Gloom, loneliness, and despair are constants in life, but over the past year, those sorts of feelings have crowded way closer to nearly everyone. Bliss, the latest from Mike Cahill (Another Earth, I Origins), proposes all that darkness is actually just a grim simulation beamed from an idealized reality. Or is it? When first we … Continued
It’s that time, Expanse fans, when the finale we’ve been dying to see arrives—and then leaves us dying to know what happens next once it’s over. Season four ended with Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander) preparing to attack Earth, but season five’s “Nemesis Games” ended with something even more terrifying. The “Oh shit this is tense” … Continued
There are a bunch of great articles out there that will help you build your fantasy world from the ground up. The true world builder’s toolkit has a lot in common with a terraformer’s to-do list: crops, ocean currents, trade winds, rain shadow, best locations for cities. This is not one of those articles. This … Continued
Fantasy author Terry Goodkind passed away in September, but he left behind a long legacy of books, including the Sword of Truth series. Today io9 is excited to share an excerpt from The Children of D’Hara, a posthumous release collecting five of his serial novels that continue the story of the Sword of Truth. Here’s … Continued
February may be the shortest month, but the book gods are not holding back whatsoever with this flood of sweet new releases. Read on for forest monsters, space explorers, princesses with dark fates, unwitting inter-dimensional travelers, and so much more! The Planetbreaker’s Son by Nick Mamatas This volume includes the title novella about interstellar travelers, … Continued
Made during a pandemic, with a fictional pandemic slithering around a story that taps into both the spiritual powers of nature and the mental effects of isolation, In the Earth uniquely captures the mood we’ve been clawing our way through for nearly a year now. It’s freaky, but it feels alarmingly relatable too. Ben Wheatley’s … Continued
In a world where cryptids are real but misunderstood, a trio of women (one of whom happens to be a Gorgon) join forces to protect the strange beasts that lurk among us. But as we see in Dash Shaw’s gloriously colorful adult animation Cryptozoo, sometimes the best intentions aren’t always what’s best in the end. … Continued
The Wrong Turn movies are nobody’s favorite horror franchise. But somehow, the series about cannibal mutants who prey on directionally challenged road trippers has been thriving for nearly two decades. And a since the seventh (yes, seventh!) Wrong Turn arrived this week, we’re taking a look back at the whole damn series. Most of the … Continued
The intersection of pets and role-playing games is a natural one: both bring us hours of fun and enjoyment, all without having to leave our homes. But what if your cat, dog, or other loyal companion could join the game, too? An adorable Dungeons & Dragons-themed book shows us just what that might look like. … Continued
The end is near, Screaming Firehawks, and with just one Expanse episode to go after this week’s blazing “Winnipesaukee,” the stage is set for a finale full of questions that need answering, conflicts we hope to see resolved, and a reunion we’ve been waiting almost all of season five to see. But first: PUNCH IT! … Continued
It’d be hard to top any movie in which a freshly decapitated head flies through the air hellbent on biting its nearest enemy, but the right filmmaking energy can certainly do something like that justice. Indonesian horror The Queen of Black Magic, a homage to the 1981 cult classic of the same name, does its … Continued
We first met Camina Drummer in The Expanse’s second season, when she was introduced as Fred Johnson’s (Chad L. Coleman) security chief on Tycho Station. Though the character appears in the books, her role in the series has been expanded over the years—and now, in the show’s outstanding fifth season, she’s provided a pivotal counterpoint … Continued
As the title suggests, the imaginative adventures of Snoopy—and Woodstock, of course—are the focus of Peanuts and WildBrain’s new series for Apple TV+. But as you can see by the fun new trailer for The Snoopy Show, Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the rest of Charles M. Schulz’s kids are also still part of the action. … Continued
The Exorcist is legendary. The Exorcist III is fascinating. The dueling fourth parts of the Exorcist saga are odd enough to be interesting, and the Exorcist TV show was criminally underrated. And then somehow there’s Exorcist II: The Heretic, easily one of the most mystifying horror sequels ever made. A majestic misfire, it hasn’t earned … Continued
It’s Friday, it’s been an emotional week to say the least, and it’s time for another Concept Art Writing Prompt. We provide the image, you provide the imagination! This time, we’re wondering: what are these dragons up to, exactly? Our inspiration image hails from the British Library’s most excellent public domain Flickr archive. The caption … Continued
With a title like Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, you’d forgiven for assuming this low-budget cult movie arrived as part of the post-Friday the 13th wave of 1980s slashers, especially considering its lakeside setting. But it came out in 1971—and 50 years later it’s still unsettling in ways few other movies can claim. That’s mostly … Continued
If you made it through our two other big television preview lists, congratulations—there’s one more to go: all the streaming TV you will never possibly be able to ingest in 2021. We’re honestly in awe of how much sci-fi, fantasy, superhero, and horror TV we’ll be getting this year considering so many productions were shut … Continued
A piece of NASA’s past makes a surprising return in Decommissioned, which packs genuine sci-fi horror suspense into just six minutes. From the windows of the ISS, an astronaut notices a strange—and horrifyingly familiar—bit of space debris floating in his direction. It can’t be what he thinks it is…can it? We’ve featured Australian filmmaker Josh … Continued
We’re actually in a good mood today for reasons, but to say it’s been generally bleak during the pandemic would be an understatement. With no outlet for his comedy stylings during covid-19, a Los Angeles man grabbed his board and a Mandalorian costume, and set about lifting moods in an entirely different way. NBC Los … Continued
After last week’s Expanse gave extra space to one of this season’s most devastating farewells, episode eight finds time to see what all the other characters are up to on Earth, Luna, and various points around the Belt. As you might guess, nobody in “Hard Vacuum” is having an easy time of it. As we … Continued