Aaron Bray

The Subplot of a Nation: What Today’s Chinese Literature Tells Us About Tomorrow | HackerNoon A review of Megan Walsh’s book The Subplot, exploring the landscape of contemporary Chinese literature in today's AI age.

"To situate Liu Cixin’s popular The Three-Body Problem (soon to be a Netflix series) not only within a larger context of this so-called golden age of Chinese science fiction but to see alongside other patterns."
hackernoon.com/the-subplot-...

YouTube video by Maybe Mars 【如夢 ROMO】 - 開場曲 Opening Song (official MV)

Romo （如梦). My new favorite band.
youtu.be/8MjER2sH3N8?...

YouTube video by Star Trek Official Season 3 Trailer | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

And WHILE we're posting Season 3 trailers...😆

YouTube video by Apple TV Foundation — Season 3 Official Trailer | Apple TV+

It strays from the source material more than probably any adaptation ever made, but I still love this show! Can't wait for Season 3 to start.

The world lost a giant today. Brian Wilson was one of a kind, and music itself is better for his contributions to it.

Such an amazing experience virtually attending the @sfwa.bsky.social Nebula Awards this weekend! I found many of the finalists and winning authors also participating virtually to be incredibly approachable and willing to share advice, which is the polar opposite of my experiences in Hollywood.

Currently reading "Gravity's Rainbow" and for the first time ever, I am reading the Cliff Notes of the book WHILE reading the book!

Good stuff happening in Harbin promoting science fiction among young readers.

www.china.org.cn/2025-05/29/c...

A Science Fiction Writer Wrestles With China’s Rise, and His Own Decline

A Science Fiction Writer Wrestles With China’s Rise, and His Own Decline www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/w...

YouTube video by soph influenced

An animated short I composed the soundtrack for has over a million views now! That's significantly more than the usual 5 views I get for my own posts, so not mad about it. :)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ken...

Exactly the thing for adaptations! Your description is the pitch itself. 😀

Words can't really describe how excited I am about attending @seattlein2025.org. Just booked everything and can't wait! Thankfully, I have three months to get all the reading in before casting my vote for @thehugoawards.bsky.social It will be my first WorldCon, so any experienced advice is welcome.

I fixed it for you, Vogue.

很棒！这是您做的吗？

A screenshot inside the TARDIS from Doctor Who “Season 2” Episode 3 (‘The Well’) with The Doctor’s companion, Belinda Chandra, still dressed in her 1950s outfit from the previous episode. Chinese subtitles for the line, “and if the TARDIS isn’t broken, then it means what?” are translated as “而时光机也没有坏掉的话、那代表着什么？”

Grateful for the subtitles, Disney Plus, but SLIGHTLY disappointed to learn that TARDIS is just translated as “time machine.” Surely there’s a way to shorten “时间和空间相对维度” and still make it sound cool?

(And yes, she also plays Cinta in Andor!)

#doctorwho #tardis #belindachandra #神秘博士 #科幻 #kehuan

YouTube video by Think Story BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH Every Ending Explained!

If you're like me and never got around to watching Bandersnatch, but still wanted to be able to follow Episode 4 of the latest season of Black Mirror, I found this video to be a big help.

Was shocked and honestly a little bit angry in the moment. But reflected and realized it made sense that Mark S., like anyone in the same situation, would put their own self interest above others, EVEN Mark Scout's. Next question: WHERE could he and Helly possibly go where Lumon won't find them?????

#Severance Season Finale thoughts in comments. Warning: Spoilers.

Nice little Easter egg in the latest episode of Invincible where Invincible (Steven Yeun “Glenn”) dukes it out with Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan “Negan”). Let’s hope this standoff ends differently than the last one did between these two actors.

The Chinese subtitles for Severance translates “Innie” as “公司里的自己” (self within the company), which is technically correct, but a mouthful. I wonder if there’s more concise translation…

They changed the lyric to a classic Paul Simon song at the SNL 50th anniversary show to remove reference to “cigarettes.” I wonder if they’re willing to revise a classic sci-fi novel from the 1950s where Isaac Asimov imagined people would still be smoking cigars tens of thousands of years from now.

I’m just gonna leave this here.

Thanks to @clarkesworldmagazine.com, I just learned of the Chinese author #ZhuYixuan, who writes in both English and Chinese! Read (or listen) at the link below. #kehuan #科幻 #作家 #zuojia #wenxue #文学 #短篇 #duanpian #chineselit #chineseliterature #chinesemythology #daoism #chinesefolklore #fantasy

"The sun sets again over Chang’an. The remaining light of dusk shines through thick clouds like melted gold, flowing down over the glazed tiles of the palace roofs." Cover art by Alex Ries is titled "Water's Edge." Two aliens make their way to the edge of the water. Sand dunes occupy the background under a blue sky. Aliens resemble raptors in form, but with fur, six limbs and four eye stalks.

Now on the Clarkesworld podcast:
"The Painted Skin and the Final Stroke" by Zhu Yixuan, narrated by Kate Baker
Audio: clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio_12_24b/
Text: clarkesworldmagazine.com/zhu_12_24/

Thanks for sharing! Your podcast just got one more subscriber. 🙂

*Watched

When you order four Chinese sci-fi novels from a seller in Hong Kong and the shipping is more than the books themselves. A price I'm willing to pay given the same books are listed on Amazon for 30-plus bucks each. If it goes smoothly, I'm happy to fully endorse the seller for future purchases.

Watch the series finales of two of my favorite shows this week (“What We Do in the Shadows” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks”) and I must say both were very well done. Kudos to good endings.

Oh cool, I’ll look into it!