Paolo Bacigalupi's Tool of War examines questions of biological determinism, free will and the unforeseen consequences of genetic engineering.
If you have a craving for lush, high-fantasy there is no one better than Patricia A. McKillip
This Friday the 13th the Fiction Unbounders discuss their favorite Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and how these tales became the source material for favorite childhood nightmares.
If you have a craving for lush, high-fantasy there is no one better than Patricia A. McKillip
Rounding out our coverage of the 2017 Hugo winners, with special congratulations to Lois McMaster Bujold for winning the first-ever "Best Series" Hugo Award.
In Miller's poignant debut novel the power to control and the power to discover truth are superhuman abilities in a world where everything is in doubt.
The Unbound Writers appreciate Hugo Award nominee short stories.
This week we take a peek at the year’s best novellas. The Unbound Writers threw the titles of the Hugo Award nominations for Best Novella into a hat and passed it around. We found they're all worth a read.
No one is reading more dark fiction than Ellen Datlow. Her knowledge of the horror genre is deeper than mine or yours.
Helen Oyeyemi proving once again that she is a magical fairy tale spinner with her short story collection, What is Not Yours is Not Yours.
Brenna Yovanoff's Gothic monsters are full of teeth, and she is an author full of surprises.
In praise of complicated heroes in Ken Liu's epic fantasy.
It's Lent. What better time to contemplate Catholics in space? Theodore McCombs and CS Peterson discuss The Sparrow, A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Book of Strange, New Things.
The Reader is a meta-meditation on the mystical act of reading itself. With pirates. And assassins.
Family, identity, and the trouble with relatives living and dead.
Gemma Webster and Theodore McCombs conclude their three-part appreciation of Octavia Butler's groundbreaking Xenogenesis trilogy.
After a politically tumultuous 2016, Jon seeks solace in the fantasy worlds of Beth Cato and V.E. Schwab.
Our favorite books and posts from Year Two.
In our second appreciation of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, we look at the second generation of Lilith's Brood and his embrace of self-determinism, even at the highest costs.
Is the world ready to say goodbye to the docile black man trope?
Unbound Writers, Theodor McCombs and Gemma Webster, bring you the first installment of their appreciation of the Xenogenesis trilogy: Dawn
Fairy tale elements and symbolism in Yaa Gyasi's debut, Homegoing
If you could communicate with the past without changing the present, would you do it? Of course you would.
Authors love to taunt troubled characters with mirrors.
Go big or go home when you're writing about opera.
The interactive nature of video games may not make for the purest, strongest story telling, but this year's E3 proves again games are creating some of the most ambitious speculative universes you can find.
Trivial fiends and ordinary grace in Hilary Mantel's literary fright show.
Two appreciations of Gold Fame Citrus, the debut novel from Claire Vaye Watkins.
Nevada and California battle over water rights on the Colorado River while the city of Phoenix lies in ashes in Paolo Bacigalupi’s post-apocalyptic novel.
Paolo Bacigalupi, the master of the dire sci-fi future, visits Fiction Unbound to talk about black-swan events, speculative fiction's power to contextualize the present, and what he has learned about his own creative process.
It broke my heart, but I did it anyway. I bought an anthology of 72 time travel stories even though not a single one of them was by Jack Finney.
Zelazny's works are essential speculative fiction classics and represent an important step in the evolution of science fiction and fantasy. He mixed various genres to produce entertaining, trail-blazing, genre-bending fiction.
Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology pairs perfectly with a visit to “Vikings: Beyond the Legend” at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Need some book recommendations for Valentine's Day? Well, frak, don't ask us.
Enjoy a well-deserved rest with the Unbound Writers and enjoy this five-hour Darth Vader Yule Log.
Magic and miracles on a long dark night. We recommend some great books to keep you and yours company until the sun returns.
"Luminous beings are we," says Yoda. Star Wars and the Power of Costume at the Denver Art Museum celebrates the creative process that brought to life a modern myth.
Looking to lose a little time? The best links from around the web, according to us. This edition is dedicated to readers--our most favorite people!
Ah, summer! It stretches out before us with plenty of lazy afternoons to get lost in a book. But what to read? We have a few suggestions.
What would you pack for the end of the world?
Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Charles Lambert's The Children's Home both want to know, "Are you my mummy?" (and if you're not, then please tell me where you've stashed her and DON'T mention poison).
The Unbound Writers read a lot of speculative fiction, but listening to it sometimes adds another layer of satisfaction. Here are some of our faves.
The holidays are all about magic and miracles in the midst of a cold dark night. What better way to while away the evenings than with a book that leads you into dreams of other worlds? Books are the perfect gift. The writers here at Fiction Unbound have suggestions for every speculative fan on your list.
Ever notice how your books sometimes talk to you? No? Well, maybe it's just us here at Fiction Unbound.
Looking for a great summer read? The Unbound Writers have you covered. (Photo by EM Gonzalez.)
Fiction Unbound went to its first Comic Con last weekend, and our Unbound contributors are here to talk cosplay, comics artists, and the special salience of our nerdiest literary medium.
Many people have read Witi Ihimaera's book, Whale Rider, or seen the movie adaptation of the same name. Paikea’s whale riding legend informs the story throughout as the original whale rider. But there is more to the tale than just Paikea riding a whale.
