Matt Dinniman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl" is the hottest science fantasy novel series in the galaxy, and now it's getting a comic book adaptation.

"Dungeon Crawler Carl" follows the exploits of pantless Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s kitty, Princess Donut, as they compete in an intergalactic reality TV show to decide the fate of planet Earth. Carl and Princess Donut must endure a series of traps and challenges set forth by the neurotic, foot-fetishizing System AI.

Dinniman exploded in popularity from a viral self-publishing novelty to a New York Times bestselling phenomenon whose eight books in the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" universe have sold 14 million copies worldwide. There is even an upcoming TV adaptation produced by "Family Guy's" Seth MacFarlane and "Thor: Ragnarok" screenwriter Christopher Yost coming to streaming service Peacock.

Now in a move that seems almost obligatory, "Dungeon Crawler Carl" is leaping into the world of comic books with a newly announced series courtesy of Montana-based Vault Comics. A special double-sized, 48-page debut issue will arrive in January of 2027, with subsequent monthly issues landing in stores and digitally.

"New Achievement! You like 'em floppy! You wanted Carl and Donut every month, you get Carl and Donut every month," states the synopsis. "Reward: An ongoing series with scaled up art! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Getting stuck on a sadistic alien game show with her cat!"

Vault's "Dungeon Crawler Carl" project will be an adaptation of the popular DCC webtoon series penned by Tevagah and Dinniman and illustrated by Laurel Pursuit Studios.

Artist Kuzomari will aid in the transition from webtoon to comic book format. Main covers will be crafted by Nathan Gooden ("Barbaric') with variants provided by a roster of artists including Ryan Ottley ("Invincible"), Brett Bean, Frank Cho, Clayton Crain, Yoshi Yoshitani, Katie Cook, Riley Rossmo, Tyler Walpole, Doug Mahnke, Trish Forstner and Luciano Fleitas, who creates the novel covers.

"Entering the comic space is nothing short of amazing," Dinniman stated in an official press release. "The fact that I get to work with some of the greatest creators and artists working today feels like a dream."

Serializing the first two episodes of the webtoon series, "Dungeon Crawler Carl #1" will be released by Vault Comics on Jan. 20, 2027.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's non-canon, but come on; Darth Vader wielding the gleaming Infinity Gauntlet is just an excellent visual. This nerd-baiting image comes to us via the main cover of Marvel Comics' upcoming "Star Wars / Marvel: Hope Assembles #1."

"Star Wars" celebrates its 50th anniversary next year, as does the first "Star Wars #1" comic, and to kick the intergalactic party off early, Marvel will publish the debut issue of this 6-issue miniseries from writer Kevin Smith ("Clerks," "Chasing Amy") and talented artist David Marquez on Jan. 13, 2027.

It's the first-ever crossover between the "Star Wars" and Marvel Universe, and we’ve got a sweet four-page preview recreating the memorable opening scene of the original "Star Wars," where the Rebel Blockade Runner is ensnared in a Star Destroyer tractor beam and boarded by Lord Vader and a squad of stormtroopers. But this time, it's got Marvel superheroes added!

We get to see all those iconic scenes, including Darth Vader’s terrifying entrance, Princess Leia’s bold defiance, and C-3PO and R2-D2’s desperate escape in an entirely new light, as Marvel heroes like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America rush to the rebellion's defense.

This historic event series will showcase multiple themed variant covers from acclaimed artists such as Alex Ross, David Marquez, Kaare Andrews, Cory Smith, Rafael Albuquerque, Dan Jurgens, Matteo Lolli, and many more.

Check out the four-page preview below:

"One of the most exciting things about this series is seeing familiar moments through an entirely new lens," Editor Mark Paniccia said.

"Kevin Smith and David Marquez understand exactly what makes these characters so enduring, and they find surprising, emotional, and often exhilarating ways to bring them together. Every issue has moments that will leave fans smiling, cheering, and eager to see what happens next."

"Star Wars / Marvel: Hope Assembles #1" lands on Jan. 13, 2027, and is available as both a physical copy from your local comic book shop and as a Kindle e-book download.

Few names in the science fiction literary world carry as much weight and respect as author Alan Dean Foster. His award-winning 55-year career as a grandmaster of the genre continues with his latest novel from Blackstone Publishing, "Lost on Paradise," and we have an exclusive excerpt to share with our readers ahead of its release this week.

Foster famously ghost-wrote the first "Star Wars" novelization for George Lucas in 1976 and "Splinter of the Mind’s Eye" in 1978, which was intended to be a low-budget "Star Wars" sequel should the space opera not become a hit. He’s been a mainstay for go-to fantastic adventures featuring engaging characters, dynamic plotlines, and imaginative worlds for six decades.

In addition to crafting the screen story for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," Foster also wrote the novelizations for the first three "Alien" films, Disney's "The Black Hole," John Carpenter's "The Thing," "The Last Starfighter," "Star Trek," "Transformers," "Terminator: Salvation", and many more.

The near-future, off-world escapades of "Lost On Paradise" are the latest addition to Foster’s acclaimed bounty of bestselling standalone novels and series, including the popular "Spellsinger" series.

"Earth is crowded, polluted, and dismal," states the novel's synopsis. "Like millions of others, Jonos and Liina scrape by on her poorly paying job and what little money he gets selling items scavenged from rich people’s trash. Like millions of others, Jonos and Liina dream of Paradise.

"Paradise: a beautiful, clean, verdant world where three races live in harmony—at least, according to the videos sent back to Earth. There are the Eiquan, masters of astonishing technology; the Lusanata, hunters and farmers; and humans, who may be restricted to a few scattered settlements, but still live a life ten times better than those on Earth.

"On the run after a criminal act, Jonos and Liina finally escape to Paradise. It's everything they hoped for. Until tragedy strikes."

The genesis of Foster's "Lost on Paradise" is something that’s been percolating in his fertile mind for many years.

"I had this notion of a planet called Paradise where everything is perfect, and everything on Earth is seriously messed up," Foster tells Space. "There’s this couple who have problems; they’re poor like everybody else.

"And you have a unique male protagonist because he recognizes that his female partner is smarter than him, so she’s the brains of the outfit, and he supplies the muscle. Although he's not stupid. Too often you get a big, hulking guy with no brains. But she has a potentially fatal disease, and they’re trying to get away like a lot of poor people in the world today. So here's a place called Paradise. How do you get there? It’s expensive and difficult. And what happens if they do? Maybe Paradise isn’t always Paradise."

In crafting a deteriorating New York some 150 years or so down the calendar, it was important to stay sharp regarding developments that pop up in the news to avoid any internal logic conflicts.

"You just don’t want to get caught out by a scientific development that you postulate is near future when it's actually contemporary," explains Foster. "So I was very careful with that. But as you’re building out an alien environment and one that’s supposed to be perfect and beautiful, and then there’s maybe some things about it that aren’t, what do you introduce to show that?

"You don’t want to contradict yourself when you’re worldbuilding. That's a large problem that’s unfortunately common in science fiction," notes Foster. "Where somebody is breathing air, and suddenly they’re breathing methane, and it just doesn’t work. There’s a lot of different variables that come together that prove that Paradise is Paradise in some ways and not in others. A good example would be when the first Europeans reached Tahiti. The problem was that the people who entered this Paradise brought venereal disease and smallpox, to which the Polynesians had no resistance. So it's Paradise until you get there, and then maybe you mess it up."

Now enjoy our exclusive chapter excerpt from Alan Dean Foster’s "Lost On Paradise." Published by Blackstone Publishing.

Why shouldn’t a man and a woman in his and Liina’s position try to get to Paradise? Jonos mused as he treaded his way homeward. Though morning continued its ascent, the sun did not. Or so it seemed, when the omnipresent pollution often rendered day as dark as night. The gloom was useful for masking scavenging activities and for concealing one’s identity. It was less suitable for more plebian activities such as breathing and eating. Or living. Life on Earth sucked.

But on Paradise…

To emigrant humans it went without saying that Paradise was aptly named. Everyone had heard the stories. On Paradise a person could breathe freely. Without a mask, without fear of needing lung implants, without having to worry about inhaling a soupçon of strychnine or similar industrial pollutants. On Paradise food was plentiful and fresh, water devoid of contaminants. There was work, too, for anyone willing to adapt to entirely new surroundings, for those willing to acknowledge the much-talked-about overlordship of the dominant species. For arrivals willing to submit to the experimental, ever-evolving social structure, and to the limitations that were placed on newcomers, the technologically superior Eiquans professed an indifference that amounted to a willing welcome.

Or so the compendium of hugely diverse anecdotes insisted. That’s all they were, Jonos knew. Stories and speculation, rumors and conjecture. Ignoring the spotty rain that had begun to fall, he turned a corner and nearly ran over a couple who scrambled to get out of his way. The man he had accidentally jostled started to say something, quickly realized the size of the individual he was about to chastise, and mumbled on his way, dragging a woman—likely his wife—with him. Jonos paid them no mind. Half of him was engaged in navigating his way home, the other half in dreaming of what Paradise might actually be like.

In truth, he had never met anyone who had actually been to Paradise. He had never met anyone who knew anyone who had been to Paradise. That did not make the distant world any less real. The media periodically released vits and images of the place. These showed an Earth-like planet swathed in an atmosphere perfectly suitable for humans. The indigenous wildlife was fascinating, the few but thriving, improvised communities intriguing, and the rarely seen Eiquans themselves tall, gracile, and sophisticated. So what if they weren’t humanoid? They were bisymmetrical, anyway, highly intelligent, and by all accounts no worse than indifferent to the interests of other species. So beautiful and graceful was their slender physicality, so mellifluous their speech, that even though they were quite alien the idea of living among them held no fear for Jonos.

Anything, he knew, would be a step up from Earth.

Taschen, purveyors of fine art and design special-edition books, have teamed up with George Lucas and his newly opened Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles to present a masterful two-volume catalog of the museum’s illuminating offerings.

Housed in a sturdy slipcase, readers will discover a pair of lavishly illustrated volumes spanning 832 pages and tipping the scales at nearly 14 pounds. At $200 for the pair, it's not cheap, but look on the bright side; hoisting these illustrated tomes will save you a subscription to your local gym!

This immersive collection documents in great detail the astounding scope of rare items on display in Lucas’s treasury of paintings, murals, photographs, sculptures, posters, comic strips, illustrations, costumes, and magazine covers that have spurred humankind’s imagination.

We'd absolutely recommend checking out the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in person if you can.

Our own Chelsea Gohd visited the Los Angeles-based museum ahead of its opening in September 2026 and adored it. But if you're not a California local, getting lost in this collection's glossy pages is the next best thing to roaming the museum exhibitions on a rainy afternoon.

Far beyond a mere companion to the marvels inside the fantastic spaceship-shaped building poised near the University of Southern California campus — the same institution where Lucas attended film school in the late 1960s — these bold editions are an adventure in their own right.

Waiting to be absorbed is an impressive assortment of storytelling expression that showcases beautiful works by everyone from Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell to Frank Frazetta, Jack Kirby, and Ralph McQuarrie. Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, curated the museum’s contents that represent decades of collecting narrative art in all of its forms.

Our friends at Taschen were gracious enough to send us one of these Lucas Museum of Narrative Art special editions, and in unboxing this magnificent pair of books, one can feel the quality in the deluxe binding and thick covers. Inside you’ll find an eye-popping array of full-color photography and sharp descriptions for hundreds of artworks, all hand-picked by Lucas and Hobson.

Lucas himself delivers the preface, which is titled "The Art of Story," where he professes his love of art, myth, anthropology, illustrators, and cinema. He recalls when he came to meet his mentor, Professor Joseph Campbell, and how he amassed 40,000 pieces of art beginning when he was a student at USC.

The great director Guillermo del Toro provides a heartfelt foreword praising the importance of the museum and these prestigious companion volumes depicting a multitude of visual wonders.

Between the duo of volumes, sections are divided into chapters dealing with topics such as history, children's stories, the American West, everyday life, romance and adventure, photography, science fiction and fantasy, and, of course, Star Wars in Motion.

They take you on an overwhelming journey through the gallery’s incredibly diverse holdings, not least of which are archival items and concept art chronicling Lucas's involvement in the galaxy far, far away.

This remarkable "Star Wars" section will be of particular interest to sci-fi aficionados, as it contains 100 pages of original props, paintings, concept artwork, costumes, models, and digital renderings created by some of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic’s best and brightest talents.

Taken with the rest of the 832 combined pages of Taschen's ambitious release that fully captures the dizzying breadth of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, it's a brilliant keepsake to spark your soul and imagination.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art two-book collection is available now via Taschen's website and Amazon.

Fall has officially arrived, and as autumn leaves blaze in vivid colors, there is no better time to plunge into the imaginative world of New York Times best-selling author Matt Dinniman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl", the wildly addictive science fantasy book series that's taking the world by storm.

Even if you haven't read them, you've probably seen folks carrying these books, emblazoned with their loud, neon-colored covers, at your neighborhood coffee house. You'll see it even more in the future, too, as a streaming adaptation of the novels is coming to Peacock, with Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door and co-showrunners Eric Heisserer and Chris Yost at the helm.

The eighth book in the series, "A Parade of Horribles," dropped in May of 2026 and continues the story of Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s precocious pussy cat named Princess Donut as they try to navigate the dangerously daunting levels of a lethal doomsday dungeon for an intergalactic television show deciding the fate of humanity and the planet Earth.

Think Douglas Adams's "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" meets "The Running Man" and "Ready Player One" in the "Dungeons & Dragons" RPG realm, and you've got a pretty good idea of the stylistic narrative you'll soon discover when you dare to enter Dinniman's slightly demented literary world.

"The genesis is that I’ve been writing my whole life, and I have a thousand story ideas," Dinniman tells Space on the origins of his sci-fi sensation. "I’ve kept a running list of ideas since childhood, and this one had been on there for some time. The line in my list for this particular one was 'Alien' game show.'"

With over 14 million copies of the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series sold to date, spooky season is the ideal jumping-on moment so you can share your favorite sadistic dungeon level kill next time you're at a cool cocktail party or fun family function!

"The success is a whole other question. I think I just happened to hit the right story at the right time," admits Dinniman. "It's about a man pushing back against impossible odds. The antagonist isn't just a single person or entity, but an entire system designed to crush any life out of him, all for the entertainment of the masses. That sort of story seems to really be resonating right now. Plus there's a talking cat in it."

Dinniman has described the most recently-released sequel as "the Carl and Donut version of Mariokart—only deadlier," with the cruel dungeon architects tightening their brutal grip. As the current king of LitRPG titles in circulation, "Dungeon Crawler Carl" is the next best thing to a living video game.

"Luckily I’m still in love with this story, and I am in love with writing it," he admits. "It hasn’t gotten old yet. The end is in sight, and I’m more sad than anything that it'll eventually be over."

An episodic series adaptation seems like a no-brainer, and Peacock has wisely tapped into the considerable talents of both Heisserer ("Arrival," "Bird Box") and Yost ("Thor: The Dark World," "Thor: Ragnarok") for this ambitious TV project.

"Both Chris and Eric have a great amount of experience in Hollywood, but more importantly, both have read the books and like them," Dinniman notes. "Chris is a mega fan, and Eric knows more about gaming than any adult probably should. That's a great combination."

Dinniman also confirmed to us that he's serving as co-executive producer on the show, and will be involved throughout the production.

"The most important thing to preserve, I think, is the tone, which will also be the most challenging," states Dinniman. "Thankfully, the team that's been assembled is up to the challenge, and I can't wait for the world to see how it turns out."

With eight books released so far (and another two to come), you've got plenty of reading to do before the Peacock show and/or the next book lands. You can find the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series in your local bookstores and on Amazon. It's also available via Kindle e-readers and as an audiobook.

Superstar astrophysicist, bestselling author, podcaster and ravenous consumer of pop culture Neil deGrasse Tyson has never been shy when it comes to sharing his candid thoughts, esoteric humor and vast depth of knowledge with the entire world.

His latest book, "Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts For Navigating The Universe," is a spectacular 400-page whirlwind odyssey around the heavens that's wonderfully composed using hundreds of bold illustrations, charts, maps, galactic images, planetary profiles, astronomical wonders and historical photos that will keep curious readers engaged for a millennium or more.

Released on Sept. 15, 2026 from National Geographic and written by Tyson and StarTalk colleague Lindsey Nyx Walker, "Lost in Space" is an encyclopedic space glossary and guidebook that includes information on everything from telescopes to UFOs to exoplanets. Think of it as a colorful, eye-catching candy store of cosmic proportions.

"First you’ll notice how beautiful it is," Tyson told Space.com. "That’s National Geographic, and this is the fourth collaboration between them and our podcast. They made it into a beautiful object that, even if you didn't read it, you just want to look at it. From the cover to the layout and the pages and images, it's sheer beauty. It's a coffee table book, but it's also a really fun read. The idea was that there's so much interesting information in the universe that it's not just metrically interesting, it's analogically interesting.

"Like in our podcast, where we merge science, pop culture and humor when you can. The facts of this book were constructed to rise up above the base value of a fact and turn it into something that’s memorable to you as a reader — which means you can open to any page and pick out any fact and find something you might have never thought about. The entire universe. It's got each planet, the night sky, moons, and a section on the Periodic Table of Elements. I’m proud of it."

Longtime producer and science journalist Lindsey Nyx Walker, the book's co-author and Tyson's StarTalk co-host, helped him come up with the lion’s share of the fascinating facts and factoids, with a small writing team flushing out the last 2,000 or so details.

"It's all in the spirit of, 'Is it an interesting or tasty fact, and does it make you smile?'" Tyson said. "Because then you'll come back for more. And ideally, does it tap into something that you cared about walking into the room? So there's a lot of referencing to movies. What would happen if The Hulk went from human size to The Hulk size? If you didn’t add matter to him, he’d have the density of a beach ball and a gust of wind would bounce him down the street. He must somehow gain mass, and they don’t really address that. When we're talking about mass and density, there are ways you can reach pop culture and have that highlight other ways you might be thinking about that very same subject. I was a geeky kid, and if I saw this book on a table I'd never put it down."

"Lost In Space" is coming out just two weeks after a big astronomy event — the launch of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Aug. 30, 2026. Tyson offered up his thoughts and enthusiasms on this remarkable investigatory tool.

