One of its latest offerings is a new edition of The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic sci-fi novel about a planet whose inhabitants have no fixed sex. Artist David Lupton, who worked on the publisher’s edition of A Wizard of Earthsea, is also responsible for the art in the new edition of The Left Hand of Darkness. Because this is the first time that The Left Hand of Darkness has been illustrated, Ursula was concerned and adamant that the people and places be represented correctl

Here’s seven new science fiction and fantasy novels hitting bookstores in the later half of September that you should check out. Le Guin’s novel is a classic science fiction novel. Set on a distant, icy planet, it was one of the first to really explore the nature of gender. Now, Tieryas is returning to the same world with a new, standalone adventure following a kid named Makoto Fujimoto. But when his test goes wrong, he washes out, and turns his sights on becoming a civilian pilot as tensions be

In July 2008, science fiction publisher Tor launched a new website called Tor.com to promote its upcoming releases. This week, the site published the anthology Worlds Seen in Passing: 10 Years of Tor.com Short Fiction, which celebrates the best of the site’s fiction in the decade that it’s been in operation. “Right from the start, we wanted it to be publisher- and media-neutral,” covering not just written fiction, but also science fiction television and film. Over the years, Tor.com experimented

The two are fantasy novellas from Tor’s Tor.com imprint, and each are tiny adventures set in a much larger world. In War Cry, we follow a ranger unit stationed on an isolated plateau in the midst of a World War that’s lasted for as long as people can remember. Publisher’s Weekly says that it’s “a solid start to a series that military science fiction fans should enjoy.”Read an excerpt. Port of Shadows by Glen CookGlen Cook made a name for himself with his Black Company series, a gritty story of a

Pokémon Essentials, the go-to creation tool for pocket monster fan games, is no longer available following a takedown notice from Nintendo. While many average video game fans might have never heard of Pokémon Essentials, it was the biggest resource for making Pokémon fan games. The Pokémon fan game community has been left reeling. “The Pokémon Essentials Wiki, and all the downloads for Pokémon Essentials, have been deleted due to a copyright infringement claim by lawyers representing Nintendo of

This is all deeply ironic because Sarah laid out exactly how these bad-faith tactics work in The Internet of Garbage. (Cathy Gellis, in an amicus brief written for Floor64, additionally argued that an end-run around CDA 230 had also been created.) Thanks to CDA 230, if someone tweets something defamatory about the Church of Scientology, Twitter can’t be sued for defamation. A new exception to CDA 230 aimed at protecting the targets of harassing behavior stands in an uncanny intersection. The cen

It’s a well-researched, engaging podcast to binge on, even if you’re just a casual fan of cartoons. Listening to the entire show, it’s an enlightening series, one that helps shed some light on some of my favorite cartoons, and the industry as a whole. Listen to Drawn on the How Stuff Works website, or on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pod Bean, or Stitcher. The partnership between How Stuff Works and Cartoon Network was also useful when it came to conducting research. Sadly, Frey says that the 11-

More than most of her contemporaries on “LeftTube,” Wynn has a style; her editorial signature is an unmistakably ornate flourish. Nathan J. Robinson, editor-in-chief at the leftist online magazine Current Affairs, writes that what ContraPoints does is “smart … persuasive … fun. “I think they are worth speaking to, for a few reasons,” she wrote in a lengthy thread defending herself. This, she said, led to newly out trans people looking up to her as an example of confidence and success in transi

Microsoft is planning to unveil an Xbox All Access service that will bundle the company’s Xbox One consoles with Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass for a monthly fee. Codenamed Project Largo, Microsoft has been working towards the subscription service in recent months. Microsoft will limit its Xbox All Access service to US consumers initially, but if it’s successful then it could appear in other markets in the future. Microsoft also offered a subsidized Xbox 360 bundle with Xbox Live Gold more than si

The novels play out in a breathtaking alternate world where humanity must establish a foothold off-world after an asteroid devastates Earth. While it took decades for the US to send a woman to space in our world, however, Elma accelerates the timeline in Kowal’s alternate history. And she successfully leads a campaign to get women into the IAC’s astronaut program using publicity stunts like an all-female airshow. But while the world slowly adjusts to the asteroid impact and begins to move on, pe

