That influence extends beyond just fantasy novels: an English artist is using Tolkien’s style to reimagine the UK’s national parks for his own beautiful maps. After receiving positive feedback from friends, he thought about adapting the art style to some real world locations, such as the UK’s national parks. To start his maps, Bell says that he works from an open source Ordnance Survey map, and begins drawing by hand. Presently, Bell has adapted a handful of the UK’s national parks, as well as p

For the past couple of years, I’ve been hooked on Marko Kloos’ military science fiction Frontlines series. The series authentically captures military culture, providing a glimpse into a lifestyle that the civilian world rarely sees through a sci-fi lens. Rather than just play out Cold War tensions in space, Kloos throws his characters a curve ball: aliens. Grayson, Halley, and their crew discover that an unknown species has appeared on a colonial planet, and they don’t have good intentions. Whil

For the past couple of years, I’ve been hooked on Marko Kloos’ military science fiction Frontlines series. The series authentically captures military culture, providing a glimpse into a lifestyle that the civilian world rarely sees through a sci-fi lens. Rather than just play out Cold War tensions in space, Kloos throws his characters a curve ball: aliens. Grayson, Halley, and their crew discover that an unknown species has appeared on a colonial planet, and they don’t have good intentions. Whil

Then, after five years with the company, she took on a much more ambitious kind of project, composing the soundtrack to Panzer Dragoon Saga. And while Kobayashi has had a long and successful career since, Panzer Dragoon Saga is arguably her defining work. Next week will see the debut of a new, rearranged version of the Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack, one overseen by Kobayashi herself. (Called Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga, the album is available for preorder now and will debut on January 29t

Then, after five years with the company, she took on a much more ambitious kind of project, composing the soundtrack to Panzer Dragoon Saga. And while Kobayashi has had a long and successful career since, Panzer Dragoon Saga is arguably her defining work. Next week will see the debut of a new, rearranged version of the Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack, one overseen by Kobayashi herself. (Called Resurrection: Panzer Dragoon Saga, the album is available for preorder now and will debut on January 29t

Each of the Toy-Con accessories has an associated interactive experience that involves the Joy-Con controllers. The most remarkable of the lineup of Labo accessories I saw was a functional 13-key cardboard piano. “There is an opportunity for this to go quite broad.”For Nintendo, Labo offers an opportunity to continue to broaden its audience. “We see this as helping in our quest to broaden the audience for Nintendo Switch,” says Fils-Aimé. But as strange as Nintendo Labo sounds at first, when you

From a hardware perspective, Project Linda is more or less a modified Razer Blade Stealth (albeit one that is 0.05-inches thicker, so the Razer Phone lies flush). There are a couple other changes to accommodate the peculiarities of how the Razer Phone works. There’s no power button, since the side-mounted power button / fingerprint sensor on the Razer Phone serves in that role instead. Similarly, there are no speakers on the Project Linda hardware, since Razer is using the Razer Phone’s stereo s

From a hardware perspective, Project Linda is more or less a modified Razer Blade Stealth (albeit one that is 0.05-inches thicker, so the Razer Phone lies flush). There are a couple other changes to accommodate the peculiarities of how the Razer Phone works. There’s no power button, since the side-mounted power button / fingerprint sensor on the Razer Phone serves in that role instead. Similarly, there are no speakers on the Project Linda hardware, since Razer is using the Razer Phone’s stereo s

As the technology industry continues to react to two major CPU bugs, we’re starting to see early signs of performance issues from security patches designed to fix the problems. Epic Games has released a chart of CPU usage after it patched its back-end services to address the Meltdown vulnerability. “All of our cloud services are affected by updates required to mitigate the Meltdown vulnerability,” says an Epic Games spokesperson in a forum post. Intel has been rolling out firmware updates to pro

But Mike Brooks’ Keiko novels could help fill the gap. The ongoing series began in 2015, and so far, it’s composed of Dark Run, Dark Sky, and Dark Deeds. The books follow the misadventures of Captain Ichabod Drift, a reformed pirate who now runs the freelance cargo ship Keiko. In the follow-up Dark Sky, a crime boss named Sergei Orlov hires Drift and his crew to visit a mining world called Uragan to retrieve some information for him. Dark Sky is probably the weakest entry in the series, but it’s

