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Language is connection. Luckily—given that there are over seven thousand languages on Earth, not counting the fictional ones—communication is still possible without sharing one. In fact, sometimes a difference of language can lead to a more complex connection than a shared language. Below are five times when different languages are used in interesting ways. The
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Few TV writers’ names are as marquee-friendly as ‘Gene Roddenberry’. In that original Star Trek title sequence, his screen credit zooms in before even William Shatner’s. In 1985, he became the first ever TV writer to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ask any keen TV watcher who Gene Roddenberry is
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If there’s one thing publishers, authors, and readers agree on, it’s that everybody loves a series. The characters you’ve grown to admire, the world you’ve learned how to travel without asking for directions, the best hole-in-the-wall tavern selling deep-fried lembas on a stick – why would you ever leave? But I also love trilogies, which
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Fantasy author Sharon Shinn once told me that all authors have a “thing” they write about. “Your thing,” she said, “is death. And what comes after.” Okay, fair. I grew up on Beetlejuice and the Addams Family and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, so my sense of the macabre and my sense of humor are often indistinguishable.
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Content Warning: Graphic Depictions of Nature Let me paint a scene. It’s 2017 and I’m in a courtroom in Pasadena, California, trying the country’s first lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson for selling baby powder with asbestos in it. We’re seven weeks in. The defense has an expert on the stand. I’ve cross-examined her before, know
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For those of you who stared in wide-eyed awe at the haunting 2021 movie adaptation of Dune, with its vast starships, miniscule killer drones, and sophisticated survival suits, it is sometimes a shock to discover that the novel on which it is based was published as long ago as 1965, four years before humans landed
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The latest poster and trailer for Netflix’s sci-fi adventure movie, The Adam Project, really hit on those Amblin vibes as Ryan Reynolds travels from the future to meet his younger self. Check out the trailer here… <span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”>&#xFEFF;</span> The Adam Project sees time-traveling pilot teams up with his
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Fantasy and science fiction are the genres where we can imagine absolutely anything – so why don’t we more frequently imagine matriarchal societies as the settings for our stories? The good news is that within the matriarchy-centered novels that do exist, there’s something to please everyone. Do you prefer your fantasy novels as long as
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I do love a premise that burrows into your mind and lingers. One that nags at your subconscious because, even though you know it’s fiction, the ideas are so plausible, you can’t help thinking they might actually come true… It’s something I aspire to in my own writing, and the following are great examples. Jurassic
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Check out our exclusive video of author Ben Aaronovitch talking about his favourite characters in his bestselling Rivers Of London series with the book’s audio narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith while… on a river in London! Watch our exclusive video here… <span data-mce-type=”bookmark” style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;” class=”mce_SELRES_start”>&#xFEFF;</span> This year marks the 10th
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If something is supernatural, you can pretty much just hand it over to me immediately because I love paranormal worlds. I’m pretty ride-or-die about my favourite paranormal romance or fantasy books, but that’s not the only place I love to find sexy vampires and witches. Here are my top five sexy vampires and witches in
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When I think about my favourite movie psychopaths, my mind, like many, jumps instantly to the likes of Hannibal Lecter. Or Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Or Kevin Khatchadourian in We Need To Talk About Kevin. Tom Noonan’s portrayal of Francis Dolarhyde in Manhunter still haunts me. If you think of real-life serial killers, you can very quickly rattle off a few names like Manson and Bundy and Dahmer and Gacy… Feels
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