Samsung has announced a pair of gaming monitors at Gamescom 2018, positioning them as “affordable” in the company’s own words. The CJG5 series comes in 27- and 32-inch varieties, both using curved 2560 x 1440 VA panels with a refresh rate of 144Hz. The monitors are listed at £309.99 for the 27-inch version and £359.99 for the 32-inch model; US pricing isn’t yet available. (It’s also debatable whether you’ll get much benefit from the curvature on a 16:9 panel of any size, to be fair.) not one wit

Some viewers expect romantic availability from women streamers, or demand to know their relationship status before investing in them. Twitch streamers, after all, invite fans into their bedrooms, banter with their audiences for hours on end, and often share details about their day-to-day lives. Their relationship status can either influence how open they are during their streams, or how their viewers interact with them. “More often than not, people will still hit on me even after I tell them I’m

It exists only in the lenses of the Magic Leap One, a pair of goggles that Magic Leap hopes will replace phones, computers, and every other high-tech screen in our lives. The darkened lenses are inset with small glass waveguides, which Magic Leap calls “photonics chips.” These chips are manufactured at Magic Leap headquarters, a former Motorola factory. Like every mixed reality company, Magic Leap eventually wants to make a normal-looking pair of glasses that can be worn everywhere. Field of vie

The band just announced its sophomore album, Dark All Day, and it retains that same sense of nostalgia that’s fueled stories like Ready Player One and Stranger Things. Earlier this spring, the band released a single called “Art3mis & Parzival,” their interpretation of Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One. Over two years, the duo wrote a number of tracks and refined their sound, recruiting a childhood friend, Alex Gingell, to record the drums. The videos are part of their appeal, rather than a s

According to the conventional wisdom of the internet, there’s one simple guideline for responding to trolls: don’t feed them. Recently, I tweeted about the pervasive nature of trolling and how people have always excused online behavior that is largely inexcusable. But most of all, it became the mantra of how to ignore online abuse completely. “Don’t feed the trolls” also ignores an obvious method for addressing online abuse: skilled moderation and the willingness to kick people off platforms for

Later this month, Rich Larson will publish his debut novel, Annex, the start to his Violet Wars trilogy. Violet wasn’t interested in painkillers. The electricity had gone out earlier that day, dropping the grimy corridors and sleeping rooms into darkness, and Bo wasn’t going to waste his chance. Bo didn’t let himself slow down, because Lia said you were always meant to pick a spot beyond the finish line and make that your finish line. The whale-thing didn’t respond, still hovering in place.

Radio Flyer’s toy is loaded with detail — something that many toys have benefited from in recent years. From the time of the announcement to the end of May, the toy’s price dropped from the prohibitive $500 to a far more reasonable $250. After watching it it put to use, it’s clear that this toy was worth every penny. Why imagine that your standard red wagon is a Landspeeder on Tatooine when there’s a replica on the market? More than once, I hear a maniacal giggle as he speeds away down the path,

Robots are a regular staple in science fiction, from Isaac Asimov’s book I, Robot to the latest episode of Westworld. So while I was at an event in Boston, I picked up Generation Robot: A Century of Science Fiction, Fact, and Speculation by Terri Favro. It’s an interesting and funny book about the intersection of science fiction and reality, and Favro blends memoir, tech reporting, and even a bit of science fiction to look at where robots have come from, and where they could be going in the comi

Already on it.” The roar of the jet passed overhead as Major Lindholm and his wing-man did a wide sweep past us. When I opened my eyes, Major Lindholm settled onto the bench across from us. The real Major Lindholm was black, and younger than I’d expected from his voice. The office Major Lindholm showed me to was small and military tidy. I hoped that didn’t mean that Major Lindholm would turn out to be charming but unpleasant too.

Like the Indominus rex in the first Jurassic World, the franchise’s latest human-made dino seems to be immune to gunfire. Horner, the science advisor on all the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, says he actually pushed back against the idea of making dinosaurs bulletproof in the franchise. Initially, the makers of Jurassic World wanted to know if the Indominus rex could be bulletproof, according to NBC News. Take the Gallimimus, for instance, a 400-pound beast depicted in the first Jurass