When aliens colonize Earth, it’s often so they can take our natural resources or enslave our people.
But in his new sci-fi novel Landscape With Invisible Hand (hardcover, digital), writer M.T. Anderson imagines a world where invading aliens have made Earth part of their economy.
Though in discussing this novel with Anderson, he revealed that this book isn’t about the invasion, or even the invaders, but how we’d react to be the ones who’ve been invaded.
When Star Trek: Enterprise went off the air in 2005 after four seasons, fans of the show were understandably disappointed. But as with the other shows, being cancelled didn’t end the adventure for the original Enterprise and her crew. In Star Trek Enterprise Rise Of The Federation Patterns Of Interference (paperback, digital), writer Christopher L Bennett extends their tour of duty once again for the fifth time book in his Rise Of The Federation series, further exploring the formative years of The Federation.
In his novels Shovel Ready and Near Enemy, writer Adam Sternbergh blended elements of cyberpunk, science fiction, and pulpy crime. But for his new novel, The Blinds (hardcover, digital, audiobook), he’s swapped the cyberpunk elements with the tropes of Westerns and Western hybrids. In the following interview, he discusses the origins of this new novel, what inspired and influenced it, as well as his plans for a third book in his Spademan series.
Sci-fi novels about climate change often take a “worst case scenario” approach, setting their stories in bleak, post-apocalyptic worlds. But in his new novel Clade (paperback, digital), writer James Bradley takes a more personal approach to the climate change sci-fi genre. Which isn’t to say things won’t still go horribly awry…
Ray Bradbury once said of Ben Loory, “This guy can write.” Or maybe he said, “That boy ain’t right” and someone just heard him wrong. Either way, it’s high praise, high praise indeed. In honor of Loory’s second short story collection, Tales Of Falling And Flying (paperback, digital), I spoke to him about what inspires his tales, whether he’d like to see them adapted to the big screen, and which writers he thinks can write.
It never fails: you mention that you work in video games, and people think it must be the most fun job in the world. But making games isn’t easy, and running a game development studio is even tougher. That said, if you’re serious about making games, and starting your own company to do it, there are resources you can consult. Written by Michael Futter, who was the news editor at GameInformer.com (and is thus, full disclosure, someone I’ve hung out with at video game events), The GameDev Business Handbook Writer (hardcover, digital) is a helpful and detailed looked at how to open and run an indie game studio. Though in trading emails with him about this book — which will be out in October — he admitted that he didn’t just rely on what he learned while writing news stories about when the new Halo would be released.
According to legend, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil so he could be a great blues guitarist. It’s something I was reminded of while editing the following interview with writer Cassandra Khaw, whose new novella, A Song For Quiet (paperback, digital) — the second book in her Persons Non Grata series after last year’s Hammers On Bone — tells the tale of a blues saxophonist who realizes his music doesn’t just cause people to get up and boogie.
Like any kind of fiction, the fantasy genre includes numerous sub-genres, including “urban fantasy,” “Grimdark,” and “fairy tales.” But with his new swashbuckling novel The Alchemy Of Masques And Mirrors (hardcover, digital), writer Curtis Craddock thinks he may have invented a new sub-sub-genre of “flintlock fantasy” he’s dubbed “sailpunk.”
Funko have announced that they’ll release a series of Hellboy POP! toys this fall inspired by the same Mike Mignola comic book series that inspired the live-action movies Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, as well as the animated movies Hellboy: Sword Of Storms and Hellboy: Blood & Iron. A new live-action movie, tentatively titled Hellboy: Rise Of The Blood Queen, is currently being put together with Neil Marshall (Game Of Thrones) directing, David Barbour (Stranger Things) as our titular hero, and Mila Jovovich (The Fifth Element) as the titular villain.