Yellow Card Man by Paolo Bacigalupi

If you’re not familiar with Bacigalupi’s first novel, The Windup Girl (which won just about every award under the sun), Continue reading →

The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories by Neil Gaiman

Following on from yesterday, here’s an equally disastrous look at a writer’s encounter with Hollywood. While fictional, the main thread Continue reading →

Somehow, I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore, Toto by Harlan Ellison

I’d never heard of the TV show ‘The Starlost’ before I found this essay. By Ellison’s account, the show is Continue reading →

26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss by Kij Johnson

Aimee has a circus trick. A bathtub is hoisted ten feet above the stage, 26 monkeys climb into it via Continue reading →

The Macbeth Murder Mystery by James Thurber

The high concept: an avid reader of murder mysteries reads Macbeth, and tries to figure out who really killed King Continue reading →

The Horror of the Heights by Arthur Conan Doyle

I love this. I remember exactly when I first read this, because I ran downstairs to my pilot housemate and Continue reading →

The Bottle: A Provincial Tale by Charlotte Hobson

 “Overnight, and against all precepts of logic, Mayor Vyipivkin had turned into a vodka bottle – and an empty one Continue reading →

Flowers of Edo by Bruce Sterling

I love how quickly Sterling conjures up an atmosphere of nineteenth-century Japan; you feel like you’re standing in the streets Continue reading →