A couple of weeks ago, I went with a group of friends to see the (London) National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein. The play has attracted a lot of attention for several reasons: it’s a return to theatre direction for Danny Boyle after film success with Slumdog Millionaire; it stars two high-profile actors in Jonny Lee [...]

In this Locus podcast, we have Elizabeth Hand calling in from Maine, and Gary K. Wolfe in a not-freezing Chicago. Within the hour they discuss topics such as MFA programs, YA literature and its community, Rimbaud, and places which have a bit more magic to them than others.

The 2010 Nebula Award nominee list is out! This gives us our first chance to examine some lists and look for overlap. I’ve marked all the stories that appear both on the Nebula ballot and the Locus Recommended Reading list with asterisks [**]. Of course, it’s pretty easy to overlap with the Recommended Reading List, [...]

Last December, there was a particularly impressive art show in San Francisco. You can see a sample below, and you can go to The Undivided Mind for more pictures. [Via Nukees]

Once again I turned to our Roundtable panelists with a question: A couple of weeks ago, our own Jonathan Strahan was so bold as to voice his dislike of the term ‘speculative fiction’ on his Coode St. podcast. Reactions came fast and furious, from Galactic Suburbia, Cheryl Morgan and Cat Valente–and probably others. It seems [...]

In this Locus podcast, we have Andy Duncan calling in from Frostburg State University in Maryland, and Ellen Klages in San Francisco. Their conversation is wide-ranging and eclectic, including: Moby Dick, doing background research, pleasure reading, genre labels, awards juries, reading to learn how to write, and more. I hope you’ll enjoy listening as much [...]

Not strictly related to sf, but… I’ve said in a couple of different contexts that one of the things I’m least interested in as a critic is questions of definition, not least because definitions literally applied always tend to lead to silly conclusions. (Fantasy has to include fantastical elements? So Gormenghast isn’t fantasy, then? Science [...]

Connie Willis is answering questions about Blackout and All Clear over at io9.com. Daryl Gregory will be writing a new Planet of the Apes comic book story, and will also be writing an essay on Philip K. Dick for Issue #16 of the adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Greg Egan has released [...]

The online Locus poll and survey ballot for 2011 is now live. Voting is open through April 15th. Though the format and implementation is the same as last year, it’s a long and complex page of HTML so I did check it in several different browsers, to make sure there are no problems. (IE, Firefox, [...]

The 2010 Recommended Reading List is here! As well as directing you to the main list, I’d also like to highlight the short fiction that’s currently available online: Novellas The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean Press) The Taborin Scale, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press) “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window“, [...]