Books Five Books About Five Books About Speculative Human Evolution What the hell Is a human being, anyway? By Isabel J. Kim | Published on June 2, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Science fiction is often defined as being about technological progress and often projects a future in which the moral arc of history bends toward computational and scientific mastery. Alternately, it might showcase a future brought to ruin because of what technological progress, coupled with social or cultural has wrought. And that’s usually the whole story: one quick snapshot of time where everything is exploding (see: my novel Sublimation, which I’m contractually obligated to mention whenever possible).  I, however, want to talk about speculative evolution, a microgenre where time ebbs and flows and society and technological progress and intelligence and sapience itself rises and falls with the centuries, and the thing we call a “human being” or a “person” just gets weirder and weirder. The first well-known instance of this microgenre is Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, published in 1930, which charts the history of humanity over the next two billion years, with the rise and fall (and various offshoots) of “Men.” Since 1930, there have been a number of other novels that develop on this premise or aspects or the premise, some of which I have collected for your perusal here today.  I’ve specifically curated this list to follow a narrow criteria. The books need to be about human evolution, in which human cell stock is either manipulated by other humans or by an alien lifeform, and it needs to at least partially focus on the effects of the manipulation, and the long-term effects.  Though, if I’m being honest, this is at least a partially vibes-based list, and I had a secret agenda. My hope is by exposing you to this microgenre, I will inspire you to read the books I’ve listed, and then to also write a book about speculative human evolution. Because then I’ll get to read it.   And there are some pretty obvious criticisms with this microgenre: It can be a platform to describe a very biased projection of the future as if it is fact. It tells a story of what the future might hold as filtered through the author’s own societal prejudices in the time period it is being written. It can edge into eugenics. But at its best, this microgenre is a love letter to deep time, to the persistence of biological life in an uncaring universe, and to the belief that intelligence and sentience and love and personhood and society can be reassembled across deep time.  Anyway, I love this weird little microgenre of novel. I love the weird, gross anatomy. I love the genuine stabs at biological plausibility around how a human being, after millennia of time, might end up looking something like a porpoise or anteater. I love how arrogant this genre of novel is, and I love how imaginative it can be.  And it’s fun to imagine ourselves as one bead on a grand chain of lifeforms, slowly evolving into the next. Did I say fun? I meant weird and unsettling. But life is weird and unsettling. So, you know, just try to have fun, and enjoy the billions-of-years ride. Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future by Dougal Dixon If you can get your hands on a copy of this bad boy, it’s got some of the most powerful illustrations known to man (after man). Notice that I didn’t say good. I suppose they’re technically well rendered, but, well, a lot of these drawings are unsettling, and a little gross, and slightly disturbing. And they’re supposed to be weird! Written more like an encyclopedia than having a single narrative thread, Man After Man imagines what human-derived organisms and species might look like after years of evolution and manipulation, both inflicted by time and by genetic engineering, as human beings speciate into various branches of “type of animal” after the Earth becomes moderately uninhabitable and people take to the stars and the seas and the forests.  Also, it’s the origin of the Seasons Greasons meme, if you’ve seen that.  All Tomorrows: A Billion Year Chronicle of the Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man by C.M. Kösemen All Tomorrows is Man After Man, but with aliens. Whether that makes it better or worse is really a matter of personal preference. The artwork is just as unsettling, there’s more of a hint of a storyline, and the things that happen to humanity are done with more intention (aliens) and are crueler (also because of the aliens). That being said, the ultimate arc of history in All Tomorrows is also more uplifting than in Man After Man, with the eventual message that the universe bends toward iterations of civilization and sentience, one after another. In a weird way, it’s remarkably optimistic. Even though every single human and human-derivative is dead at the end.  Evolution by Steven Baxter Evolution, unlike the other entries on this list, considers the deep past along with the far future. It presents quick snippets of high drama from the various organisms that inhabited the earth before us (dinosaurs, little tiny rodents, various hominids etc) before turning toward the organisms that currently inhabit the earth (us) and the organisms that inhabit it after. Zero weird illustrations. Occasionally very dry. Moderately depressing at points. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, and it’s very science fiction science fiction.  Children of Time Series by Adrian Tchaikovsky  Now we shift gears to a series containing a plot with some actual density beyond following the lineage of humanoid evolution. There are other ways to describe it, but for our purposes: Children of Time and its sequels follow the consequences of introducing an uplift nanovirus to various organisms on various planets (including humans) in what I can only describe as a post-earth-cataclysm future. While each book in these series contains an actual plot throughline, many sections are devoted to describing the speedrun of evolution across the various animals (and humans), and how the various species, all seeded by human intervention, end up cooperating.  Runaway to the Stars by Jay Eaton Unlike everything else on this list, Runaway to the Stars is (a) a hard science slice of life webcomic, (b) incomplete (though Iron Circus Comics will be printing the first bound volume, according to Jay Eaton’s website), and (c) focused on xenobiology as well as human evolution. In fact, the human evolution takes a backseat to the xenobiology, but I’ve included it here because the intersection of human culture, genetic modification, and rigorously described xenobiology is really delightful, and I think it’s in the spirit of the project that I’ve set upon myself here today. Look, I told you it was a vibes based list. I get to choose the vibes. And the vibes I’m choosing are “centaur (not what you’d think) anatomy.”[end-mark] Buy the Book Sublimation Isabel J. Kim Buy Book Sublimation Isabel J. Kim Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The post Five Books About Speculative Human Evolution appeared first on Reactor.

