Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for February 27, 2015

And here is our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web:

Speculative fiction in general:

• At Electric Lit, Ryan Britt talks about slipstream.
• Sci-Fi Now asks if we are seeing a boom in South African science fiction.
• Malinda Lo talks about perceptions of diversity in reviews of young adult novels. 
• At SF Signal, Donna S. Frelick, Sharon Lynn Fisher and Laurie A. Green discuss the rise of science fiction romance.
• At The Atlantic, Jacob Brogan talks about Star Wars and Wikipedia. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw explains why women love Jupiter Ascending.
• Entertainment Monthly attempts to explain why the Oscars hate science fiction.
• Jay Kristoff argues that the Firefly crew were the bad guys.
• David Gerrold points out that Star Trek was always about social justice. 
• At PopMatters, Fergus Halliday claims that Gotham is trying too hard to emulate Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s take-off post Hydra reveal. 

Awards:

• The nominees for the 2014 Nebula Awards have been announced. 
• Stefan Raets has a round-up of reactions to the Nebula Award nominations. 
• The nominees for the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards have been announced.
• The finalists for the Jim Baen Memorial Award have been announced.
• The winners of the 2014 Paul Harland Prize for the best in Dutch speculative fiction have been announced.

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• At The Independent Author, Sever Bronny talks about grit and passion. 
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about experiments in writing and publishing. 
• Kyra Halland introduces her character Lainie Banfrey.
• Brian McClellan talks about his complicated relationship with self-promotion.
• Louis Shalako talks about distributing widely and passive discoverability.
• Ruth Nestvold shares some tips for writing blurbs.
• Jason Gurley has some tips for DIY book cover design.

Interviews:

• Michael Brookes interviews Gabriel Boutros.
• E.P. Beaumont interviews Theolonius Legend. 
• E.P. Beaumont also interviews Veronica Scott.
• Julia Robb interviews Big Wayne Dundee. 
• Paul Weimer interviews Courtney Schafer.
• Candace's Book Blog interviews Ahmad Ardalan.
• Empire Magazine interviews Joss Whedon.

Reviews:

• Elena Linville reviews Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop. 
• Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Apocalypse Weird: The Serenity Strain by Chris Pourteau.
• Pornokitsch reviews the movie Krull from 1983.
• Paul Levinson reviews episode 1.6 of Twelve Monkeys.
  

Crowdfunding:

• Volume 2 of Far Out, a science fiction western comic by Gautier Langevin and Olivier Carpentier is looking for funding.
• Borderland Books, a speculative fiction focussed bookstore in San Francisco, needs help to stay open.
  

Con reports:

• Geeky Pleasures reports about GottaCon in Victoria, British Columbia.
  

Science and technology:

• Graphene-based supercapacitors could lead to battery-free electric cars within 5 years. 
• The BBC wonders whether we should give up the dream of space elevators.
• A time travel simulation has resolved the "grandfather paradox". 
• Motherboard discusses the dangers of hacking autonomus weapons.
• In the Netherlands, a death threat uttered by a Twitter bot led to a police investigation. 
• Watch a sunset on Mars in this NASA video.

Free online fiction:

• "The Bureau d'Echange de Maux" by Lord Dunsany at Pornokitsch.
• "War Cake" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• "The Cookie Crumbles" by Lou Antonelli.
• "Tea, and the Cardinal", part 40 of Musketeer Space by Tansy Rayner-Roberts
• Chapter 3 of "Darkness Falling", part 84 of The Descendants by Landon Porter.  

Odds and ends: 

• Watch La Charcuterie mécanique (The Mechanical Butcher), the world's first science fiction film from 1895. Don't worry, it's only 43 seconds long. 
• Watch a trailer for Wayward Pines, a new TV series by M. Night Shaymalan, based on the novels by Blake Crouch.