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Harlan Ellison, one of the most influential sci-fi writers of the twentieth century, passed away today in his sleep. He was 84 years old. Christine Valada, the widow of the late Len Wein and a friend of Harlan and his wife Susan, officially announced the author’s passing on Twitter. “Susan Ellison has asked me to announce the passing of writer Harlan Ellison, in his sleep, earlier today,” Valada wrote. “For a brief time I was here, and for a brief time, I mattered.”—HE, 1934-2018. Arrangements for a celebration of his life are pending.

Now that I've had time to think about Solo: A Star Wars Story, it's time to rank all 10 live action Star Wars movies worst to best. How would you rank the Star Wars movies?

Disney’s “Star Wars”-themed lands at its California and Florida resorts now have opening seasons. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will open first at Disneyland in Anaheim in the summer of 2019, followed by a late autumn opening for the one at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. No other details were released. The 14-acre themed areas will represent a location on a planet called Batuu, which the company previously called “a remote outpost on the galaxy’s edge that was once a busy crossroads along the old sub-lightspeed trade routes.”(continued)

A list of conventions that have banned science fiction authors - including some they'd put on panels - and the history of what is going on.

"Counterpart", is a Starz original science fiction minseries. The plot is as follows: Howard Silk has been working for a bureaucratic UN agency based in Berlin for thirty years; however, his station is too low for him to be told what his work really involves. In fact, the agency oversees a crossing point to a parallel Earth (the "Prime world"), a copy of Howard's world which was created by East German scientists in 1987, and which has been diverging ever since. Silk's "other" self, his counterpart from the Prime world, is, among other things, a field agent who regularly makes...

I like both Star Wars and Star Trek. I’ve seen all of the Star Wars and Star Trek movies, and while watching the kids, even saw a number of Clone Wars cartoon episodes. I’ve seen most episodes of Star Trek, every series, though I’ve barely been able to watch Star Trek: Discovery except the Mirror Universe episodes. I say this so that my criticism is not mistaken for “you just don’t like the franchises.” And I think modern politics and shifts in storytelling are hurting both science fiction universes.

What is the first thing you think of when you think of an alien movie? Does Sigourney Weaver's bald head pop into your mind as you picture her battling extraterrestrials in Alien 3? Or do you think of something unconventional, like Cloverfield or District 9? The alien genre is one that has certainly evolved over the years as special effects and computer-generated images have improved far beyond anyone's wildest dreams. But the fact of the matter is that for an alien movie to be good (actually, for any movie to be good), it has to tell a really good story,...

A new science fiction series, The Crossing, debuted on ABC last night. From Wikipedia: The Crossing is an American science fiction thriller series that airs on ABC. The series debuted on April 2, 2018. On March 20, 2018, ABC released the pilot episode on their website. The series is filmed in British Columbia, Canada. Refugees fleeing a war start showing up to seek asylum in an American town—but the refugees claim to be from America, 180 years in the future. Moreover, at least one of the refugees exhibits apparently superhuman powers that make her a threat.Watch the pilot episode online....

... Lawrence Krauss, a foundation professor at the university's School of Earth and Space Exploration has been accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior by multiple women over the last decade....

When Melody Hensley first met Lawrence Krauss, she was a 29-year-old makeup artist at a department store, and he was one of her intellectual idols. She ran an atheist website in her spare time and had just started volunteering for the Center for Inquiry (CFI), a nonprofit group committed to promoting science and reason above faith. She was hoping to build a career in the burgeoning “skeptics” movement, and Krauss was one of its brightest luminaries. At a CFI event in November 2006, Krauss asked Hensley for her card, and later, as she was leaving, asked her if she was...

Ursula K. Le Guin, the immensely popular author who brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminist sensibility to science fiction and fantasy with books like “The Left Hand of Darkness” and the Earthsea series, died on Monday at her home in Portland, Ore. She was 88.