News Obsession Obsession Director Wants an Anthology TV Series If He Can Explain a Major Plot Hole Curry Barker would love to helm an Obsession TV series, but there’s at least one annoying detail in the way By Matthew Byrd | Published on June 1, 2026 Screenshot: Focus Features Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Focus Features Obsession continues to shatter expectations and records, thanks largely to the kind of word-of-mouth buzz that modern movies rarely enjoy. Naturally, a fair bit of that talk now includes speculation about what Obsession director Curry Barker will do next. The director is reportedly receiving some big money offers for his next project, even though Barker himself seemingly isn’t sure what that next project will actually be. So far as an Obsession sequel or follow-up goes, though, Barker has said that he’s certainly considered the possibility. Specifically, he’s interested in an Obsession anthology TV series based on one of the film’s twists. “I obviously have a couple more things that I’m excited about next, but I do see Obsession 2, maybe,” Barker said in an interview with Total Film. “But what really is exciting to me is maybe an anthology. Like a one-hour episode [where] each episode is a different wish that goes completely off the rails. Maybe I’ll direct the pilot with the same DP, and then you could invite other filmmakers to kind of give their spin at it. That would be really cool.” That does sound pretty fantastic, though to be clear, Barker is not saying that there is any deal in place for such a project. One imagines he has the clout required to get the ball rolling on that idea, though, as the director notes, there are other ideas he seemingly wants to work on next. Besides, such a series would require Barker to figure out what he admits is a fairly notable plot hole in Obsession’s premise: the idea that the One Wish Willows actually work and make people’s wishes come true “It’s kind of a plot hole. It’s something I don’t like to think about too much because it totally doesn’t make sense,” Barker admits. “If there’s a world of people making wishes… it really doesn’t make sense at all.” As Barker explains, a world where everyone is having their wish granted (or at least multiple people) would result in crazy things such as “dragons.” Based on what we see, though, the world of Obsession is pretty normal. Barker then offered his own take on how that whole thing possibly works. “Every time someone makes a wish, they enter into an alternate reality where their wish comes true,” the director muses. “So you’re not experiencing everybody’s wish at the same time.” Hilariously, the director soon realizes that the explanation doesn’t make sense as we see another character’s wish for a billion dollars be granted in real-time. Given the creative potential of that series premise, though, perhaps it’s worth a bit of a hand-wave if it fulfills my wish for the next great horror anthology series.[end-mark] The post <i>Obsession</i> Director Wants an Anthology TV Series If He Can Explain a Major Plot Hole appeared first on Reactor.

