When a British agent named Rachel White learns that there’s a highly placed Soviet mole embedded in the Secret Intelligence Service, things get complicated when she realizes that he’s out of reach — in Summerland. Kulagin’s second, a thickset man in a trilby hat, was talking to him, gesturing, pleading: Major Allen, the Service officer on Watch detail tonight. You see, we don’t want the whole world to know that the Crown has something to do with this—’‘I understand the need for discretion, Major

A year ago, science fiction publisher Tor Books announced that it was launching a new imprint: Tor Labs, dedicated to experimental storytelling. Its first project was a serialized podcast called Steal the Stars, a pulpy audio drama about the employees of a secretive government contractor that is studying a crashed UFO. Last year, Tor Labs aired the entire series through weekly episodes, and later released with a commercial-free compilation of the audio drama on Audible. Instead, it illuminates t

Its legacy is so enduring that 15 years after the miniseries premiered on their channel, Adult Swim has funded two additional seasons: FLCL Progressive, the first episode of which airs tonight, and FLCL Alternative; which debuts in September. The original FLCL follows Naota Nandaba, a pre-teen who lives with his widowed, self-absorbed dad and grandpa in a dead-end town. It’s not entirely starting from scratch, however; the press release teases the appearance of familiar names like Haruko Haruhar

I’ve been writing and editing military science fiction for years. When people think about robots on the battlefield, they often envision something like the Terminator or the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. Back in the world of fiction, here are 13 science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels coming out this month that you should check out. With no supplies and no one coming to rescue them, it’s up to them to figure out how to survive. The bureau’s Chicago field office has faced violent attacks

It’s official: The Expanse has been saved. After the Syfy Channel canceled The Expanse earlier this month, Alcon Entertainment has confirmed that Amazon will pick up the show for a fourth season, after after outcry from the show’s fans. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made the announcement at the International Space Development Conference: where he appeared next to members of the show’s cast: “The Expanse is saved.”Alcon Entertainment Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson issued a st

DICE is returning to World War II with Battlefield V, and it’s doing so with the help of feeemales. You have til October to fix this shit and give us a realistic gritty WWII experience.” “Very disappointed with the new Battlefield trailer,” wrote another. Women did fight in World War II, from the air force units known as the “Night Witches,” to secret agents like Nancy Wake. Wanda Gertz began her military career during World War I and later commanded an all-female battalion in World War II. Batt

Today Twitter announced it is killing off several of its apps, including Twitter for Android TV, Twitter for Roku, and Twitter for Xbox. Twitter for Xbox allowed for curated Twitter commentary to display while watching videos, and had a whopping average rating of one and a half stars out of five on the Microsoft store. The dismal feedback is due to the fact that these Twitter apps don’t actually allow you to tweet from your account or fully interact with the Twittersphere in general. Twitter for

In a 52–47 vote today, senators voted to overturn the Federal Communication Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which took net neutrality rules off the books. In order for net neutrality to actually be reinstated, two more things have to happen. Instead of 30 signatures, net neutrality supporters have to collect signatures from a full majority of House members. There’s a degree of bipartisan agreement that something needs to be done on net neutrality. In reality, this is more about se

Fifty years ago, science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin released A Wizard of Earthsea, the first installment of a well-lauded and influential fantasy series. Sadly, Le Guin passed away in January, but later this year, one of her final projects will be released. Le Guin went on to write four subsequent novels set in the same world: The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, and The Other Wind. The Books of Earthsea contains all five novels, as well as Tales From Earthsea, a collection of s

In this far future tale, Earth is populated and ruled exclusively by super-rich individuals — one million of them, to be exact. Seeing this, Gavin turned away and closed his eyes. And anyway”—and here Neal looked everywhere but at his father’s eyes—“I still say Bernie’s had help running the place.”“This again? “Look!”Eli turned, and Gavin turned, and so just managed to catch the moment when Bernie’s hard-won self-control failed. Douglas Penn-of-Chaffee seemed to glower disapprovingly at Bernie;