Having appeared in Forbidden Planet, The Twilight Zone, Lost in Space, and numerous other science-fiction shows, Robby the Robot is one of the most iconic pieces of sci-fi memorabilia in TV history. And now it is going up for sale.Robby the Robot will be one of the centerpieces of the upcoming “Out of this World” auction hosted by Bonhams. The seven-foot tall robot is operational and is expected to sell for somewhere in range of seven figures when it goes to auction on November 21.Adding to its potential value is the fact that Robby the Robot was, at the time of its...

Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams is a British made science fiction anthology TV series based on the works of Philip K. Dick. It is currently being shown in the UK on Channel 4. Amazon Video will begin showing in the US sometime in 2018. Here is the trailer: Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams – Official Trailer [HD] | Amazon Video References: WikipediaIMDb Articles: ‘Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams’ 1st Trailer Asks What It Is To Be Human? – NY Comic-Con Explore Philip K. Dick's crazy futures in 'Electric Dreams' trailer Holy Crap, the Philip K. Dick Electric Dreams TV Series...

By its very nature, the sci-fi genre is relatively complex: the short stories, novels, TV series and films that comprise speculative fiction necessitate detailed expository passages to build its far-flung futures, reality-bending premises, and stories set in a galaxy far, far away. Whether the story is set on an alien world populated by creatures markedly different from human beings, in a future separated by centuries or eons from the present in which society, technology, science, and civilization itself have evolved into a nearly unrecognizable state, or center around time or space travel, sci-fi stories require complex set-ups to create a...

ALEX POURNELLE TEXTS: Hi I’m afraid that Jerry passed away We had a great time at DragonCon He did not suffer. Please feel free to post this news. Rest in peace, Jerry. You will be missed.

Being reported in several places, Jerry Pournelle has passed away. Noted Science Fiction author, strategic analyst, early popularizer of personal computers, one of the original bloggers. In his own way he was one of the more influential Americans of the 20th century. As per Instapundit in a comment to his own post, "I just talked to Alex. Basically, Jerry just laid down for a nap and passed in his sleep this afternoon. It was nice that he, Alex, and Larry Niven got to hang out and have such a good time at DragonCon. It's as easy a death as one...

MacFarlane is lost in space with ‘Orville’ David Wiegand San Francisco Chronicle September 3, 2017 Seth MacFarlane’s new vehicle, “The Orville,” gets a special premiere on Fox on Sunday, Sept. 10, but it is far from being ready for takeoff. There’s something there or, more to the point, bits and pieces of something there, but it needs work. Boy, does it need work. More The Orville Review: Seth MacFarlane's Somber Sci-Fi Dud Crashes and Burns Dave Nemetz TVLine September 5 2017 Consider this a red alert to TV fans everywhere: Are you expecting Seth MacFarlane’s new Fox series The Orville...

Brian Aldiss, the “grand old man” of science fiction whose writing has shaped the genre since he was first published in the 1950s, has died at the age of 92. Aldiss’s agent, Curtis Brown, and his son, Tim Aldiss, have announced that the author, artist, poet and memoirist died at home in Oxford in the early hours of 19 August. “Brian had celebrated his birthday with close friends and family and spoken to many close to him,” wrote Tim on Twitter as he announced the death of “our beloved father and grandfather”. Aldiss was the author of science fiction classics...

H. G. Wells’s foundational work of political science fiction, “The Time Machine,” predicted a future in which a small utopia of sprightly elites is kept running by a subclass that lives below the ground and is reduced to bestial violence. This prediction, carried to a horrifically logical extent, represented the intense wealth disparity of the Victorian England in which Wells wrote the novel. Judging from the major political narratives of the fictions of our era, films like “The Hunger Games,” “Elysium” and “Snowpiercer,” the certainty of a future rendered increasingly barbarous by class division remains essentially the same.

Star Trek may be one of the longest running science fiction franchises out there, with its fantastic tales of starships exploring the far reaches of the galaxy having engaged movie and television viewers since 1966, but it’s been off our TV screens for a long while now – twelve years, to be precise. That will soon change, as this September sees the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, an ambitious new show set within the universe of the Federation – yes, the actual one, not the parallel universe from those lens flaring, CGI-heavy movies. But despite being set in the same...