Tagged sci fi
May 30 2026
A Sci-Fi Bar Crawl Through “Mass Effect: The Official Cocktail Book”
The Mass Effect video games are some of my favorite sci-fi content and one of my partner’s favorite video game series (we named our cat Tali!), so when we learned about Mass Effect: The Official Cocktail Book, we were pretty excited. There are a number of bars in the games that serve as backdrops…
Apr 18 2025
The Sci-Fi Predictions of “Planetes” Ring True 20 Years Later
Hard science fiction isn’t the first genre that comes to mind when I think about anime. Battle shōnen? Naturally. Magical girl? Staple. Isekai? What isn’t isekai these days? Even if an anime is classified as a sci-fi, it usually has some fantastical elements. And don’t get me wrong—I love fantasy in…
Mar 31 2025
“Tomorrow and I” Offers Surprising Depth with Its Sci-Fi Stereotypes
I went into Tomorrow and I, a Thai anthology series streaming on Netflix, expecting campy sci-fi and a good laugh with friends. Instead, I walked away feeling seen in a way I didn’t know I was craving, having experienced representation on the screen in one of the most profound pieces of transgender…
Feb 28 2023
Showrunner Trey Callaway on Mercy Point, an Undeservedly Forgotten Sci-Fi Gem
In 1998, there was no shortage of science-fiction programming for genre fans on TV. The Star Trek franchise was running strong with both Deep Space Nine and Voyager, Babylon 5 had entered its final season, Stargate SG-1 was just getting going, Sliders was in the middle of its five-season run,…
Feb 07 2023
Worldbuilding Partially Saves Seven Faceless Saints from Its Cast
I once worked with a woman who notified everyone that a book wouldn’t keep her attention unless there was a dead body in it. I must admit that she and those words came to me within the first chapter of Seven Faceless Saints as it successfully grabbed my attention with—what else?—a dead body. M. K. Lobb’s…
Sep 07 2021
Noein: To Your Other Self Is a Forgotten Anime Gem
In the summer of 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy) began an anime programming block called “Ani-Monday.” The block aired many popular anime series, such as the genre-defining mecha series Gurren Lagann, but it also brought less well-known series to an American audience for…
Sep 24 2020
Network Effect, the Fifth Book in the Murderbot Diaries Series, Is Irreverent in the Best Way
Network Effect is the newest installation in Martha Wells’s series now known as the Murderbot Diaries. The first four Diaries are a series of novellas, beginning with All Systems Red, which won both Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novella in 2018. All the novellas are available in trade paperback or…
May 25 2020
The Vast of Night Serves Up 1950s Sci-Fi Minimalism
There’s an earnest air to the simple sci fi of The Vast of Night. Right from the first scene, the film literally broadcasts itself as an episode of a Twilight Zone–style anthology, and the 1950s setting presents an allegory via dialogue spun around building an alien conspiracy. Within that template,…
Feb 06 2020
Ranking All 10 Episodes of Star Trek: Short Treks
Length only tells you the distance between two points. In the case of televised storytelling, it’s nothing more than the numeric value assigned to the space between opening and closing credits; it isn’t the duration of but rather the quality contained within that denotes merit. Short…
Feb 04 2020
Star Trek: Picard Exceeds and Defies Expectations
Over the course of 178 episodes and four films, Star Trek: The Next Generation solidified its legacy among Trekkies, myself included. From 1987 (the year of the pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint”) to 2004 (the year of the fourth and final Next Generation film, Nemesis), the crew of the USS…