended the world premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker! I made a bit of
an extended trip out of it, and had a blast.
I meant to get this letter out before
The Secret Commonwealth, BN SciFi, and a Gift Guide!
Hello!
This letter is a bit overdue. I’ve been tied up with a bunch of baby, book,
teaching, and other things the last couple of weeks. Let’s dive in.
Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth
For years now, author Philip Pullman worked on a successor to his His
Mandos, clones, and bad publishers
Hello!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks, between teaching and regular writing work.
And, yesterday was Disney + day! It’s extremely exciting because it meant the
release of The Mandalorian, which I’ve been really pumped for. Some thoughts
ahead, as well as an overview of some costuming
Northern lights
A Journey into the History of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials
Stargate-centric Streaming Service Stargate Command is Shutting Down
MGM has announced that its Stargate-focused streaming service Stargate Command will shut the iris for the last time later this year, and that much of its original content will migrate over to YouTube.
In a statement, the site’s staff say that the “past two years have been a joy,
Pedal to the floor
Joe Hill on Full Throttle, Netflix Adaptations, and Working With His Dad
Alternate Apollos
I’m writing from my hotel room in Rhode Island, where I’m spending the next
couple of days to attend Rhode Island Comic Con, the last big convention that
I’m planning on going to this year. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I’ve
got
Tony Gilroy will write Disney’s Cassian Andor series
Disney’s forthcoming Rogue One prequel TV series about rebel agent Cassian Andor has found a writer: Tony Gilroy, who will write the pilot and a handful of episodes, according to Variety.
The news brings a bit of continuity to the production of the series with Rogue One. The series
Books as a personal image
Hello!
Bonus issue today for y’all. I was annoyed by a list of science fiction
recommendations that I came across, and wanted to unpack that a bit more than I
did on Twitter. Plus, I had a stack of neat articles that I wanted to share with
y’all.
Folio's Game of Thrones Art and portals to new worlds and futures
Hello!
It's been a ... busy couple of weeks while we adjust to having a new child in
the house. Thank you for the kind words about Iris — she's coming along nicely,
and appears to be a fairly well-tempered child.
Getting a second child in the house meant that I needed
Ten steps to expedite a departure from Pantaga Station
A ship's XO goes over the ways in which to make a quick escape from a space station
Delayed
The Cosplayers of Dragon Con
Hello!
It’s been a busy couple of weeks — the highlight of which was heading down to
attend DragonCon for the first time. It’s a convention that I’ve seen a lot of
friends go to over the years, but haven’t had the chance to go to until
Oh no, John Campbell
Hello!
It's been quite the week. Some good news: I'm picking up some freelance work at
The Barnes and Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, it looks like I'll be picking up
some of my regular book coverage with Polygon, and will be regularly writing
news for Tor.com. I kicked off
Well, that was unexpected
Hello!
So, last week didn't turn out as I'd expected it to. I was let go from The Verge
: my last day was Wednesday. The reasons are both simple and complicated, and
I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail, other than to say that I'm
bummed
Books with Character, Veronica Mars, djinns and Space Spies!
Hello!
This letter is coming a bit later than usual: I’ve been thinking that I want to
shift this to a Monday delivery, and ended up getting caught up in a
home-improvement project all day yesterday. I’ve got a couple of things for you
today: books that I
Why are they called the Hugo Awards?
A history of science fiction’s biggest award
The Future of Stranger Things, Lessons from Cadwell Turnbull, and more
Hello!
I hope that you’re enjoying your summer! I’ve got some overdue features that
I’ve promised you for this newsletter: some thoughts on Netflix’s Stranger
Things, an interview with Cadwell Turnbull, and some other things.
I’m heading out today to Fort Ticonderoga in New York
Watch a Star Wars character go from image to cosplay in realtime
Hello!
I’m writing this weekend from upstate New York. My parents have a house on a
lake up here, and it’s been a bit of a retreat that we’ve been utilizing over
the last couple of years. They got high-speed internet a year or so ago, which
What's in your bag?, reviews for Ancestral Night / Magic for Liars, and more
Hello!
There’s been a bunch of newcomers to this newsletter in the last couple of weeks
/ months. This is a letter that I write out on a regular basis about science
fiction, writing and the future of reading. In this issue, a "What's in your
bag?" post, reviews for
Quick event announcement!
Good morning!
I've got a regular newsletter prepped for later this week, but I wanted to send
out a quick thing about a pair of events that I'll be at in the coming days —
I'll be interviewing debut author Cadwell Turnbull about his new novel The
Lesson!
I've been reading
Proposals for Regulating Free-Range Velociraptors
A neighborhood is fed up with a new problem that they face: free-range velociraptors
Dune's growing cinematic universe and Chernobyl / Roadside Picnic
Hello!
This is the Reading List part of this week’s newsletter (the other is the short
story, which you should have also received.)
First up: I’ll be at a couple of events with debut author Cadwell Turnbull
[https://www.andrewliptak.com/blog/cadwell-turnbull-the-lesson-events-books-are-magic-yankee-bookshop-brooklyn-woodstock-event]
: one at Brooklyn’s Books
Deep dives into the history of science fiction
Hello!
This is a bit of a shorter letter this week: I don’t have any huge, overarching
commentary this time around, but I did have a couple of things that caught my
interest when it comes to the world of science fiction and fantasy writing.
End of an Era
The never-ending story
Hello!
