The Necker cube is an optical illusion that was first published as a rhomboid in 1832 by Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker. It is a simple wire-frame, two dimensional drawing of a cube with no visual cues as to its orientation, so it can be interpreted to have either the lower-left or the upper-right square as its front side.
Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer who won several awards for her works, including Hugo, Locus, and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.
Lifeforce is a 1985 British science fiction horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, adapted by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby, and starring Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, and Patrick Stewart. Based on Colin Wilson's 1976 novel The Space Vampires, the film portrays the events that unfold after a trio of humanoids in a state of suspended animation are brought to Earth after being discovered in the hold of an alien space ship by the crew of a European Space Shuttle.
Peter Watts is a Canadian science fiction author. He specializes in hard science fiction. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1991 from the Department of Zoology and Resource Ecology. He went on to hold several academic research and teaching positions, and worked as a marine-mammal biologist. He began publishing fiction around the time he finished graduate school.
"A Martian Odyssey" is a science fiction short story by American writer Stanley G. Weinbaum originally published in the July 1934 issue of Wonder Stories. It was Weinbaum's second published story, and remains his best known. It was followed four months later by a sequel, "Valley of Dreams". These are the only stories by Weinbaum set on Mars.
His Master's Voice is a 1960s science fiction novel written by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. It was first published in 1968 and translated into English by Michael Kandel in 1983. The book incorporates a "message from space" theme. It is a densely philosophical first contact story about an effort by scientists to decode, translate, and understand an extraterrestrial transmission. The novel critically approaches humanity's intelligence and intentions in deciphering and truly comprehending a message from outer space. It is considered to be one of the three best-known books by Lem, the other two being Solaris and The Cyberiad.
Blindsight is a hard science fiction novel by Canadian writer Peter Watts, published by Tor Books in 2006. It won the Seiun Award for the best novel in Japanese translation and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. The story follows a crew of astronauts sent to investigate a trans-Neptunian comet dubbed "Burns-Caulfield" that has been found to be transmitting an unidentified radio signal, followed by their subsequent first contact. The novel explores themes of identity, consciousness, free will, artificial intelligence, neurology, and game theory as well as evolution and biology.
Ash is a fictional character in the film Alien (1979) portrayed by actor Ian Holm who, while known in the UK as a stage actor, was at the time unknown to American audiences. Ash serves as the secondary antagonist of the first film. The character is the science officer of the Nostromo, who breaks quarantine by allowing Kane, a member of the crew, back on board after he has been infected by an alien life form. It is later discovered that Ash is not human as he appears, but a Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 android, a sleeper agent who is acting upon secret orders to bring back the alien lifeform and considers the crew and cargo to be expendable.
2312 is a hard science fiction novel by American writer Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2012. It is set in the year 2312 when society has spread out across the Solar System. The novel won the 2013 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a 2013 young adult novel by Holly Black. The book was first published on September 3, 2013, through Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and follows Tana, a teenager that believes that she has been infected with vampirism. The basis for the novel came from a short story of the same name written by Black which was released in the prose anthology Eternal Kiss. Black was inspired to use the setting and the same title to tell the story of a different character set in the same world as the short story. The book was written to be a standalone novel but Black has stated on her website, "I know what happens next and I’ve been thinking more and more that a sequel could be in my future."
The Expanse is a series of science fiction novels by James S. A. Corey, the joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. The first novel, Leviathan Wakes, was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2012. The complete series was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2017. It later won, following its second nomination for the same award in 2020.
Year Zero is a 2012 science fiction novel by Robert Reid. It was published by Del Rey Books, with an audiobook version read by John Hodgman.
Home Fires is a 2011 science fiction novel by Gene Wolfe. It was published by Tor Books.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is the 2014 debut science fiction novel by Becky Chambers, set in her fictional universe the Galactic Commons. Chambers originally self-published it via a Kickstarter campaign; it was subsequently re-published by Hodder & Stoughton.
Parasites appear frequently in biology-inspired fiction from ancient times onwards, with a flowering in the nineteenth century. These include intentionally disgusting alien monsters in science fiction films, often with analogues in nature. Authors and scriptwriters have, to some extent, exploited parasite biology: lifestyles including parasitoid, behaviour-altering parasite, brood parasite, parasitic castrator, and many forms of vampire are found in books and films. Some fictional parasites, like Count Dracula and Alien's Xenomorphs, have become well known in their own right.
Wiktor Żwikiewicz is a Polish writer of science fiction.
Alix E. Harrow is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her short fiction work "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" has been nominated for the Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, and Locus Award, and in 2019 won a Hugo Award. Her debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January (2019), was widely acclaimed by mainstream critics, lauded by general audiences during voting at Goodreads Choice Awards and Locus Awards, and nominated for multiple first novel literary awards and speculative fiction awards. She has also published under the name Alix Heintzman.
Chris Willrich is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his stories about Persimmon Gaunt and Imago Bone. His work has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Gate, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Flashing Swords!, The Mythic Circle, and Strange Horizons.
This Strange Way of Dying is a collection of fantasy, science fiction and horror short stories by Mexican Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It was her first book and first collection. It was first published in trade paperback by Exile Editions in September 2013, with an ebook edition following from the same publisher in August 2018.
The Salvage Crew is a 2020 English-language science fiction novel by Sri Lankan author Yudhanjaya Wijeratne. The author notably used artificial intelligence to construct some of the elements in the novel, including the poetry spoken by the novel's protagonist.