But Mike Brooks’ Keiko novels could help fill the gap. The ongoing series began in 2015, and so far, it’s composed of Dark Run, Dark Sky, and Dark Deeds. The books follow the misadventures of Captain Ichabod Drift, a reformed pirate who now runs the freelance cargo ship Keiko. In the follow-up Dark Sky, a crime boss named Sergei Orlov hires Drift and his crew to visit a mining world called Uragan to retrieve some information for him. Dark Sky is probably the weakest entry in the series, but it’s

As the technology industry continues to react to two major CPU bugs, we’re starting to see early signs of performance issues from security patches designed to fix the problems. Epic Games has released a chart of CPU usage after it patched its back-end services to address the Meltdown vulnerability. “All of our cloud services are affected by updates required to mitigate the Meltdown vulnerability,” says an Epic Games spokesperson in a forum post. Intel has been rolling out firmware updates to pro

But where The Handmaid’s Tale casts real-world misogyny in a harsh dystopian light, The Power exposes power hierarchies that we take for granted by reversing them. It’s a quick read that nonetheless feels like a sea change in modern feminist science fiction. In the years since, he’s worked on a companion book — which turned into a trilogy — called The Book of Dust. Skullsworn is a standalone entry in the world, unveiling the origins of one of the characters we met in earlier novels. In All Syste

But where The Handmaid’s Tale casts real-world misogyny in a harsh dystopian light, The Power exposes power hierarchies that we take for granted by reversing them. It’s a quick read that nonetheless feels like a sea change in modern feminist science fiction. In the years since, he’s worked on a companion book — which turned into a trilogy — called The Book of Dust. Skullsworn is a standalone entry in the world, unveiling the origins of one of the characters we met in earlier novels. In All Syste

It was a call for seniors interested in joining an e-sports team, with the goal of competing in a Counter Strike tournament at the Dreamhack digital festival in Sweden. At 62-years-old, she was the youngest member of the team, but all the members had something in common beyond their age: none had ever played Counter Strike before. The team is coached by former Counter Strike pro Tommy “Potti” Ingemarsson who, since retiring from playing, has started working as a manager. Even Idenfors’ husband h

It was a call for seniors interested in joining an e-sports team, with the goal of competing in a Counter Strike tournament at the Dreamhack digital festival in Sweden. At 62-years-old, she was the youngest member of the team, but all the members had something in common beyond their age: none had ever played Counter Strike before. The team is coached by former Counter Strike pro Tommy “Potti” Ingemarsson who, since retiring from playing, has started working as a manager. Even Idenfors’ husband h

It removes the Title II designation, preventing the FCC from putting tough net neutrality rules in place even if it wanted to. Supporters of net neutrality have long argued that, without these rules, internet providers will be able to control traffic in all kinds of anti-competitive ways. Net neutrality supporters are almost certain to sue the commission in an attempt to invalidate this proceeding and restore the 2015 net neutrality rules. This is the first time in more than a decade that the FC

It removes the Title II designation, preventing the FCC from putting tough net neutrality rules in place even if it wanted to. Supporters of net neutrality have long argued that, without these rules, internet providers will be able to control traffic in all kinds of anti-competitive ways. Net neutrality supporters are almost certain to sue the commission in an attempt to invalidate this proceeding and restore the 2015 net neutrality rules. This is the first time in more than a decade that the FC

Power armor and exoskeletons are a staple in science fiction. But not every set of power armor is equal, and there are some that might be better to come up against than others. These suits carry with them a small fusion reactor for power, and can deflect laser blasts and conventional rounds. Almost every instance of power armor in popular culture comes from Heinlein’s use. Space Marine Power Armor, Warhammer 40KWhile it’s hard to beat Heinlein’s mobile infantry, the Space Marines of Warhammer 40

Babylon’s Ashes wrapped up many of the existing threads from those two trilogies well enough that it could have satisfyingly concluded the series, which puts Persepolis Rising in an interesting place. While I would recommend reading the rest of the series, Persepolis Rising covers its most important plot points. At the start of Persepolis Rising, the solar system has found an equilibrium. Persepolis Rising is all about the sudden arrival of an authoritarian force that seeks to utterly dominate t