Apologies for the tardiness of this latest letter: my sister's wedding was this
weekend: it was a lovely time, and I ended up spending the weekend seeing
relatives (hi Aunt Dot, Aunt Gin!) that I haven't seen in a while.
This weekend marked the end of HBO's Game of
Spoilers! (Don't worry, I'm not going to actually spoil anything)
Hello!
Happy May the 4th — the internationally recognized corporate, toyetic holiday
for all things Star Wars. It's also Free Comic Book Day. I took my son to pick
up a couple of comics from the local store here. I picked up some Firefly ones,
which I kind of forgot were
I'm writing a book about the history of cosplay!
Hello!
Here's a special announcement edition of Wordplay, because that thing I
mentioned to keep an eye out on in my last letter? I can finally say what it is:
I'm writing a book!
The contracts have been signed and counter-signed, and the announcement just
went up on
[https://www.
Wordplay: Star Wars Celebration, Rogue One, and Literary SF
Hello!
I'm back from Star Wars Celebration. It was a blast, and I have to say, post-con
blues are a thing. I've been down all week, and I'm already looking forward to
hitting up another convention at some point in the nearish future. Onto your
regularly-scheduled newsletter!
Star Wars Celebration!
Tolkien and the Horrors of the Great War
Hello!
This week’s letter is coming in early, because later this week, I’ll be out at
Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. This weekend, I attended the 16th Annual
Tolkien in Vermont conference at UVM [https://tolkienvt.org/2019]. Dr.
Christopher Vaccaro puts on the event each year, and
Letters of Transit
A migrant navigates a twisted set of spells to cross a formidable border.
The streaming TV boom, science fiction storytelling and advertising, and fan fiction
Hello!
I hope that you're doing well. I've been jotting down ideas for this column the
last couple of weeks, and I keep coming back to a topic I've been thinking about
a lot over the years — how we pay for science fiction, and how the fiction we
consume is
Wordplay: Netflix's new anthology and the mythos of Apollo
Second letter in a week? What is this madness?
The last issue was late, and I figure I might as well stick with the biweekly
schedule, so you get two this week. This newsletter has hit 300 subscribers,
which is astonishing to me. Thank you to those of you who
This year's awards scuffle and influence in the SF/F world
Is this thing on?
This issue is very delayed, and I’m very sorry about that. I’ve been crawling
out of a pit of sickness the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago, my son, wife,
and I all came down with what we think is the flu, which
IP and the future of entertainment
Hello!
I'm writing from my hotel room in Boston, where I'm attending Boskone 56. It's a
long-running, annual science fiction / fantasy literature convention that I've
gone to the past couple of years, and like any convention, it's a good
opportunity and place to meet up with fellow writers and fans,
Wordplay: The future will be collective
Hello!
I hope that you’re doing well. I meant to get this out earlier, but I had the
day off yesterday, spent many hours in the car, saw some friends, then got home
late. I've got a short letter for today.
Collective futures
Last week, we published a story
Tolkien, Tolkien, Tolkien
Hello!
Apologies for the delay in this latest installment. I was caught up with a bunch
of projects at work (which I’ll get to in a moment), as well as a snow storm
that’s dumped more than a foot of powder on my literal doorstep. My snow blower
History, generation ships, and suspension pods
Happy new year!
I hope that you had an opportunity to take a break over the holidays. I took two
weeks off, which was great — I feel like I haven't taken a break in a while, and
it was nice to get out and see family, do a bit of
Wordplay: What is the role of optimism in science fiction?
Hello!
Welcome to issue #4 of Wordplay! (You can read the past issues here
[https://tinyletter.com/liptakaa/archive])
I’ve alluded to a big project being launched in the last two letters, and it’s
finally been revealed: The Verge
[https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/5/18055980/better-worlds-science-fiction-short-stories-video]
Conceptualizing the future with science fiction
Hello!
This is letter #3 of Wordplay (here are the first
[https://app.tinyletter.com/#!/messages/6162217/report] two
[https://app.tinyletter.com/#!/messages/6165445/report]). I hope that everyone
had a happy Thanksgiving! We stayed at home this year, rather than drive down to
Pennsylvania. Instead, my mother-in-law drove
How (and what) I'm reading, Chinese science fiction, and hints of things to come
Greetings!
This is letter #2 (you can read the first here
[http://tinyletter.com/liptakaa/letters/wordplay-lunar-stories-star-wars-cinematic-universe-stumbles-and-sci-fi-history]
). Thanks for those who told me that they liked the first letter, or who have
since signed up or spread the word. It's much appreciated. This week, I've got
some thoughts on how
Lunar stories, Star Wars' cinematic universe stumbles, and sci-fi history
Okay, let's try this out — I honestly wasn't sure what the response would be
like when I said that I'd be doing a newsletter, and I'm gratified at the kind
words people have sent my way, and for all of you who jumped on the bandwagon.
Thank you! Hopefully it'll
Elizabeth Bonesteel’s Central Corps trilogy is a refreshing space opera
An underrated SF trilogy
In Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, it’s growing up that is truly terrifying
Tremblay's latest horror is a gripping meditation on what we leave behind
The Art of John Harris
We’re often told “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. While it’s certainly true, there are a handful of artists whose artwork has had me pick up books off the shelf time and time again. John Harris is one such artist, whose work has graced the covers
Fragmented
A soldier contends with the toll of war on a distant planet.