"I'm privileged to be a participant in a field where the simple launch of a telescope makes headlines," he said. "We’re not making science for another six months. What a joy it is to have the public celebrate our technological steps along with us. And I just think that’s a beautiful fact. It’s the next step in trying to understand dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets — very different things from each other. But the telescope has different detectors that can rotate in and out of the focal plane so it can serve multiple sub-communities within the world’s astrophysicists. We’re all looking forward to this."

"Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts For Navigating The Universe" is available now.

The history of Alien video games is long and twisty, but Mike Diver — veteran writer, editor, critic, and journalist — decided a few years ago to make a complete chronicle of Xenomorph-filled games his next big adventure. Ahead of Aliens: The Video Games' August 30 release, we sat down with him and discussed the franchise's past, present, and future in games.

The following interview has been edited for better flow.

"I played a lot of Alien 3 on Mega Drive," Diver recalls when asked about his first few contacts with Alien. "I was slightly too young to be watching those movies... I was also quite taken with a book that a friend of mine's dad owned – it was a book with stills of the film in it... I saw the chestbursters in those stills before I saw it moving on-screen, and in a way that was more striking." He believes that left an impression on him, which likely helped his fascination with the franchise over time.

Diver worked in games media for a long time, which afforded him opportunities such as covering the first Alien: Isolation, going into Creative Assembly and playing before it came out. This led to Diver researching Alien games for "on and off over, let's say, five to ten years".

It was actually the Nintendo DS exclusive Aliens: Infestation — a gorgeous 2D sidescroller with a permadeath mechanic for squad members — that made him realize maybe there was a cool opportunity in trying to chronicle the entire history of Alien video games, including the overlooked ones.

"There's no book about Alien games. There was one about Doom, Nintendo, Star Trek... So why not Alien? I pitched it around, got a commission, wrote a book. It sounds easy when you say it like that." While he admits being a fan of the franchise helped, it wasn't easy, especially as he had to chase developers from disbanded studios for research.

"I was speaking to Dave Dorman, who's a comic book artist, and he was working on the cancelled CDI game Aliens Interactive, so he's quoted from archive material, but he and I were exchanging emails, and he was going to send me some concept work and answer some questions, but that never came off, unfortunately," he reveals. "I spoke to a couple of people for Alien: Isolation, but I didn't speak to [director] Al Hope. Sega were quite positive about it, and then they said 'actually no, you can't', and that may be because of the new Isolation game."

While those were notable misses for Diver, he also landed plenty of big shots too. "It was really cool to get someone like Tony Beckwith [producer on Alien 3 for SNES], who's retired, in there, and John Heap, who programmed the original Alien on ZX Spectrum, or Mark Eyles, who worked on Aliens: The Computer Game... There's 24 new interviews across the book in total, so yeah, happy with it."

After reading through the book myself, I must say it's a proper deep dive that, despite being full of illustrations and screenshots, still feels like a rather breezy read at under 200 pages.

It was a balancing act, Diver admits: "You gotta think about where the audience's interests are gonna lie. I could definitely write a lot more on the MSX Aliens, for example, but the reality is that not many people will know that game. It's nice to include, but I'm not that worried it's a smaller chapter next to something like Colonial Marines. It made sense to go deeper into the games that people played, but I wanted even the smallest chapters to have some sort of substance."

Diver and I also got to gush about weirder, more overlooked experiments like Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction for PS2 and Xbox, an off-beat real-time strategy game that wasn't released on PC. "I managed to get in touch with someone on that game; Jason Hough, a designer at Zono... They had totally worked on multiplayer for ages, and then it was all removed." The reason? Probably deadlines and the fact that "online play wasn't really a thing" in the console space back in 2003. (It wouldn't be long before it took off with titles like SOCOM and the Halo sequels.)

Speaking about the future of Alien video games, we have Fireteam Elite 2 right around the corner and Isolation 2 already being shown off. Diver admits he knows "quite a lot about the Isolation sequel" since "devs talk to devs", but the actual chapter in the book only quotes other people about what they think it'll be like. "It's a little bit annoying to sit on that because I thought there'd be more about that game out by the time this book's out... There are things about that game that I'm excited for people to see."

With all the movement around the IP right now — especially after Alien: Romulus and Earth revived a lot of interest in it — Diver wants to return and do more work on upcoming games. "It's quite a rich, fertile period for Alien games, and I'd really like to do more about them in the future."

When asked about his favorite part of the book to put together, Diver returns to Alien 3: "That came really quickly, the combination of the Mega Drive and SNES ones, and then being able to speak to Jas Austin, who did the Game Boy version. I wasn't expecting to get anyone for the Game Boy one because credits back then weren't great. I had to dig around a bit."

The AvP (Atari Jaguar) chapter also came together fast according to Diver: "James Hampton was pretty cool as well... He was very responsive. It's lovely when an interviewee is sending you stuff and like really happy to talk more if I had any follow-ups."

I had to ask Diver about the 'ideal' way to go through his guide, which will no doubt push curious gamers to check out some forgotten Alien games one way or another. "It doesn't go from the early '80s through the 2000s in a straight linear, chronological way... Let's say Alien or Alien 3 is your favorite movie. You can go straight to that," explains Diver. "I'd love it if anyone who picks this up sees an Alien game and they go 'Maybe I'll go check that out' and find a way to play them."

Before logging off, I also asked for his top three Alien games of all time. Diver went with Capcom's AvP (1994) for arcade machines, Aliens: Infestation, and Alien 3 on the SNES. "The Mega Drive one is quite punishing with its time limits... The SNES one is just a lot more methodical, and you can take your time, and the environment art is great. The game ends like Alien 3, so credit for that as well, 'cause the other ones didn't."

We don't get movie tie-ins like those anymore, but looking at what's next for Xenomorphs in video games, I'd say we mostly can't complain… mostly.

Aliens: The Video Games will be available where books are sold starting on August 30. You can pre-order it through Amazon right now.

The world of science fiction started with the written word, long before it hit the silver screen. Stories of man-made life, Martians, and other marvelous subject matter were being read long before the first sci-fi movie was released in 1902: Georges Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon". Some of these stories became classic tales that have been repeatedly adapted for Hollywood and television, think Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" and H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."

This isn't by any means an exhaustive list but these are the sci-fi books that inspired some of our favorite movies and shows. We have big names like Project Hail Mary and Dune, as well as more obscure titles like the haunting Under the Skin and Stalker. We have included links to the best streaming services to watch each adaptation on right now, but for those of you who are tired of endless subscriptions, we have provided the 4K and Blu-ray releases so you can physically own your favorite media again.

Books are often sidelined in today's visual-obsessed world, but I think they deliver a stronger experience that movies and shows just can't replicate. Now don't get me wrong, I love the movie adaptation of Annihilation, but I have a very special connection to the book. I read it multiple times before the movie release and it made me feel immersed in the inherent weirdness of the natural world and think about how alien our own planet is. The book always came to mind when taking a walk out in the forest and seeing the hypnotic curl of a fern or a bird alighting on a branch inches away from me.

At some point next year, when planets and stars momentarily align, we’ll hopefully be getting what’s sure to be the most anticipated sci-fi RPG in recent memory — Wizards of the Coast and Archetype Entertainment's "Exodus", which is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

This far future "Mass Effect"-like saga follows the daring time-traveler Jun Aslan as he and his companions hop about the cosmos searching for ancient artifacts to ward off the destruction of their worlds. This threat comes from an evolved group of transhumans called Celestials, with the whole affair taking place within the Centauri Cluster, 16,000 light-years from an abandoned planet Earth.

As part of Archetype’s ambitious cross-media marketing plan, the dev team enlisted the help of celebrated British sci-fi author Peter Hamilton ("The Salvation Sequence") to fortify the game’s worldbuilding and also pen two companion prequel novels.

The first of these books, "Exodus: The Archimedes Engine," was released on Sept. 17, 2024. Now, the second half of this duology, "Exodus: The Helium Sea," was just published on June 16, 2026, and continues the tale of Finn and his human allies to see if they can outwit the Celestials and finally earn their fellow humans a place of independence and power in the Crown Dominion.

"Because I helped build the 'Exodus' world, they sent me what I always call the skeleton, and I helped put a lot of flesh on it, like the assorted cultures, some of the technologies, and the starships," Hamilton tells Space.

"It was partially my universe to write in, so I knew the limits and constraints, which made it easier because I was part of the structure."

"The Helium Sea" concludes the background saga started in "The Archimedes Engine" and is one story told over the course of two books.

"All the characters that were alive and survived at the end of 'The Archimedes Engine' just carry on into 'The Helium Sea,'” he adds. "You get to find out what’s been hinted at before and what the real motivations are for the rebels and who they are. It was all misdirection; some people we think are on the bad side are not, and you get to see a whole lot of new places and settings as well, and it really expands the universe."

"The last one was set over 40 years because we have a lot of time dilation elements when you travel at relativistic speed," explains Hamilton. "This book is set over ten years, and you have various characters going on different missions, and I had to bring them all together at the same time and same place. That was a lot of plotting."

Hamilton admits that his collaboration with the whole Archetype team on the colossal "Exodus" project has been an enriching affair.

"The joy of it was, which I’ve never had before writing a book, is that I'd send them a description of a world or something, and I’d get my little spaceship back, and it would be this magnificent picture, and of course, being top-flight artists, they've added to my original concept. It was a real growth process, developing this world. We all got on really well, and we just gelled. They were very professional. You could see they had a job to do and they were doing it."

When pushed to choose a favorite destination amid both "Exodus" prequel books, Hamilton immediately picks a world called Kingsnest.

"It's a glass shell, a glass bauble, the size of Jupiter basically, which has been pumped full of atmosphere," he notes.

"The ships they have in it are made out of wood, sort of 18th-century sailing technology, because there are clouds in there and little globular lakes. So much life in there. It would take you more than a lifetime to sail across it and encounter who knows what in the deeps of it. I just love the idea of it. That you can literally have sailing ships in space."

Now enjoy this exclusive chapter excerpt from Peter F. Hamilton's "Exodus: The Helium Sea" (Random House Worlds)

The Jiyoratan family had furnished their tower with stylish opulence. No sign remained visible that the structure was aerolite; every wall was tiled. The aesthetic was clean, with geometric primary colors starting to warp together within soaring arches that highlighted the central atrium, where a lush hanging garden claimed the walls. Internal balconies were illuminated by faint blue lights in constellation displays, half-hidden among the foliage to create an illusion of the external edifice of some tropical villa. Spiral water features ran the full height, bringing a humidity to the scene that Neusch had practically forgotten.

His clothes activated, changing to a light layer of armor around his body and limbs, while the hood slipped over his head and curtained his face in a transparent shield. He’d never envisaged the bio-andy being involved in anything as crude as an actual fight, so he had no idea how much use the protective clothing was going to be against the Guillrameo team. Probably not much. Until now he’d only had a vague plan: get to the sisters and get them out. Quietly. The kind of mission his father would’ve executed superbly, where no one would even know he’d been there until hours after the event.

Well, that’s just taken a deep dive into a sea of shit.

The other Guillrameo operatives were efficiently eliminating the aireels he’d sent after them. Within thirty seconds they’d all been taken out. He didn’t know where the woman was—presumably making her way through the Dibyth tower to the first target. The others would be breaking through the walls any minute now.

The bio-andy picked up voices somewhere inside the atrium. He started running for one of the curving granite stairs that wound up between the atrium balconies. The sisters had their quarters two floors above, along with the rest of the family’s youngsters.

Three people came around the central trio of big fountains, stopped in surprise.

One of them who’d worked with Juliatra-Monoth gave him a startled look. “Halvin-Aneil?”

“Sound the alarm,” he shouted at her. “People have entered your home. They’re going to kill most of you and interrogate the surviving seniors.”

“Huh—”

One of her companions, a man, made a grab for the bio-andy. It pushed back hard, sending him spinning.

“Sorry! They’ll be armed. Get out of here.” Then he was around the fountains and heading for the base of the spiral staircase; people were walking down it. His lnc warned him an intruder alert had been issued within the tower. That’ll annoy the Guillrameo team.

“The Dibyth has been isolated from Husnak’s network,” the CI informed him. “No security forces know what’s going on.”

So, no help’s coming, then. Neusch barged past the couple on the stairs and released a flock of insect drones from his leg pouch. They zoomed up the inside of the atrium, heading for the balcony above, hunting the girls. Andys started to emerge from every doorway. Even without weapons, the slim silver figures would pose a problem.

But that suddenly didn’t matter. The tower network vanished. The andys lost all rigidity, fluttering to the ground like becalmed flags.

“Asteria’s arse.” Neusch drew the bio-andy’s guns—an enhanced-projectile mag carbine and a gamma laser. The bio-andy reached the top of the stairs, and Neusch cursed the way the verdant plants had been allowed to flourish, narrowing the balcony. Tactical display reported a scan locking onto the bio-andy. Neusch relinquished fire control to the bio-andy’s tactical routines. It raised both guns and assumed a crouched pose as it started to sprint along the narrow route.

A projectile hit the side of the balcony half a meter behind it. The bio-andy was flung off its feet, the light armor turning rigid. It landed, crashing into a big night-flowering jasmine bush, rolling with gymnastic precision, firing a burst of gamma rays at the origin of the attack on the floor of the atrium, then sprinted onward.

Neusch split his consciousness. One was with the bio-andy, observing and providing oversight guidance. The parallel Neusch was searching the home’s blueprints, combining with the CI to find an escape route for the sisters.

First realization, as another barrage of projectiles slammed into the balcony behind the bio-andy: this was going to require maximum firepower, because the Guillrameos would unleash nothing less. An X-ray laser slashed across the bio-andy. Its light armor managed to diffuse and deflect most of the energy so that it broiled the balcony’s surrounding vegetation. Leaves and twigs fried, bursting into swirls of ash and embers around him. Neusch was acutely aware of nerve-equivalent impulses reporting the beam penetrating the light armor, searing the bio-andy’s hip and thigh. Muscle damage parameters were incorporated into the body’s physiology routines; it changed its posture slightly to accommodate the now asymmetric strength of its leg muscles.

Three mouse-sized drop-drones flipped out of a leg pouch; they had a similar leg structure to the cutter-drone, but they were combat versions. The trio lunged over the balcony rail in full lemming mode. One released a chaff cascade—hell’s own monsoon manifesting as specks of light, sound, and EM pulses falling through the hanging garden. The other two went dark as they fell, unnoticed among the sensory overload. They hit the floor and did nothing.

A few seconds later, as the chaff attack faded, two of the Guillrameo operatives crept into the atrium, their protective cloaks lensing the light around them: event horizons made from fabric. Their movements created subtle motions in the air that the drop-drones identified.

The bio-andy had just reached the archway leading to the children’s bedrooms when the drop-drones detonated their proton-boosted explosive cores, eradicating the two intruders. A massive blastwave punched the bio-andy through the air, sending it crashing hard into a wall. This time, it took longer to get to its feet and totter forward. One hand slid along the wall for additional balance as it reached the door to the sisters’ bedroom. Which had been locked by the emergency intruder alert.

For fuck’s sake, I’m trying to save you!

Another cutter-drone let go of the bio-andy’s belt where it’d been clinging and hurried over to the door. Its proton incisor deployed, and it climbed up the edge of the door, slicing through the rim as it went.

Neusch sent six more drop-drones flipping away. They sped back down the corridor, taking up positions at three-meter intervals. Neusch saw a couple of the house’s fire-andys roll along the balcony, their extinguisher nozzles deployed over the railings, pumping clouds of viscous yellow retardant foam into the atrium. The part of his consciousness focusing on tactics directed two of the drop-drones into the blobs of foam that fizzed away on the balcony floor. He then dispatched a dozen more insect drones—not confident they’d be any use, but he needed some visuals on the remaining Guillrameo team even if they only lasted a second.

The cutter-drone finished its work. With a swift prayer to the Goddess that a kick would be enough, he raised the bio-andy’s good leg and booted the door. It flew open to a scene of fear and chaos. Five children in their nightclothes were clinging together in defiance, struggling not to scream and cry. He identified Kimiya and Marize, hugging their spawn brothers as they glared fearfully at him.

“It’s okay,” Neusch assured them, raising the bio-andy’s arms. Probably not the best gesture given it was still holding a gun in each hand. “I’m here to stop the attack.” Again, not helpful. His last three cutter-drones raced past the frightened spawn siblings to the wall.

The tactical display told him two weapon-drones were rising up the center of the atrium—hand-sized silver discs, moving fast. They took out his watching insect drones. The tactical display fell back on the drop-drones for information. The first of the weapon-drones came up level with the second floor. It darted forward.

Neusch detonated the two drop-drones on the balcony.

They must have triggered whatever explosives were in the weapon-drone, and the resulting explosion sent him reeling. The children screamed as they were slammed to the ground. The air in the bedroom instantly became a blizzard of trash.

Two drop-drones in the corridor outside survived. They righted themselves and scanned around. The tiles and artwork on the walls were smashed and smoldering, chunks still peeling away from the thankfully stubborn aerolite.

The bio-andy scrambled to its feet, its medical display showing several damaged areas, but it remained capable of locomotion. Neusch knew he only had seconds before the Guillrameo team hit him with something else. Kimiya was closest, sprawled across the floor weeping, debris swirling around her. He snatched her up and held her tight against his chest. She screamed in dread.

“I’m sorry, but it will be okay. You’ll see. I promise.”

She struggled. It was pointless, of course. Even if it’d been a real adult Imperial Celestial gripping her, she wouldn’t have been able to break free—and the bio-andy was considerably stronger.

The three cutter-drones finished slicing the bedroom’s window out of the wall. It fell soundlessly into the night beyond.

“No!” Kimiya wailed as the bio-andy moved toward the gaping hole. “No, no!” Her voice became a wordless shriek. Her spawn siblings cried out as she was carried past them.

“Follow me,” the bio-andy shouted at them. “It’s the only way you’ll live.”

He reached the window and jumped.

From Random House Worlds, "Exodus: The Helium Sea" is available in hardcover and paperback, as well as on Kindle and audiobook form.

Have you watched the recent declassified 'UFO' videos from the Pentagon? What did you think? With many ufologists and enthusiasts worldwide craving concrete evidence from the US government about the existence of extraterrestrial life, many think the Pentagon's first release raised more questions than answers. The world is desperate for the truth on UFOs and what better way to start your own journey than by learning more on the subject from doctors, former government officials, investigative journalists and even, claimed alien 'abductees.'

