The Desolation of Smaug opens in North American theaters on December 13th.

From the campy cartoon style creatures and ridiculous buxom babes of space opera, to the darkly stylized futuristic cities in dystopian futures, Penguin embraces all that is good (and comically bad) with science fiction in this series. There is a spectacular array to explore.

Click through to enjoy all 26 covers.

Best Novel
- 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Blackout by Mira Grant
- Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Redshirts by John Scalzi
- Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Best Novelette
- The Boy Who Cast No Shadow by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
- Fade To White by Catherynne M. Valente
- The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi by Pat Cadigan
- In Sea-Salt Tears by Seanan McGuire
- Rat-Catcher by Seanan McGuire

Best Graphic Story
- Grandville Bête Noire by Bryan Talbot
- Locke Key: Clockworks Volume 5 by Joe Hill
- Saga, Volume One by Brian K. Vaughn
- Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia by Howard Tayler
- Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run by Paul Cornell

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
- Zen Cho
- Max Gladstone
- Mur Lafferty
- Stina Leicht
- Chuck Wendig

A full list of all 2013 Hugo Award nominees can be found here, and you can check out past winners of the Hugo Award here.

If you’ve never heard the name Frank Frazetta, that doesn’t mean you’ve never seen his work. In the latter 20th century, Frazetta was a prolific artist in the fields of fantasy, science fiction and comic art. As comfortable with swords, sorcery and unnaturally curvaceous space heroines as he was with caricature and parody, his work also made a splash in Mad Magazine.

Read more about Frazetta and see his work.

You may notice that the top book on that last one is H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds – Edward Gorey did the cover for a 1960 edition of the book.

The Brainpickings blog has a post which gives a glimpse to see some of Gorey’s illustrations inside the book as well:

Definitely worth checking out – they are as dark and creepy as one would expect, but more devoid of whimsy than most of Gorey’s work, too. I’ve actually never read The War of the Worlds, and now that there are affordable reprints of the Gorey edition, I think I’ll pick up one of those.

Happy birthday to Jules Verne, born 185 years ago today, on February 8th, 1828. Verne was a French science fiction author, most famous for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. His imagination ran just as deep, and throughout his career he contributed immeasurably to the genre of science fiction. He is often called the father of science fiction, and on a more specific level, the father of Steampunk, a style which borrows heavily from Verne’s aesthetic.

You can read more about Jules Verne on our collectible Jules Verne feature. A fantastic unique find on the site is this autographed photograph of Jules Verne (pictured at top). It was presented by Verne to the Prefect of Rome, the Marquis Gravina – in 1884 Verne published a poem titled “Au Marquis Gravina, Rome”. Verne had been invited in 1883 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Italian painter Raphael (1483-1520) and it was likely on this occasion that Verne presented the photograph to the Marquis de Gravina. the photograph inscription reads:”To Marquis Gravina, prefect of Rome, His very devoted: Jules Verne,” in French.

More Jules Verne, I say!

Here are the criteria we used. One book per author, so that was hard on the big three of  science fiction – Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, who each have  multiple classic titles to their name. Attempt to show as many sub-genres of  science fiction and plot themes as possible. Include early stories that  influenced the genre as a whole and launched popular themes, even if those  books appear a bit dated today.

We wanted  to show the unbelievable breadth of this galactic-sized genre and, of course, we  failed because this is just the tip of the spaceberg – there are probably 500  essential science fiction books, not 50.

The War of  the Worlds is on the list, a famous example of invasion literature, but I could  easily have used The Time Machine. For Ray Bradbury, there’s The Illustrated  Man but I could have used Fahrenheit 451 or The Martian Chronicles.

You are  spoiled for choice,  this list includes novellas, short story collections, a  graphic novel and books from published 1864 to 2011…

See our attempt at a best of science fiction shortlist….

A Wrinkle in Time was one of my very favorite books as a child, and while some argue that adults who love the book are seeing through nostalgia-colored glasses, I think the book actually holds up quite well. The writing may not be entirely sophisticated, but even as a kid, I loved that it balanced simplicity with intelligence – I never like it had been dumbed down. And the heart of the book lies in relationships between characters, and human warmth and love – Meg for Charles Wallace, her mother, Calvin, Aunt Beast, and her father. It successfully explores complicated feelings (being very angry at, and feeling betrayed by, someone we love), all within the framework of a really excellent science fiction story full of adventure and evil school principals. I absolutely adored it, read it countless times (and its follow-up books A Wind in the Door, Many Waters, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet many times, too, though they were not quite as excellent, to me – I never made it as far as An Acceptable Time). I think the story would lend itself very well to accompanying art.

The woman behind the project is American illustrator Hope Larson, who has plenty of experience in the publication of graphic novels, most notably Chiggers. I’m hopeful this will be great. Due out from Farrar, Straus & Giroux next month – keep an eye out.