3+ hour, 43+ min ago (118+ words) Hi all! This question is in honor of a relative who recommended me this book. Can you help me find it again? All I can remember is human computers.What I remember about the book: It was science fiction. There were human computers (at the time I didn't know that human computers had been a thing and was really impressed by the concept) There were competing kingdoms or something that had harnessed the power of computers to some extent. There were some kind of relay towers to transmit information. I remember the main characters being powerful and female? It wasn't a particularly old book. Probably 80s or later. Any ideas? Thank you. Help me find this SF book...

14+ hour ago (1033+ words) SANTA CRUZ " Having grown up in Kolkata, India, author Megha Majumdar said she has seen the impacts of climate change firsthand, and she has continued to monitor those impacts even as she moved to the United States. "I was reading about the future of that city because it is one of the cities in the world which is most severely affected by climate change," she said. "It has grown hotter, and it is predicted to see more storms. Reading about that made me wonder about the lived experience of those effects of climate change." Majumdar's love of writing stemmed from her lifelong love of reading which had a profound effect on her life. Growing up in India, English was not her first language " her family spoke Bengali " but in her kindergarten class, she had to learn English. "I was actually…...

20+ hour, 47+ min ago (925+ words) Developing a story problem So, now that the machine and the character have been set up, what is the story problem?" Perhaps this machine is experimental, and our character is testing it on himself in case there are glitches. Conscience prevents him from trying it on anyone else first. But when he realizes it works, he gets excited and tells his wife. So what's the problem? Well, how about this: his wife was a widow when he married her. She decides to go back into the past to watch her interactions with her first husband. She does this several times and she doesn't tell her second husband, the time machine inventor. But as both of them continue to use the machine, she slowly realizes that they are beginning to forget things. It's subtle at first, but it's clear the machine…...

1+ day, 14+ hour ago (429+ words) Neuromancer is a classic cyberpunk novel written by William Gibson in 1984 and is now being adapted into a TV series by Apple TV+. It is also said that the book has contributed to the development of the whole genre of cyberpunk and has influenced numerous sci-fi works, films, and even the manner in which we have come to think about AI. For many years, the fans referred to it as unfilmable due to its non-linear world and concepts. However, this time around, with talented artists and powerful production teams in the background, Apple is attempting to bring the neon high-tech world of Gibson to the screen. Neuromancer will be a combination of futuristic espionage, poignant emotional suspense, and a shadowy, noir mood. It attempts to remain faithful to the spirit of the novel but puts a spin on the tale…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago (64+ words) The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America Publication date: Aug. 2025 Publication date: June 2025 In Search of the Disappearing Darkness Publication date: March 2026 (pre-order now) Asteroids, solar flares and cosmic threats facing Earth Author: Dr. Ryan French Publication date: Sept. 2025 Images and Discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope Publication date: October 2025...

2+ day, 3+ hour ago (251+ words) The New Scientist Book Club is currently reading the late Iain M. Banks's Culture novel The Player of Games. Fellow science fiction author Bethany Jacobs reveals how his work inspired her The late Iain M. Banks, author of the Culture series of science fiction novelsRay Charles Redman As a writer of space operas set in foreign universes, I've always written exhaustive world-building documents, everything from character graphs to hyper-detailed plot outlines to encyclopaedic entries on the cultures I'm creating. This is an essential part of my process, and I've studied some of the best: the late Iain M. Banks, who died in 2013, was an astounding world-builder. Rereading the best science fiction writers of all time: Iain M. Banks At his best, Iain M. Banks could be extraordinarily stylish, inventive and downright funny. So how does his genre-redefining science fiction stand up to the test of…...

2+ day, 23+ hour ago (1541+ words) Who Is Mr. Whatsit in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1 , and What Does He Have to do with Vecna? What is Mr. Whatsit's Connection to A Wrinkle in Time ? Where Did Vecna Physically Take Holly in the Upside Down? What Is the Upside Down's Flesh Wall in Stranger Things 5 ? Where Did Mr. Whatsit/Vecna Leave Holly's Mind in Stranger Things 5, Volume 1? Why Is Max Locked Inside Vecna's Memory Prison? Why Won't Henry Enter Max's Cave in Stranger Things 5 , Volume 1? What is Henry's Worst Memory? What Did the Stranger Things Stage Play The First Shadow Reveal About Vecna? Is the Upside Down Different from Dimension X? How Did Will Byers See Through Vecna's Eyes in Stranger Things 5 , Volume 1? Why Does Vecna Want Exactly 12 Kids on Stranger Things 5 ? Any child who had read A Wrinkle in Time would have certainly trusted his name, but…...

3+ day, 4+ hour ago (1381+ words) Any child who had read A Wrinkle in Time would have certainly trusted his name, but Henry Creel/Vecna was the total opposite of the character he borrowed that moniker from in Stranger Things 5. A Wrinkle in Time is a classic 1962 young adult sci-fi novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It's a wonderful, creative story about a battle between good and evil taking place across the universe. In Stranger Things 5, Vecna/Henry Creel takes his name, Mr. Whatsit, from A Wrinkle in Time's benevolent character, Mrs. Whatsit. The obvious connections to Stranger Things don't end there. After leaving Camazotz, Meg returns to the planet to free her captured brother, who remains hypnotized by IT. She frees him with love, much like Max's friends freed her from the Upside Down. After posing as Mr. Whatsit and gaining her trust in Stranger Things 5, Volume…...

3+ day, 7+ hour ago (207+ words) Now that the first volume of Season 5 is here, we finally have answers, although they arrive in a way that is far more surreal and emotional than anyone expected. Before we get there, here is your reminder that everything below this point contains major spoilers for Volume I of Stranger Things Season 5. Spoiler warning for Volume I of Stranger Things Season 5below! Once Henry is gone, Holly notices that the mailbox outside the Creel house has its flag raised. Inside, she finds a handwritten map with a note that reads "I need your help. Meet me at the X" signed "Henry." Believing she is doing exactly what he asked, she follows the trail into the woods. The deeper she goes, the more unsettled she becomes, convinced that someone is following her. The figure approaching her turns out to be Max. This…...

3+ day, 17+ hour ago (391+ words) Coming to you from around the world, VICE Digital's team strives to capture the people at the heart of stories, and focus on the ideas, issues, and context that other outlets miss. In 1986, the world was introduced to an author by the name of R.L. Stine'or so they thought. His debut novel, Blind Date, was a hit with young adults and launched his career as a horror writer. A few years after that, he created the Fear Street series of horror novels, and a few years after Fear Street came Goosebumps. Both became massively successful franchises, with the Goosebumps books selling more than 400 million copies to date. But Stine wasn't a complete unknown when he wrote Blind Date. In fact, he'd been a writer for over two decades at that point. He worked on whatever projects he could in his early…...