As most of you may know, I’m a speculative fiction writer. You’ve probably seen my tagline. It says that I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons …

Winner, 2019 Science Fiction & Technoculture Studies Book PrizeRadical Botany excavates a tradition in which plants participate in the effort to imagine ...

Worldbuilding might be a crucial part of your story, but it doesn't have to be hard. Good worldbuilding starts these six basics.

At this moment in time with uprisings against anti-Blackness happening in the US and all over the world, it feels urgent to focus on Black authors who are imagining Black futures. Plus, it was Octavia Butler's birthday on June 22!

What is speculative fiction? You may get a different answer depending on who you ask. Read on to explore this concept, along with examples.

At this moment in time with uprisings against anti-Blackness happening in the US and all over the world, it feels urgent to focus on Black authors who are imagining Black futures. Plus, it was Octavia Butler's birthday on June 22!

Kerine Wint is a software engineering graduate with more love for books than for computers. As an avid reader, writer, and fan of all things conten...

Release date: August 13, 2019 Subgenre: Feminist science fiction, Literary science fiction About Claiming T-Mo: In this lush interplanetary tale Novic is an immortal Sayneth priest who flouts the conventions of a matriarchal society by choosing a name for his child. This act initiates chaos that splits the boy in two, unleashing a Jekyll-and-Hyde child upon the universe. Named T-Mo by his mother and Odysseus by his father, the story spans the boy’s lifetime—from his early years with his mother Silhouette on planet Grovea to his travels to Earth where he meets and marries Salem, and together they bear a hybrid named Myra. The story unfolds through the eyes of these three distinctive women: Silhouette, Salem and Myra. As they confront their fears and navigate the treacherous paths to love and accept T-Mo/Odysseus and themselves, the darkness in Odysseus urges them to unbearable choices that threaten their very existence. Excerpt: Salem T-Mo happened exactly one week after the puzzle-piece woman with fifty-cent eyes. One night, black as misery, Salem Drew stood, arms wrapped about herself, at the bus depot three streets from the IGA where she worked late shifts. A bunch of commuters had just clambered onto a number 146 for Carnegie, and Salem found herself alone at the depot. She waited for a night express bus to take her back to a cheerless home that housed equally cheerless parents. An easy wind around her was just as dreary, foggy as lunacy. There, just then, the shadow of a woman’s face jumped into her vision. Salem blinked. Was the woman real or a figment of thought? Singular parts of her were easy to file, were possibly real: maroon hair, rugged skin the color of coffee beans. And the scar . . . But all put together, cohesion was lost. The puzzle-piece woman stood head lowered, quiet in the mist. When she raised her face, silver shimmered from one good eye, petite and round as a fifty-cent coin. The other eye was broken, feasibly some bygone injury. Even though it was as smooth and flawlessly round as the right eye, it held no sight. The coin perfection of its shape was embedded in scar tissue, disfigurement that needed nothing but a single glance to seal the hideousness of it. If Salem thought to speak, to ask, “Who are you? How long have you been standing there, watching me, and why?” the mighty keenness of the woman’s good telescopic eye, the one that filtered, turned inward, then came back at her without translation, threw it right out of Salem’s mind. Thunder like the hammering of a thousand hooves did it. Salem ran without a scream, all the way through all that night, never minding the night bus when it whooshed past. All she minded was the gobbling eye, and the unwarned sound of deep belly laughter that chased behind. Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads About Eugen Bacon: Eugen M. Bacon, MA, MSc, PhD, studied at Maritime Campus, less than two minutes' walk from The Royal Observatory of the Greenwich Meridian. A Computer graduate mentally re-engineered into creative writing, Eugen has published over 100 short stories and articles and multiple anthologies. Shortlisted Bridport Prize 2018. Honorable Mention L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest 2017. Her articles were nominated for the 2017 Aurealis Convenors Award for Excellence. Out soon: Creative non-fiction book with Macmillan International (2019). Literary speculative novel with Meerkat Press (2019). Chapter, multi-authored book: Creative Writing with Critical Theory: Inhabitation, Gylphi (2018). Eugen's work is published in literary and speculative journals, magazines & anthologies worldwide. She is also a professional editor, check out Writerly - editing services. Website | Blog About Meerkat Press: Meerkat Press is an independent publisher committed to finding and publishing exceptional, irresistible, unforgettable fiction. And despite the previous sentence, we frown on overuse of adjectives and adverbs in submissions. *smile* Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Pinterest

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A stunning new speculative-fiction book by Naomi Alderman couldn’t be more timely.