Where to start on this vast phenomenon? It depends what you are looking for. If you want to explore the subject through the minds of experts directly involved in military investigations, try Dr J. Allen Hynek's foundational text "The UFO Experience" or Luis Elizondo's "Imminent," an exposé from the former director of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).

Famous psychiatrist Carl Jung breaks down the psychological and cultural forces behind UFOs in his book, "Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies." UFO spirituality is explored in Professor D.W. Pasulka's "American Cosmic," where she explores how UFO lore is playing a major role in the formation of new religions amongst believers, billionaires and top-tier academics.

Fancy jumping off into the deep end? Enter the world of high strangeness with "Passport to Magonia," Jacquees Vallees' seminal text exploring modern alien lore in context with medieval fairy mythology and folklore. Hear tales directly from abductees with Dr John. E Mack's "Abduction" and Whitley Strieber's "Communion."

With Spielberg's "Disclosure Day" set for release on June 12 and another impending drop from the Pentagon, now is the time to start paying attention. The whole world is watching — are you?

New York Times bestselling author Andy Weir's "The Martian" was a publishing phenomenon when it first dropped 15 years ago. From humble beginnings as a free serialized novel on Weir’s website, it became a 99-cent Amazon Kindle offering before catching the attention of the editors at Penguin Random House.

With their help, the sci-fi survival novel centering on NASA astronaut Mark Watney, who becomes stranded on the Red Planet, became the perfect sci-fi book for its time. After officially launching worldwide in 2014, it was quickly adapted into a 2015 Oscar-winning feature film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain.

To commemorate "The Martian's" astonishing success and the book's true 15th anniversary this year, after selling over 3 million copies to date, a new hardcover special edition of this classic was released on May 26, 2026, and they were kind enough to send us a copy to check out.

Physical media in all forms is making a robust comeback these days, and this 384-page gem is presented with colorful cosmic swirls on sprayed edges, dazzling new reflective cover art on a deluxe jacket, full-color illustrated endpapers revealing a breathtaking orange-tinted Mars landscape, and a custom-stamped bare case depicting a giant potato floating in a sea of stars.

The Martian tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney, who becomes stranded on Mars after a dust storm incapacitates him. His crew evacuates, thinking he's dead, leaving him stranded and alone on the red planet. What follows is a gripping story of survival, scientific ingenuity, and heart as he finds a way to grow food, survive, and contact home despite the impossible odds

Whether revisiting "The Martian" for the first time or simply looking to upgrade your old copy, this shimmering Ballantine Books beauty is the definitive edition of Andy Weir’s compelling sci-fi novel.

Feeling the clammy grip of death on your shoulder? Hopefully you don't, but with so much debris floating overhead, a satellite apocalypse could come at any time. Then there are asteroid impacts, alien invasions and so on. That's why we've rounded up 15 sci-books you just have to read before you die.

From Isaac Asimov to Andy Weir, we've delved into science fiction, past and present, to select the books that deserve to be on your bucket list. These novels will transport you to a range of worlds, from a dystopian future(ish) Earth through to distant desert planets. The themes and topics they broach will leave you stunned, questioning humanity's place in the galaxy or, even if we have a future at all.

So, read on for the 15 sci-fi books that absolutely have to be on your bucket list.

With Hollywood screenwriter Damien Ober's name displayed on its enticing onyx-shaded jacket, readers are in for a strange and compelling tale with his first foray into space fantasy titled "Voidverse" (Saga Press). I mean, what else could you expect from one of the writers of Netflix’s cult supernatural mystery series, "The OA"?

"Voidverse's" sci-fi western narrative is told across multiple protagonists amid an uncanny universe where people live on falling rock worlds, stacked vertically in an infinite emptiness. Inside this vast, mysterious void, denizens of the realm may explore these locales by either Rising or Sinking. Within the void, a girl named Sinker teams up with a mother seeking a cure for her sick son, and together they learn of an evil entity systematically destroying the stone lands.

"'Voidverse' first came to me in a dream, way back in 2004," Ober tells Space. "Soon after, I wrote what would become the first chapter of the novel and started to flesh out the rest in notebooks and other little side writing projects. By the time I was working on 'The OA,' what would become 'Voidverse' was pretty far along, though still far away too. I had to move to LA for the job and brought my typewriter. I’d get up early and bang on 'Voidverse' before work and stay up late too. I’m sure my neighbors loved me.

"'The OA' was the perfect environment for me and for the novel right then. It was definitely a show that not only encouraged out-of-the-box thinking — on structure, character, tone, everything — but required it. What always impressed me most about the show was the amazing diversity of its fanbase. People of all kinds loved that show, from football jocks to kitty nanas."

Ober is a formidable talent who’s been prolific over the last decade with scripts developed for Paramount+, AMC, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Described as "Dune" meets "Wool," "Voidverse" is a high-energy quest where eternal forces are about to clash in a monumental showdown.

His research for the project included reading up on the effects of long-term weightlessness and sensory deprivation, as well as dipping into old Japanese legends and international fairytales.

"For the atmosphere and world of 'Voidverse' to work, I needed the characters and the prose to meld with the setting. Holding my hand out the window of the car on the freeway, sinking to the bottom of a pool, staring into darkness. How does it feel? What words can I use to describe it? How do I pull the reader into that in a primal way? How can the novel build a language of its own? Books like 'Flatland' and 'V.A.L.I.S.' had a huge effect on me. Each forces a new kind of physical understanding on your brain to deliver something so unique and viewpoint-shifting."

The worldbuilding of "Voidverse" invariably reflects feelings and impressions of many of the movies and games Ober has absorbed and loved over the years, all filtered down and distilled through some mysterious brain process. "There's a big adventure at the heart, something akin to 'Beastmaster' or 'Krull,'" he explains.

"There's a cool world and character mystery vibe that could remind you of 'The Legend of Zelda.' The western/samurai themes and the way the characters are built through action, the limited POV, and sparse language… Kurosawa and Leone, the old 'Incredible Hulk' TV show, but also existential road trip movies like 'Two Lane Blacktop' and the soul-crushing 'Come and See.'

"Of course, scary space thrillers like 'Saturn 3' and 'Event Horizon.' 'Metroid.' 'Lone Wolf and Cub.' 'Stalker.' Though I didn't really think of this when writing, a reviewer described 'Voidverse' as ''The Little Prince' on steroids with an adult rating.' I like that description a lot."

Also — and this is one hell of an aside — but "Voidverse" has to be one of the best-smelling novels I have ever encountered. I'm serious. Maybe it's the black-edged pages, but it exudes an intoxicating aroma of old leather with a hint of sweet seasoned charcoal.

Now enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Damien Ober's "Voidverse" below:

As with all Decidings, most of the rock had gathered to watch. There were five new boys of age, lined up on the edge platform. Always the boys looked on display, things people had tidied and set up. The rise instructor beamed, his pocked, beefy face and beard all gone gray. He nodded encouragingly to the boys, and the friction rippled them as they stepped to the edge.

Their faces looked like apples, shined up with fear. I could see each boy’s breath, the heaving of their lungs, ribs expanding wide and contracting in. A cry burst from the platform. One of the boys had turned back to the crowd, face skin twisted around wild eyes, red cheeks about to rip apart from the rictus. He broke and ran into his mother’s arms, and they became a tangle of gripping the other tighter. They sobbed and scuttled away, and the only sound again was the roaring friction past the edge.

The other boys were pulling down their pack straps, clipping them tight. They moved fast, their hands trembling. None wanted to be the next to lose his nerve. With no further hesitation, they began leaping out into the void, one after the other, all four spreading their arms and legs in Kolatchi position as they’d been taught. They hovered a breath in stasis—as if the sink itself was now deciding—and then the friction took them and they began to rise, slowly, then picking up speed. Their faces lost distinction, their bodies smaller and smaller and then only specks in the overvoid.

It was hard to see at first, but a fifth speck had appeared, this one getting larger. “A sinker!” someone shouted.

The crowd mumbled and shifted as the sinker came slicing downward at impossible speed, arms and legs pinned tight, chin tucked under a matte black helmet. A clear circle spread in the crowd, and the sinker swooped and landed smoothly. His helmet was not matte black, after all, but scratched up and dulled by dings and scuffings. Only the snapped-down visor was polished, reflecting us back as he scanned the crowd. He was thin, lean and sleek, in a suit of tight-fit leather with lots of straps and buttoned-up pockets. The hilt of a sword protruded from his back, snug beside a pack as tight as an angry fist. Then the visor flipped up, and I could see this sinker was a woman, had been since she first appeared way above.

Everyone was silent and still as she moved through the crowd, studying faces. Finally, she settled and fixed on me, and in the wide black centers of her eyes was the empty darkness of the void. From the tight overlappings of her suit, she took a folded sheet of paper and held it up for all to see. “I call upon the code of this rock,” the Sinker said. “I have a letter.”

Copyright © 2026. Reprinted by permission of Saga Press at Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

In today’s dizzying world of near-infinite everyday choices — whether it's toothpaste brands, sports drinks, dog kibble, or streaming services — the value of our choices seems diluted to insignificance due to the sheer volume of picks at hand.

But there was a time when middle-grade kids learned the rules of personal choice and were empowered to venture down unexpected pathways in the classic series of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books prominent during the ‘80s and ‘90s.

One such multiple-storyline title published in 1980 was author R.A. Montgomery’s "Space and Beyond," which chronicled the journey of... well, you, but a version of you that was born on a spaceship traveling between galaxies and raised by parents from two different planets.

This summer, Oni Press will release a new graphic novel adaptation of "Choose Your Own Adventure: Space and Beyond" on Aug. 4, 2026, and we have an exclusive 11-page preview for you!

Written by Jeremy Lambert ("The Night Mother," "Dungeons & Dragons") with artwork provided by Dani Bolinho, ("Choose Your Own Adventure: Forecast From Stonehenge"), "Space and Beyond" brings back the magic of discovery as the creative team has crafted a new iteration of an old favorite with over 44 different possible endings fans can select from to become the hero of their own odyssey.

"You will journey through planets and galaxies and into the unknown universe," states the synopsis.

"Put on your spacesuit and hurtle through space and time to choose the best adventure for you! First, you'll choose the planet of your birth. Does Kenda or Croyd suit you? When you encounter a group of aliens, will you believe them to be friend or foe? Will you face the dangers of a black hole? What will you do when you journey back in time and see dinosaurs up close? Will you bring peace to troubled planets? It's all up to you, so be careful! The choices you make could bring you home or launch you even farther into the infinite depths of the vast universe."

In this extended sneak peek in the gallery above, the vivid interior illustrations provide an enhanced narrative experience where you and a three-eyed alien companion bop around the galaxy in a space pod. You'll avoid a mysterious nebula, seek help from the mother ship, take evasive action against the intense gravitational pull of a black hole, and try not to skip too close to a glaring sun where you might be transformed into energy particles.

Choices have consequences, in art and in life!

With a main cover by Dani Bolinho and colors from Valentina Pinto, "Choose Your Own Adventure: Space and Beyond" arrives courtesy of Oni Press on Aug. 4, 2026.

The enviable creative achievements of video game designer, ace illustrator, and Hollywood concept artist Ben Mauro could fill an entire library, with a sterling resume that includes credits on projects such as "Halo: Infinite," "Call of Duty," "The Predator," and Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium."

Oh, and did we mention he also spent five years down in New Zealand with director Peter Jackson working on costume design, weaponry, creatures, and props for "The Hobbit Trilogy?"

But aside from these accolades, Huxley is aiming to make his new sci-fi graphic novel series, "Huxley" (Thames & Hudson, 2025), into the next transmedia sensation in the vein of "Star Wars," "Dune," "Warhammer 40K," or "Foundation." Mauro remains dedicated to making it happen with this past December's "Huxley: The Oracle," the second entry in his interplanetary saga adorned with lavish illustrations delivering cinematic storytelling and the visual flair seen in AAA video games.

"A lot of this began when I was working in production on films and games," Mauro tells Space.

"It's sort of like an arms race of you've got to be more realistic, got to be faster, so you learn every new technique on the job. It felt like I was getting further away from the reason I made art which was drawing and painting from scratch."

The book serves as a narrative prequel to Mauro's post-apocalyptic science fiction universe occurring on the planet FURY-7, where "ancient machines, rogue AI empires, and human survivors converge in a mythic struggle." The ambitious project encompasses superb illustration, narrative fiction, and the inevitable expansion into animation, games, toys, and collectibles.

"Huxley: The Oracle" showcases over 100 illustrations from distinguished collaborators like Syama Pedersen (director of "Warhammer 40K: Astartes"), Steve Chinhsuan Wang ("Gears of War 5"), Nikolas Gekko ("Halo Infinite," "Destiny 2"), and striking artwork from Mauro himself.

"'Huxley' started as, 'Okay I’ll do whatever I've got to do at the job, but I’ll come home and make what I feel is art or things that made me really happy.'" explains Mauro. "The original drawing of Huxley planted the seed of what is this character, what world does he live in, what’s his story? And it slowly grew from that over a ten-year period before the first book was finished."

'The Oracle' marks a major milestone in the continued expansion of the 'Huxley' universe, states the official synopsis. “Set decades before the original Huxley timeline, 'The Oracle' follows Max, an elite Ronin soldier navigating a world ruled by the Oracle Empire during the height of its power. As the AI Wars escalate across the desert planet, Max uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to fracture the very foundations of his world."

"I felt more comfortable after working on 'Elysium' because that was the first time we did something from start to finish," he adds. "We got really good at telling stories over a lot of years doing it for directors. A graphic novel is almost like directing on paper, so I’d block out one-to-five pages. A lot of it would just be thumbnails and I would make sure my eye is flowing from the panels."

Having been immersed in the video game industry for the past two decades, one tends to gather some pretty talented colleagues, and Mauro has enlisted some of the finest in their field to help promote "Huxley" with the release of brilliant cinematic teasers, story previews, and trailers online.

"Since I came from more of a film background, I was looking at European graphic novels like 'Metabarons' and Mœbius and 'Heavy Metal' kind of stuff. I was taking that in and adding a little more cinematic storytelling. Artistically it was very much Japanese and French influences. Also 'Akira,' 'Ghost in the Shell,' and Miyazaki movies like 'Nausicaä' and 'Princess Mononoke.' Then filtered through a kid growing up on Ridley Scott and James Cameron action movies. 'Terminators' and 'Mad Maxs' and 'The Matrix' and 'Alien.' It's a big melting pot of all that. I'm sure 'Star Wars' is in there and 'Dune' is there too."

Whether it scores a live-action adaptation or a deluxe animated iteration, Mauro has already done much of the heavy lifting for producers and studios, and with a third book on the way, "Huxley" is ready to roll!

"We're definitely getting into adaptations and exploring different things in games and animation to find what might be the most interesting first big product people can enjoy," he notes. "I’m pushing on all those fronts. It's really just finding the right partners and the right people. It's exciting to see things come to life and see it grow and expand. It just makes me happy every day."

"Huxley" and "Huxley: The Oracle" are available now in both standard softcover and deluxe hardcover editions.

Love Project Hail Mary? We can't blame you. Andy Weir's sci-fi novel, which begins with an astronaut waking up aboard an apparently abandoned spaceship, is absolutely riveting. In fact, we spoke with Andy Weir to talk about the astrobiology behind the latest book-adapted motion picture.

Now the movie, starring Ryan Gosling, is on course to clean up at the box office, echoing the success of The Martian, another movie based on Weir's work. On top of that, another book, Artemis, has already been optioned as a film.

All of that might have you wondering, which other Weir works are worth investigating? And where can you go to find them?

We've rounded up all the author's books below, including a trio of Audible audiobooks. The last two are not strictly sci-fi, but if you're hooked on Weir, they're well worth investigating. And for a peek inside the author's mind, read our interview about Andy Weir's thoughts on alien life.

Published in January by Random House Worlds, "Detour" is the new mystery sci-fi novel from veteran TV writer Jeff Rake ("Manifest") and bestselling author Rob Hart ("The Warehouse")

Laced with mind-warping essences of "The Twilight Zone" and "Lost," this eerie outer space adventure is a perfect read for fans of books like Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary", as a spaceship crew returns from Saturn's blue-green moon of Titan to discover that the Earththe left behind has become a very different place.

We connected with Rake and Hart to dip into the origins of their twisted thriller and how this fortuitous creative partnership formed to produce one of the year's most compelling reads. Check out the interview below, then stay tuned for the short exclusive excerpt from "Detour" at the end.

"I've been writing TV for about 25 years and was brainstorming high-concept ideas that could be a potential sci-fi show,” Rake tells Space.

"I was coming off 'Manifest,' a show I created that started on NBC and ended up on Netflix. That show wrapped up three years ago, and I was asking myself what's next. I landed some broad strokes for 'Detour' and went in to talk to my agent.

"We pitched it out, and one of the agents said it felt sort of novelistic and asked what I thought about developing it as a book, then down the line, maybe adapting it for television. That was incredibly intimidating to me. I didn't know how to write a book, so they ended up finding me a partner and sent me a bunch of books to read. I stopped reading after I got to Rob Hart's 'The Warehouse.'"

Being familiar with Rake's "Manifest" series, Hart absorbed the initial "Detour" pitch and immediately knew he had to be the one to work on it.

"The thing that Jeff is so good at, and the thing I love so much, is when you take a really big-swing, crazy sci-fi idea and then humanize it with really strong characters," says Hart.

"But obviously the big question was were we going to be able to work together. I have plenty of talented friends who I'd never work with in a million years because I want to continue those friendships. I was emboldened by the fact that Jeff is a TV guy and TV is a very collaborative medium. We hopped on a Zoom and just hit it off, and we were on the same wavelength. I started riffing and hitting him with ideas for things we could do with the story, and he said, 'This sounds awesome, let's do it.' From there, it was pretty much off to the races."

Rake was particularly interested in coming up with another idea similar to "Manifest," one that combined science fiction and grounded family drama, something centered around parents and children and all the things you might consider when talking about emotions and families.

"This is near future, like 2030," Hart adds. "I will say that if Neil deGrasse Tyson read this book, he would not be thrilled. I definitely took liberties in terms of the technology, but it's a new kind of ion engine that's roughly based on technologies we're looking at now that would cut down the trip drastically. It was to drop a satellite in orbit around Titan to collect data about potential colonization."

