Chuck Klosterman’s Rock* Makes Rock Music History Wobble
The further Chuck Klosterman’s alternative music history Rock* travels from its first impossible assumption, the more plausible its cultural logic becomes.
speculative fiction
Solace House’s Unsettling Tale of Coming-of-Age in Liminal Spaces
The horror in Will Maclean’s Solace House is informed by preoccupations as diverse as Usborne Books’ Mysteries of the Unknowm, The Backrooms, Shirley Jackson, and Donna Tartt.
Pantheon’s House of High-Tech Mirrors
The post-human speculative sci-fi series Pantheon asks, can humanity recognize itself in its digital reflection?
Premee Mohamed’s Sci-Fi ‘We Speak Through the Mountain’ Is a Call for Cooperation
Premee Mohamed’s We Speak Through the Mountain is a school story set in a future that looks startlingly close to our times, sentient fungal infections notwithstanding.
Naomi Novik’s Fantastical Feminist Worlds
Award-winning speculative fiction writer Naomi Novik’s short stories are collected in Buried Deep, revealing the range of her fantastical feminist worlds.
Margaret Atwood’s ‘Old Babes in the Wood’ Fears Nothing
Margaret Atwood’s Old Babes in the Wood brims with biting humor, precise detail, and incisive observations about life and aging.
Eight Great Speculative Fiction Books by Women
Need a break from so-called reality? These eight speculative fiction authors represent the best of the best in the sci-fi genre.
A Man, a Woman, a Brooding Replicant and Readership: On Ian McEwan’s ‘Machines Like Me’
Purists who see Ian McEwan's comments about science fiction and his novel, Machines Like Me, as a slight against their beloved literary genre are missing the point.
Of Botany, Hacking, Biosurveillance, and Boredom; Or, Pola Oloixarac’s ‘Dark Constellations’
Pola Oloixarac's Dark Constellations is what the late Michael Crichton might have written if he had grown up in Argentina and fancied himself a high postmodernist.
Speculation and Responsibility in ‘A People’s Future of the United States’
Speculative futures should go beyond merely reflecting the fears peddled by news and social media. Anthology A People's Future of the United States at times pushes those boundaries.
Difficult Wonders in Joyce Carol Oates’ ‘Beautiful Days’
Of these short story jewels, Oates displays her greatest strengths in "Fractal", and the effects are profoundly strange and moving in ways that only she can seem to execute.
Joy, Complacency, and Apocalyptic Future in ‘Kurt Vonnegut’s Stories
>”So it goes” was a phrase VKurt onnegut used in Slaughterhouse Five as a sort of mantra, accepting chaos and embracing the possibility of wonder once darkness passes. It’s a suitable way to end this embrace of his stories.