News Escape from New York Zack Snyder Is Eyeing a Remake of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York The 1981 film is perfect… just sayin’ By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on June 1, 2026 Credit: Embassy Pictures / StudioCanal Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Embassy Pictures / StudioCanal Zack Snyder, the force behind movies like 300, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Rebel Moon, has set his sights on a remaking of John Carpenter’s 1981 classic film, Escape From New York. The original movie featured Kurt Russell as the eyepatch-wearing Snake Plissken, a military man turned outlaw who is tasked with rescuing the President from a crash landing in Manhattan, which in this dystopian version of 1997, has been turned into a walled penitentiary. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder will be shopping the remake to studios in the upcoming weeks, with plans to have the film release in theaters rather than on a streamer. The director plans to have the movie be more “more down and dirty” and lean more on practical effects than CGI. This isn’t the first attempt to push a remake of Escape From New York. Carpenter also came out with the sequel Escape From LA in 1996, but more recently, New Line and 20th Century Fox tried to make Escape From New York films with numerous directors and actors attached. Snyder is now trying with StudioCanal, which THR reports is trying to amp up its franchises, something they’ve already done with Paddington and Evil Dead. Synder’s project is still in its very early days, so it’s certainly possible his version of the movie will never make its way to a theater near you. There’s a perfect Escape From New York movie already out in the world, however, which I encourage you to give a (re)watch. [end-mark] The post Zack Snyder Is Eyeing a Remake of John Carpenter’s <i>Escape From New York</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Books book reviews The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed Looks to Both Future and Past Alex Brown reviews the “thorny, sprawling” sci-fi epic inspired by the Arab Spring. By Alex Brown | Published on June 1, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share It’s not uncommon in speculative fiction to take a prefix or suffix and tack it on to every genre label. “Cozy” is popping up in conjunction with fantasy and science fiction, and I’ve even seen it attached to horror. Another popular one is “-punk,” with newer terms like hopepunk and elfpunk competing with stalwarts like steampunk and cyberpunk. We’re also seeing “-futurism” appended to racial/ethnic/cultural groups. I’ve dived into Afrofuturism, Africanfuturism, and Indigenousfuturism quite a bit, but Arabfuturism is a new one for me. Mahmud El Sayed’s The Republic of Memory was my introduction to this subgenre, and what a starting point. The Republic of Memory is set in the 27th century, shortly before the 200th anniversary of Launch Day. The Safina and her crew are halfway through their 400-year journey to the Earth-like planet of Hurriya. After the artificial intelligence empire known as the Network colonized most of Europe, Asia, and South America, some great disaster befell the planet. To save its AI-assisted humans, the Network built a massive generation ship. Tens of thousands of people were put into cryostasis, not to be woken until they reached their destination. These ancestors also brought living relatives with them to keep the ship going so the chosen ones could live. Not long into their trip, the crew rebelled and abandoned the Network. The AI running the Safina was ripped out, but not fully destroyed, not as long as the ancestors remain. A Compact was forged, the berths realigned by language, and life went on. Two centuries later, the Ezz family finds themselves at the center of a burgeoning revolution, whether they want to be or not. Iskander is a Translator, a bureaucrat who liaises between crew and Admin. He wants things to change, and has a long-term plan to bring about reforms to help the common person. His younger sister, Damietta, is a hot-headed revolutionary ready for destruction and anarchy. She is in love with the idea of overthrowing the empire, but doesn’t have much of a plan for how to rule after. When an unknown group, either terrorists or rebels, depending on who you ask, temporarily disables the ship, a few hundred ancestors are woken up early. Distraught over what to them feels like a death sentence, the ancestors start formulating their own coup. One of those ancestors is Hilal, the sister-in-law of the first Ezz on the Safina. She wants nothing to do with restoring the Network, nor is she eager to either shatter or retain the Compact. She can see what most cannot: All three options lead to oppression (not that she is enamored with democracy either).  Various other characters step in and out of the narrative, such as Badreddine, the elder laying the seeds for rebellion for years; Billy and Britva, the young activists ready to sacrifice their lives; Lebanon and Taki, two crew trying to survive as the revolution washes over them; and even Safina and Juma, two of the artificial intelligences aboard the ship. Throughout it, the characters grapple with what to do with a civilization that has outpaced its founders. Reform or revolution? Slow-and-steady or an immediate explosion? Is it better for a society to have too many choices or too few? And what happens when too many factions can’t agree or refuse to collaborate? The crisis on the ship is a ticking time bomb. The crew has put off these questions for generations, but now they must answer them or die. Or answer them and die.  