As to why they chose Titan as the crew's destination?

"I've always been a geek about the fact that Mars kind of sucks in terms of colonizing for a bevy of reasons," declares Rake. "Whereas Titan is more reasonable for establishing a colony. It was fun to play in that space of like, 'Everybody always does Mars, let's do something different.'"

Taking on the first book in a space odyssey series no doubt required a generous commitment of research time, looking into human spaceflight, astrophysics, and orbital mechanics to lend an air of authenticity to the project. Fortunately for Rake, he got paired with a true research nerd.

"I'm a big fan of space travel stuff and recently rewatched 'Interstellar,'" admits Hart. "They literally made new discoveries about black holes based on the research and special effects that movie did."

"I didn't necessarily do what Andy Weir does, where all the science in his book checks out; that's insane. But I've got enough of a general understanding of the importance of artificial gravity in maintaining bone density for an astronaut while they’re in space [...] I always live by this adage that things don't need to be 100% correct, but they do have to be believable within the confines of the story."

Reaching Titan is no mean feat, and getting the story off the ground required a plausible method of traveling to Saturn's moon and back. "The thing that I was most excited about is I got to design a ship for deeper travel in our solar system," explains Hart.

"I envisioned it as having turning wheels to create artificial gravity, and we hired an artist to do a rendering of the ship to put into the book, and that made me so unbelievably happy. I knew right off the bat I wanted there to be a diagram of the spaceship in the book."

"Detour" is available via bookstores and online retailers now. You can read an exclusive excerpt below!

"THE CASE FOR TITAN" BY PADMA SINGH

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For decades, humanity has looked to Mars as our next stop in the solar system. Over the last several years, technology in ion propulsion drives has increased exponentially, shortening a potential trip from years to months. As such, politicians and the general public alike have been asking: when will we finally step foot on the Red Planet, made famous in these circles by scientists like Carl Sagan and writers like Ray Bradbury and Andy Weir?

But as the scientific community is widely aware, Mars is an inhospitable, barren desert. While we know the planet has ice, and therefore water, the effort of accessing that resource remains monumental. Not to mention the planet’s thin atmosphere, which would not protect humanity from cosmic radiation.

To survive, humans would need to wear shielded, pressurized suits. And to thrive, we would have to spend billions just on mining equipment, to dig up resources and construct underground habitats. We’re looking in the wrong place. We should instead be focusing about 400 million miles past Mars, to Saturn’s moon, Titan.

Titan is roughly half the size of Earth, and it’s so far out that a year on Titan would be roughly 29 years on Earth. But it has a nitrogen-rich atmosphere, 50 percent thicker than Earth’s. The surface may seem inhospitable: covered in ice as hard as granite and sand dunes made of plastics, with lakes of ethane and methane. The atmosphere is hazy, limiting visibility, and the amount of sunlight that reaches the surface is much smaller, creating a perpetual orange twilight.

But humans wouldn’t need pressurized suits; they’d only need temperature-controlled suits to combat the freezing temperatures. The atmosphere would provide ample protection from cosmic rays, meaning habitats could be built on the surface. Those plastic dunes could be used to construct surface-level habitats, and the ethane and methane lakes could power them. Because of the weaker gravity, a rocket launching from the surface of Titan would take far less fuel than it does on Earth—and fuel is already in ample supply there.

In order to settle a new world, we need accessible resources, and we need to protect the first humans to take that step. We can do both of those things on Titan. I believe, over time, smaller settlements can be linked together, and in the space of a few decades, we could have a thriving colony living and flourishing on Titan’s surface. Thanks to Horizons’ newly-developed ion thrust engines and Starblazer, the ship John Ward has been constructing in low-Earth orbit, we could be there in a year—as compared to seven under previously available technology.

In the following paper, I will make the case that Titan, not Mars, should be humanity’s focus as we look beyond Earth…

Reprinted from "Detour" by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart.

New York Times bestselling author Daniel Kraus, whose popular "Whalefall" novel was adapted into an upcoming feature film by Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment, sets his creative compass for an interstellar odyssey to a mysterious planet in his first entry into science fiction books with "The Sixth Nik". We chatted to Kraus about the upcoming novel, and he even gave us an exclusive excerpt to share before its June 26, 2026, arrival.

Kraus co-wrote the "Trollhunters" book with director Guillermo del Toro, which was transformed into the hit Netflix animated series, as well as the novelization of del Toro's Academy Award-winning sci-fi horror romance film, "The Shape of Water." "The Sixth Nik" promises to be an extraordinary journey into the darker depths of the genre when it appears later this summer.

"The Sixth Nik" is set aboard The Sickness, a ship "woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew". It follows the story of Sisilla, a brain-enhanced, nine-year-old cultist who has boarded The Sickness to investigate a plague-riddled planet that has gone rogue.

Per Kraus, "The Sixth Nik" blossomed in his brain via a bizarre manner, as a robotic take on the 1962 thriller "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?"

"The finished novel bears no resemblance to that idea -- except maybe a single chapter near the book's middle -- and that's ultimately what made the project so exciting for me," he tells Space.com.

"It grew almost fungally around that notion in both directions, larger and larger, until it was a monster I could barely control. I usually work with outlines, but "The Sixth's outline was hilariously short, especially given the complexity of the story."

Kraus admits to writing in a variety of genres, and his influences almost never come from those arenas. For "The Sixth Nik," inspirations included artworks such as Ariel Dorfman's "Death and the Maiden," John Ford's "The Searchers," and the previously mentioned "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?"

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but what spurred the story's growth more than anything else was the lead-up to the 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the increasing attacks on the lives of trans people," he adds.

"There's no other sensible way to look at these movements except to say the American government is trying to control the physical bodies of flesh-and-blood people. It's an extremely short path between these efforts and herding humans into concentration camps. Believe me, I don't begin a novel with a quote from Josef Mengele lightly."

Check out this exclusive excerpt from Daniel Kraus' "The Sixth Nik":

They called it The Sickness.

It was docked at Anchor 102. To the starboard side, at Anchor 101,

was the black titanium semicircle of a four-deck UN+ army gunship,

studded with pulse cannons and plated in armadillo-like armor. To the

port side, at Anchor 103, was a yellow D-class yacht, symmetrical down

to the six grav rafts nestled along either side.

Between these exemplars of balletic grace, The Sickness looked like

a chunk of an Oort Behemoth that had fallen off, caught onto the side

of Tepper Base, and rotted. If The Dermis resembled human skin, The

Spine a backbone, and The Pelvis intestines, The Sickness, too, was unmistakable,

a veined, globular mass of metastatic tissue.

It looked like a tumor.

I stared through the Anchor 102 window and practiced breathing

techniques while beset by waves of fear and disgust. In total mass, The

Sickness scarcely exceeded one of Earth’s wide-body airliners, if that airliner

was chewed into a bolus, dipped in blood, and left to fester in an

equatorial heat. Its very presence seemed to affect the adjacent gunship

and yacht. The shining hulls of each ship grayed as if fighting a losing

battle against a virulent contagion.

I could but guess at how the exterior features of a typical spacecraft

had been translated to this bioprinted abomination. A cauliflower of

purple boils might house the cockpit. The flabby sack of veined flesh

swaying testicularly from the bottom of the ship could be the cargo

hold. Where I expected an air lock was a set of lippy fibromas, plump

and glossy, with retractable ramps like cancerous tongues. At the top of

the ship wobbled a giant bubble of translucent pink flesh, lidded and

extruded like an eyeball sarcoma, probably to facilitate sunlight toward

a hydroponic garden. A pox of grapelike bulges off the ship’s side looked

swollen with pus, but for all I knew held living quarters. Barely in view

was a hemorrhoidal sphincter that, with every relaxation, revealed an

eggy lump like a prostate tumor—the ship’s aerotonal room, I suspected.

The trigov assembly behind me cheered. But distaste was evident in

their pained grins, and their eyes betrayed fresh apprehension of me.

Plasmagraphs did not make mistakes. The Sickness was everything its

crew needed it to be. The question became, What kind of crew could

have inspired a ship like this? What kind of Niffakoq?

I was to have no escort inside The Sickness, no official tour. The point

of a plasmagraphic ship, after all, was that it required no introduction—

in a very real sense, I had helped design it. I took a deep, even breath.

My full-body jumper, the simplest, most monkish wear I could find on

Tepper, whispered along my body, reassuring me I had trained nine

years for this Chore—a Chore I had been briefed upon for hours the

day before, and which frankly enthralled me.

I entered the boarding bridge alone. Applause vibrated the girders.

But it died out while I could still hear it and was rapidly replaced by the

footfalls of people, even those I had nikked as modded for self-control,

who could not wait to get the plasmagraphed ship out of their sight.

Feeling unruly? An official prequel novel to 2024's "Star Wars Outlaws" is coming next month entitled "Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon." Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft's third-person, open-world sci-fi adventure game, "Star Wars Outlaws," launched back on Aug. 30, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Gamers were introduced to the rogue scoundrel named Kay Vess and her BX-Commando droid partner as they prepared for one of the "biggest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen." The video game was set sometime between the events of "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi."

Now, an engaging backstory for "Star Wars Outlaws" named "Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon" by author Mike Chen ("Star Wars: Brotherhood") is being published by Random House Worlds Feb. 3, 2026, to fill out the darker corners of the "Star Wars" Universe. The 384-page hardcover focuses on the game's main antagonist, crime lord Jaylen Vrax, and his intimidating assassin droid ND-5.

Here's the official synopsis:

"Jaylen Barsha, heir to his family’s immense power and wealth, had his life charted out for him neatly and meticulously by his parents, even though he suspected his neglected half-brother Sliro would be a better fit for the bright corporate future his parents envisioned. Then the Empire stripped it all away on trumped-up charges of conspiracy against his family. Before he can reach Sliro for help redeeming the Barsha name, a battle droid arrives at the family compound with a mission to kill every last member of the Barsha clan. Jaylen manages to fend off the attack as the sole survivor, but realizes the droid, who he reprograms, is his only chance to stay alive. But he can no longer be Jaylen Barsha—he’ll have to live now as Jaylen Vrax.

"Former Separatist battle droid ND-5 knows he should be scrap metal, all things considered. He was a proficient contributor to the Separatist cause, but what is a soldier without a war?

"With the threat against the Barsha clan still shrouded in mystery, the pair has no choice but to leverage the chaos and disappear. They find sanctuary in the anonymity of the underworld, building their reputation among scoundrels, bounty hunters, and crime syndicates. But when their latest score gives the first real clue in years to who sent ND-5 after Jaylen’s family, their biggest opportunity presents a new kind of risk. Do they give up this chance at the wealth and power Jaylen was denied to pursue answers? Or will ambition and the weight of the past shatter their unlikely partnership?"

"Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon" arrives on Feb. 3, 2026.

Bestselling and award-winning author Martha Wells is taking everyone's favorite robot back into the fire in her upcoming book "Platform Decay," which comes out on May 5, 2026.

The book begins with a familiar spark, a rescue, but Wells wanted to push the setting into something stronger and tougher to move through, eventually coming up with another unique sci-fi setting that Murderbot and its friends can navigate while encountering friends, foes and more eye contact. But beneath the action, Wells is still writing to the heart of what makes Murderbot resonate: the desire to help, the limits of what to risk and the lingering weight of what the character has experienced. "Murderbot has been described as a comfort read," Wells told Space.com, because you get to watch someone "be able to take action in situations where you would really like to."

To get a better idea of what Murderbot fans can expect, Space.com sat down with Wells to dive into the next installment of the series, which Wells summed up with a line that's equal parts ominous and hilarious: "It's like the family road trip from hell on Ringworld."

You can preorder a copy of 'Platform Decay' here.

Q: When did the idea of 'Platform Decay' first appear to you?

MW: "I had been wanting to do a story of Murderbot rescuing someone from a corporate station. And I know we've done that before. And I was playing with the idea a lot. And then I also thought about doing something on a torus, a planetary torus because I always try to make the setting a little bit different. That led into the idea of: what if this torus is extremely difficult to navigate, given how large this thing is? It's got to be more difficult to navigate than a planet.

And [that] also [got] into my own frustrations with not having a lot of mass transit in the U.S. and in especially where I live, and just how difficult it can be to navigate that kind of situation. I'd also wanted to have Murderbot interact more with Mensah's family. So this was a good way to do that."

Q: How are the stakes different this time, and what makes it feel fresh?

MW: "Well, one of the things that [Platform Decay] gets into is the conflict of who do you save? Because Murderbot's mission is to rescue these specific people, but to do that, it has to decide how much to risk to rescue other people in the same situation.

I feel that's becoming a much more personal dilemma for all of us just thinking about [the events happening in] Minnesota and how much can you risk, as you have to protect your own family and yourself. But you see people you want to help. Murderbot is always a great character to be able to do things that we can't do to make that happen."

Q: You've written children characters briefly before in previous 'Murderbot' books. How do you keep them from being plot devices?

MW: "I think all characters can fall into that same trap. So you have to think about things from that person's perspective. That's basically it. I don't think specifically about them being children so much as just people in this situation, and especially people that are not completely helpless, but, there's just not very much they can do to help."

Q: Your books have such a sharp, funny voice. Does that come naturally?

MW: "It comes naturally for me and as my sense of humor is sort of bitter and sarcastic. The worse things are going, the more bitter and sarcastic my humor sometimes gets. So when I first started writing Murderbot in 2016, I needed to express my anger and I needed to express how horrible everything seemed to be going and, and continues to get. The bitter humor has been a part of that. And I think that's how a lot of people deal with these things.

And I think especially with our popular culture, there's almost an emphasis on that. I've been watching 'The Pitt' lately, and it's almost like a comfort show, because you get to see people come in with horrible injuries and they're just like 'oh, we can fix this.' You see people trying to help as much as they can, even when they don't manage to, when they fail, it still feels encouraging and, and heartening in a lot of ways. That's what I wanted to do with Murderbot."

Q: Has the Apple TV show changed anything about how you write Murderbot's voice on the page?

MW: "It has a little bit. I hear some of the character's voices now in the actor's voice. I think it does help me visualize things, and in some ways the books are different, but there's so much continuity there. They did come up with so many things for the show that I thought were just fabulous, like the embroidery on the … costumes for the Preservation group. The costume designers thought that Arada would get bored on the wormhole trip and so she would embroider ...That's the kind of thing where you have a lot of people thinking about something. The synergy is so incredible."

Q: Without any spoilers, describe 'Platform Decay' in three-ish words

MW: "It's like the family road trip from hell …The longer version of that is the family road trip from hell on Ringworld"

Q: Is there something you wished interviewers asked more about?

MW: "One of the things that used to annoy me the most when the books first started to come out is people who were kind of ignoring the slavery aspect, because it is basically a science fiction slave narrative."

Q: Did you ever think the series would get this big?

MW: "Oh no. When I did the first novella, it originally was just going to be a standalone, and then when it was bought by Tor.com, they asked for a second novella. I had absolutely no idea the novellas were going to take off like this."

Science fiction has always been more than just tales of aliens and spaceship. It's a genre that dares to ask "what if?" and explores the boundaries of technology, society, and human nature.

Over the decades, a select group of authors and stories have risen above the rest, earning prestigious accolades like the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards.

This quiz is your chance to dive into the literary side of sci-fi greatness. You'll encounter questions about iconic novels that reshaped the landscape, short stories that packed a universe into a few pages, and the brilliant minds behind them, from golden age pioneers to contemporary visionaries.

Whether it's Ursula K. Le Guin's philosophical depth, Octavia Butler's bold social commentary, or Ted Chiang's elegant precision, these works have left a lasting mark on speculative fiction.

See how well you score below!

Matthew Medney, former Heavy Metal magazine CEO and current founder of the invigorating new sci-fi fantasy publishing house Gungnir Books, is embarking on a futuristic fable next year with "Existence Equation," a provocative speculative fiction novel that poses topical questions regarding artificial intelligence, cybernetics, immortality, and our quest to conquer the stars.

Medney ("Beyond Kuiper") and co-author Don Macnab-Stark have crafted an intelligent examination of the human condition in the 23rd century as it surges into an existential era of decision, and we’ve got an exclusive excerpt and book trailer premiere that reveal the project's universal appeal.

There's even a trailer for it. I know, since when does a book get a trailer? Check it out above.

It’s the saga of a teenager in the year 2293 named Liam Kerr who must make the life-altering decision to traverse the heavens as an emotionless android hybrid like his space racing idol, Larkin Downey, or live out his natural biological years on Earth until they expire at the age of 60.

Now strap in for our exclusive chapter excerpt from Gungnir Books' "Existence Equation," which lands in bookstores and online retailers on May 5, 2026.

Existence Equation - Exclusive excerpt

“It's a good night for speed racing.”

Larkin Downey looked up at the sky. Streaks of iridescent color blazed a trail from horizon to horizon. The green, purple, and orange hues then softly began to fade into the darkening night sky.

Larkin grunted and said nothing. The colors shimmered on his slick metal limbs.

“C'mon. Clear skies, almost no wind, and just enough rain earlier to damp down the dust. What's not to like about that?”

Ricard stared at Larkin’s smooth android face, looking for a reaction, anything to reveal his thoughts, but Larkin’s expression never varied; there was nothing to betray what he might be thinking, let alone feeling. He simply stared out into the desert, visualizing and recalling the course, running the race in his mind for the fiftieth time.

Ricard, a loose-limbed bipedal with nimble fingers and a slim body, tapped the speed racer with a wrench. “Whatever. She’s ready to go when you are.”

The sound of revving engines was slowly building up around them; the smell of unburned fuel hung heavy in the air. Ricard shook his head in irritation. “So, you gonna check her out, or you gonna stand there looking cool and inscrutable all frecking day?”

Larkin finally moved, turning his head and scanning Ricard with his cold blue eyes. “Don’t you ever stop talking?”

Ricard gave a nervous laugh. “You know me, man, I always get nervous before a race.” He grinned. “I remember when you used to look forward to these things, but these days, even if you had a pulse I bet it would be as slow and steady as a deep space hibernation pod.”

Again, Larkin gave a non-committal grunt.

“Really? Don’t you feel the buzz?”

Larkin placed a hand on the fuselage of his speed racer, a slick silver and blue bullet that Ricard had built from scratch. “It’s running a bit rough.”

