Science Fiction Day 2025 Exploration

Introduction

It's time to celebrate Science Fiction Day, the Jan. 2 holiday celebrating everything science fiction. This year's recommendations explore the theme of "exploration," whether that's exploring a dangerously alien world, investigating the right recipe for a successful society, or pushing the boundaries of storytelling, these recommendations will help bulk up your science fiction reading and watch lists with some impressive professor-approved recommendations.

Film | Hard to Be a God

Recommended by Antonio Cardentey — School of Modern Languages

Based on the Strugatsky brothers’ novel of the same name, Hard to Be a God is set on the alien planet of Arkanar, where a group of Earth scientists observe a civilization stuck in a brutal, medieval-like period. Don Rumata, one of the scientists, lives undercover as a nobleman, bound by a strict rule not to intervene. As he witnesses endless cruelty, ignorance, and suffering, Rumata faces a moral conflict, longing to change things but knowing he cannot force progress on the society. German’s film delves deeply into the visceral, grim reality of Arkanar, portraying a world entrenched in mud, blood, and oppression. With its slow, Tarkovskian approach and unrelenting focus on detail, the film challenges viewers to confront the darkness in humanity, exploring themes of powerlessness, civilization’s fragility, and the limits of compassion in a world resistant to change.

Streaming Series | Scavenger's Reign

Recommended by Justin Chandler — School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Space travelers stranded on an intricately symbiotic planet. Bloodchild meets Red Mars meets the Southern Reach trilogy. Constantly conceptually surprising, scary, funny, moving.

Book | The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe

Recommended by Carol Senf — School of Literature, Media, and Communication

The novella by Kij Johnson is a feminist retelling of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. The book is worth exploring because the protagonist is a middle-aged professor of mathematics who decides to go off on an adventure to rescue her student. In addition, the novella is the winner of numerous awards — the 2017 World Fantasy Award for Long Fiction, the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novella, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Novella. I liked that Johnson chose an unconventional heroine. I also like that Johnson allows her heroine to travel with her cat.

Magazine | The Martian Trilogy by John P. Moore

Recommended by Lisa Yaszek— School of Literature, Media, and Communication

As we enter a new phase of the space race, it’s exciting to remember that the stars have always been all of ours. As such, I’d like to introduce readers to John P. Moore’s Martian Trilogy, a series of three interlocking stories from 1930 that comprise the first-ever space opera published by a Black author! Moore’s story takes place in a future America where racism has vanished, and Black scientists are engaged in a friendly competition to see who can build the first viable spaceship. It’s told from the perspective of a young Black science fiction author (of course!) who gets swept up into the competition and finds himself in the midst of a grand adventure on Mars, which turns out to be inhabited by not one but two high-tech Black empires fighting for control of the red planet — and the favor of a beautiful mixed-race Martian singer who holds the power to end her planet’s terrible world war. First published in the Illustrated Fiction Section, a literary supplement that appeared in at least 14 African-American newspapers and reached over 180,000 subscribers, Moore’s story both embodies the themes and techniques found throughout the white science fiction community of that time, while providing an important corrective to the racism that often drove early white-authored stories of space exploration and conquest.

Film | Kiss Wagon

Recommended by Ida Yoshinaga — School of Literature, Media, and Communication

In a bold exploration into the cinematic form, Malayali writer-director Midhun Murali dares to make a 3-hour, dystopian epic—featuring a trans/ace female protagonist attempting to deliver a kiss via courier service to an important recipient—without utilizing performers' faces or live-action cinematography, relying on shadow puppetry, digital-media effects, and trenchant comedy edits. Through black-and-white silhouettes and slivers of live-action settings in symbolic shades of grey, Kiss Wagon follows young Isla, who resists a militaristic state/church that oppresses people in her alternative world/future. Joyfully messy but precisely cut, this genderqueer political thriller plays with many avant-garde techniques, including postmodernism (a film exists within this film); dozens of (unfinished) subplots for characters with winkingly clever names (Rebecca Hump, Pablo Escobar); and ambitious themes (oppression, religion, humanity, Art). Despite its flaws, most reviewers have embraced this filmmaking team’s exploration into what 21st century sci-fi cinema can look like at its most adventurous.