In honor of speculative-fiction venerable Jules Verne, born this day in 1828, here are three stories of submarine adventures from long, long before the Nautilus.
Paolo Bacigalupi's Tool of War examines questions of biological determinism, free will and the unforeseen consequences of genetic engineering.
Carmen Maria Machado's astonishing short story collection queers reality itself.
The Twilight Pariah, part ghost story, part murder mystery, swings from the craftily conventional to the truly inventive.
Whether reading online or listening to podcasts during your commute, some of the best writing in speculative fiction is debuting in online venues.
Jeff VanderMeer's new novel is a rare science fiction treasure.
In the second book of Sarah Beth Durst's The Queens of Renthia fantasy series, an ordinary woman finds that to save her family she may first have to save the world.
Native American ghost story? Psychological thriller? Portrait of a young mind struggling to cope with unspeakable grief and existential rage? Stephen Graham Jones's haunting novella is all of the above, and more.
Death's End brings Chinese science fiction luminary Cixin Liu's mind-blowing trilogy to its inevitable and spectacular end.
Catherynne M. Valente's salty collection of comic-book women in refrigerators, reviewed.
Fiction Unbound's 2017 summer reading recommendations. Look no further for great speculative fiction to dive into this summer.
Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology pairs perfectly with a visit to “Vikings: Beyond the Legend” at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Lidia Yuknavitch's dystopian fever dream, reviewed.
Fiction Unbound staff close the books for a night of adaptation television with Neil Gaiman's American Gods' premiere on Starz
Fiction Unbound reviews Ann Claycomb's debut novel The Mermaid's Daughter
Think fairies are cute? Not when Sarah Beth Durst gets a hold of them. These woodland sprites have a bite. Only one woman will be able to keep these wild things under control, will it be our hero?
The Seven Autopsies of Nora Hanneman is a haunting collection of surreal turns and beautiful emotional honesty.
It's Lent. What better time to contemplate Catholics in space? Theodore McCombs and CS Peterson discuss The Sparrow, A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Book of Strange, New Things.
"The Expanse" frightens and thrills with a plot as old as literature: an unstoppable monster threatens to kill everyone but is resisted by imperfect heroes.
Unbound Writers Gemma Webster and Jon Horwitz-White pit text against film.
Rogue One shows how the Star Wars prequels (Episodes I-III) could have worked.
Fiction Unbound attended MileHiCon and Unbound Writers Lisa Mahoney and CS Peterson contributed to its fund-raising anthology, “Adventures in Zookeeping".
Fiction Unbound interviews Erika Johansen about the role of religion in a democracy, the rise of powerful women protagonists, and more.
Think cyberpunk is passé? Think again. Nisi Shawl, Paolo Bacigalupi, Saladin Ahmed and others reboot the genre in this collection of tales of humanity's tomorrow.
Star-crossed lovers, interstellar corporations run amok, biological warfare, artificial intelligence with a god complex ... what could possibly go wrong?
Paradoxes and chains of suspicion abound in the second book of Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy.
Chaos reigns in the second book of Sabaa Tahir's dystopian fantasy series.
Further appreciation of a century of science fiction from around the world. (Part 2 of 2.)
A century of science fiction stories from around the world, collected in an anthology so expansive our editors need two weeks to fully appreciate it. (Part 1 of 2.)
Authors love to taunt troubled characters with mirrors.
Go big or go home when you're writing about opera.
What do Logan, the noir-Western superhero film featuring the classic brooding antihero of the X-Men, and Hillbilly Elegy, the memoir by J.D. Vance, have in common? Put on some Jonny Cash, pour yourself a bourbon and let's talk.
An Unbound writer comes back from the Clarion SF/F Writers Workshop and into a dystopian moment.
Steven Millhauser's short story "Phantoms” invites readers to consider the phantoms that haunt them. Jon considers his phantoms and how they expose his complicity in perpetuating prejudice against trans people.
At the cultural crossroads of Cambodian folklore, belief and speculative literature, with emerging author Kay Chronister
After a politically tumultuous 2016, Jon seeks solace in the fantasy worlds of Beth Cato and V.E. Schwab.
Gem and Jon wade through the tired tropes that television can’t get enough of.
Is the world ready to say goodbye to the docile black man trope?
Lisa Mahoney looks for common themes in Bhutanese folktales and finds... the phallus town.
The ambitious cosplay of devoted fans, contrasted to the quiet insecurities of blockbuster writers.
Panelists at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop's LitFest '16 debate “The Resurrection of Dystopian Lit,” and The Unbound Writers speculate.
An ambitious masterpiece of Chinese science fiction, reviewed.
Speculative fiction’s disruptive potential, and an Unbound dispatch from #AWP16
Time travel novels Kindred and The River of No Return question how the evolving ethics of society shape our sense of self.
In "Revolt 1680/2180," an exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, artist Virgil Ortiz explores a post-apocalyptic world informed by the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680, where the future echoes the past.
Questions of corruption and its ability to change and control us take center stage in Naomi Novik's latest, Uprooted, which reminds us how easy it can be to forget to see the (evil) forest for the (evil) trees.
This Friday the 13th the Fiction Unbounders discuss their favorite Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and how these tales became the source material for favorite childhood nightmares.