Ricard grinned. “Nah, that’s not rough you’re feeling, my man, that’s raw, latent power just waiting to be unleashed.”

Larkin looked at Ricard for the first time. “You did it? You fixed the feedback relay?”

Ricard couldn’t keep the smile off his face. He leaned into the cockpit and pointed at a small black switch. “Just toggle that and you’ll instantly get a burn— 20 percent extra power—for around ten seconds.”

“How many shots do I get out of it?”

“Three. But if you run it too long, you’ll burn the whole damn rig out and come grinding to a halt.”

Larkin nodded. “Got it. Ten seconds. Twenty percent. Three times.” The rumble and growl of the other racers’ engines was growing louder by the minute.

Larkin looked around the pits, at the melee of machines, racers, and mechanics, then back at Ricard. “Everyone’s heading towards the start line.”

“Yeah, time to roll,” agreed Ricard. “Oh, and one other thing. I rigged the relay so that when you activate it, there’ll be a quick blast of smoke from your tailpipes. It’s enough to make anyone in your wake have to slow down for a second, but you can claim ignorance and blame it on your dodgy mechanic.”

Larkin’s eyes gleamed a little brighter for a moment, the closest he came to showing any emotion. “Underhanded and ingenious. I like it.”

Ricard gave a mock bow, his long arms sweeping across the ground. “Words that should be inscribed on my epitaph.”

“Indeed.”

With an agile leap, Larkin jumped into the cockpit. He scanned the instruments.

Ricard leaned his head into the cockpit. “All good?”

Larkin nodded. “All good. See you at the finish.”

“Be careful,” Ricard reminded him. “You’ve got a target on your back after some of the stunts you've pulled lately.”

Larkin gave him his deadpan look. “When aren't I careful?”

Ricard stepped back. “Always?”

As Ricard straightened up, Larkin gently eased the throttle forward, and the racer glided towards the starting line. Ricard watched him all the way out of the hangar, wiping his hands on a greasy rag. “Good luck…” he said softly.

The grid was already starting to fill up with machines of all shapes, sizes, colors, and designs. Some were as sleek as a stiletto, while others had all the brutal subtlety of a thirty-pound sledgehammer. They all had one thing in common: they were designed to go fearsomely fast.

The course was a mix of open desert, narrow box canyons, high plateaus and even a few tunnels. This meant that no one design could dominate every race. Each machine had its strengths and weaknesses, meaning that the skill and adaptivity of the driver determined who crossed the finish line first.

Larkin found his place on the grid, then throttled back. He usually started nearer the front, but he’d had a so-so qualifying run, so he was in the third row. Not only had his ailerons been jamming, which slowed him down through the canyons, but he had found himself strangely distracted. His mind was filled with the sort of soul-searching thoughts that normally only visited him late at night when he was alone and his brain was freewheeling. At such times, he recalled his life on Earth, his life before he became an android. Even now, he found them returning to him—the shades of self-doubt and questions about his very existence. Why was he putting his life on the line yet again when the universe still held so many wonders, so much mystery?

“If you had a skin face, I’d say you looked like shit, Downey.”

Larkin turned to his left and stared into the blank insect eyes of his great rival, Sedulous. “You’re a fine one to talk.”

Sedulous made a loud cawing noise that Larkin had learned was his version of laughter. “Is it fear you are feeling?” croaked Sedulous. “Or are you just anticipating the embarrassment you will feel when I beat you. Again.”

In a rivalry going back several years, neither Larkin nor Sedulous had ever had the upper hand for long—until recently. Sedulous had won their last three encounters, the longest winning streak either of them had ever enjoyed, and the pain of defeat had registered even in Larkin’s emotional void.

"Winning isn’t everything." Larkin's voice was barely audible above the roar of engines.

Sedulous stared at him for a long moment, unreadable, then suddenly gave another loud, cawing laugh. “You’re right. It isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” He turned to scan his instruments and made a minor adjustment. “I’ll wait for you at the finish line. Please don’t make me wait too long, I don't want to miss the medal ceremony.”

Larkin tried to come up with a witty riposte but came up empty. He glanced up at the starting gantry. The large digital clock was ticking down the final thirty seconds of its countdown. All around him, the other racers—forty in total—were running through their final checks, securing their goggles in place, and praying to whatever deity they thought might help them win or at least keep them alive.

Larkin slid his goggles down over his eyes. Although he was an android and impervious to the effects of wind on his eyes, speed racers spent most of the time gliding just a few feet off the ground, and as a consequence, would be awash with clouds of abrasive sand and grit from Kurin’s desert landscape.

As he glanced upwards, he was greeted by the strange experience of seeing his own image on the giant vid-screens, as the commentators introduced the racers to the baying crowds that filled the grandstand at the start/finish line.

Was Ricard actually right? Was he looking even more inscrutable than ever? Androids displayed few emotions at the best of times, but lately Larkin had been experiencing a growing feeling of ennui, needing increasing levels of stimulants—whether external chemical shots or internally generated hormones— to feel anything at all. The countdown clock was almost finished.

"Three, two, one…”

What happens when humanity finally builds a civilization on another planet, and immediately repeats its old mistakes? That question drives 'The Second World', the sharp, satirical debut from writer Jake Korell. Set against the rise of a breakaway Martian nation, the story follows Flip Buchanan, son of the colony’s most powerful leader, as he navigates two chaotic decades of scientific breakthroughs, political theater, and cultural growing pains on the Red Planet.

Korell grounds his humor in real near-future science. His Mars isn't a distant fantasy but a logical extension of the conversations happening right now in space exploration, from private-sector expansion to the ethics of off-world settlement. By keeping the technology plausible and the human behavior all too familiar, Korell creates a world that feels both futuristic and uncomfortably recognizable.

The result is a story that treats space exploration seriously while embracing the absurdity of human nature. Blending the scientific accessibility of Andy Weir with the satirical edge of Vonnegut, Korell imagines a Mars shaped as much by physics as by politics, ego, and ambition.

In our Q&A below, he discusses the science, the satire, and the real policy debates that inspired 'The Second World,' which is available in Feburary 2026.

Space: 'The Second World' uses Mars as both a literal and symbolic frontier. What drew you to Mars specifically, and how did you balance real space-science plausibility with satire and speculative fiction?

Korell: I've always loved anything related to outer space. It activates the farthest reaches of our imagination—the vastness, the weird physics, the unknown. The future has that same built-in sense of wonder, the same limitless possibilities. But in storytelling, if you push too far ahead or veer too far away from what we've actually observed in the universe, things can become abstract and less relatable. A near-future Mars felt like the perfect middle ground, especially since people are already making plans to colonize. It's a whole other planet, but still our next-door neighbor—relatively speaking. Building a world on the Red Planet gave me immense creative freedom while keeping everything tethered to our own experience...

My goal was to keep the world scientifically plausible, then bend it just enough to make it funny. Something that might sound absurd to us now, but would feel completely normal to the characters living in that reality.

Space.com: Your story imagines a newly sovereign Martian nation grappling with political identity, culture, and legacy. How did real conversations in space policy, colonization ethics, and planetary nationalism influence your worldbuilding?

Korell: Worldbuilding has always been my favorite part of the writing process, and I love taking real issues from our world and weaving them into a place that’s entirely invented. When you start looking at space policy and colonization ethics, you realize how unsettled everything still is. No one "owns" Mars or the Moon. Even on Earth, we have borders and land because we say so, and the authority only comes from the ability to enforce it. Things are more nuanced now, but that’s still the foundation everything rests on. And in early America, colonizers took land from Native peoples simply because they could.

My Mars colony quickly emerged as the perfect allegory for the thirteen colonies, and the void between planets just became a much, much bigger Atlantic Ocean. The pattern was familiar. In colonization, first come the explorers, then the investors, then the politicians. A SpaceX-like corporation will almost certainly reach Mars first—acting as both explorer and investor, in this case. And the eventual Martian independence movement will be more like a corporate revolution. A union strike in spacesuits. But it’s all the same pattern, just with different branding...

Space.com: The book spans decades of technological and societal evolution on Mars. What future tech, space-travel concepts, or colonization challenges did you feel were essential to ground the story in believable near-future science?

Korell: Twenty years is a long span to cover, and technology can change dramatically in that window. That's part of why I grounded the story more in the characters than the gadgets. Human behavior is the one constant. If the people feel real, the future around them can stretch a little without breaking.

I also didn't want to bury the story under pages of scientific exposition. It’s harder to land a joke between equations and formulas. The future tech used in the story is based on ideas already theorized in scientific and sci-fi circles: holograms, space elevators, VR, alien contact, cloning, even faster-than-light travel through a spacetime distortion bubble. I certainly bent some rules and twisted others, but the foundation is always something plausible within speculative science.

Throughout the book, I poke fun at certain technologies, but I'm really satirizing the sci-fi storytelling tropes more than the science itself. The first Mars colony certainly won't be a giant glass-dome biosphere, but it’s such a classic visual that it carries a kind of cultural shorthand. Using these sorts of things allows the reader to orient themselves quickly so the satire and story can take center stage.

Space.com: Many sci-fi works treat Mars as humanity's escape hatch — a fresh start. In 'The Second World', we bring our flaws with us. What do you think is the most realistic obstacle preventing humanity from building a better world in space?

Human nature—specifically greed—is the biggest obstacle. We can take humans off Earth, but we're still bringing our instincts, anxieties, and ambitions with us. You can't code that out of a species.

But my view isn't totally pessimistic. If you look at history, we've improved ourselves quite a bit, little by little. Focusing specifically on the United States, putting politics aside, most of us can agree that the Founding Fathers creating a democracy was a major step up from living under a monarchy. And we've been refining and adjusting ever since. Mistakes were made, and continue to be made. It’s not perfect. And most likely, no futuristic space society will be either. But we're improving.

Progress requires a marketplace of ideas. And for that to exist, people can't all be cut from the same cloth. Diversity of thought brings innovation… along with bad actors, dumb ideas, and the occasional catastrophic oopsie. You get the full spectrum. You have to take the good with the bad.

The "bad" in that equation is almost always greed. If the incentives in space aren't aligned with building a better world, if profit outweighs purpose, we won't suddenly become enlightened just because we’re on a new planet. Whether it's Earth, Mars, or some asteroid we're mining, the challenge is the same: if the money doesn't point us toward a utopia in space, it's not going to happen.

Space.com: Your influences range from grounded sci-fi voices like Andy Weir to more absurdist storytellers. How do you approach blending scientific realism, speculative imagination, and humor while still respecting the seriousness of space exploration?

...I fully believe that a space settlement is inevitable. Humans have always been explorers, searching for better places, better materials, better systems—in other words, progress. Throughout history, people have fought progress, but they always lose. The people who invested in horse-drawn carriages weren't thrilled about automobiles, but cars weren't going to disappear just to protect the carriage-industrial complex. There was a much more lucrative automobile-industrial complex to consider. In the same way, settling Mars isn't hypothetical. It's in motion. People are actively working toward it right now. And once we settle Mars, we'll look to the moons of Jupiter or Saturn. After that, we'll start eyeing planets outside our solar system. It’s just a matter of time horizon.

You can follow Jake Korell's work on TikTok or Instagram.

NASA's 10 crewed Project Gemini flights, which launched in 1965 and 1966, were instrumental in delivering the knowledge and testing that would lead to landing astronauts on the moon in July 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission.

Often overlooked as the middle child of the American space program in that turbulent decade, Project Gemini provided astronauts, scientists and engineers vital information for the development of more ambitious human spaceflight efforts.

"Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story" (St. Martin's Press, 2025) is an absorbing new release arriving on Nov. 11 written by noted space historian, journalist and New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Kluger ("Apollo 8," "Holdout").

It offers up the riveting tale of the valiant souls both high aloft and on the ground whose unyielding efforts made possible the groundbreaking data that allowed for six crewed lunar excursions. Kluger also co-authored the 1994 book "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13" with famed NASA astronaut Jim Lovell, which was adapted into director Ron Howard’s film "Apollo 13."

Here within Kluger's engrossing prose, the New York City-based author paints a vivid portrait of Gemini's endeavors, from its harrowing inception to its triumphant end, with exacting detail.

"I had long thought that a book on Gemini was sort of owed to the world," Kluger told Space.com. "That sounds a little grandiose to say that I'm giving the world a gift; I don't pretend I'm doing that. But there's nobody who addressed and wrote about and explored the Mercury program better and more compellingly than Tom Wolfe. I don't know if there’s ever going to be another book about the Mercury program, because how do you touch 'The Right Stuff?'

"Similarly, I and Andy Chaikin and a number of others, including a lot of astronauts, have written extensively about the Apollo program. But the Gemini program was very much the middle sibling of the space program. It wasn’t the first time we went into space. It wasn't when we went to the moon. People sort of forgot about Gemini. It was the middle seat on an airliner."

Kluger reminds us that Gemini was a program in which we learned to walk in space, rendezvous and dock in space, learned to fly long-duration missions in space, and learned to coordinate with other crewed spacecraft, on the Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 missions.

"There was drama, there was accomplishment, there was death, there was near death, there was peril. Gemini 8's spinout almost took the lives of Dave Scott and Neil Armstrong," Kluger said. "The Gemini 9 spacewalk could have taken the life of Gene Cernan. Charles Bassett and Elliot See did die when their plane crashed into the McDonnell Aviation headquarters in early 1966. And that story hadn’t been told. I felt like it was time to give the Gemini program its due. It was an opportunity not to be missed. It was unprotected turf, and I decided to claim it."

The Gemini launches were filled with monumental firsts, and Kluger's careful research into the topic exposed harsh truths about just how crucial and dangerous these NASA orbital missions were.

"Those monumental firsts are historically well recorded. Alexei Leonov became the first human being to walk in space, shortly before Gemini 4 flew. But when Gemini 4 did fly, Ed White became the first American to walk in space," Kluger said.

"The Soviets launched a couple of missions with two spacecraft at a time and overstated their accomplishment in calling it 'rendezvous.' In fact, these ships simply happened to be up in orbit at the same time and were separated by many kilometers. The mission included none of the delicate navigational dance required to perform rendezvous because they didn’t have the thruster capability, they didn’t have the computer capability and they didn’t have the piloting capability. Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 proved that one spacecraft could track another one in orbit and move within inches.

"Then, by Gemini 8, they actually did touch and dock with an Agena target vehicle. That was a huge milestone in getting to the moon, because we have the lunar orbit rendezvous technique in which the command module and service module had to dock and separate and re-dock in lunar orbit."

Long-duration missions were also completed for the first time during Gemini. Gemini 5 was an eight-day mission. Six days in, that flight broke the record for duration in space that the Soviets had held.

"Then Gemini 7 blew the doors off of Gemini 5 when Jim Lovell and Frank Borman stayed up for 14 days," Kluger shares. "Those were some big milestones, both in the American space program and space exploration in general. Gemini 11 also broke an altitude record using the Agena engine to climb to 856 miles [1,378 kilometers], an Earth orbit record that stood until 2024 when the Polaris Dawn mission with Jared Isaacman at the helm went up and broke that record."

Kluger hopes that readers of his comprehensive new Gemini book take away the sense of just how intrepid these astronauts were, and what an epic achievement their missions turned out to be. So many unknowns became knowns, done in very short order by these true American heroes.

"There were 10 flights that flew over the course of 20 months, which meant that every eight weeks we were rolling out a new Titan rocket, rolling out a new Gemini spacecraft, loading up a new crew, launching them into low-Earth, bringing them home safely, then doing it over again," he explained.

"Just how much excellence and accomplishment and coordination it took on the ground to get these astronauts and spacecraft ready was something really important to be gained from it. Buzz Aldrin was famously known as Dr. Rendezvous. He got his Ph.D. in Orbital Mechanics and Rendezvous from MIT after graduating from West Point, so there was no underestimating Buzz's intellectual wattage. He's a brilliant man, and he accomplished brilliant things."

"Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story" lands in bookstores and online retailers on Nov. 11, 2025.

Let's not mince words: Darth Vader is one of the best fictional characters ever created (after Batman!) so it's with great anticipation that New York Times best-selling novelist Adam Christopher ("Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith") heads back to the galaxy far, far away to deliver a macabre new Sith Lord tale in "Star Wars: Master of Evil."

Arriving on Nov. 11, 2025, courtesy of Random House Worlds, this 384-page hardback takes place after the events of "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith," where a freshly forged Darth Vader seeks out the arcane secrets of life and death under the enveloping gaze of Emperor Palpatine.

We've got an exclusive chapter excerpt below to share with our readers.

The official synopsis reads: "In the wake of Emperor Palpatine's rise to power, the true nature of his most sinister enforcer remains a mystery. Darth Vader is a dominant yet illusive figure: the shadow cast by a malignant Imperial regime, unknowable to even its top officials. But as his humanity gives way to myth, Vader remains haunted by the promises of the dark side, seeking the ultimate power that his master has hinted at but withheld — the power to conquer death itself.

"On the volcanic world of Mustafar, Vader undertakes a dark ritual, bleeding a kyber crystal to forge his lightsaber. This act unleashes a power far greater than he anticipated, giving him a glimpse into the limitless potential of the Force.

"Vader is determined to follow this vision, even if it means defying his master's orders. Yet he finds the Emperor suspiciously supportive of his mission, even sending Vader to the Diso system to investigate rumors of a Force-wielding shaman able to raise the dead. At his side are a cadre of the Emperor’s scarlet-robed Royal Guard, led by Colonel Halland Goth — a decorated soldier with a very personal interest in Vader’s mission.”

Exclusive excerpt from "Star Wars: Master of Evil":

Colonel Halland Goth, an honored member of the Emperor’s personal guard, has been contacted by the Imperial Security Bureau to observe and report on the Emperor’s strange new enforcer, Darth Vader. Now on assignment, Goth meets Vader for the first time and finds the experience … unsettling.

Colonel Goth took a deep breath and focused his attention on the Emperor, sitting on his throne before the huge window of the office. The room was silent, save for the heavy, mechanized breathing of the huge man in black armor standing to one side of the throne dais.

Lord Vader himself. The man Goth was supposed to watch. But here, in his actual, physical presence, Goth could do nothing but stand to attention and swallow as he fought to control the almost visceral reaction he had to the imposing figure.