In an anthology that spans from India in the west to Hawai?i in the east, and as far south as Australia and New Zealand, 24 authors bring you an exciting range of tales set in the past, present, and future. Discover characters like the Moon Rabbit from Chinese mythology, a kitsune from Japanese mythology, and the aswang from Filipino mythology. Find out what arises when a struggling Malaysian student seeks help for her studies in Chinatown, and what happens when the garbage in the Pacific Ocean is seen as a valuable treasure. Futures imagined stretch from amazing advances in technology to depressing dystopias. Read these stories and so many more in Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction. Featuring stories by: Brett Adams, Jo Wu, Kris Williamson, Recle Etino Vibal, Tabitha Sin, Ailia Hopkins, KZ Morano, TR Napper, Terence Toh, Kawika Guillermo, Barry Rosenberg, Eeleen Lee, Jax Goss, Jo Thomas, Daniel A. Kelin II, Fadzlishah Johanabas, Shenoa Carroll-Bradd, Dominica Malcolm, Aashika Nair, Celeste A. Peters, Agnes Ong, Rebecca Freeman, NJ Magas, and Tom Barlow | Author: Dominica Malcolm | Publisher: Solarwyrm Press | Publication Date: Apr 30, 2014 | Number of Pages: 254 pages | Language: English | Binding: Paperback | ISBN-10: 0980508444 | ISBN-13: 9780980508444

In the aftermath of combat, post-traumatic stress creates changes in a warrior.

This All Come Back Now is the very first collection of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander speculative fiction - written, curated, edited, and designed from top to bottom by First Nations people.

From Bram Stoker to H.G. Wells, read a list of cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson's favorite book recommendations.

The Conductors Review. If you enjoy historical fiction with a fantasy twist, The Conductors is the book for you!

Anything you download is yours to use with unlimited distribution for production. Use your downloads anywhere, anyhow and as many times as you want for

Few things seem more pathetic than a science fiction writer who pines for the “good old days.” Just a whiff of that sort of crippling nostalgia sets off a red alert in the crackling mind of William Gibson, the novelist who coined the term “cyberspace” and is known for his piercing insights into what the […]

Release date: September 20, 2022 Subgenre: Epic Fantasy, Coming of Age About Mark of the Fool: The gods chose him. He said no. After his parents died, Alex Roth had one desire: become a wizard. Through hard work, he was accepted into the University of Generasi, the world’s greatest academy of wizardry... Fate, however, had other plans. On his eighteenth birthday, he is Marked by prophecy as one of his kingdom’s five Heroes, chosen to fight the Ravener, his land’s great enemy. But his brand is 'The Fool'. Worst of the marks. Rather than die or serve other Heroes like past Fools, he takes a stand, rejects divine decree…and leaves. With his little sister, his childhood friend, and her cerberus, Alex flees for the university, hoping to research the mystery of the Ravener. He’ll make lifelong friends, learn magic from mad wizards, practice alchemy, fight mana vampires and try to pay tuition. There’s one small problem. The Mark insists on preventing the Fool from learning and casting spells, while enhancing skills outside of divinity, combat, and spellcraft… …that is, unless he learns to exploit the hell out of it. Explore a coming of age magic academy fantasy with a weak-to-strong progression into power, a setting inspired by D&D, detailed world building and magical science, action, comedy, slice-of-life, and GameLit elements. With nearly 10 million views on Royal Road, this popular web-serial has been completely revised and relaunched into this definitive version now coming to Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible, narrated by Travis Baldree! Excerpt: “I can’t hear anything,” he whispered. “Exactly. The forest is never this quiet.” Theresa slipped back into the circle of firelight with Alex following close behind. She crept to her sleeping roll and rummaged through it. When she rose, she had tied her quiver to her belt and had her bow in hand. On her opposite hip gleamed two blades: her massive hunting knife and—to his surprise—one of her great-grandfather’s swords. As she silently went to wake Brutus, Alex moved near his sleeping sister and turned to peer into the trees opposite Theresa. This way, they’d be covering most directions. Or so he hoped. He willed his forceball to drift a few feet ahead of him. It illuminated the foliage beyond the reach of the fire with its red light. He injected a bit more mana into the circuit and the glow brightened. A low, ominous hum groaned from the orb. It seemed deafening in the silence. There was a scrambling as Brutus woke and rose to his feet, growling from all three heads. Selina groaned in her sleep. “Do you see anything?” Theresa asked. “No,” he said, willing the forceball to rise higher. The humming spell drifted until it was just below the branches of the forest canopy. Its light bathed the undergrowth ahead and branches above, but he could see no movement or shape up ahead. He swallowed saliva and fear. “You?” Brutus growled, rustling the grasses underfoot as he turned in place. “No,” Theresa admitted. “But something’s wrong.” Alex believed her. It was like ice crawling over his spine. Only, no matter how long he looked, he couldn’t see anything in the trees. He decided to risk a glance backward. “Theresa, what do you—” He stopped dead. She couldn’t see it from her position. Brutus couldn’t smell it either. But he could see it. The red glow of his orb outlined shadows in the trees above. There—sliding along the bark of an oak near Theresa’s side—was the shadow of a blade, long and wickedly curved. His gaze drifted higher until he was looking into the tree directly above him. Something was nestled among the branches, illuminated by the fire and the red light of the forceball. It looked like a cross between a spider and a giant crayfish. Its long, armoured tail wrapped around the tree trunk and each of its eight legs ended in long, scythe-like blades, which bit into the bark. Its front claws were pointed shears, long enough to cut Alex in half with one snip. Its jaws were wolf-like and devoid of lips to hide massive fangs. Despite its densely armoured exoskeleton, it crept down the side of the tree in an eerie silence. It paused, meeting his horrified eyes with eight dead, black orbs. Jaws were parting, and saliva shone in the crimson light. Alex screamed. It tensed. He grabbed his shocked little sister just before it lunged. Amazon | Audible About J.M. Clarke: J.M. Clarke is a fantasy writer and social worker located in southeastern Canada, focusing on short stories, novels and web serials in a variety of subgenres, including Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Progression Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery. His Sword & Sorcery tales include Vapours of Zinai, appearing in New Edge Issue #0, The Curse of Wine, appearing in A Book of Blades, as well as The Dreaming Sceptre, currently serialised online and due to be published to Amazon. His debut epic progression fantasy series—The Mark of the Fool, published by Aethon Books—for sale through Amazon and Audible. Patreon