Buy the Book The Republic of Memory Mahmud El Sayed Buy Book The Republic of Memory Mahmud El Sayed Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget As much as I enjoyed the book, there was a stylistic choice that El Sayed made that didn’t work for me. Multiple POV is a common conceit in speculative fiction, and one I usually like. It’s fun to jump around with different characters as the author builds out an event through their unique perspectives. In The Republic of Memory, each POV brings the reader a step closer to revolution. My issue was that there were too many perspectives. I counted twelve individual close third person POVs, several of whom only get one personalized chapter before popping up in other people’s stories. Even having reread some of these chapters after finishing the book, I remain unconvinced that all were necessary. The book spends so much time exploring every conceivable angle of the birth of the revolution that it starts to feel like “can we get on with it already?” Perhaps the drawn out build-up was the point; revolutions aren’t instantaneous but put together by lots of people over time. From my perspective as a reader, with each introduction it began to feel like we were repeatedly kicking the tires instead of getting on the road—especially given the cliffhanger the first book ends on. Multiple POVs can be helpful, in that if your reader dislikes one character they have plenty to choose from. When you have a cast as big as this, sometimes the opposite happens. Sometimes the reader doesn’t get to know anyone well enough because everyone comes and goes, or the author spends too much time building up a few characters only to divert the reader away from them just when their story gets juicy so the other characters feel interruptive or distracting. In the acknowledgments, El Sayed mentions that he originally had “plans for a three-hundred-thousand-word sci-fi epic,” and that DNA is still present. Were all the POVs enlightening? Sure. Did I like the slice-of-life aspect? Mostly. Could several have been cut without altering the main story? Probably.  The trouble with having a cast this large is that the author must do something with all of them. Weaker characters or ones who are less fleshed out stand out like a sore thumb. Case in point: Damietta. I work with teenagers and I read a lot of young adult fiction. To me, Damietta was more a caricature than a character. She is the kind of teenager people who don’t read YA accuse YA protagonists of being. If she were in a real YA novel, she would be the secondary character who does something foolish that puts the revolution at risk, and the main character has to fix it, at great cost. I understand what the point of her character was, particularly in contrast to Badreddine and Britva, but she also felt fairly one-note to me. The other big stylistic choice El Sayed made that did work for me: his use of languages. Language unites—and divides—each berth. It is the thing around which all culture revolves on the Safina. The crew speaks the future equivalents of Japanese, Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, and English, and it is implied that others exist. On the Safina it doesn’t appear there were any people from countries where English or European languages like German or French were predominant, so “Inglez” became the lingua franca for Translators and Admin after the Compact. It has no cultural or spiritual connections to anyone aboard, so it is deemed “neutral.” (But what is neutral about the language of colonizers who were later colonized by an AI network?) There’s also NuPol, a sort of Frankensteined Esperanto. It’s cobbled together from words in all languages on the ship, slang, and pidgin, almost like a creole but only spoken by activists, outsiders, and rebels. El Sayed writes several chapters in NuPol, which isn’t the easiest to read but forced me to deeply engage with the text in a way I appreciated.  With twelve POVs, it’s pretty impressive that El Sayed managed to make them all sound individual. I could tell Taki from Kalila from Britva even though they barely appear. Hilal actually has three distinct voices. When Hilal is heard from the perspective of the crew and her descendants, she sounds like she’s speaking in an old-fashioned way described as “pristine Arabek” but written like faux-Medieval English (“‘Hold there, sirrah!’ [Hilal] called. ‘This physicker is with me.’”). In her mind speaking with her VI, Juma, she sounds like a regular person, no frills or accents. And when reading her POV chapters, the close third person narration is reminiscent of a detective in a hardboiled noir (“Hilal was just about to open her mouth to ask what the hell that meant when an ape wielding a gat stepped out of a doorway and pulled the trigger.”). In the Arab Spring-inspired The Republic of Memory, Mahmud El Sayed asks us what we owe our past and what we would risk for our future. It is a thorny, sprawling story that weaves between slice-of-life, detective mystery, political treatise, and family drama. It’s a heady novel with one too many digressions, but is nevertheless startling in its breadth and depth.[end-mark] The Republic of Memory is published by Saga Press. The post <i>The Republic of Memory</i> by Mahmud El Sayed Looks to Both Future and Past appeared first on Reactor.

News Warrior Cats Warrior Cats Gets Animated Series Adaptation With Ms. Marvel Showrunner on Board The series also has a Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia alum in the director’s chair By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on June 1, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share If you were a young person in the early 2000s (or later… or know someone in that age bracket), odds are good you’re familiar with the Warrior Cat books. The novels, of which there are dozens, chronicle the emotional and geopolitical travails of different clans of feral cats. Think Game of Thrones but for kids, and talking feral housecats rather than humans. I can personally say they’re engaging reads, and the books have sold 90 million copies, been translated into 38 languages, and have fomented fan content that’s garnered over 50 million YouTube views and 3 billion TikTok views per month, according to Coolabi, which owns the IP. The books’ popularity (they’ve been written by multiple authors under the nom de plume Erin Hunter) has unsurprisingly resulted in attempts to adapt the series to the screen. Back in 2016, there was an effort to make a feature film in the Warrior Cat world, which sadly fell to the wayside. Today, however, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Coolabi, along with Tencent Video, is developing an animated Warrior Cat series, with What If…? and Ms. Marvel showrunner A.C. Bradley on board and Rodrigo Blaas (Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia) directing. The show will focus on the first Warrior Cat book series: Warrior Cats: The Prophecies Begin. “We’re excited to partner with Coolabi on Warrior Cats, a franchise that embodies the future of global storytelling,” Tina Ma, Co-President & COO of Tencent Video said in a statement. “Together we’re bringing the beloved Warrior Cats world to new platforms and markets in a way that feels both familiar and fresh, creating an animated series designed to captivate existing fans and win new ones.” The animated series will also roll out with a bunch of toy tie-ins, so get ready for a lot of Warrior Cats in your future, although the exact date for the premiere of the show remains unknown. [end-mark] The post <i>Warrior Cats</i> Gets Animated Series Adaptation With <i>Ms. Marvel</i> Showrunner on Board appeared first on Reactor.