Goth might not have known who Vader was, but he had seen him before, just ... not this close. It had been at the celebration marking the eradication of the Jedi Order, where the lightsabers of the traitors had been burned. From afar, he’d glimpsed this nightmare in black standing by the Emperor’s side, watching the proceedings from a high balcony overlooking the steps of the Jedi Temple. Now, up close, Goth was impressed not just by the technology of the man’s suit but also by the design itself, the skull-like mask and flared neck protector clearly designed to instill fear in those who dared to face him, the exaggerated volume of the mechanical respirator another feature that would impress, if not terrify.

As his nerves began to settle, Goth allowed himself a tight smile, trying very hard to keep the expression as neutral as possible. But he was pleased to be part of this, whatever it was. Fear was how the new Empire kept control. Not terror, as such. Nor indeed austerity or hardship or punitive measures — although each had its place, he knew that — but fear. People responded to fear, and they responded well. He had seen that himself when accompanying the Emperor as a Royal Guard. The full ceremonial uniform he and his men normally wore, with its elongated cowl-like mask and enveloping red cloak, was designed not just for pomp and circumstance but also to elicit a certain kind of reaction from those who saw it.

Oh yes, appearances were everything in the new order.

There was the sound of footsteps entering the office. Still standing to attention, eyes front, Goth waited patiently, wondering who the newcomer was, not aware that anyone else had been invited to the briefing. An Imperial adviser perhaps, one of the slightly odd old men who seemed to have the Emperor’s ear from time to time.

Goth realized who it would be just as the newcomer came into his field of vision, and he found his mood deflating a little.

ISB supervisor Desler walked in and bowed low to the Emperor before turning and, quite casually, glancing over the Royal Guard. Goth’s gaze met the supervisor’s piercing blue eyes, and once again he was caught by the fire he saw within them.

Then the supervisor smiled, and Goth realized that the fire he had seen was starlight glinting off ice.

Desler moved to stand beside the Emperor’s throne and stayed there, hands clasped behind her back. The way she had just walked in, the way she had made herself part of the proceedings without saying a word ... Goth wasn’t sure he would ever get used to the ISB, the way they seemed to think they were not part of the regular hierarchy, apparently free to wander around the buildings and facilities of the Federal District, going about their own business without much regard for the rest of the military apparatus. Of course, the Emperor had invited her — Goth’s new mission had come from the throne, after all — but still. It was unsettling. The ISB was clearly a powerful entity.

Then it occurred to him: the ISB ... or COMPNOR?

It was Lord Vader who broke the silence in the Emperor’s office.

"I need no bodyguard."

His voice was deep and resonant — enhanced, of course, by the vocalizer built into the impressive mask. When he spoke, the sound of the mechanical respirator continued uninterrupted. Interesting, thought Goth, as his eyes fell on the square control panel on the front of the man’s chest. Red and green lights shone brightly, as they did on his belt, among a series of switches and buttons.

Life support?

"That is not your decision to make, Lord Vader," said the Emperor calmly.

There was confirmation, from the Emperor’s own lips. Lord Vader — one of Palpatine’s advisers? Part of his inner circle, certainly. But ... that suit. Goth looked at it again. Not just armor, not just a ceremonial demonstration of the Empire’s might. There was more to it. He listened carefully for a moment to Vader’s steady respiration, his eyes falling again to the lights on the chest panel —

And then Vader turned, his long cloak swirling as, without another word, he left the office and the Emperor’s presence. Goth allowed himself to break out of line for just a moment — he was the ranking officer in the room, after all — and watched him go, then turned back to the Emperor.

The Emperor waved a hand. "You are now under Lord Vader’s command," he said. "Accompany him to Diso. You have your orders. Go."

Goth snapped to attention, then gave the Emperor a deep bow. As he stood, he saw Desler move closer to the Emperor, the thumb and forefinger of her right hand playing with a signet ring on her left.

Goth straightened and presented the supervisor with his full attention. Desler smirked and gave him a small nod, which Goth returned. Then Goth turned on his heel and marched out, his Royal Guard sweeping in silently behind.

In the lobby outside the office, Goth ordered the guards to return to barracks and prepare for departure. As they filed away, Goth turned to look back into the Emperor’s office. He caught a glimpse of the ISB supervisor talking closely with the Emperor just before the doors to the office slid closed.

Clearing his throat, he headed back to his quarters to prepare for the mission, absentmindedly rubbing his chest with one hand. Stepping into an empty turbolift, he started coughing and didn’t stop until he stepped out one hundred levels below.

Reprinted from "Star Wars: Master of Evil" by Adam Christopher. © 2025 by Lucasfilm Ltd. Published by Random House Worlds, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Prepare for a remarkable journey into magnificent magnification with "Nanocosmos: Journeys in Electron Space" (Abrams Books, 2025), a mesmerizing new science coffee table book from author, artist, documentarian and visual effects filmmaker Michael Benson. Here, size truly matters!

Inside this hypnotic 320-page hardcover, Benson takes readers into a strange miniaturized world exposed by the technological magic of scanning electron microscopes (SEM).

And here we have a pair of exclusive lunar impact glass images to share with you, taken from moon samples returned by the astronauts of NASA's Apollo 16 mission. Marvel at these diminutive gems brought home from outer space and wrap your mind around the micro-mini scale.

Per the book's official description, "The tiny worlds here, invisible to our unassisted eyes, are if anything more intricate, complex and extraordinary than anything so far seen in deep space. These include radiolarians, dinoflagellates and diatoms, as well as many varieties of insects, microscopic flowers and even lunar samples from the Apollo program. The composite mosaic micrographs in 'Nanocosmos' fuse art and science in revelatory ways, exposing an astonishing sublimity hidden to the naked eye."

Lunar impact glass is formed under the high heat and pressure caused by meteoroids hitting the moon’s regolith-covered surface. These impactors melt the disturbed lunar soil, creating molten material that instantly cools in flight to be manifested as glass shards, spherules and beads.

Benson produced "Nanocosmos" using hundreds of curated SEM scans that he captured over the course of six years at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Quebec. These sublime images display an uncanny beauty, symmetry, and design that defies all traditional descriptions.

In addition to art exhibits, films, and scientific endeavors into the mysteries of the universe, Benson was also responsible for supervising those swirling cosmology scenes in director Terrance Malick's "The Tree of Life" (2011) and "Voyage of Time" (2016). Additionally, he penned 2018's Hollywood history book titled "Space Odyssey" (2018), which chronicles the making of Stanley Kubrick's enigmatic sci-fi masterpiece from 1968, "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Update for 4 p.m. EDT on Nov. 12:

Congratulations to our winners Rebecca Brennan, Nicole Gentile Powers, Jeffrey Scott Rinker, JStokes57, and MCawkins! We'll be contacting you shortly to ask you to confirm your details and shipping address for the prize to be sent. For everyone else, commiserations, but you can still pick up your own movie edition copy of Project Hail Mary when it launches on Dec. 2, 2025.

New York Times bestselling author Andy Weir seems to have a certain knack for writing page-turning, humanistic science fiction stories that are perfectly suited for being turned into Hollywood blockbusters.

His 2011 novel, "The Martian," was wonderfully transformed into the Oscar-nominated blockbuster directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. Weir's second book, 2017's lunar heist tale called "Artemis," is currently still in development with Disney-owned 20th Century Studios. But his latest novel, 2021's "Project Hail Mary," could be an even bigger Hollywood hit when the movie adaptation is released by Amazon MGM Studios on March 20, 2026, starring Ryan Gosling ("Drive," "La La Land," "First Man").

To get fans primed for that cinematic odyssey, the folks at Ballantine Books have offered us five advanced copies of "Project Hail Mary's" movie tie-in edition coming Dec. 2, 2025, for a giveaway exclusively for Space.com.

"Project Hail Mary" will be directed by the dynamic filmmaking duo of Phil Lord & Christopher Miller ("The Lego Movie," "The Spider-Verse Franchise") from a Drew Goddard ("Cloverfield," "Cabin in the Woods") screenplay. It centers around Dr. Ryland Grace (Gosling), a middle-grade science teacher who becomes a reluctant astronaut and the sole survivor of a deep space mission to save Earth from a dimming sun.

Along the 11.9-light-year voyage to the Tau Ceti star system, he encounters a faceless rock-skinned alien he names Rocky, whose own homeworld is also in peril. Together, they must join forces to avoid a mutual calamity and unravel the cosmic mystery.

To enter the freebie sweepstakes for this special copy of "Project Hail Mary," all you need to do is head over to our Facebook, Twitter, or BlueSky posts announcing the giveaway and leave a comment letting us know what you’re looking forward to most when the "Project Hail Mary" movie hits multiplexes in 2026.

All comments must be left by Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. ET to be counted for official entry, and each household can only enter once. Five winners will be chosen at random for one prize each from the entire pool of entrants across all three platforms. Winners will be announced Nov. 12 at 4 p.m. ET on Space.com's Facebook, Twitter, and BlueSky page.

Please note that this sweepstakes is only available to US residents. The full terms and conditions of this giveaway can be found at the bottom of this article.

In addition to Gosling, who's back in simulated space once more, Project Hail Mary’s cast also includes the talents of Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller ("Anatomy of a Fall"), Milana Vayntrub ("This Is Us," "Werewolves Within"), Bastian Antonio Fuentes ("Jurassic World Dominion"), Isla McRae ("The Christmas Quest"), and James Wright ("How to Train A Princess”).

Good luck to all participants in our out-of-this-world literary sci-fi giveaway!

Full terms and conditions:

The sweepstakes opens at 5 pm ET on November 5, 2025, and closes at 2 pm ET on November 12, 2025. Late or incomplete entries will be disqualified. Open to all residents of the US (excluding residents of Rhode Island, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S. military installations in foreign countries, or any other U.S. territory where prohibited or restricted by law) aged 18 years and over, except employees of Future Plc and its group of companies (“Future”) and Ballantine Books (“Sponsor”).

Entries limited to one per household, regardless of the form of entry. Use of automated devices or methods of submission are not valid forms of entry. There will be five winners in total entitled to one copy each of the "Project Hail Mary" novel. The winner will be randomly drawn from all valid entries received and shall be notified by Future by a social media post within 28 days of the closing date, and will be required to supply details of a US delivery address.

If a winner has not responded after 28 days, an alternative winner will be drawn. Ballantine Books will deliver the prize. Future and Sponsor reserve the right to substitute any product with an alternative product of equivalent value. The prize is non-transferable and non-refundable. There is no cash alternative. No purchase required. Void where prohibited. Any person winning $600 or more worth of prizes from a Sponsor in a calendar year will receive an IRS form 1099 after the end of the calendar year in which the prizes were awarded and copy of such form will be filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The value of the prize may be taxable as income and each prize winner is solely responsible for any taxes, including, but not limited to all applicable federal, state, and local taxes that become due with respect to the value of the prize.

By taking part in this sweepstakes, you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, the competition rules at: www.futureplc.com/competition-rules/ and collection of personal data in accordance with Future’s privacy policy at: https://www.futureplc.com/privacy-policy/.

Science fiction has a bit of something for everyone, from cutting-edge futuristic technology to doomed romances and strange aliens. The genre also crosses over very nicely into horror, because once humans start poking the unknown, it's only a matter of time before the unknown pokes back.

This Halloween, step into stories where science meets terror, where contagions kill, landscapes devour explorers, and technology crushes the human soul. All of these books fit nicely into the sci-fi horror mold, and while some of them never make it into the depths of space, they're all well worth your time.

Our list of sci-fi horror novels spans from 20th-century classics to modern masterpieces, all testing how far humanity goes before reason falters and horror takes over. Whether you're looking for a quick read or a deep dive, this roundup has a little something for everyone. Let's dig into our spooky roundup of the best sci-fi horror books.

Bonus Entry!

Neil deGrasse Tyson is back.

In 2024 we chatted with the gracious celebrity astrophysicist, lecturer, podcaster, and bestselling author regarding "Merlin's Tour of the Universe," a revised and updated edition of Tyson's very first book that was published in 1989 as a collection of Q&A pieces initially appearing as an amusing column in The McDonald Observatory's StarDate Magazine.

The fictional timeless sorcerer named "Merlin of Omniscia" from the Andromeda galaxy is back to answer a new round of questions in a new companion volume titled "Just Visiting This Planet: Further Scientific Adventures of Merlin From Omniscia" arrives Oct. 21, 2025.

"The takeaway here is that this was the dawn of my scientific and educational career," Tyson explains to Space.com. "So it was the proving ground for how I would ultimately be bringing science to the public. The methods, tools, and tactics and the personality that I imbued in Merlin were elements that persist within me to this today. In that sense, it was significant in my life, even if to the reader it's just a collection of cute questions and answers."

This new mind-expanding 350-page hardback has also been given a refreshed 21st century makeover since it was offered in 1998, and contains a treasure of witty responses to questions posed by the general public on topics such as planets, stars, comets, black holes, moons, galaxies and even superheroes.

"But if you read them, you'll see they're doing things that a typical answer wouldn't do," he adds. "Today, if you just type a question into ChatGPT it comes back and it's kind of vacuous, it's got no soul, no personality. It's got nothing to pull you back in. And Merlin, with the quirky personality, is intended to be a vehicle to empower people to enjoy the learning, rather than just take it as though you have to take medicine."

With widespread layoffs and diminished funding currently sweeping the scientific community in nearly every field, "Just Visiting This Planet" and its focus on curiosity and discovery is even more relevant to remind fellow Earthlings of the absolute necessity of science to help advance our species.

"If you give up on science and the moving frontier represented in so many of the places where budgets have been cut, that comes with consequences," Tyson notes. "People vote into office who they want, and I'm not going to get in the way of that. If the democracy you want is one that is cutting science programs, that will ultimately bite you in the ass.

"Because it's the science that's foundational to the innovations that many of us have taken for granted, that comes out of American industries. American industry relies on the foundational science that's behind it, underneath it, and is supporting it. And you don't see that because it's done in labs in universities and it's done by people who don't necessarily have YouTube channels.

"This is hardworking researchers exploring the limits of our understanding of their field, and it's government funded. If the government doesn't fund it, nobody is going to fund it, because there is no return on the annual report. The research is too far removed from even the R&D that would be conducted by a corporation. Once it's published and people see it and they figure it out they say, 'Oh my gosh, that’s a new understanding of how nature works.'

"Then you have clever engineers coming afterwards saying that they can turn that into a product or make that commercial. That happens way down the line. What it also means is that you're not in a position to pass judgment on a research project just because the title feels a little remote to you."

"The fact that we have government officials poring over research paper titles and lording their decision on whether it's frivolous or not because they can't imagine how it's relevant, that will have consequences, as we recede on the frontier of science research and we watch other countries who have re-doubled the role of science in their lives. China especially. We will sink lower before we rise up again and realize the folly of those decisions. Anything that gets people excited about science, that only pays dividends in the future."

For this revised and updated version of "Just Visiting This Planet," Tyson carefully curated the questions for a more modern readership used to extracting explanations via the internet.

"So this is 200 more questions drawn from over a thousand. Some questions I removed since you can just Google them now like, 'How hot is the sun?', that sort of thing. Then I added other questions that had a little more personality to them. Someone asks, 'What happens if aliens came and blew up the moon?' That's kind of fun. So we can do that in ways that are more fun than ChatGPT will, I assure you. There are many more 'If, Then' questions in this book. Plus, my brother, who's an artist, illustrated it. I'm delighted to declare that fact about it."

And since this is Halloween season, we'd be remiss if we didn’t ask Tyson about growing up in New York City trick-or-treating in a huge apartment building where he and his friends would score multiple grocery bags of sugared loot. What were his favorite fun-sized candy bars? Milky Way and Mars of course!

"Just Visiting This Planet: Further Scientific Adventures of Merlin From Omniscia" drops into bookstores from Blackstone Publishing on Oct. 21, 2025.

For as long as humans have looked up at the night sky, we've wondered who, or what, might be looking back.

From ancient myths about gods descending from the heavens to 20th-century UFO sightings and today's hunt for exoplanets, the question of whether we are alone in the universe has never stopped captivating us. From microbial fossils on Mars to interstellar comets to mysterious signals in deep space, there is a timeless curiosity around extraterrestrials.

Journalist Becky Ferreira dives into this rich history in her new book "First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens" (Workman Publishing, 2025). In a conversation with Space.com, Ferreira discusses the myths that shape our understanding of aliens (her newsletter dives into this further) and why real contact might look nothing like what Hollywood has taught us to expect.

Space.com: There are a lot of books about aliens out there. What made you want to add your perspectives to this tradition? 

Becky Ferreira: My editor for this book approached me with the idea, and when I saw it, I thought, "Oh aren't there so many alien books already?" But I should have known as a reporter that it's an inexhaustible subject.

For me, it also felt like the right time. There’s so much happening in the scientific search for alien life, but also more openness toward the UFO community and a posture of transparency from the government. I wanted the book to touch all those sides — the science, the pop culture, the history — and to do it in a short, visual, and kind of snarky way that invites people in.

Space.com: What is an alien trope you are tired of?

Ferreira: I love this question! Definitely the Messianic alien. And I’m sorry to the Superman fans! I like the new "Superman" movie, but I’m tired of stories where a superpowered being comes down to save humanity from itself. It’s not just aliens — it’s part of this larger myth we have that someone else will fix everything for us.

That idea goes way back — it’s basically a modern version of waiting for the gods, or the rapture. But I think it’s dangerous because it teaches us to wait for salvation instead of taking action ourselves.

I’d love to see more Robin Hood-type stories, where regular people, not superheroes, actually organize and make change for themselves. We need narratives that empower us, not ones that make us dependent on alien saviors.

Space.com: On the flip side, what kind of alien tropes would you like to see more of?

Ferreira: I love the truly strange aliens — stories like "Solaris" or "Arrival," where you have to completely rethink how you perceive the universe. Those stories feel more realistic to me, because if we do encounter intelligent life, it probably won’t think like us at all.

I’m fascinated by the idea of aliens who have a worldview that’s totally different, maybe even impossible for us to fully understand. Like the heptapods in "Arrival," who experience time all at once — that’s such a wild concept.

And honestly, I’d love to see more stories about microbes. What if we found a fossilized microbe on Mars that’s four billion years old? It’s tiny, it’s dead, it’s not a civilization — but it would completely change how we see life in the universe. Pop culture hasn’t really processed how monumental that kind of discovery would be.

Space.com: What is something you wanted to include in the book but couldn't due to narrative constraints or word limits? 

