I’ve always loved thrillers and science fiction stories, especially those that occur in the near-future rather than hundreds or thousands of years from now. As I worked on my latest novel Synapse, I ended up thinking a lot about my favorite near-future films, especially thrillers. Here is a list of my top eighteen (with a…
In this sequel to the critically-acclaimed novel that grabbed fans of X-Files and Stranger Things, Jeremy Finley returns with The Dark Above, another thriller full of aliens and government cover-ups. Aliens are attacking Earth in The Dark Above by Jeremy Finley, and their most dangerous weapons are human beings. Some people grow up social media…
New York Times bestselling author Steven Kotler combines a unique blend of cutting-edge technology and traditional cyberpunk in his new near-future thriller about the evolution of empathy in Last Tango In Cyberspace. Chapter 4: REAP A DESTINY Down by the Seaside” in cheerful synth tones pulls him into consciousness at 5:00 a.m. The signal has…
Not many films sci-fi films can truly attest to having the legacy that Blade Runner has accumulated in the 35 years since its release. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the film told a contemplative tale of a future police officer tasked with terminating artificial humans known as…
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch is a scientific thriller that explores the idea of multiple universes (Available July 26, 2016). At some point, in most of our lives, we make a decision or two that shapes what becomes of us for a number of years or decades, if not forever. Many of us spend some…
The Big Sheep by Robert Kroese is a delicate balance of sci-fi, mystery, and humor. “That's a really big sheep,” said Erasmus Keane, his observational powers functioning as flawlessly as ever. The woman in the lab coat nodded curtly. “He's a Lincoln Longwool,” she said. “Largest breed of sheep in the world.” She had introduced…
The Big Sheep by Robert Kroese is a balance of sci-fi, mystery, and humor (Available June 28, 2016). Los Angeles of 2039 is a baffling and bifurcated place. After the Collapse of 2028, a vast section of LA, the Disincorporated Zone, was disowned by the civil authorities, and became essentially a third world country within…
There are so many notable aspects of Charles Beaumont’s (1929-67) life and work, it’s hard to know where to being in naming them. He was a gifted writer of short stories and novels, one who showed easy mastery of various genres including horror, sci-fi, dark comedy, and socially conscious literary fiction. He was the first…
There could probably be some arguments made about just exactly when teenagers became a real force to be considered in American society, and anybody making the case for the mid-1960s being that time has a good chance of winning the debate. I’ll leave that matter for now and instead focus on what one savvy filmmaker…
What would you do if one day—utterly out of the blue—you saw a woman commit suicide? No one else saw her, no one else reacted, and it all has the feeling of a waking dream. And, in the aftermath of this bizarre moment, you start to… experience things. You hear police sirens in a silent…
