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‘The Power’ is Coming Soon to Prime Video

The Power, is an emotionally-driven global thriller, based on Naomi Alderman’s international award-winning novel. The world of The Power is our world, but for one twist of nature. Suddenly, and without warning, teenage girls develop the power to electrocute people at will. Watch trailer

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Ode to Samuel Delany

The Ballad of Beta-2 is a mysterious tale about generational starships taken over by superstition, paranoia, and misinformation, eventually descending into horrific acts of genocide. It also contains elements of the supernatural, or perhaps the alien, in the form of the Destroyer, an entity responsible for catastrophe aboard the ships, whose actions are misattributed to the marginalized population derisively known as the “One-Eyes.” Read more

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How Octavia Butler Inspired a Pathbreaking Black-Owned Pasadena Bookstore

On Nov. 22, after weeks of trying to find the right space for her dream, Nikki High signed a lease for a 621-square-foot space on North Hill Avenue. This is where she began in earnest to plot out her independent bookstore. Octavia’s Bookshelf would feature books by Black, Latino, Indigenous writers and other authors of color in the same neighborhood where Octavia E. Butler, the store’s namesake, lived and found inspiration for her novels. Read more

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The Essential Philip K. Dick

Perhaps you’ve nurtured a suspicion that you have the makings of a Dick fan. The writer’s influence is everywhere, though mainstream acknowledgment of his talents arrived belatedly. (His obituary in this newspaper is under 200 words and lists his age of death incorrectly. He was 53, not 54.) The question is where to start. Dick’s published output — at least 35 novels and countless short stories — ranges from sublime to inscrutable, which is partly a result of volume. His book advances were skimpy and there was a family to support, so he wrote quickly, often fueled by amphetamine tablets. (Dick’s typing speed: 120 words per minute.) If you’re a stickler for prose style and hold a zero-tolerance policy toward the word “boobies,” this is not your fellow. Read more

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An Introduction to Stanislaw Lem, the Great Polish Sci-Fi Writer, by Jonathan Lethem

Who was Stanislaw Lem? The Polish science fiction writer, novelist, essayist, and polymath may best be known for his 1961 novel Solaris (adapted for the screen by Andrei Tarkosvky in 1972 and again by Steven Soderbergh in 2014). Lem’s science fiction appealed broadly outside of SF fandom, attracting the likes of John Updike, who called his stories “marvelous” and Lem a poet of “scientific terminology” for readers “whose hearts beat faster when the Scientific American arrives each month.” Updike’s characterization is but one version of Lem. There are several more, writes Jonathan Lethem in an essay for the London Review of Books, penned for Lem’s 100th anniversary – at least five different Lems with five different literary personalities. Read more

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The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

Done right, the combination of two archetypal genre stories into something new can work brilliantly … The Paradox Hotel offers a memorable case study in how to bridge two genres in a way that satisfies readers of both … Throughout The Paradox Hotel Hart creates a sense of a place on the cusp of being irrevocably changed—and of a style of living that may have exceeded its viability … In the end, The Paradox Hotel succeeds as both a mystery and as a story involving time travel. Read more

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