Ferreira: I finished the manuscript in January 2025, and of course all these fascinating discoveries happened right after — new exoplanet biosignatures, possible biosignatures on Mars.

There’s also a section on the rights of aliens that I wish I could have expanded. Like, what are the legal rights of a microbe on Mars? That sounds silly, but it’s actually a really important question. We’re doing all these astrobiological projects, and at some point we’ll have to decide how to treat what we find. You could write a whole book just about that.

Space.com: One of the hottest topics right now is Comet 3I/ATLAS, the newfound interstellar comet. You wrote about 'Oumuamua in your book — what do you make of this new one?

Ferreira: I think it’s the coolest thing ever! I couldn’t include it because of timing, but I’ve been obsessed. I love that we’re in an age where we can detect these interstellar objects at all. And with the Vera Rubin Observatory active I think by the end of the decade, we’ll have a whole census of them.

What’s exciting about 3I/ATLAS is that it’s like a time capsule — a piece of another star system passing through ours. Some scientists have even suggested it could be older than the solar system, which is wild. These are literal visitors from other worlds, and they help us see beyond our neighborhood. It’s like the universe is delivering us souvenirs from deep time.

Space.com:  If you could tell the public one thing about aliens — to clear up misconceptions or reframe the conversation — what would it be?

Ferreira: That our conception of aliens is human. I know that sounds obvious, but it’s so important. Aliens mean different things to different people, but the fascination itself is universal. Every culture has some story about beings from the sky — it’s part of who we are.

For people skeptical of UFOs, I get that — I used to be, too. But when I was researching this book, I realized a lot of those accounts are very persuasive. That doesn’t mean they’re extraterrestrial, but something happened. And I think it’s great that we’re finally talking about it without stigma.

For people skeptical of NASA or the government, I’d say: those institutions have extremely high standards for what counts as evidence. I don’t think they’re being secretive — they’re just careful. We’re all profoundly obsessed with aliens, but we need to give each other a little grace for what that means.

Because if we do ever find life out there, it’s going to change everything — spiritually, culturally, scientifically. And we’ll need everyone, skeptics and believers alike, to help us understand what that means for our place in the cosmos.

In a project of Herculean proportions, British author and historian Andy Saunders has returned to the NASA archives to follow up his epic "Apollo Remastered" photographic book from 2022 to create and curate another absorbing volume of digitally remastered and restored space images.

Published Sept. 2, 2025, by Black Dog & Leventhal, "Gemini and Mercury Remastered" is a lavish 320-page, large-format companion hardback containing hundreds of crystal-clear photos with explanatory captions of astronauts and their spacecraft as they paved a perilous path to the stars.

"The processing on this book was a bit quicker since they 'only' took 5,000 photographs on these projects, as opposed to 35,000 on Apollo," Saunders tells Space.com. "But the research took as long as the processing because the historic record is so patchy when you go that far back. It was an enormous task. I hope people take the time to read it."

For this outing, Saunders took a step back in time to chronicle humankind's primitive efforts to leave Earth by focusing on the manned Project Mercury and Gemini programs that launched from 1961 to 1966. These baby steps became crucial to the success of the later Apollo missions, which resulted in NASA landing two men on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969.

"I wanted to tell the full story because the human drama that unfolded was incredible, and I wanted to get that launch-to-splashdown sequence down so we could cover the whole missions. Look at the images, turn the page, read the caption, and follow along. It's often seen as a photo book, as is 'Apollo Remastered,' but the objective is also to tell these stories, not only the technical achievements."

It takes a certain type of personality and fortitude to sift through the NASA archives to select this remarkable collection of restored images that represents our nascent endeavors into orbit, and Saunders admits that the three-year task did require a huge amount of obsessive energy.

"Processing was probably about a year to a year-and-a-half," he notes. "There's so many criteria. It could just be a visually stunning photograph. It might be historically significant moments. It might be poignant shots of the astronauts. Or it's one that’s required to tell the story. There’s even a page where there's no photograph and it's on Gemini 10. When Michael Collins lost his camera. That's the only spacewalk ever not captured on film. But I wanted to tell the story of his spacewalk because it's just unbelievable what happened. So there's a blank page. No photograph."

In addition to presenting some of the most stunning images of the Earth ever taken, "Gemini and Mercury Remastered" highlights a constellation of groundbreaking accomplishments like the first American in space (Alan Shepard), the first American to orbit Earth (John Glenn), the first food eaten in space (apple sauce in a pouch), the first U.S. spacewalk (Ed White), the first photo of a human in space, and the highest Earth orbit ever achieved until it was eventually surpassed in 2024.

"It wasn’t a chore," Saunders admits. "I do love to do it. And with the imagery it's like when an archaeologist pushes the dust off of something and finds something that's been hidden for so long. And these are such important moments in history. It is quite an addictive process as well."

Some of the more incredible HD transfers are of famed astronaut Jim Lovell peering out of his Gemini 7 capsule window, taken from frames captured in NASA's original 16mm film reel.

"That's so fascinating to see someone through the window," Saunders adds. "And he actually said he was kind of quite nervous when he looked out the window because they got to within inches of each other at 17,500 miles an hour. This was the first-ever rendezvous in space, and they didn't mess about. They just did it. Yes, they took some risks they wouldn’t take today. Gene Krantz said it was often just blind luck that got them home."

Saunders wants to emphasize that absolutely no artificial intelligence was involved in remastering and restoring these NASA images and that 'no pixels were harmed' in the making of this monumental book.

"This historically important imagery, if you apply AI, all the provenance is gone. You can call it a piece of art if you’d like, but it’s not a photo.

"They took such extraordinary risks because the U.S. was trying to catch the Soviets to win the space race, so looking back through today's health and safety lens, it's simply amazing. Reading the transcripts and the things that happened: like when Neil Armstrong almost died when his Gemini 8 spacecraft tumbled out of control, or Gene Cernan almost dying on his spacewalk. They just went, 'well, let’s try again.' We do live in an age that's obsessed with speed and convenience, and taking AI shortcuts and social media. These missions are a reminder that true legacy comes from doing hard things that matter. And it can be messy. These missions were solving life-or-death problems in real time, but they did it. It's a reminder of what we can still achieve if we dream big, act with purpose, accept uncertainty, and trust our finest human qualities."

Andy Saunders' "Gemini and Mercury Remastered" is available now from both the Apollo Remastered website and Amazon.

Launching back to the historic Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, a new space thriller titled "Final Orbit" arrives next month from New York Times bestselling author, TV host, YouTube sensation, TED speaker, classic rocker, and social media personality, retired astronaut Chris Hadfield.

The energetic Canadian hyphenate and former NASA veteran of three shuttle missions aided in the construction of the Mir Space Station and even commanded the International Space Station.

His first venture into speculative fiction arrived back in 2021 with "The Apollo Murders," an engaging sci-fi adventure tale centered around Houston flight controller and ex-test pilot Kazimieras "Kaz" Zemeckis, who becomes embroiled in a dangerous conflict involving a secret Apollo 18 mission and the real-life Soviet spy space station called Almaz.

"Like when I learned to fly high performance airplanes, F-18s and such, at first every single thing is equally important and you don't know how to prioritize, you don't know what matters and what doesn't, and you don't know what to really focus on," Hadfield told Space.com regarding his evolved level of writing for 'Final Orbit.' "Like anything, when you get better at it, you gain all those skills.

"My first draft for 'The Apollo Murders' was 195,000 words. The final book was 135,000, so we cut out nearly a whole book because I didn’t know what I didn't need to write. My editors see the maturation of efficiency as a writer in this new novel and the particular style with which I like to write."

Following 2023's "The Defector," "Final Orbit" is actually the third book in Hadfield's "The Apollo Murders" series which is anchored again by Kaz and is slated to arrive on Oct. 7, 2025 from Mulholland Books.

The engrossing alternative history novel unfolds during the historic Apollo-Soyuz linkup between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. It deftly chronicles how China's clandestine launch of its first astronaut in east Asia leads to an international espionage incident and an accident that puts the entire joint mission in jeopardy.

Hadfield is quite excited about how "Final Orbit" turned out, and recalls the layers of plot complexity he settled on, which took a massive amount of research to make sure that he got everything right.

"I learned a whole bunch in writing it," he notes. "It was a lot of work but I'm really happy with the interplay of how my plots crossed over and how it sets me up for character development for a follow-up book as well. I read a review the other day that said 'fans of Asimov, Andy Weir, and James Michener are going to love this book.' Holy crap, gimme a break! That's unbelievable company so I'm really very pleased."

The backdrop and framework of "Final Orbit" employs the monumental Apollo-Soyuz mission from 1975 to tell Hadfield's harrowing tale of Cold War spies and high stakes peril in Earth orbit.

"I wanted it to be chronological with the previous two books in the series, 'The Apollo Murders' and 'The Defector.' 'Defector' ended late in 1973 and I started looking forwards. I thought here’s a good opportunity to close out the Apollo Program with Apollo-Soyuz and also the fact that Nixon was out and Ford was in, that presented some interesting room. And that Skylab had run its course but was now essentially abandoned.

"As soon as I laid out those threads, I thought I needed a whole extra player. I started digging into the Chinese space program and realized their first launches were at the same time. I had never heard of Xuesen, the main Chinese character in the book, the professor who had set up Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Lab. That was such a richness of reality on which to pull and write my fiction in amongst it."

Delving into the research, Hadfield discovered some fascinating facets of the Qian Xuesen story and how the disgraced American-Chinese scientist was a member of Operation Paperclip in the aftermath of Germany’s World War II surrender before being deported back to China for espionage crimes to became the father of Chinese aerospace.

“He was trusted, along with Von Karman, to go over and evaluate the German Nazi rocket scientists to decide which ones from Peenemünde to bring back," says Hadfield. "Then because of McCarthyism and the huge political pendulum swinging to have him blacklisted and basically house arrested and then deported, was just a horrific mistake that the United States made. The fact that he went back and was absolutely fundamental in setting up the Chinese nuclear portage and the Chinese space program was just incredible. He stood there in Tiananmen Square next to Mao as they were kicking off their human spaceflight program.”

"Final Orbit's" central character of Kaz Zemeckis has provided the perfect foundation for Hadfield to spin his captivating outer space yarns.

"To me, Kaz is the personification of so many of my fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut friends. But at the same time he got punted to the sidelines by an uncontrollable medical thing, but now the life that he's leading is, if anything, more interesting and it gives me a lot of latitude for where I can take the plot next. It's also occurred to me that I could write a pretty interesting prequel on his character as well."

Chris Hadfield's "Final Orbit" hits bookstores and online outlets on Oct. 7.

Klingons aren't exactly the most friendly bunch of battle-tested aliens inhabiting the "Star Trek" Universe, but seeing them in more casual domestic situations relaxing under mundane circumstances should bring a smile to all of our geeky faces.

As initially presented in the first season of Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek: The Original Series" in 1966, these warmongering humanoids were supposed to be a not-so-subtle sci-fi reflection of the Soviet-era, Cold War Russian adversaries residing on their home planet of Kronos and acting hostile to the Federation.

Now a whimsical new hardcover book from author Joey Spiotto titled, “Klingon Next Door: Off Duty the Warrior's Way” aims to show the lighter side of these aggressive beings, showing what they get up to when they’re not piloting their Birds of Prey, firing on innocent Starfleet vessels, and creating a turbulent political crisis or two.

It's definitely a must-grab book for any self-respecting "Star Trek" fan, sci-fi collector, or cartoon enthusiast. The amusing humorous attitude honors all things Klingon in a wild "what-if?" dimension.

Ever wonder exactly what Klingon soldiers are like in their downtime while not on duty? Which catchy tune would they pick at a karaoke bar? How does an appointment with the barber shop play out?

No normal task is ignored in this quirky surprise, whether they're doing a spot of cooking, playing competitive sports or just grocery shopping. Fans of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" will discover how an honorable warrior might take on the epic challenges of day-to-day home life in this funny collection of colorful vignettes.

Spiotto isn't a stranger to this corner of the literary galaxy and its esoteric jokes as he also composed 2015's "Alien Next Door: In Space, No One Can Hear You Clean," and 2018's "Jonesy: Nine Lives On The Nostromo." Here in his little 80-page grin-inducing edition published by Titan Books featuring those intimidating Klingons during their downtime, Spiotto lets his imagination run rampant in envisioning just what existence is like after the antagonism and combat plans are put away.

"Klingon Next Door: Off Duty the Warrior's Way" launches on Sept. 2, 2025.

As a massive space nerd AND an avid collector of fancy notebooks, let me tell you … I'm in danger because Moleskine has just unveiled a NASA-inspired collection, and it looks simply stunning.

The collection is headlined by the NASA-Inspired Large Ruled Notebook, which has a cover that's textured to look like the lunar surface. It also features a metallic bookmark, collectible NASA stickers, and a bunch of cool moon-themed surprises inside.

There is also a glow-in-the-dark volant notebook that contains some black-and-white illustrations, a pair of cahier journals, and a limited edition pin set that includes an astronaut and a rocket. Finally, there is a gift box that includes a silver version of this large notebook, along with some pencils and the pins.

We had a quick chat with Ward Simmons, President of Moleskine for The Americas, to find out how this collaboration came about and what it meant to work with NASA on this project. You can also check out the full collection in the image gallery below.

"I was born in the late '60s, so I grew up with NASA as a constant presence. Back then, space was the new frontier, and NASA represented the future," explains Simmons as he reminisces about launching model rocket kits in his youth. "As a kid, I visited Cape Canaveral with my family, and one of my friends — Lance Bass — even trained with the Russian cosmonauts. How cool is that? Space and NASA surrounded our childhood.

"So, when I joined Moleskine in 2023, and the Artemis Mission was scheduled for launch [...], I immediately saw an opportunity. NASA is science; Moleskine provides tools for creativity. Together, we both aim to unleash human genius. That's how this idea was born."

Moleskine approached NASA, which provided the Moleskine graphic design team with assets to help them bring the notebooks to life. Once the team had worked their magic, NASA then signed off on the finished products. "The NASA team was tremendously supportive, making this collaboration truly seamless," praises Simmons.

A video accompanying the launch features Andrew Aldrin, CEO of the Aldrin Family Foundation (and son of legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin), who underscores the importance of pen and paper while sharing the Foundation’s mission to inspire the next generation of explorers. Andrew's uplifting final line is simply that "Space is for everyone."

"Although I'd never met Buzz's son, Andy Aldrin, I knew that if I could find him, he'd understand our vision, and together we could support the Foundation's mission to inspire the next generation of explorers, innovators, and entrepreneurs," explains Simmons.

"This collection is meant to spark that spirit — encouraging young adults to sketch, draw and capture their own visions of NASA and space within our pages," says Simmons.

"Our partnership with the Aldrin Family Foundation reflects Moleskine's commitment to nurturing the next generation of human genius — not only among future scientists, but also writers, thinkers, and artists. Think of this collection as a space to explore the infinite universe of your imagination, discovering inspiration every time you put pen to paper. It starts there."

To help spark those imaginations, the notebooks are packed with extra details, including a bunch of NASA-themed patches, stickers and pins. There are inspirational phrases dotted throughout, and unique printed pages, including a moon observation journal in the main notebook. There is also a rundown of every planet in our solar system in the smaller Volant journal (which also features a glow-in-the-dark cover).

I haven't had a chance to get my hands on this collection yet, but as I mentioned from the off, I'm a huge notebook nerd, so you better believe I've got a set coming, and I'll be doing a deep dive when it touches down.

The Moleskine NASA-inspired Collection is on sale now on the Moleskine website, along with other online retailers, including Amazon.

There are moments in comic books’ illustrious past that act as seismic shifts for the industry, and Marvel Comics' "Fantastic Four #48" and its "The Coming of Galactus" story arc in 1965 was one of these rare occasions.

Global audiences will shortly see its dramatic influences revealed in the ambitious narrative that screenwriters wove into next month's Marvel Studios' "Fantastic Four" flick. Galactus, aka the Devourer of Worlds, arrived on the scene in 1965 in a 3-issue event that ran from "Fantastic Four #48" to "Fantastic Four #50" and is referred to as "The Galactus Trilogy."

Now as "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" is inching ever closer to its July 25 release date, like our humongous harbinger of doom, a new novelization of that monumental 60-year-old storyline which introduced the mighty cosmic foe and his Silver Surfer herald to Marvel's First Family is being published on July 8, 2025.

"Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus" is a 336-page expanded prose telling of the planet-eating Galactus and the Sentinel of the Spaceways' splashy debut in the Marvel Universe, written by New York Times bestselling author James Lovegrove.

Lovegrove is a fan favorite writer based in the UK, known fondly for his colorful in-universe genre work, including such titles as "Firefly: The Ghost Machine," "Firefly: Life Signs," and the upcoming "Conan: Cult of the Obsidian Moon."

His expanded storyline takes from that seminal core tale from Lee and Kirby, where a hungry Galactus is coming and The Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing) must defend Earth against the immense godlike destructor and his sleek, shimmery servant. Will our planet suffer the same fate as countless other worlds or somehow be spared?

Carrying a cover date of March 1966 but landing in newsstands on Dec. 9, 1965, that special vintage issue of "Fantastic Four," billed as The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!, was written by the dynamic duo of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack "King" Kirby during their absolute heyday of creativity.

Crisp Mint and Near-Mint collector copies of those three issues, especially "#48," can command prices in excess of $100,000 on the secondary market. This new literary adaptation of that classic piece of comics history is the ideal primer for those interested in the source of Marvel's big baddie, who'll soon be featured in the latest Marvel movie, "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

Titan Books' "Fantastic Four: The Coming of Galactus" lands on July 8, 2025.

Can we journey through time?

From H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine to The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger and "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon, time travel has captured our imagination for centuries. The concept is ever-present in all forms of sci-fi entertainment, from time-travel movies like Back to the Future and Looper, to time-looping games like The Outer Wilds, and of course, sci-fi novels.

It speaks to our deepest regrets and desires — the chance to reconnect with someone now gone, to undo mistakes, or to relive our most precious memories. It captures our resistance against time's relentless march forward.

Audiences love time travel

As Executive Producer of "Ready Jet Go", a STEM series on PBS KIDS produced in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I experienced firsthand how time travel concepts resonate with audiences of all ages. Working with outstanding experts in astronomy and physics, we explored the topic of time travel in an episode titled "Jet's Time Machine", where our hero — aptly named Jet Propulsion — builds a device to go back three minutes in time.