Warning: spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity WarFor someone who claims he just wants to help the whole Universe, Thanos certainly is out to destroy a lot of it. In Avengers: Infinity War, the villain’s helpful strategy is genocide. The plan has many holes in it, but Thanos isn’t the first to concern himself with overpopulation and the depletion of resources. “I think it speaks more of humanity.”In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos clearly twists Malthusian teachings for his own blinkered purposes

Oculus VR is developing an immersive theater experience to debut next year that will feature real-world actors who perform in virtual reality using motion capture. “We’re really interested in, how do you create that experience of live actors without needing to be in a site-specific location,” Rachitsky told CNET. “It’s a way to scale.”Notably, immersive theater is only getting bigger, with HBO turning a multi-acre farm on the outskirts of Austin into a real-life version of the fictional Sweetwat

Oculus VR is developing an immersive theater experience to debut next year that will feature real-world actors who perform in virtual reality using motion capture. “We’re really interested in, how do you create that experience of live actors without needing to be in a site-specific location,” Rachitsky told CNET. “It’s a way to scale.”Notably, immersive theater is only getting bigger, with HBO turning a multi-acre farm on the outskirts of Austin into a real-life version of the fictional Sweetwat

The title of Pixar’s latest short film, Bao, has two meanings in Chinese: “steamed bun” or “precious treasure.” In the short, it could easily mean both. The bao in this film is a cute homemade dumpling that comes to life, turning into a weird little dumpling baby that delights the empty-nesting Chinese mother who made it. Bao recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and it will play ahead of Pixar’s feature The Incredibles 2, which comes out June 15th. I sat down with Shi and producer Be

“I don’t want the Taco Bell International Space Station. I think it goes against what the public perceives the space station is supposed to be like.” — a quote from Erin MacDonald, an engineer for Engility’s Space and Mission Systems Group, during a panel on space sponsorship at the 34th Space Symposium, Space News reports. “T-minus five minutes to liftoff.”I don’t think my heart has ever pounded this hard. I don’t think I can describe the utter joy that is floating in microgravity. Think outsid

Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters in just over a month. But unlike Rogue One, which featured a cast of brand-new characters to the franchise, Solo will focus on one of the franchise’s best-known characters: Han Solo. Unlike The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi, Solo is a film that, up until recently, I kept forgetting would be the second Star Wars film to hit theaters in under six months. Those tendencies have translated into the Extended Universe novels as well, including A.C. Cr

Solo: A Star Wars Story hits theaters in just over a month. But unlike Rogue One, which featured a cast of brand-new characters to the franchise, Solo will focus on one of the franchise’s best-known characters: Han Solo. Unlike The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi, Solo is a film that, up until recently, I kept forgetting would be the second Star Wars film to hit theaters in under six months. Those tendencies have translated into the Extended Universe novels as well, including A.C. Cr

Well, now you can play a bunch more old Xbox 1 — as in the original Xbox — games. Back at E3 2015, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One would get backwards compatibility with select Xbox 360 games. Backwards compatibility is most useful when a console first comes out, because it means you can stop using the old one; who would care about playing 360 games two years into the Xbox One’s life? Original Xbox games are also now supported and get a 4x native resolution boost on the Xbox One and One S,

Well, now you can play a bunch more old Xbox 1 — as in the original Xbox — games. Back at E3 2015, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One would get backwards compatibility with select Xbox 360 games. Backwards compatibility is most useful when a console first comes out, because it means you can stop using the old one; who would care about playing 360 games two years into the Xbox One’s life? Original Xbox games are also now supported and get a 4x native resolution boost on the Xbox One and One S,

Many authors attempt comedy in science fiction, but few pull it off. Alongside very funny works like John Scalzi’s Redshirts and Terry Pratchett’s entire Discworld series, the pinnacle of hilarious science fiction is Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, about the misadventures of Arthur Dent as he travels across the universe. But Catherynne M. Valente’s new novel Space Opera might give it a run for its money, because it’s one of the funniest books that I’ve ever read. Valente sai