On linguistics and language development in speculative fiction, with linguistics expert Christina Dalcher.

While all seventeen stories in New Suns brought something special to the anthology, the selection below are the ones that stood out to me during my read through.

The Best Of The Worst

Canadian speculative fiction writer Nalo Hopkinson about her new story collection Falling in Love with Hominids, and her genre's challenges when it comes to racial and gender diversity.

The 2023 Aurealis Awards have been annouced! Let's support Aussie authors of science fiction, fantasy and horror!

Kerine Wint (she/her) is a freelance writer, editor, and reviewer of speculative fiction for publications including FIYAH literary magazine, Goodre...

The multitalented author, journalist and editor pioneered horror, science fiction and fantasy writing at the turn of the 20th century. To elevate awareness of Hopkins in the 21st century, two of her novels have been reissued.

The finalists for the 2024 Nebula Award for Best Novel represent a diverse array of themes, settings, and storytelling styles, promising readers an immersive journey into the realms of science fiction and fantasy. From the mystical landscapes of "The Saint of Bright Doors" to the dystopian future depicted in "Translation State," each novel offers a unique perspective on the human condition and the wonders of the universe. As we delve into the pages of these exceptional works, we are transported to worlds where magic and technology intertwine, where heroes and villains clash in epic battles, and where the boundaries of imagination are pushed to their limits. Join me as we embark on an exploration of the Nebula Award finalists for Best Novel, where the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, and the possibilities are truly endless.

For educators seeking to help students understand the power of AI, fiction has become an indispensable teaching tool

From post-apocalyptic character studies to speculative paleontology, reviewer Annalee Newitz says this year's best science fiction stretches boundaries and crosses genres. She also sees a strong resurgence in political themes, with a focus on civilizations on the brink of transformation or collapse.

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This page seeks to categorize and organize each and every /lit/ reading chart to aid newcomers and those interested in certain fields of literature. You may find the full list of chart images in the Category:Charts page. (meme-charts in majority) /his/ charts there: https://imgur.com/a/7YLKv *Recommended Reading/sub *Recommended Reading Charts (by Author). Yeah Most of charts you can download here: ☀https://mega.nz/folder/kj5hWI6J#0cyw0-ZdvZKOJW3fPI6RfQ

Prepare to embark on a mind-bending journey through the multiverse with the highly anticipated Dark Matter science-fiction TV series that will soon be

Warren Ellis is a writer. You may know him from Transmetropolitan , his acclaimed cyberpunk comic book series about a gonzo journalist, or from his

When I was scrolling through the images that was Louis Fratino's brilliant In bed and abroad exhibition on view at Sikkema Jenkins, it was like the be...