This episode sparked my research into time travel storytelling, where I discovered that most stories use one of three approaches:

• The Scientist's Private Machine: A brilliant inventor builds a time travel device in secret—think H.G. Wells' Victorian gentleman crafting his Time Machine, Doc Brown's plutonium-powered DeLorean, or Jet's personal time machine in our "Ready Jet Go" episode. These contraptions stay strictly off-limits to the general public, used only by the inventor or their trusted circle.
• Mystical Transport: Sometimes, characters get sent through time by magical forces. Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" throws Claire Randall back to 18th-century Scotland after touching a magical stone circle. Sleep, ancient artifacts, or unexplained events serve as involuntary time-travel activation switches — no science required.
• Time Portals: A glitch in the universe creates doorways linking specific moments across history. Stephen King's "11/22/63" features a pantry in Al's Diner that drops anyone who walks through it at precisely 11:58 AM on September 9, 1958.

The science: Is time travel possible?

Up until recently, physicists believed that time travel to the past was impossible because it required unusual matter or extreme warping of spacetime. However, physicist John D. Norton has developed a new model based on Einstein's theory of general relativity that shows time travel is mathematically possible.

His model does not rely on strange matter or intense space-time distortion, but uses a simple space-time shape that allows paths to loop back in time. This work suggests that time travel could occur under more ordinary physical conditions than previously thought.

No paradoxes!

The classic understanding of time travel centers on a fundamental problem: paradoxes. If travelers could alter even minor details of the past, the cascading consequences would either rewrite the present or eliminate the traveler's own existence — the infamous grandfather paradox. This seemingly insurmountable obstacle led physicist Stephen Hawking to propose his Chronology Protection Conjecture, which essentially argues that the laws of physics themselves forbid backward time travel by preventing the formation of closed timelike curves.

However, groundbreaking research by Dr. Fabio Costa and Germain Tobar at the University of Queensland challenges this assumption. They've developed a mathematical model showing that closed timelike curves do not automatically create paradoxes. Their revolutionary model suggests that while time travelers can move and act freely in the past, the universe itself maintains consistency—events would self-adjust to prevent any logical contradictions from occurring.

From theory to technology

This revolutionary finding has profound implications. If Norton is right — that time travel won't require exotic materials — and Costa and Tobar are correct — that time travel doesn't alter the future — it opens the door for time travel technology to evolve beyond fictional ideas of secret inventions or unpredictable glitches in the universe. Instead, it could follow the trajectory of other breakthrough technologies—gradually becoming accessible, eventually commercial.

We've seen this trajectory before with space tourism. Companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and Blue Origin have transformed orbital travel from pure science fiction into bookable experiences. Time travel could follow a similar path.

It's not far-fetched. Consider how many "impossible" technologies now shape our daily lives. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, self-driving cars — these were all fictional concepts that have since crossed the threshold from imagination to innovation. Each has reshaped how we live, work, and understand human potential.

If history is any guide, time travel may be next to make the leap from imagination to reality. But what would this reality look like? If Costa and Tobar's paradox-free model proves correct, it fundamentally changes our time travel narratives.

This concept inspired my new novel "The Memory Collectors", which explores what time travel tourism might look like. It features a time travel company called Aeon Expeditions, which allows travelers an hour in their pasts and uses the tagline: With Aeon, you don't change time, time changes you.

A new narrative

If you cannot change the future by traveling to the past, it transforms who would want to go back in time and why. Instead of hoping to change the future, people might travel back to seek answers, relive significant moments, or uncover information that could solve present-day mysteries.

This paradigm shift offers fascinating possibilities and stories. Imagine going to our pasts so we could observe events firsthand. We could catch crucial conversations we'd half-heard, spot warning signs we'd missed, and uncover answers to mysteries that have haunted us for years.

In this way, time travel transforms from a tool for changing history into explorations of memory, truth, and our need to make sense of our own lives.

Perhaps that will be the lasting appeal of time travel — not the ability to change what happened, but the chance to reconnect, relive, and rediscover, and ultimately return to the present changed by what we've learned. The Aeon Expeditions website explores the ways this approach to time travel could benefit everyone.

As physics advances, time travel edges closer to theoretical possibility. The question may not be whether we can journey through time, but when we'll begin taking reservations.

Close down the airlocks and batten all hull hatches for a veritable meteor storm of new "Star Wars" books coming to us over the next year. These magnificent titles were recently announced at the official Lucasfilm Publishing panel "Stories From a Galaxy Far, Far Away" during this past month's Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025.

Physical media is making a major comeback these days, whether it's remastered premium vinyl soundtracks of your favorite films or special edition 4K UHD Blu-ray releases of indie gems and Hollywood classics. Star Wars fanatics are going to love this "what’s to come" collection of tie-in novels, concept art editions, blueprint volumes, and reference manuals.

While you're waiting for these to release, you can spend your time playing the best Star Wars Games as well as build the best Lego Star Wars sets and Lego Star Wars helmets.

10 must-have upcoming "Star Wars" books

Noted author, poet, and NASA historian Bruce McCandless III ("Wonders All Around") grew up in close proximity to the thundering roar of Apollo-era rockets and the Space Shuttle Program as the son of Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle astronaut Bruce McCandless II, who became the first person to conduct an untethered flight in space during a famous Feb. 7, 1984 spacewalk among his many NASA highlights.

Now McCandless III has teamed up with acclaimed space journalist and podcaster Emily Carney to offer an informal and informative new volume centered on the history of human spaceflight titled "Star Bound," which arrives Jan. 1, 2025 from the University of Nebraska Press.

This comprehensive book's full name, "Star Bound: A Beginner's Guide to the American Space Program, from Goddard's Rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between," is a bit of a mouthful, but it arrives as a 296-page encapsulation of our nation's fascination with rockets as they evolved to provide lift for baby steps into outer space, moons missions, dreaming of Mars, and beyond.

We caught up with McCandless from his home in Nacogdoches, Texas to learn more about "Star Bound's" genesis and hear tales of growing up the son of an astronaut.

"Well, I think the impetus for me was reading a book by Colin Burgess called 'Soviets in Space,' which was a sort of overview of the Soviet Space Program," he tells Space.com. "I thought it was really well done. It was smart without being too technical and covered a lot of ground. I wondered if maybe that could be done with the American Space Program. I was surprised to find that there are some really big books, a couple of which are noteworthy but are now out-of-date. But there aren’t so many medium-sized general introductions to the American Space Program.

"There are also a lot of books about particular subjects, and you can go as deep as you want to into all manner of topics including hardware and personalities. We wanted to create something for educated folks who are nevertheless a little bit intimidated by the terminology associated with the program and some of the gatekeeping terminology and people who are so into the 'inside baseball' stuff that it becomes difficult to talk about in a general sense."

McCandless divided up the labor with Carney to create a smooth synthesis of ideas.

"She’s a big proselytizer for the space program and very interested in getting more women involved, and not only in the programs about also as interested spectators and reporters. So we tried to be balanced in that respect. She's got certain affinities and she's a big '70s Skylab fan and familiar with some of the early shuttle stuff.

"She was the co-host of a podcast called 'Space and Things' for three years and did 150 episodes with Dave Giles. They interviewed a lot of folks and the transcripts of those interviews we ended up using quite a bit of for our book. She talked to astronauts and engineers and mission control people, so that provided a lot of raw material."

Growing up in the shadow of Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center provided ample opportunities to become steeped in NASA operations with his father's occupation.

“He was selected for the program when I was five years old,” McCandless recalls. “He was at Stanford doing a PhD at the time and once he was selected we moved from Palo Alto to a suburb of Houston, Texas. So I grew up around the entire Apollo program, then Skylab and the Shuttle. I wasn’t terribly interested in that sort of thing back then, but I absorbed a lot of space history and knowledge by osmosis listening to my dad talk and him discussing projects he was involved in.

"He never got a flight until I was off at graduate school in England, so I didn’t see his first launch. We grew up with this legacy that he’d never quite gotten the shot he deserved and that was one of the reasons I wrote my book, 'Wonders All Around,' back in 2021. He finally got everything he wanted and did really well for himself but we had this perception that he should have gotten one of those Apollo flights and that sort of thing.

"This new book is an informal, pop culture-referencing, sometimes a little bit snarky approach to space history and we’re hoping to rope in some younger folks too."

"Star Bound" will be launched on Jan. 1, 2025. and it is available to pre-order from Amazon now.

Here's the official detailed synopsis:

"'Star Bound' is a book for anyone who wants to learn about the American space program but isn't sure where to start. First and foremost, it's a history — short, sweet, and straightforward. From rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard's primitive flight tests in 1926 through the creation of NASA, from our first steps on the moon to construction of the International Space Station and planning a trip to Mars, readers will meet the people and projects that have put the United States at the forefront of space exploration. Along the way, they'll learn:

• How the United States beat the Soviets to the moon

• Why astronauts float in space (Hint: It’s not for lack of gravity!)

• How fast rockets have to go to stay in orbit around Earth

• How we can "look back in time" through a space telescope

"With technology evolving and humanity's understanding of the universe expanding, we are entering an exciting period of space exploration. Authored by two veteran space writers with unique insights into the topic, 'Star Bound' offers up the story of Americans in space with a focus on the cultural and societal contexts of the country’s most important missions rather than engineering and technical minutiae.

"Vibrant, positive, and humorous, 'Star Bound' is packed with facts and stories for novice space fans. And sprinkled in with the history are lists of the greatest space songs, books, movies, and more — all designed to make space exploration accessible to even the casual reader."

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been an astonishing piece of technology for the advancement of humankind's understanding of the universe, and the source of awe-inspiring images of black holes, galaxies, and nebulae it's returned to scientists and astronomers since it was deployed into a solar orbit back in 2022.

"Infinite Cosmos: Visions From the James Webb Space Telescope" is a 224-page hardback published Oct. 8, 2024 from National Geographic that breaks down the history of this remarkable $10 billion observatory platform from conception to deployment, and reveals the inspired minds responsible for its engineering, construction, lift-off, and inspiring operational record.

Written by astrophysicist and popular online science host Ethan Siegel ("Starts With a Bang") and including a comprehensive introduction by noted science author Brian Greene ("The Elegant Universe," "Until the End of Time"), "Infinite Cosmos" reveals the myriad ways the JWST has altered everyone's perceptions of the night sky with volumes of illuminating imagery straight from our mysterious heavens.

Here's the official synopsis:

"From the years of design and manufacturing through launch and deployment to the extraordinary images and the new science they inform, 'Infinite Cosmos' showcases the revelations coming from the James Webb Space Telescope — the sharpest planetary vistas and the deepest views of the cosmos humankind has ever seen.

"Stars forming in clouds of cosmic dust. Jupiter and its moons sharper than we've ever seen them. Galaxies billions of years old. The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have electrified the world — and astonished veteran scientists with the wealth of information they reveal. In 'Infinite Cosmos,' National Geographic tells the 20-year saga of the telescope's development and the feats of science needed to send it into orbit around the sun, a million miles from Earth. 

"Page after page showcase more than 100 spectacular photographs picturing the cosmos as never seen before, from stardust coalescing in the Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation' to glittering galaxies, newly discovered exoplanets, deep-space fields of stars, and the planets of our solar system in vivid detail. The definitive printed record of these historic astronomical accomplishments, this is a book that inspires awe and admiration, perfect for space and aerospace enthusiasts, libraries, and anyone who looks up in wonder at the starry skies."

Siegel is well known in the scientific community and with this new JWST book he wanted to provide a more optimistic, alternative narrative to recent documentaries that negatively focused on the project's backstory, setbacks, and struggles.

"Aside from the beautiful images, JWST is really showcasing what humanity can do if we make a sustained investment even for something that we only get one shot at," Siegel tells Space.com. "It was this sustained effort over decades by thousands of people, and in particular I want to emphasize the role of scientists, engineers, and technicians as well as the role of private companies in partnership with NASA, the ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency. This had a lot of different moving parts that had to come together, work together, be checked, and tested over and over again, to ensure that when we get that one shot at launch, and that one shot at deployment, and that one shot at orbital insertion, that this is going to be a success.

"Now in 2024, I'm going to tell you that in just two years into its science mission, we've learned things about the universe that we never expected, and that to me is the big story. Yeah, we built this observatory, we had our goals in mind, but the biggest news are the surprises we found. We built this all-purpose observatory with a larger diameter mirror and a more precise surface, a new set of wavelength capabilities, a brand new technology that enabled us to have a folding segmented mirror and a passively-cooled sunshield, new instruments that were superior designs to any designs before, and the cleanest clean room ever. You put it all together and you have an observatory that can go out and find these things we know how to look for. But you also have an observatory that has discovery potential."

One thing Siegel wished to emphasize in this project is when the JWST was designed, it was calculated that the telescope would only offer up to a decade of longevity.  

"That was based on saying, 'We're going to launch this telescope, we've got to burn it so it gets inserted into orbit, then we hope we have enough fuel left onboard to operate for five-to-ten years," he adds. "When crunch time came, the launch was so perfect that we now expect to get between 22 and 23 years of operation out of it.

"I [...] watched this launch live and got up at like 4 a.m. on Christmas morning in 2021. I cried at one critical moment, when the spacecraft released the telescope and seconds later the solar panels started coming out. It wasn’t a mistake. It was an automated feature that said when you’re on a specific trajectory, deploy the solar panels. That first spacecraft burn that it was expecting to need to do where it would expend fuel to put it on the right course, it was unnecessary because the launch was so good. We didn’t even need to touch the 'steering wheel' at all once the rocket released it. That saved so much fuel that we can spend almost all of it on science operations. The biggest thing I hope to communicate with this book is to help people develop an awareness of what we're learning with the investments we've made.”

"Infinite Cosmos: Visions From the James Webb Space Telescope" is available now.

Did you know that cinema's most iconic extraterrestrial hunter has also been taking trophies for decades in the pages of the best Predator comics?

For quite a while now, Dark Horse Comics, who had the rights to Alien and Predator in the realm of comic books, has putting out several series and one-shots that were well worth our time. With Disney's takeover of Fox's empire, the opportunity to move both franchises to Marvel (also owned by the House of Mouse) came, and things changed for the first time in forever. So far, Marvel Comics' take on both franchises has been interesting to say the least, and you definitely shouldn't overlook the comics they have put out so far.

There's also been some big sci-fi wins on the big screen recently with Alien: Romulus as a much-praised return to form for the Alien franchise, a win that arrives after 2022's Prey did the same for the Predator movie series.

On top of ranking our ten favorite Predator comic books, we had to list the best Alien comic books of all time as well. And then, of course, you'll need to check out the Predator movies ranked and Alien movies ranked too.

10. Batman vs. Predator

• Release year: 1991
• Authors and artists: Dave Gibbons, Andy and Adam Kubert, Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh

Having a Predator face off against a renowned superhero isn't a novel idea. On top of the Yautja species' many crossovers with the Xenomorphs, Dark Horse Comics already ran collaborations with other universes/publishers. According to most Predator fans and comic book readers, chief among these is the original, three-issue Batman vs. Predator series written by Dave Gibbons.

DC and Dark Horse's 1991 collaboration was a great success and spawned two sequels years later. You could say the story almost wrote itself, as having the Predator show up in Gotham City felt remarkably natural. The galaxy's greatest hunter against the world's greatest detective and vigilante? This one was an easy win for everyone involved.

9. Predator: Captive

• Year of release: 1998
• Authors and artists: Gordon Rennie, Dean Ormston

Not every notable Predator comic book is a series. In fact, Predator: Captive continues to be a fascinating one-shot you shouldn't skip. Written by Gordon Rennie, with art by Dean Ormston, it swaps the usual dynamics and has the Predator be at a disadvantage. Long story short: This Yautja has been captured by a billionaire to be studied, but how will that end for the humans?

Predator: Captive is a neat little tale of sci-fi horror and has a premise that could easily be turned into a tense movie. Moreover, it's got a unique art style and plenty to say within a small number of pages. It's the kind of experiment based on a famous IP we wish we could get more often.

8. Predator: 1718

• Year of release: 1996
• Authors and artists: Henry Gilroy, Igor Kordey

Predator: 1718 should instantly ring a bell if you're a big fan of the movies. At the end of the second one, Mike Harrigan receives a flintlock pistol from an elder Predator as a token of honor, with the year 1718 engraved on its side. Prey canonically tied into this little wink that first suggested the Predators had been hunting on Earth for a very long time, but Henry Gilroy and Igor Kordey's original comic book short story still rocks.

Without getting into major spoilers, the story takes place in Guinea in 1718 and follows pirate captain Raphael Adolini as well as the Predator that eventually nabs the pistol. Of course, a 'Predator vs. pirates' story was a cool concept on its own, but, on top of that, it feels poignant and meaningful in the end. There's a lot packed into this one, and it was a great reminder of how powerful one-shot comic books can be.

7. Predator: Nemesis

• Year of release: 1997
• Authors and artists: Gordon Rennie, Colin MacNeil

Predator: Nemesis is another short-ish story (two issues only) that throws the creature into a famous historical period to see what would happen. This time around 19th-century Colonial India and Victorian England are in for a gruesome shock; at the end of one trail of blood, Captain Soames finds a killer that's not from our world.

On top of the obvious callbacks to Jack the Ripper stories, there's a surprising element of mythology and legend thrown in for good measure. The end result is a compelling two-issue tale of horror and intrigue in a setting that no one would've initially thought of for a Predator story. It just works, and the narrative doesn't exactly play out how you'd expect it to.

6. Predator: Primal

• Year of release: 1997
• Authors and artists: Kevin J. Anderson, Scott Kolins, John Lowe, Jimmy Johns, David Nestelle, Dave Stewart

Another two-issue comic book series that you ought to read is Predator: Primal. It's one of the most basic stories published by Dark Horse, yet one that instantly became iconic and perfectly exemplified how flexible the franchise is. Unfortunately, it's not about a Predator hunting a group of primitive human beings, but it's a great time regardless.

Written by Kevin J. Anderson, it pits a Predator against an angry mama grizzly bear – one of Earth's apex predators – during hunting season in Alaska. The mix also includes a lone forest ranger and a fire that spirals out of control. It's tight, explosive, and raw in a way few Predator comic books are.

5. Aliens vs. Predator: Deadliest of the Species